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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44235 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+ file which includes the original illustrations.
+ See 44235-h.htm or 44235-h.zip:
+ (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44235/44235-h/44235-h.htm)
+ or
+ (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44235/44235-h.zip)
+
+
+ Project Gutenberg has the other two volumes of this work.
+ Volume I: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42560
+ Volume III (including the index): see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50577
+
+
+ Images of the original pages are available through
+ Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See
+ https://archive.org/details/memoirsofdukeso02dennuoft
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+ This work was originally published in 1851. As noted below,
+ footnotes marked by an asterisk were added by the editor
+ of the 1909 edition, from which this e-book was prepared.
+
+ Obvious printer errors have been corrected without note.
+ Other errors are indicated by a [Transcriber's Note].
+
+ Certain spelling inconsistencies have been made consistent;
+ for example, variants of Michelangelo's last name have been
+ changed to Buonarroti. Archaic spellings in English and
+ Italian have been retained as they appear in the original.
+
+ The original contains several letters with non-standard
+ tildes. These are represented in brackets, e.g., [~v].
+
+ Full-page illustrations have been moved so as not to break
+ up the flow of the text.
+
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF THE DUKES OF URBINO
+
+Illustrating the Arms, Arts & Literature of Italy, 1440-1630
+
+by
+
+JAMES DENNISTOUN OF DENNISTOUN
+
+A New Edition with Notes by Edward Hutton
+& Over a Hundred Illustrations
+
+In Three Volumes. VOLUME TWO
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+London John Lane The Bodley Head
+New York John Lane Company MCMIX
+
+William Brendon and Son, Ltd., Printers, Plymouth
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: _Alinari_
+
+ELISABETTA DI MONTEFELTRO, DUCHESS OF URBINO
+
+_After the picture by Andrea Mantegna in the Uffizi Gallery,
+Florence_]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+ PAGE
+
+ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS OF VOLUME II. ix
+
+ CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. xi
+
+
+BOOK THIRD
+
+(_continued_)
+
+OF GUIDOBALDO DI MONTEFELTRO, THIRD DUKE OF URBINO
+
+ CHAPTER XIX
+
+ The massacre of Sinigaglia--Death of Alexander VI.--Narrow
+ escape of Cesare Borgia 3
+
+ CHAPTER XX
+
+ Duke Guidobaldo restored--The Election of Julius II.--The
+ fall of Cesare Borgia--The Duke's fortunate position--Is
+ made Knight of the Garter--The Pope visits Urbino 23
+
+ CHAPTER XXI
+
+ The Court of Urbino, its manners and its stars 43
+
+ CHAPTER XXII
+
+ Emilia Pia--The _Cortegiano_--Death of Duke Guidobaldo,
+ succeeded by Francesco Maria della Rovere 72
+
+
+BOOK FOURTH
+
+OF LITERATURE AND ART UNDER THE DUKES DI MONTEFELTRO AT URBINO
+
+ CHAPTER XXIII
+
+ The revival of letters in Italy--Influence of the
+ princes--Classical tastes tending to pedantry and
+ paganism--Greek philosophy and its effects--Influence of
+ the Dukes of Urbino 93
+
+ CHAPTER XXIV
+
+ Count Guidantonio a patron of learned men--Duke
+ Federigo--The _Assorditi_ Academy--Dedications to
+ him--Prose writers of Urbino--Gentile Becci, Bishop of
+ Arezzo--Francesco Venturini--Berni of Gubbio--Polydoro di
+ Vergilio--Vespasiano Filippi--Castiglione--Bembo--Learned
+ ladies 109
+
+ CHAPTER XXV
+
+ Poetry under the Montefeltri--Sonnets--The Filelfi--Giovanni
+ Sanzi--Porcellio Pandonio--Angelo Galli--Federigo
+ Veterani--Urbani Urbinate--Antonio
+ Rustico--Naldio--Improvisatori--Bernardo Accolti--Serafino
+ d'Aquila--Agostino Staccoli--Early comedies--_La
+ Calandra_--Corruption of morals--Social position of women 130
+
+ CHAPTER XXVI
+
+ Mediæval art chiefly religious--Innovations of Naturalism,
+ Classicism, and Paganism--Character and tendencies of
+ Christian painting ill-understood in England--Influence of
+ St. Francis 157
+
+ CHAPTER XXVII
+
+ The Umbrian School of Painting, its scholars and
+ influence--Fra Angelico da Fiesole--Gentile da
+ Fabriano--Pietro Perugino--Artists at Urbino--Piero della
+ Francesca--Fra Carnevale--Francesco di Giorgio 184
+
+ CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+ Giovanni Sanzi of Urbino--His son, the immortal
+ Raffaele--Early influences on his mind--Paints at Perugia,
+ Città di Castello, Siena, and Florence--His visits to Urbino,
+ and works there 216
+
+ CHAPTER XXIX
+
+ Raffaele is called to Rome, and employed upon the
+ Stanze--His frescoes there--His other works--Change in his
+ manner--Compared with Michael Angelo--His death, character,
+ and style 235
+
+ CHAPTER XXX
+
+ Timoteo Viti--Bramante--Andrea Mantegna--Gian
+ Bellini--Justus of Ghent--Medals of Urbino 254
+
+
+BOOK FIFTH
+
+OF THE DELLA ROVERE FAMILY
+
+ CHAPTER XXXI
+
+ Birth and elevation of Sixtus IV.--Genealogy of the della
+ Rovere family--Nepotism of that pontiff--His improvements
+ in Rome--His patronage of letters and arts--His brother
+ Giovanni becomes Lord of Sinigaglia and Prefect of
+ Rome--His beneficent sway--He pillages a papal
+ envoy--Remarkable story of Zizim or Gem--Portrait of
+ Giovanni--The early character and difficulties of Julius
+ II.--Estimate of his pontificate 277
+
+
+BOOK SIXTH
+
+OF FRANCESCO MARIA DELLA ROVERE, FOURTH DUKE OF URBINO
+
+ CHAPTER XXXII
+
+ Youth of Duke Francesco Maria I.--The League of
+ Cambray--His marriage--His first military service--The
+ Cardinal of Pavia's treachery--Julius II. takes the field 313
+
+ CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+ The Duke routed at Bologna from the Cardinal of Pavia's
+ treason, whom he assassinates--He is prosecuted, but
+ finally absolved and reconciled to the Pope--He reduces
+ Bologna--Is invested with Pesaro--Death of Julius II. 334
+
+ CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+ Election of Leo X.--His ambitious projects--Birth of
+ Prince Guidobaldo of Urbino--The Pontiff's designs upon
+ that state, which he gives to his nephew--The Duke retires
+ to Mantua 351
+
+ CHAPTER XXXV
+
+ The Duke returns to his state--His struggle with the
+ usurper--His victory at Montebartolo 372
+
+ CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+ Continuation of the ruinous contest--The Duke finally
+ abandons it--Death of Lorenzo de' Medici--Charles V.
+ elected Emperor 391
+
+ CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+ Death of Leo X.--Restoration of Francesco Maria--He
+ enters the Venetian service--Louis XII. invades the
+ Milanese--Death of Bayard--The Duke's honourable reception
+ at Venice--Battle of Pavia 411
+
+ CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+ New league against Charles V.--The Duke's campaign in
+ Lombardy--His quarrels with Guicciardini--Rome pillaged
+ by the Colonna--The Constable Bourbon advances into
+ Central Italy--The Duke quells an insurrection at
+ Florence 433
+
+
+APPENDICES
+
+ I. Portraits of Cesare Borgia 459
+
+ II. Duke Guidobaldo I. of Urbino, a Knight of the Garter 462
+
+ III. Giovanni Sanzi's MS. Chronicle of Federigo,
+ Duke of Urbino 471
+
+ IV. Epitaph of Giovanni della Rovere 480
+
+ V. Remission and rehabilitation of Duke Francesco Maria I.
+ in 1512-13 481
+
+ VI. Letter from Cardinal Wolsey to Lorenzo de' Medici 484
+
+ GENEALOGICAL TABLES _At end of book_
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+ Elisabetta di Montefeltro, Duchess of Urbino.
+ After the picture by Andrea Mantegna in the Uffizi
+ Gallery, Florence. (Photo Alinari) _Frontispiece_
+
+ FACING PAGE
+
+ Il Castello di Sinigaglia. (Photo Alinari) 10
+
+ Pope Julius II. From the picture by Raphael in the
+ Pitti Gallery, Florence. (Photo Anderson) 40
+
+ Portrait of a lady, her hair dressed in the manner
+ of the fifteenth century. From the picture by ? Verrocchio
+ in Poldo-Pezzoli Collection, Milan. (Photo Alinari) 44
+
+ A lady of the fifteenth century with jewels of the
+ period. (Photo Alinari) 48
+
+ Count Baldassare Castiglione. From a picture in the
+ Torlonia Gallery, Rome 50
+
+ Hair dressing in the fifteenth century. Detail from the
+ fresco by Pisanello in S. Anastasia of Verona. (Photo Alinari) 54
+
+ Cardinal Bembo. From a drawing once in the possession of
+ Cavaliere Agricola in Rome 62
+
+ Elisabetta Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino. From a lead medal
+ by Adriano Fiorentino in the British Museum. By the
+ courtesy of G.F. Hill, Esq. 72
+
+ Emilia Pia. From a medal by Adriano Fiorentino in the
+ Vienna Museum. By the courtesy of G.F. Hill, Esq. 72
+
+ Hair dressing in the sixteenth century. After a picture
+ by Bissolo. (Photo Alinari) 76
+
+ Portrait of a lady in mourning. After the picture by
+ Pordenone in the Dresden Gallery. (Photo R. Tammé) 84
+
+ S. Martin and S. Thomas with Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino,
+ and Bishop Arrivabeni. After the picture by Timoteo Viti
+ in the Duomo of Urbino. (Photo Alinari) 88
+
+ Baldassare Castiglione. After the picture by Raphael in
+ the Louvre. 120
+
+ Madonna del Belvedere. After the fresco by Ottaviano
+ Nelli in S. Maria Nuova, Gubbio 190
+
+ Madonna del Soccorso. After the gonfalone by a pupil of
+ Fiorenzo di Lorenzo in S. Francesco, Montone 196
+
+ Raphael, aged six years. From a picture once in the
+ possession of James Dennistoun 216
+
+ Raphael. After the portrait by himself in the Uffizi
+ Gallery, Florence. (Photo Anderson) 220
+
+ Madonna and child. After the picture by Giovanni Santi,
+ in the Pinacoteca of Urbino. (Photo Alinari) 224
+
+ Ecce Homo. From the picture by Giovanni Santi in the
+ Palazzo Ducale, Urbino. (Photo Alinari) 226
+
+ S. Sebastian. After the picture by Timoteo Viti in the
+ Palazzo Ducale, Urbino. (Photo Alinari) 228
+
+ Margherita "La Fornarina." After the picture by Raphael
+ called La Donna Velata in the Pitti Gallery, Florence.
+ (Photo Alinari) 230
+
+ Margherita "La Fornarina." After the spoiled picture by
+ Raphael in the Galleria Barberini in Rome. (Photo Anderson) 232
+
+ The Sposalizio. After the picture by Raphael, once in the
+ Ducal Collection at Urbino, now in the Brera, Milan.
+ (Photo Alinari) 240
+
+ Isabella of Aragon. After the picture by Raphael in the
+ Louvre 246
+
+ St. Sebastian. From the picture by Timoteo Viti in the
+ Palazzo Ducale, Urbino. (Photo Alinari) 254
+
+ Francesco Maria I. della Rovere. After the picture by
+ Titian in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. (From the Ducal
+ Collection.) (Photo Alinari) 314
+
+ Venetian wedding-dress in the sixteenth century. After
+ the picture called "La Flora" by Titian in the Uffizi
+ Gallery, Florence. (Photo Anderson) 316
+
+ Detail of the Urbino Venus. Supposed portrait of
+ Duchess Leonora, from the picture by Titian in the
+ Uffizi Gallery, Florence. (Photo Anderson) 320
+
+ The girl in the fur-cloak. Possibly a portrait of Duchess
+ Leonora of Urbino. After the picture by Titian in the
+ Imperial Gallery, Vienna. (Photo Franz Hanfstaengl) 324
+
+ Duchess of Urbino, either Eleonora or Giulia Varana.
+ After the picture by Titian in the Uffizi Gallery,
+ Florence. Painted _ca._ 1538. (Photo Brogi) 328
+
+ Leo X. After the picture by Raphael in the Pitti Gallery,
+ Florence. (Photo Anderson) 352
+
+ Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, Duke of Urbino. After the
+ picture by Bronzino in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
+ (Photo Alinari) 366
+
+
+
+
+CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+ A.D. PAGE
+
+ 1502. Dec. Valentino marches against Sinigaglia 3
+
+ " " 28. Which surrenders 4
+
+ " " 31. Cesare massacres the confederate chiefs 4
+
+ 1503. Jan. 2. His letter to the authorities at Perugia 6
+
+ " Feb. 22. Cardinal Orsini poisoned at Rome 8
+
+ " Jan. Machiavelli's indifference to the massacre 8
+
+ " " General extinction of moral feeling 10
+
+ " " 18. Further murders of the chiefs 11
+
+ " " Valentino in the Val di Chiana 11
+
+ " " Jealousy of Louis XII. 11
+
+ " " State of affairs at Urbino 12
+
+ " June. Siege of San Leo 13
+
+ " " Relieved by a dexterous stroke 13
+
+ " The Pontiff's wholesale poisonings 15
+
+ " Aug. 18. To which he fell himself a victim 16
+
+ " " The various accounts of this examined 17
+
+ " " His character 19
+
+ " " Valentino's narrow escape from the same fate 19
+
+ " " His policy 20
+
+ " " Results of the Pope's death at Rome 21
+
+ " Sep. 22. Election of Pius III. 22
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+ 1503. Aug. 22. Urbino resumes its allegiance 23
+
+ " " Guidobaldo returns from Venice 23
+
+ " " 28. And is welcomed enthusiastically 24
+
+ " He joins the other princes in a defensive
+ confederacy 24
+
+ " The fortunes of Valentino rally 25
+
+ " His wavering conduct 25
+
+ " Election of Julius II. 27
+
+ " Fatal to Valentino's prospects 27
+
+ " Nov. Guidobaldo's difficult position 28
+
+ " " The Pope's negotiation with Borgia 29
+
+ 1504. April. Who escapes to Naples 30
+
+ " But is sent prisoner to Spain 30
+
+ 1507. Mar. 10. His death 31
+
+ 1503. Guidobaldo's fortunate position 31
+
+ " Nov. 20. Summoned to Rome 32
+
+ " " His favour with the Pope 32
+
+ " " 15. The Duchess returns home from Venice 33
+
+ " " His interview with Valentino 33
+
+ " " Represented in a fresco 33
+
+ 1504. He is named Gonfaloniere of the Church 34
+
+ " And invested with the Garter of England 34
+
+ " June 1. Returns home, accompanied by Count
+ Castiglione 34
+
+ " Feb. Strange pastimes there 34
+
+ " His brief campaign 35
+
+ " And happy residence at Urbino 35
+
+ " His installation as generalissimo of the
+ papal forces 36
+
+ " Sep. His nephew, the young Prefect, invested as
+ his heir-apparent 37
+
+ " Claims of Venice upon Romagna 38
+
+ 1505. Guidobaldo summoned to visit the Pope 38
+
+ 1506. July. Returns home 39
+
+ " Aug. 26. Julius sets out for Romagna 39
+
+ " Sep. 25. His magnificent reception at Urbino 39
+
+ " " Tariff of provisions there 40
+
+ " Reaches Bologna 41
+
+ " His statue there, and its fate 42
+
+ 1507. Mar. 3. Revisits Urbino on his return to Rome 42
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+ 1507. The cultivated tastes of the princes
+ in Romagna 43
+
+ " The Court of Urbino described by Count
+ Castiglione, in his _Cortegiano_ 44
+
+ " The requisites of a lady of that court 45
+
+ " State of female refinement and morals 46
+
+ " Coarseness of language and wit 47
+
+ " Poetical and social pastimes 49
+
+ " Sketch of the prominent personages there 50
+
+ " Count Baldassare Castiglione 51
+
+ " He goes to England 52
+
+ " His marriage, and conjugal affection 53
+
+ " His portraits 53
+
+ " His death and character 55
+
+ " Giuliano de' Medici 56
+
+ " Cesare Gonzaga 58
+
+ " Ottaviano Fregoso 58
+
+ " Cardinal Federigo Fregoso 59
+
+ " Bembo's letter on his death 61
+
+ " Cardinal Bembo 62
+
+ " His attachment to Lucrezia Borgia 63
+
+ " His promotion under Leo X. 64
+
+ " His lax morals 64
+
+ " Bernardo Dovizii, Cardinal Bibbiena 65
+
+ " His ingratitude and ambition 67
+
+ " His beauty and worldly character 68
+
+ " Bernardo Accolti, l'Unico Aretino 69
+
+ " Count Ludovico Canossa 70
+
+ " Alessandro Trivulzio 71
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+ 1507. The Duke's declining health 72
+
+ " The court enlivened by female society 72
+
+ " Emilia Pio, surnamed Pia 75
+
+ " Her decorum and wit 76
+
+ " Her management of the social resources
+ of the palace 77
+
+ " The origin of Castiglione's _Cortegiano_ 78
+
+ " Guidobaldo a martyr to gout 79
+
+ 1506-1508. Extraordinary derangement of the seasons 79
+
+ 1508. April. He is carried to Fossombrone 80
+
+ " " 11. His great sufferings and resigned end 80
+
+ " " The paganism of his biographers 81
+
+ " " Precautions of the Duchess against
+ a revolution 82
+
+ " " And of the Pontiff 83
+
+ " " His body taken to Urbino 84
+
+ " " 13. The Prefect Francesco Maria proclaimed
+ Duke of Urbino 85
+
+ " " His visit to the Duchess 85
+
+ " " Funeral of Guidobaldo 85
+
+ " May 2. His obsequies and funeral oration 85
+
+ " His portraits 86
+
+ " His accomplishments and excellent character 86
+
+ " His patronage of Paolo Cortesio 87
+
+ " Enduring influence of his reign 88
+
+ " His widow 89
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+ 1443-1508. The golden age of Italian letters and arts 93
+
+ " " Rich in scholars but poor in genius 94
+
+ " " Its prosaic tendency 94
+
+ " " The revival of learning 95
+
+ " " Promoted by the multiplicity of
+ independent communities 97
+
+ " " Especially by the petty sovereigns 98
+
+ " " Adulatory tendency of such literature 99
+
+ " " A narrow patriotism generated 100
+
+ " " Taste for classical erudition, philology
+ and grammar 101
+
+ " " The study of Latin induced pedantry and
+ languid conventionality 102
+
+ " " The prosaic scholarism of this period 103
+
+ " " Tending to pagan ideas 103
+
+ " " The rival philosophies of Aristotle
+ and Plato 105
+
+ " " Leading to fierce quarrels 106
+
+ " " Superseding Christian revelation 106
+
+ " " And eventually shaking Catholic unity 107
+
+ " " Influence of the Dukes of Urbino on letters 107
+
+ " " Mediocrity of many authors of local fame 108
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+ 1412-1441. Letters of Count Guidantonio in favour
+ of various learned men 109
+
+ 1444-1482. Duke Federigo's love for literary converse 111
+
+ " " The academies 112
+
+ " " Fulsome dedications 112
+
+ 1473. Gentile de' Becci 113
+
+ 1480. Ludovico Odasio 114
+
+ Francesco Venturini 114
+
+ Guarniero Berni of Gubbio 115
+
+ 1470-1555. Polydoro di Vergilio 115
+
+ " " His preferments in England 115
+
+ " " His English history 117
+
+ Vespasiano Filippi 118
+
+ 1478-1529. Count Baldassare Castiglione 119
+
+ " " His _Cortegiano_ 119
+
+ " " Compared with Machiavelli's _Principe_ 120
+
+ " " His letter to Henry VIII. regarding
+ Duke Guidobaldo 121
+
+ " " His poetry 121
+
+ 1528. His letter to his children 122
+
+ 1470-1547. Cardinal Bembo 123
+
+ " " His pedantry and affected imitation
+ of Cicero 123
+
+ " " His history of Venice 124
+
+ " " His Essay on Duke Guidobaldo 124
+
+ " " His other works 125
+
+ Learned ladies 128
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+ 1443-1508. Poetry under the Montefeltrian Dukes 130
+
+ " " Defects of the sonnet 131
+
+ Francesco Filelfo 131
+
+ 1480. Gian Maria Filelfo, his son 132
+
+ His Martiados in praise of Duke Federigo 132
+
+ His minor poems 133
+
+ Specimen of the dedication 134
+
+ His sonnet to Gentile Bellini the painter 135
+
+ His life of Duke Federigo 136
+
+ Pandonio of Naples 136
+
+ His Feltria on Duke Federigo's campaigns 137
+
+ Specimen of it 137
+
+ Giovanni Sanzi of Urbino, father of
+ Raffaele Sanzio 138
+
+ His metrical chronicle of Duke Federigo 138
+
+ Various specimens of it translated 140
+
+ 1428-1457. Angelo Galli from Urbino 143
+
+ Specimen of his poetry 143
+
+ Federigo Veterani, his beautiful
+ transcripts 144
+
+ His tribute in verse to Duke Federigo 145
+
+ Urbani of Urbino 146
+
+ Antonio Rustico of Florence 146
+
+ Naldio of Florence 146
+
+ Bernardo Accolti of Arezzo 146
+
+ His improvisation 146
+
+ Serafino di Aquila 147
+
+ Agostino Staccoli of Urbino 147
+
+ Early Italian comedies 147
+
+ La Calandra of Bibbiena 147
+
+ 1513. Its performance at Urbino 148
+
+ Description of the scenery and
+ accompanying interludes 148
+
+ Origin of the ballet 152
+
+ Nature of the plot in La Calandra 152
+
+ Low standard of morals at that time 153
+
+ Obscene jest books 154
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+ Mediæval art almost exclusively religious 157
+
+ The introduction of types and
+ traditionary forms 157
+
+ A picture by Botticelli denounced as
+ heretical (note) 158
+
+ The choice and treatment of sacred themes 159
+
+ Modified by the personal character of
+ artists 160
+
+ Instances of this 161
+
+ Devotional feeling of early painters 161
+
+ Shown in the rules of their guilds at
+ Siena and Florence 162
+
+ Case of Giorgio Vasari 163
+
+ The gloomy character of Spanish art 163
+
+ The subject to be considered apart from
+ sectarian views 164
+
+ Christian art modified in the fifteenth
+ century 166
+
+ Gradual innovation of naturalism 167
+
+ Followed by paganism and classicism 168
+
+ Rise of the "new manner" 169
+
+ Religious prudery in Spain fatal to art 170
+
+ Von Rumohr's definition of Christian art 170
+
+ Opinions prevailing in England 171
+
+ Hogarth and Savonarola 172
+
+ Burnet and Barry 172
+
+ Reynolds and Raffaele 172
+
+ Obstacles to a due appreciation of this
+ subject among us 173
+
+ Mr. Ruskin and Lord Lindsay 174
+
+ Sir David Wilkie 175
+
+ It does not necessarily lead to popery 175
+
+ Nor is it a desirable "groundwork for a
+ new style of art" 176
+
+ St. Francis of Assisi, his legends
+ and shrine 177
+
+ Their influence renders Umbria the cradle
+ of sacred art 178
+
+ Opinions of Rio, Boni, and Herbert Seymour 179
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+ The Umbrian school hitherto overlooked 184
+
+ The cathedral of Orvieto and the sanctuary
+ of Assisi attract many artists 185
+
+ The dramatic or Dantesque character of
+ Florentine painting 186
+
+ Sentimental devotion of the Sienese school 187
+
+ Influence of these on Umbrian painters 187
+
+ -1299. Oderigi da Gubbio 188
+
+ Notice of him by Dante 188
+
+ Guido Palmerucci of Gubbio 189
+
+ Angioletto, a glass-painter of Gubbio 190
+
+ 1375-1444. Ottaviano Nelli of Gubbio and his pupils 190
+
+ 1434. June 30. His letter to Caterina, Countess of Urbino 192
+
+ Allegretto Nuzi of Fabriano 193
+
+ 1370-14. Gentile da Fabriano; he studies under 193
+
+ 1383-14. Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, the Beato Angelico 194
+
+ " " A friar of holy life and pencil 194
+
+ " " Gentile called "master of the masters" 196
+
+ 1370-14. His works studied by Raffaele 196
+
+ " " Goes to Venice 197
+
+ " " His taste for gaudy trappings 197
+
+ Benedetto Bonfigli of Perugia 199
+
+ 1446-1524. Pietro Perugino 199
+
+ Painters in Urbino 200
+
+ -1478. Piero della Francesca of Borgo
+ San Sepolcro 201
+
+ " " His history obscure 201
+
+ " " His two distinct manners 202
+
+ " " His knowledge of geometry 203
+
+ " " His claims to the introduction
+ of perspective 203
+
+ " " These examined, and those of Luca Pacioli 203
+
+ " " His unedited writings (note) 204
+
+ " " His frescoes at Arezzo and their influence
+ on Raffaele 206
+
+ " " His portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo
+ Malatesta 208
+
+ " " His portraits of the Montefeltrian princes 209
+
+ -1484. Bartolomeo Coradino, the Fra Carnevale 210
+
+ Beautiful altar-picture near Pesaro 211
+
+ 1423-1502. Francesco di Giorgio of Siena 211
+
+ His works in painting, architecture,
+ and engineering 212
+
+ Letter of Duke Federigo on his behalf 214
+
+ His writings 215
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+ -1494. Giovanni Sanzi of Urbino 216
+
+ Till lately unjustly depreciated 216
+
+ His own account of himself 217
+
+ His style and works 218
+
+ His portrait of his son, the divine
+ Raffaele 218
+
+ 1483. Apr. 6. Birth of Raffaele Sanzio of Urbino,
+ surnamed "the Divine" 220
+
+ Notice of his biographers 220
+
+ His appearance happily timed 221
+
+ First pictorial influences on his mind 222
+
+ 1495. He goes to the school of Perugino 223
+
+ 1500-1504. His earliest independent works at Città
+ di Castello 225
+
+ " " Returns to paint at Perugia 226
+
+ " " Visits Siena and Florence 226
+
+ " " Returns to paint at Urbino 227
+
+ " " His second visit to Florence 227
+
+ " " With a recommendation from Joanna
+ della Rovere 228
+
+ 1504-1505. His works, patrons, and associates there 228
+
+ 1505-1507. Again painting at Perugia 230
+
+ 1505-1507. His intercourse with Francia 231
+
+ 1503-1508. And with the polished court of Urbino 231
+
+ " " Works commissioned of him there 232
+
+ " " His recently discovered fresco at Florence 234
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+ 1508. He is called to Rome by Julius II. 235
+
+ " And employed to paint in the Stanze 236
+
+ 1508-1513. His plan for the frescoes there detailed
+ and examined 236
+
+ 1513. Feb. 21. Death of Julius II. 239
+
+ 1513-1520. Raffaele's powers overtaxed 240
+
+ " " He gradually falls into "the new manner" 241
+
+ " " The charge against him of a vicious life
+ unfounded 241
+
+ " " Question how far he imitated others 242
+
+ " " Especially Michael Angelo 243
+
+ " " No parallel between them 244
+
+ " " His diminished intercourse with Urbino 246
+
+ 1520. Apr. 6. His sudden death and funeral 247
+
+ " His intended marriage and cardinal's hat 249
+
+ " His varied gifts 250
+
+ " Testimonies to his merits 250
+
+ " His sense of beauty 251
+
+ " Purity of his taste 252
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+ 1470-1523. Timoteo Viti 254
+
+ His picture of questioned orthodoxy 256
+
+ 1444-1514. Donato Bramante 259
+
+ Confusion regarding him 259
+
+ His works at Urbino 261
+
+ Commences St. Peter's, at Rome 262
+
+ Builds at the Vatican 263
+
+ Fra Bernardo Catelani 264
+
+ Crocchia of Urbino 265
+
+ 1450-1517. Francesco Francia 265
+
+ 1430-1506. Andrea Mantegna 265
+
+ 1424-1514. Giovanni Bellini 266
+
+ 1446-1523. Pietro Perugino 266
+
+ 1386-1445. Jean van Eyck 266
+
+ 1474. Justus of Ghent 267
+
+ Italian portrait medallions 269
+
+ 1468. Clemente of Urbino 270
+
+ Medals of Duke Federigo 270
+
+ Medal of Duchess Elisabetta 272
+
+ Medal of Emilia Pia 273
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+ 1414. July 21. Birth of Sixtus IV. 277
+
+ " Origin of his family 277
+
+ 1414. Omens attending his birth 278
+
+ 1471. Aug. 9. His education and elevation to the papacy 278
+
+ Children of his father, and their
+ descendants 279
+
+ His partiality to his nephews 283
+
+ Extravagance of Cardinal Pietro Riario 284
+
+ Hospitalities of Sixtus 285
+
+ His improvements in Rome 286
+
+ Scandals regarding him 287
+
+ His patronage of art 287
+
+ And of the Vatican Library 289
+
+ Portrait there of himself and nephews 289
+
+ Painted by Melozzo da Forlì 290
+
+ His brother Giovanni della Rovere 291
+
+ 1474. Oct. 12. Made vicar of Sinigaglia 291
+
+ " " 28. His marriage with Princess Giovanna
+ of Urbino 291
+
+ 1475. Made Lord Prefect of Rome 291
+
+ His beneficial reign 292
+
+ His favour at the papal court 293
+
+ 1474. The story of Zizim or Gem 293
+
+ " His ransom is seized by the Prefect 294
+
+ " Curious correspondence of the Sultan
+ with Alexander VI. 295
+
+ " Description of Gem by Mantegna the painter 297
+
+ 1501. Nov. 6. Death of the Prefect 299
+
+ His portrait 299
+
+ His widow 300
+
+ Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere 301
+
+ His persecutions by the Borgias 301
+
+ 1503. Nov. 1. His election to the Tiara 303
+
+ His character and policy 304
+
+ His patronage of art 306
+
+ His improvements in Rome 306
+
+ Parallel of him with Leo X. 307
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+ 1490. Mar. 25. Birth of Duke Francesco Maria I. 313
+
+ 1501. Nov. 6. He succeeds to his father's state
+ of Sinigaglia 313
+
+ " " He is carried to Urbino 313
+
+ 1502. Apr. 24. Is made Prefect of Rome 313
+
+ " His early education and tastes 314
+
+ " His military propensities 314
+
+ " June 20. His escape from Cesare Borgia 315
+
+ 1502. He is received at the court of France 315
+
+ 1504. March. His return to Italy 315
+
+ " June 17. Restored at Sinigaglia 316
+
+ " Sep. 18. Invested as heir-apparent of Urbino 316
+
+ 1505. Jan. Contracted in marriage to Leonora Gonzaga 316
+
+ 1506. His first military service 316
+
+ 1507. Oct. 6. Assassinates the paramour of his sister 317
+
+ 1508. Apr. 14. He succeeds to the dukedom of Urbino 318
+
+ " " His constitutional concessions 319
+
+ " " 25. His summons to his new subjects to
+ swear allegiance 319
+
+ " His judicious and conciliatory measures 320
+
+ " Origin of the League of Cambray 321
+
+ " Dec. 10. It is signed 322
+
+ " " The objects of this unnatural combination 322
+
+ " Oct. 4. Francesco Maria made captain-general of
+ the ecclesiastical forces 323
+
+ 1509. May. Elected a Knight of the Garter, but not
+ confirmed by Henry VIII. 324
+
+ " Dec. 24. His marriage celebrated 324
+
+ The Duchess Leonora's psalter 324
+
+ " April. He takes the field against Venice 325
+
+ " May 4. Takes Brisghella 325
+
+ " Remarkable incident in his camp 325
+
+ " The Pope's partiality for the Cardinal
+ of Pavia 326
+
+ " His character and intrigues against
+ Francesco Maria 327
+
+ " His treachery 327
+
+ " May 14. The Venetians beaten at Vaila 328
+
+ " June 11. Rimini capitulates, and the campaign
+ closes 329
+
+ " The Duke carries his bride to Rome 329
+
+ " He reconciles the Pope to Giuliano
+ de' Medici 329
+
+ " The Pope changes sides 330
+
+ " Further treachery of the Cardinal of Pavia 330
+
+ 1510. July. The Duke marches against Ferrara 331
+
+ " Sep. Julius II. takes the field 331
+
+ " His suspicions of the Cardinal 332
+
+ " The council of Pisa threatened 332
+
+ " His indomitable resolution 333
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+ 1510. Dec. His ill-judged appearance at the siege
+ of Mirandola 334
+
+ 1511. May 21. The Duke's miscarriage before Bologna
+ by the Cardinal's treachery 336
+
+ " " The Cardinal prepossesses the Pope
+ against his nephew 338
+
+ " " 24. And falls by his hand 339
+
+ " Ill-timed badinage of Cardinal Bembo (note) 339
+
+ " The Duke retires to Urbino 340
+
+ " June. And the Pontiff returns to Rome 340
+
+ " His indignation against the Duke 340
+
+ " Who is arrested, and subjected to a
+ complicated prosecution 341
+
+ " Defended by Beroaldo the younger 341
+
+ " Dangerous illness of Julius 342
+
+ " He is reconciled to Francesco Maria 343
+
+ " Dec. 9. And absolves him 343
+
+ " " New league against the French 343
+
+ 1512. Hesitation of Francesco Maria 344
+
+ " Consequent disgust of Julius 344
+
+ " Apr. 11. The field of Ravenna 344
+
+ " Francesco Maria is reconciled to the Pope 345
+
+ " June 22. He retakes Bologna 345
+
+ " Aug. And reduces Reggio 345
+
+ " The French abandoned by their
+ Italian allies 346
+
+ " The Duke's fruitless attempt on Ferrara 347
+
+ " Restoration of the Medici at Florence 347
+
+ " The Duke's feeling towards them examined 347
+
+ " New projects of the Pope 348
+
+ " Lapse of Pesaro to the Holy See 349
+
+ " Oct. 23. The town reduced by Francesco Maria 349
+
+ 1513. Feb. 16. He is invested with that state 350
+
+ " " 21. Death of Julius II. 350
+
+ " Mar. 16. The Duke's reception at Pesaro 350
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+ 1513. Influence of Francesco Maria in the
+ conclave favourable to the Medici 351
+
+ " Mar. 11. Election of Leo. X. 351
+
+ " " His singular good fortune 352
+
+ " " His character contrasted with that of
+ Julius by Sismondi 352
+
+ " " 19. Francesco Maria attends his coronation 353
+
+ " " And is confirmed in all his dignities 354
+
+ " Sep. His favour for Baldassare Castiglione 355
+
+ " Notice of the fief of Novilara 357
+
+ 1514. Ambitious projects and intrigues of
+ Leo X., involving Urbino 358
+
+ " Apr. 2. Birth of Prince Guidobaldo of Urbino 359
+
+ 1515. Jan. 1. Bembo's visit to that court 359
+
+ " June The Duke superseded by Leo X. in
+ his command 360
+
+ " Friendship of Giuliano de' Medici for him 361
+
+ " Jan. 1. Death of Louis XII., succeeded by
+ Francis I. 362
+
+ " The Pontiff's undecided policy 362
+
+ " Sep. 13. Battle of Marignano 364
+
+ 1516. Jan. Death of Ferdinand of Spain 364
+
+ " Mar. 17. And of Giuliano de' Medici 365
+
+ " " Character of Lorenzo de' Medici 365
+
+ " " Francesco Maria exposed to the fury of Leo 366
+
+ " Apr. 27. Sentence of deprivation against him 367
+
+ " Aug. 18. And his dignities conferred upon Lorenzo 367
+
+ " April Ingratitude of Bembo 367
+
+ Lashed by Porrino 368
+
+ " May. The duchy of Urbino invaded 368
+
+ " " 31. Francesco Maria withdraws to Lombardy
+ with his family 369
+
+ " " The duchy surrenders to Lorenzo 369
+
+ " Sep. S. Leo surprised 370
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+ 1516. Aug. 13. The peace of Noyon 372
+
+ " Attempt on his state by the Duke 372
+
+ 1517. Jan. 17. His manifesto 373
+
+ " " His address to the soldiery 376
+
+ " " Alarm of the Pontiff 377
+
+ " " Gradara is sacked 377
+
+ " Feb. Partial rising in his favour 377
+
+ " " 5. Remarkable adventure of Benedetto Giraldi 378
+
+ " " " Francesco Maria enters Urbino 380
+
+ " Measures adopted by Leo 380
+
+ " The Duke challenges Lorenzo to a personal
+ encounter, which is declined 382
+
+ " Mar. 25. Sack of Montebaroccio 383
+
+ " " Siege of Mondolfo, where Lorenzo is wounded 384
+
+ " Its sack, with many excesses 385
+
+ " Cardinal Bibbiena appointed to the command
+ as legate 387
+
+ " Disorganisation of his army 388
+
+ " May 6. It is routed on Montebartolo 388
+
+ " " " The Duke's letter to his consort detailing
+ the battle 389
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+ 1517. Conspiracy against Leo 391
+
+ " Fate of Cardinal Adrian of Corneto 392
+
+ " June 20. Leo applies to Henry VIII. 392
+
+ " His unscrupulous measures 392
+
+ " May. Francesco Maria's expedition against
+ Perugia 393
+
+ " " Treason in his camp 393
+
+ " " His energetic proceedings 394
+
+ " June. Makes a foray into La Marca 395
+
+ " " A conversation with the Pope 396
+
+ " " His apprehensions 397
+
+ " July. The Duke's advantage over the Swiss at
+ Rimini, and march upon Tuscany 398
+
+ " Aug. Progress of negotiations 398
+
+ " Conditions granted to Francesco Maria 402
+
+ " Vile conduct of his Spaniards 402
+
+ " Curious votive inscription 403
+
+ " The Duke again withdraws from his state 403
+
+ " Immense cost of the campaign 404
+
+ " Its remote consequences upon the
+ Reformation 404
+
+ " The fortunes of Lorenzo de' Medici 405
+
+ 1519. Apr. 28. His death 405
+
+ " Partition of the duchy of Urbino 406
+
+ 1520. Mar. Fate of Gian Paolo Baglioni 406
+
+ 1519. The singular good fortune of Charles V. 407
+
+ " June 28. He is elected Emperor 408
+
+ 1521. Combinations for new wars in Italy 408
+
+ " Francesco Maria in the French interest 409
+
+ " He retires to Lonno 409
+
+ " Milan restored to the Sforza family 410
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+ 1521. Dec. 1. Disgust and death of Leo 411
+
+ " " Opinions as to his being poisoned 411
+
+ " " Francesco Maria returns to his state 412
+
+ " " 22. And is readily welcomed 413
+
+ 1522. Jan. 5. He restores the Varana and Baglioni 413
+
+ " " And invades Tuscany 414
+
+ " " 15. His letter to the Priors of Siena 414
+
+ " Urbino invaded by the Medici 415
+
+ " Their reconciliation with the Duke 415
+
+ " His condotta by them 416
+
+ " Election of Adrian VI 416
+
+ " May 18. The Duke is reinstated in his dignities 418
+
+ " Feb. 18. His bond to the Sacred College 418
+
+ " Pretensions of Ascanio Colonna upon Urbino 418
+
+ " June 22. Murder of Sigismondo Varana 419
+
+ " The Duke refuses service with the French 420
+
+ " Aug. But aids the Pope against Rimini 420
+
+ 1523. The ladies of his court return home 421
+
+ " He establishes his residence at Pesaro 421
+
+ " Hospitality of the Duchesses 421
+
+ " He goes to Rome, to wait upon Adrian 422
+
+ " New league for the defence of Sforza 423
+
+ " Francesco Maria retained by Venice as
+ general-in-chief 423
+
+ " French invasion of the Milanese 423
+
+ " Sep. 24. Death of Adrian succeeded by Clement VII. 423
+
+ " Death of Prospero Colonna, and his
+ influence on the tactics of Francesco
+ Maria 423
+
+ " Venetian _proveditori_ and their evils 424
+
+ 1524. Lanoy commander-in-chief of the allies 426
+
+ " The Duke of Urbino hampered by the
+ Proveditore 426
+
+ " His tactics 427
+
+ 1523. The French admiral, Bonnivet, wounded 427
+
+ " Is succeeded by the Chevalier Bayard 427
+
+ 1524. Apr. 30. His heroic death 427
+
+ " The French driven out of Italy 428
+
+ " June 25. His honourable reception at Venice 429
+
+ " " 27. Made captain-general by the Signory 429
+
+ " July 3. Received into the company della Calza 430
+
+ " " 5. Returns home 431
+
+ " Oct. New invasion of Italy by Francis I. 431
+
+ 1525. Feb. 25. The battle of Pavia 431
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+ 1525. Altered policy of Clement 433
+
+ " Treason and death of the Marquis of Pescara 434
+
+ 1526. Feb. 14. Letter from the Duke of Urbino to Cardinal
+ Wolsey 434
+
+ " May. New League against Charles V. 435
+
+ " " The Duke marches to relieve Milan 435
+
+ " June. And obtains Lodi 435
+
+ " His embarrassment from the number of
+ leaders in the army 436
+
+ " Sketch of Francesco Guicciardini 436
+
+ " His differences with Francesco Maria 436
+
+ " Opinions divided as to the advance on Milan 437
+
+ " The Duke's policy explained 438
+
+ " July 6. Miscarriage and retreat of the army 439
+
+ " " The prejudices of Guicciardini 439
+
+ " " 24. Milan is surrendered by Sforza 441
+
+ " " The Duke's quarrels with Guicciardini 441
+
+ " Opinions of Sismondi 442
+
+ " The Duke's illness from vexation 443
+
+ " Sep. He carries Cremona 443
+
+ " The Colonna rebel against the Pope 443
+
+ " Sep. 20. They surprise Rome, and pillage the Borgo 444
+
+ " " Francesco Maria visits his Duchess 445
+
+ " Nov. Fründesberg brings the lansquenets
+ into Lombardy 445
+
+ " The Duke's plans of defence considered 446
+
+ " Nov. 30. Battle of Borgoforte, and death of
+ Giovanni de' Medici _delle bande nere_ 446
+
+ 1527. Tortuous policy of Clement 447
+
+ " Mar. 15. His truce with Lanoy 448
+
+ " " Inertness of the allies 449
+
+ " " The Constable Bourbon 449
+
+ " " His policy in this war 449
+
+ " " Inactivity of the Duke 451
+
+ " " Bourbon's advance into Central Italy 452
+
+ " " He repudiates Lanoy's truce 452
+
+ " " His progress through Romagna 453
+
+ " " Vain attempt of Lanoy to interrupt him 453
+
+ " " Feeble and selfish views of all the allies 454
+
+ " " Secret motives of the Duke 454
+
+ " Apr. 22. Bourbon crosses into Tuscany 455
+
+ " The Duke quells an insurrection at
+ Florence 456
+
+ " May 1. His fortresses of S. Leo and Maiuola
+ restored 456
+
+ " Apr. 26. Bourbon hurries onward to Rome 456
+
+
+APPENDICES
+
+ Cesare Borgia's personal appearance
+ and portraits 459
+
+ 1504. Feb. 20. Letter of Henry VIII. to Duke Guidobaldo
+ with the insignia of the Garter 462
+
+ " Instructions for his investiture 463
+
+ " Polydoro di Vergilio's account of it 466
+
+ 1506. July 24. The Duke sends Count Castiglione to
+ England as his proxy 469
+
+ " Oct. 20. His reception and installation 469
+
+ 1507. He is knighted, and returns to Urbino 470
+
+ Giovanni Sanzi's metrical Chronicle of
+ Duke Federigo 471
+
+ Fac-simile of the autograph 472
+
+ Table of the contents 472
+
+ Epitaph upon Giovanni della Rovere 480
+
+ Remission and rehabilitation of Duke
+ Francesco Maria I. 481
+
+ Letter from Cardinal Wolsey to Lorenzo
+ de' Medici 484
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF THE DUKES OF URBINO--II
+
+
+NOTE.--The Editor's notes are marked with an asterisk.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK THIRD
+
+(_continued_)
+
+OF GUIDOBALDO DI MONTEFELTRO, THIRD DUKE OF URBINO
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF THE DUKES OF URBINO
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+ The massacre of Sinigaglia--Death of Alexander VI.--Narrow
+ escape of Cesare Borgia.
+
+
+The principal object of the new combination having been attained
+by the submission of Urbino, followed by that of Camerino, Borgia
+hastened to anticipate the suspicions of his allies by sending
+the French succours back to Milan. He however retained a body of
+troops, and proposed that the chiefs should co-operate with him in
+reducing Sinigaglia, which was held by the late Prefect's widow.
+Accordingly, Paolo Orsini, his relation the Duke of Gravina,
+Vitellozzo, and Liverotto advanced upon that town, the garrison of
+which was commanded by the celebrated Andrea Doria. This remarkable
+man, finding himself excluded by the state of parties at Genoa
+from all prospect of preferment, had in youth adopted the career
+of a condottiere. He took service with Giovanni della Rovere,
+distinguishing himself greatly in the campaign of Charles VIII. at
+Naples; after which he continued attached to the Prefect and his
+widow, with a hundred light horse. Seeing the case of Sinigaglia
+desperate, and dreading Liverotto's bitter hatred of the Rovere
+race, he retired, having first sent off the Prefectess on horseback
+to Florence, disguised as a friar. On the 28th of December, the
+assailants took undisputed possession of the city, and sacked it.
+His prey now in his toils, Valentino, who had lulled their suspicion
+by keeping aloof with his troops in Romagna, flew to the spot on the
+pretext of reducing the citadel, and on the 31st arrived at the town
+with a handful of cavalry.
+
+He was met three miles outside of the gate by the chiefs, and
+immediately requested their attendance in the house of one Bernardino
+di Parma, to receive his congratulations and thanks on their success.
+At the same time he desired quarters to be provided for their
+respective followings outside of the city, in order to admit his own
+army, amounting to two thousand cavalry and ten thousand infantry.
+Startled at the appearance of a force so disproportioned to the
+service in hand, they would gladly have demurred to this distribution
+of the troops, but Cesare had contrived that there should be no
+opportunity for remonstrance, and resistance would have obviously
+been too late. Affecting a confidence they were far from feeling, the
+leaders accepted the invitation, and were received with cordiality
+and distinction. After an interchange of compliments, Borgia withdrew
+upon some pretext, when there immediately entered his chosen agent
+of iniquity, Don Michelotto, with several armed followers, who,
+after some resistance, arrested the Duke of Gravina, Paolo Orsini,
+Vitellozzo, and Liverotto, with some ten others. Before morning the
+two last were strangled with a Pisan cord, or violin-string, and a
+wrench-pin, by the hands of that monster, in his master's presence.
+Their death, according to Machiavelli, was cowardly, especially that
+of the blood-stained Liverotto; and their bodies, after being dragged
+round the piazza, were exposed for three days before burial.
+
+That night Valentino, at the head of his Gascons, attacked six
+thousand of these captains' troops, which had not dispersed on
+hearing the capture of their leaders, slaughtering and plundering
+them with the same barbarity they had themselves used towards the
+citizens. The greater portion were cut to pieces, and those who
+escaped reached their homes naked, having only straw tied round their
+legs. Fabio Orsini was saved by his accidental absence from Borgia's
+levee; Petrucci and Baglioni, suspicious of treachery, had avoided
+their fate by previously retiring home. Against the last of these,
+Borgia marched in a few days, carrying with him the remaining chiefs,
+of whom he reserved the Orsini until he should hear his father's
+intentions; but each night after supper he is said to have had one
+of the others brought out, and put to a cruel death before him. Thus
+did he, by a dexterous stroke of the most refined duplicity, turn the
+tools of his ambition into victims of his vengeance, and at the same
+time ridded himself of faithless adherents, whom any change in his
+fortune would have again converted into overt and implacable foes.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: Our chief authorities for this tragic scene are
+Machiavelli's despatches and separate narrative, with the Diaries of
+Burchard, Buonaccorsi, and Sanuto. Some details are taken from the
+Ricordi of Padre Gratio, guardian of the Monastery delle Grazie at
+Sinigaglia, a contemporary, and probably an eye-witness to many of
+them. Vat. Urb. MSS. 1023, art. 17.[*A]]
+
+[Footnote *A: Cf. MADIAI, _Diario delle Cose di Urbino_,
+in _Arch. St. per le Marche e per l'Umbria_, tom. III., p. 437.
+Machiavelli, who was with Cesare at the time, describes the massacre
+of Sinigaglia as "il bellissimo inganno di Sinigaglia." Cesare wrote
+an account of it to Isabella d'Este. Cf. her letter to her husband
+(D'ARCO, _Notizie di Isabella Estense_, in _Arch. St. Ital._, ser. i.,
+App., vol. I., No. II. (1845), p. 262).]
+
+Vermiglioli, in his life of Malatesta Baglioni, has printed, from
+the archives of Perugia, a letter from Borgia to the magistrates of
+that city, which, in consideration of the comparative obscurity of
+that interesting volume, we shall here translate. It is, perhaps, the
+only known document fully stating the case of the writer, and so may
+be regarded as his defence from the charges we have brought against
+him: the style and orthography are remarkably rude; and the matter
+abounds in that common expedient, whereby bold and bad men seek to
+evade merited accusations, by throwing them upon those they have
+outraged.[2]
+
+[Footnote 2: Our version is from the original letter. Nearly similar
+in purport, but much shorter, is a despatch written by him to the
+Doge of Venice on the very night of the raid, so anxious was he to
+conciliate the Signory.]
+
+ "Magnificent and potent Lords, my special Friends and
+ Brothers;
+
+ "Superfluous were it to narrate from their outset the
+ perfidious rebellion and atrocious treason, so known to
+ yourselves and to all the world, and so detestable, which
+ your [lords, the Baglioni,] and their accomplices have
+ committed against his Holiness the Pope and ourselves.
+ And although all were our vassals, and most of them in
+ our pay, received and caressed by us as sons or brothers,
+ and favoured with high promotion, they nevertheless,
+ regardless of the kindness of his Holiness and our own,
+ as of their individual honour, banded in schemes of
+ overweening ambition, and blinded by greed of tyranny,
+ have failed us at the moment of our utmost need, turning
+ his Holiness' arms and ours against him and ourselves,
+ for the overthrow of our sovereignty and person. They
+ commenced their aggressions upon us by raising our
+ states of Urbino, Camerino, and Montefeltro, throwing
+ all Romagna into confusion by force and by seditious
+ plots, and proceeding under the mask of reconciliation to
+ fresh offences, until our new levies were brought up in
+ irresistible force. And so atrocious was their baseness,
+ that neither the beneficent clemency of his [Holiness]
+ aforesaid, nor our renewed indulgence to them, weaned them
+ from the slough of their first vile designs, in which
+ they still persisted. And as soon as they learned the
+ departure of the French troops on their return towards
+ Lombardy, whereby they deemed us weakened and left with no
+ effective force, they, feigning an urgent desire to aid
+ in our attack upon Sinigaglia, mustered a third only of
+ their infantry, and concealed the remainder in the houses
+ about, with instructions to draw together at nightfall,
+ and unite with the men-at-arms, whom they had posted in
+ the neighbourhood, meaning, at a given moment, to throw
+ the infantry, through the garrison (with whom they had an
+ understanding), upon the new town, in the narrow space
+ whereof they calculated upon our being lodged with few
+ attendants, and so to complete their long-nourished plans
+ by crushing us at unawares. But we, distinctly forewarned
+ of all, so effectively and quickly anticipated them, that
+ we at once made prisoners of the Duke of Gravina, Paolo
+ Orsini, Vitellozzo of Castello, and Liverotto of Fermo,
+ and discovered, sacked, and overthrew their foot and
+ horse, whether concealed or not; whereupon the castellan,
+ seeing the plot defeated, quickly surrendered the fortress
+ at discretion. And this we have done, under pressure
+ of necessity imposed by the measures of these persons
+ aforesaid, and in order to make an end of the unmeasured
+ perfidy and villanies of them and their coadjutors,
+ thereby restraining their boundless ambition and insensate
+ cupidity, which were truly a public nuisance to the nations
+ of Italy. Thus your highnesses have good cause for great
+ rejoicing at your deliverance from these dangers. And on
+ your highnesses' account, I am now, by his Holiness's
+ commands, to march with my army, for the purpose of
+ rescuing you from the rapacious and sanguinary oppression
+ whereby you have been vexed, and to restore you to free
+ and salutary obedience to his Holiness and the Apostolic
+ See, with the maintenance of your wonted privileges. For
+ the which causes, We, as Gonfaloniere and Captain of his
+ Holiness and the aforesaid See, exhort, recommend, and
+ command you, on receipt hereof, to free yourselves from
+ all other yoke, and to send ambassadors to lay before his
+ Holiness your dutiful and unreserved obedience: which
+ failing, we are commanded to reduce you by force to that
+ duty,--an event that would distress us on account of the
+ serious injuries which must thereby result to your people,
+ for whom we have, from our boyhood, borne and still bear
+ singular favour. From Corinaldo, the 2d of January, 1503.
+
+ "CESARE BORGIA OF FRANCE, DUKE OF ROMAGNA AND
+ VALENTINO, PRINCE OF ADRIA AND VENAFRA, LORD OF
+ PIOMBINO, Gonfaloniere and Captain-General of the Holy
+ Roman Church."
+
+News of the Sinigaglia tragedy reached the Pope late in the evening,
+and he instantly communicated to Cardinal Orsini that Cesare had
+taken that city, assured that an early visit of congratulation from
+his Eminence would follow. The Cardinal was perhaps the richest and
+most influential of his house. He chiefly had organised the league
+of La Magione, but having always contrived to keep on good terms
+with Alexander, he believed in the professions of regard with which
+his Holiness subsequently seduced him from that policy, and thence
+reposed in him a fatal confidence. Next morning he rode in state to
+pay his respects at the Vatican, where his own person and those of
+his principal relations were instantly seized, whilst his magnificent
+palace at Monte Giordano was pillaged by orders and for the benefit
+of the Pontiff. After an imprisonment of some weeks, he was cut off
+by slow poison, prescribed from the same quarter, and died on the 22d
+of February. Thus did the Pope set his seal of approval on his son's
+atrocities, which he justified by a poor and pointless jest, avowing
+that as the confederates of La Magione, after stipulating that they
+should not be required to re-enter the service of Valentino unless
+singly, had thought fit to place themselves within his power _en
+masse_, they merited their fate as forsworn.
+
+[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF SIGNATURES
+
+[1. 1480]
+
+[2. 1494]
+
+[3. 1501]
+
+[4. 1504]
+
+[5. 1501]
+
+[6. 1510]
+
+[7. 1522]
+
+[8. 1540]
+
+[9. 1517]]
+
+The massacre of Sinigaglia has been condemned by every writer except
+Machiavelli, and posterity has in severe retribution suspected him
+of abetting it. This charge possesses a twofold interest, as
+inculpating the character of the historian, and as affecting the
+morality of the age.[*3] In the latter view alone does it fall under
+our consideration: yet however horrible these wholesale murders, they
+are more remarkable in Italian history as the crowning crime of an
+ambitious career, and as widely influencing the political aspect of
+Romagna and La Marca, than from their relative enormity. The fates
+of the young Astorre Manfredi of Faenza, of Fogliano of Fermo, of
+the Lord of Camerino and his three sons, have all been mentioned in
+these pages as occurring within a year or two of this event. It would
+be easy to swell the catalogue of slaughter; and we find Baglioni
+and Vitellozzo both classed with Cesare himself in the category
+of murder, by a chronicler of Alexander VI., who also quotes from
+the mouth of Giovanni Bentivoglio, at the diet of La Magione, this
+bravado, "I shall assassinate Duke Valentino should I be so lucky as
+to have opportunity."[4] The spirit of the age is further illustrated
+by its unnumbered poisonings: and the fact that Machiavelli should
+neither have used his influence with Valentino to avert the massacre
+of the confederates, nor his pen to brand the treachery of that foul
+deed, is but another link in the evidence from which we may deduce
+the total extinction of moral feeling, which, anticipating the worst
+doctrines of Loyola, carried them out with a selfishness, falsehood,
+and cruelty unparalleled in the annals of human civilisation.[*5]
+
+[Footnote *3: It is unlikely that Machiavelli abetted the massacre,
+though he certainly approved it dispassionately enough. By it the
+Papacy was rid at last of the houses of Colonna and Orsini. Cesare
+met Machiavelli after the affair "with the best cheer in the world,"
+reminding him that he had given him a hint of his intentions, but
+adding, "I did not tell you all." He urged on Machiavelli his
+desire for a firm alliance with Florence. Cf. MACHIAVELLI,
+_Legazione al Valentino_, Lett. 86, and the _Modo tenuto dal Duca
+Valentino nel ammazzare Vitellozzo_. See also CREIGHTON,
+_op. cit._, vol V., p. 40.]
+
+[Footnote 4: VERMIGLIOLI: _Vita di Malatesta Baglioni_.]
+
+[Footnote *5: The schemes of Cesare were in his age no more
+unscrupulously carried out than Bismarck's in his. "It is well," said
+Cesare, "to beguile those who have shown themselves to be masters of
+treachery."]
+
+[Illustration: _Alinari_
+
+IL CASTELLO DI SINIGAGLIA]
+
+Gianpaolo Baglioni having fled to Siena, Valentino followed him in
+that direction, after taking possession of Perugia, and learning
+that Città di Castello, abandoned by the adherents of the Vitelli,
+had been plundered by his own partizans. On the 18th of January,
+hearing at Città della Pieve of the blow struck by his father against
+the Orsini, and that Fabio, who escaped the snare at Sinigaglia,
+was ravaging the Campagna, he handed over Paolo and the Duke of
+Gravina to the tender mercies of Michelotto, whose noose quickly
+encircled their necks. Invading the Sienese, he carried fire and
+sword by Chiusi as far as Pienza and San Quirico, massacring even
+the aged and infirm with horrible tortures. His real object, besides
+revenging himself upon Petrucci and Baglioni, was to add Siena to his
+territory, but his position being then a delicate one with France, he
+accepted the proposal of that republic to purchase safety, by exiling
+Petrucci their seigneur, and dismissing Baglioni their guest.[*6]
+
+[Footnote *6: Cf. LISINI, _Cesare Borgia e la repubblica di
+Siena_, in the _Boll. Senese di Stor. Pat._, ann. VII. (fasc. I.),
+pp. 114, 115, and 144 _et seq._ for all the documents. And for a
+short but excellent account in English of the whole Sienese affair,
+LANGTON DOUGLAS, _A History of Siena_ (Murray, 1902), p. 206
+_et seq._]
+
+This series of rapid successes is ascribed by Machiavelli to the
+policy of Valentino in ridding himself of his French auxiliaries and
+his mercenary confederates, and so being enabled, during the brief
+remainder of his career, to give his talents and energy full scope in
+the conduct of an army entirely devoted to his views. His conquests
+had now extended along the eastern fall of the Apennines, from
+Imola to Camerino, and included the upper vale of the Tiber and the
+principality of Piombino. He had but to add to them Siena, and the
+best part of Central Italy from sea to sea would be his own. The eyes
+of Louis, at length opened to a danger which he had so long fostered,
+were not blinded by Cesare's affected moderation in claiming his
+recent acquisitions rather for the Church than for himself, and that
+monarch hastened to caution him from further hostilities against
+Tuscany. The successes of Fabio Orsini around Rome at the same time
+called for his presence, so he changed his route to make a foray
+upon the holdings of that family about the Lake of Bracciano, with
+whom the Colonna and Savelli had united against their common enemies
+the Borgia. This opportunity was greedily seized by the Pontiff to
+carry out his long cherished policy of breaking the power of the
+great barons, and the castles of the Orsini having one after another
+been reduced, their influence ceased for the future to be formidable
+either to their sovereign or their neighbours.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+But it is time we should return to Urbino, where we left the
+citizens bewailing the departure of their Duke. As soon as he was
+gone, Antonio di S. Savino took possession of the place in name of
+Valentino, and issued a proclamation enjoining the townsfolk to
+disarm, the peasantry to return home, and all to surrender whatever
+they had stolen the day before from the palace. In the afternoon,
+after a conciliatory harangue to the people, he took his lodging
+in the palace. Next morning, after mass, the Bishop published a
+general amnesty, and oaths of allegiance to the new sovereign were
+administered. Towards evening the bells were rung, and a bonfire was
+lit in the piazza; but these were heartless and forced rejoicings,
+and no bribes could induce even the children to raise the cry of
+"Valenza." Nor was this sadness without cause, for the soldiery of
+Orsini and Vitellozzo, who still quartered in the town, treated all
+with such outrage, that many of the inhabitants prayed for death
+to close their sufferings, envying those who were summoned from
+such scenes of misery. But when the troops were withdrawn, the mild
+character and popular manners of Antonio the governor, skilfully
+seconding the conciliatory policy which Borgia had resolved upon,
+gave matters another aspect, and occasioned surprise to those who
+knew the cruel perfidy of their new master. Various notorious abuses
+were put down under severe penalties, especially the acceptance
+of presents by judges, and the following up of private vengeance.
+The deputy governor, Giovanni da Forlì, was however a man of quite
+opposite temperament, whose harshness soon counteracted these gentler
+influences, and occasioned general disgust. But the people heard
+with satisfaction the tragedy of Sinigaglia; for to the perfidy
+of the chiefs and the brutality of their army, the loss of their
+independence and the whole of their late misfortunes were unanimously
+ascribed; and a permission to ravage the territory of the Vitelli,
+now publicly proclaimed throughout the duchy, was by many greedily
+seized.
+
+Borgia, having secured fourteen distinguished inhabitants of Urbino
+as hostages, ordered that the fortresses left by agreement in
+the hands of Guidobaldo should be attempted: that of Maiuolo was
+accordingly surprised about the beginning of May, and easily reduced.
+S. Leo being better provided, as well as considered impregnable,
+its siege was more methodically undertaken, and levies were ordered
+to reinforce the assailants. The amount of public sympathy with the
+cause may be estimated from Baldi's assertion that, in the city of
+Urbino, the utmost difficulty was experienced in raising eight foot
+soldiers with one month's pay. Eight hundred Gascons in the French
+service were obtained from De la Tremouille; but these, having
+turned the siege into a sort of blockade, were dispersed among the
+neighbouring villages, where, on the 5th of June, their revels
+were suddenly interrupted by unknown assailants, who disappeared
+as mysteriously as they had issued from the mountain defiles,
+leaving many of the besiegers slain or wounded. The surrounding
+peasantry, catching the enthusiasm, rushed to arms, and, but for
+extraordinary exertions, the whole duchy would have once more
+been out for their legitimate lord. News of this movement having
+reached the Duke early in July, he obtained from Florence free
+passage through her territory, and from the Venetians a promise of
+passive support, and thereupon put himself into communication with
+his principal adherents, by means of letters carried by persons of
+low condition, many of which were unfortunately intercepted by the
+lieutenant-governor of Urbino. His people were thus kept in a fever
+of expectation; but, finally, this plan of an invasion was abandoned,
+whereupon he repaired to Mantua, to his brother-in-law the Marquis,
+who had been taken into the French service under De la Tremouille,
+and engaged him to represent to Louis the hardships of his case, and
+the danger of Borgia's excessive ambition.
+
+Disgusted with their ignominious overthrow at S. Leo, the Gascons
+assumed the habitual licence of such mercenaries, by soon taking
+their departure from
+
+ "The tentless rest beneath the humid sky,
+ The stubborn wall that mocks the leaguer's art,
+ And palls the patience of his baffled heart."
+
+The siege was nevertheless maintained by the commandant of Romagna;
+but the place was ably and spiritedly defended by Ottaviano Fregoso,
+who will soon attract our notice in other scenes. Marini has recorded
+another act of romantic daring by the same Brizio who, in the
+preceding year, had surprised the place. Fregoso's tiny garrison
+being greatly exhausted by the long blockade, he, with one Marzio,
+made his way, during a violent storm of rain, over the rocks, and
+through the beleaguering force, and reached a castle near Mantua
+where Guidobaldo then was. In vain these emissaries besought him for
+a reinforcement of two hundred men; for, thinking it would only waste
+their gallantry by prolonging a hopeless struggle, he thankfully
+declined their proposal. At length their urgency obtained twenty-five
+men who happened to be at hand, and with these they returned to
+the leaguer. Marzio, boldly presenting himself to the commandant,
+volunteered to join the besiegers with his little party, which being
+accepted, he advanced them under the walls, whence, having been
+recognised by the garrison, they made a rush to the upper gate,
+and were received into the fortress ere the trick was discovered.
+By this timely succour, S. Leo was enabled to hold out until the
+restoration of its rightful sovereign; and its brave defenders did
+not even falter at the threat of summary vengeance upon their wives
+and families, who had been brought to the palace of Urbino to answer
+for their obstinacy.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Christendom was now to be appalled by a fearful catastrophe, which
+fitly closed the career of the Borgias, diverting their wonted
+weapons to their own destruction, for--
+
+ "'Tis sure a law of retribution just
+ That turns the plotters' arts against themselves."[7]
+
+[Footnote 7:
+
+ "Neque enim lex æquior ulla
+ Quam necis artifices arte perire sua." OVID. _Ar. Amat._ i. 655.]
+
+Alexander and his son perceiving that they could no longer turn to
+good account the co-operation of Louis for their grasping schemes,
+began to look round for new combinations: having squeezed the orange
+they were ready to throw aside the rind. But to such projects their
+exhausted treasury offered serious obstacles. To supply it they
+had recourse, on an extended scale, to an expedient which they had
+invented, and already occasionally employed,--that of poisoning the
+richest cardinals, seizing on their treasures, and selling their
+vacant hats to the highest bidders. Among the most recent and wealthy
+of the sacred college was Adrian of Corneto, and he was therefore
+selected as next victim. On the 12th of August, the Pope and Cesare
+invited him to sup in the Belvidere casino of the Vatican, and the
+latter sent forward a supply of poisoned wine, in charge of his
+butler, with strict injunctions not to serve it until specially
+desired by himself. Several other cardinals were to partake of the
+banquet, and, probably, were intended to share the drugged potion.
+Alexander had been assured by an astrologer that, so long as he had
+about him the sacramental wafer, he should not die; and, accordingly,
+he constantly carried it in a little golden box; but, having on that
+evening forgotten it upon his toilet, he sent Monsignor Caraffa,
+afterwards Paul IV., to fetch it. Meanwhile, overcome by the dog-day
+heat, he called for wine. The butler was gone to fetch a salver of
+peaches, which had been presented to his Holiness, and his deputy,
+having received no instructions as to the medicated bottles, offered
+a draught from them to the Pope. He greedily swallowed it, and his
+example was more moderately followed by Cesare; thus,
+
+ "Even-handed justice
+ Commends the ingredients of the poisoned chalice
+ To their own lips."
+
+Scarcely had they taken their seats at the table, when the two
+victims successively fell down insensible, from the virulence of the
+poison, and were carried to bed. The Pontiff rallied so far as to
+recover consciousness, and to linger for about a week, but at length
+sank under the shock and the fever which supervened, his age being
+seventy-one, and his constitution enervated by long debauchery. The
+last sacraments were duly administered, and it was remarked that,
+during his illness, he never alluded to his children Cesare and
+Lucrezia, through life the objects of an overweening, if not criminal
+fondness, in whose behalf most of his outrages upon the peace and the
+rights of mankind had been committed. His death occurred on the 18th
+of August.[*8]
+
+[Footnote *8: There is no authentic basis for this story. Rome was
+in a pestilential condition in August, and the Pope, Cesare, and
+the Cardinal Hadrian were all stricken with fever, which a supper
+in the open air was surely not unlikely to produce. Alexander was
+so detested that the strangeness of his death suggested poison at
+once to his enemies. Cf. CREIGHTON, _op. cit._, vol. V., p.
+49. An excellent essay on _The Poisonings attributed to the Borgia_
+will be found in CREIGHTON, _op. cit._, vol. V., p. 301 _et
+seq._]
+
+Such is the account of this awful retribution given by Tommasi,
+from which most other narratives but slightly deviate as to dates
+or immaterial details. Another version, however, occurs in Sanuto's
+Diaries, which, being contemporary, and probably supplied from the
+diplomatic correspondence of the Signory, merits notice, and has
+not been hitherto published. The Cardinal of Corneto, who figures
+prominently in this narrative, was made collector for Peter's pence
+in England, and Bishop of Hereford, from whence he was translated
+to Bath and Wells. We shall find him compromised in Petrucci's
+conspiracy against Leo X., but the following charge of pope-poisoning
+is new.
+
+"The Lord Adrian Castillense of Corneto, Cardinal Datary, having
+been desired by the Pope to receive him and Duke Valentino at supper
+in his vineyard, his Holiness supplying the eatables, this Cardinal
+presumed the invitation to be planned for his death by poison, so
+that the Duke might obtain his money and benefices, which were
+considerable. In order to save himself there seemed but one course,
+so, watching his opportunity, he summoned the Pontiff's steward,
+whom he knew intimately, and on his arrival received him alone in
+a private chamber, where 10,000 ducats were laid out: these he
+desired him to accept for love of him, offering him also more of his
+property, which he declared he could continue to enjoy only through
+his assistance, and adding, 'You certainly are aware of the Pope's
+disposition, and I know that he and the Duke have designed my death
+by poison through you; wherefore I pray you have pity on me and spare
+my life.' The steward, moved with compassion on hearing this, at
+length avowed the plan concerted for administering the poison; that,
+after the supper, he was to serve three boxes of confections, one
+for the Pope, another for the Duke, and a third for the Cardinal,
+the last being poisoned; so they arranged that the service of the
+table should be contrived in such a way that the Pontiff might eat
+of the Cardinal's poisoned box, and die. On the appointed day, the
+Pope having arrived at the vineyard with the Duke, the Cardinal
+threw himself at his Holiness' feet and kissed them, saying he had
+a boon to request, and would not rise until it were granted. The
+Pope assuring him of his consent, he continued, 'Holy Father! on the
+lord's coming to his servant's house, it is not meet that the servant
+should sit with his lord; and the just and proper favour I ask is
+permission for the servant to wait at the table of your Holiness.'
+The supper being thus served, and the moment arrived for giving the
+confections, the box having been poisoned by the steward as directed
+by the Pope, the Cardinal placed it before his Holiness, who, relying
+on his steward, and convinced of the Cardinal's sincerity by his
+service, ate joyfully of this box, as did the Cardinal of the other,
+which the Pontiff believed the poisoned one. Thereafter, at the hour
+when from its nature the poison took effect, his Holiness began to
+feel it, and thus he died: the Cardinal being still alarmed, took
+medicine and an emetic, and was easily cured."
+
+The death of Alexander by poison is generally credited, although
+Raynaldus and Muratori, willing to mitigate so heinous a scandal,
+incline to the few and obscure authorities who attribute it to
+tertian fever. It was natural that the truth should be glossed over,
+especially in despatches addressed to the court of his daughter
+Lucrezia, to which the latter annalist probably had access. But
+though the earliest intelligence of the event forwarded by the
+Venetian envoy alludes to the Pope's seizure as fever, his subsequent
+letters, quoted by Sanuto, thus loathsomely confirm the current
+suspicion of poison having been administered. "On this day [19th] I
+saw the Pontiff's corpse, whose apparel was not worth two ducats.
+He was swollen beyond the size of one of our large wine-skins. Never
+since the Christian era was a more horrible and terrible sight
+witnessed. The blood flowed from ears, mouth, and nose faster than
+it could be wiped away; his lips were larger than a man's fist, and
+in his open mouth the blood boiled as in a caldron on the fire, and
+kept incessantly flowing as from a spout; all which I report from
+observation."[9]
+
+[Footnote 9: This passage appears conclusive as to the fact of poison
+having been taken by the Pontiff; and it will be observed that
+Sanuto's story of the confection-boxes in no way accounts for the
+illness of Valentino, which is equally passed over in another totally
+different statement of this affair, given in the Appendix to Ranke's
+_History of the Popes_, section i. No. 4,--omissions to be kept
+in view in testing the probability of these conflicting accounts.
+Roscoe seems to have subsequently abandoned the doubts thrown upon
+the poisoning in his first edition, although ever prone to extenuate
+vices of the Borgia: witness his elaborate defence of Lucrezia, or
+his views as to the Duke of Gandia's murder and the massacre of
+Sinigaglia. Voltaire treats the question like a habitual doubter,
+with the ingenuity of a critic rather than the matured judgment of a
+historian. He is answered, with perhaps unnecessary detail, by Masse,
+to whom Sanuto was unknown.]
+
+The character of Alexander VI. as a man and as a sovereign admits of
+no question, and is thus forcibly summed up by Sismondi. "He was the
+most notoriously immoral man in Christendom; one whose debauchery
+no shame restrained, whose treaties no good faith sanctioned, whose
+policy was never guarded by justice, to whose vengeance pity was
+unknown."[*10] As a pontiff he must be tried by a different test,
+and those ecclesiastical writers, who attempt not to defend his
+morals or example, assert the orthodoxy of his faith and doctrine,
+and commend the wisdom of his provisions for maintenance of that
+religion which regarded him as its head. He was the first to
+establish the censorship of books,[*11] an important bulwark of the
+Roman Church; and among the orders which he instituted or protected
+was that of S. Francesco di Paolo. Nor can it be doubted that his
+ambitious nepotism eventually aggrandised the temporal possessions
+of the papacy, by quelling the mutinous barons of the Campagna, and
+by so crushing the more distant seigneurs as to render their states
+a speedy and easy prey to Julius II. On the other hand, the openly
+simoniacal practices which prevailed during his reign, the strong
+measures adopted to raise money for his private ends by a lavish
+scale of indulgences, and, generally, the unscrupulous employment of
+the power of the keys and the treasures of the Church for unworthy
+purposes, all tended to alienate men's minds, and to stir those
+doubts which the different, but not less injudicious, policy of his
+immediate successors ripened into schism.
+
+[Footnote *10: This is probably an exaggeration. Alexander VI. was
+without reticence in his sins, and so has not escaped whipping. I
+append a brief list of authorities for the Borgia:--
+
+ CERRI, _Borgia ossia Alessandro VI._ (1858).
+ ANTONETTI, _Lucrezia Borgia in Ferrara_ (1867).
+ SCHUBERT-SOLDERN, _Die Borgias und ihre Zeit_ (Dresden, 1902).
+ CITADELLA, _Saggio di Albero Genealogico della Famiglia Borgia_ (1872).
+ GREGOROVIUS, _Lucrezia Borgia_ (1874).
+ ---- _Geschichte der Stadt Rom._, tom. VII. (1880).
+ ALVISI, _Cesare Borgia_ (Imola, 1878).
+ NEMEC, _Papst Alexander VI. eine Rechtfertigung_ (1879).
+ LEONETTI, _Papa Alessandro VI._ (1880).
+ D'EPINOIS, in _Revue des Questions Historiques_ (April, 1881).
+ VEHON, _Les Borgia_ (1882).
+ MARICOURT, _Le Procès des Borgia_ (1883).
+ YRIARTE, _César Borgia_ (1887).
+ ---- _Autour des Borgias_ (1891).]
+
+[Footnote *11: I am not quite clear what this means. The Inquisition
+was introduced into Italy in 1542, and the _Index Librorum
+Prohibitorum_ was established. But the congregation of the Index
+was not established till the Council of Trent. Magical books were
+prohibited as early as the Council of Nice, 325.]
+
+Favoured by youth, constitution, and energy of mind, Cesare Borgia
+wrestled successfully with the deadly ingredients which he had
+inadvertently swallowed. He is said to have been saved by being
+frequently placed in the carcass of a newly-killed bullock or mule,
+and, whether in consequence of this treatment, or of the inflammatory
+nature of the potion, to have lost the whole skin of his body. He had
+flattered himself that, foreseeing every possible contingency which
+his father's death could develop, he had so planned his measures
+as to secure, in any event, his own safety, and the maintenance of
+his authority. But, never having anticipated being disabled from
+action at that very juncture, his well-laid schemes fell to the
+ground, a signal illustration of the proverb, "Man proposes, God
+disposes." By means of Don Michelotto, he was, however, able to draw
+round the Vatican a body of twelve thousand devoted troops, and that
+unscrupulous agent executed his instructions by seizing about 500,000
+ducats in money, jewels, and valuables, from the Pope's apartment,
+before his death was published.
+
+The Diaries of Sanuto give a lively description of the immediate
+effects of Alexander's death on Lower Italy,--the exultations of the
+people, the prompt movements of the Campagna barons, the hesitation
+of Valentino, the intrigues of the cardinals. As soon as the good
+news transpired, Rome rose in arms against the Spaniards; and the
+Colonna and the Orsini, entering at the head of their troops,
+willingly aided in spoiling and slaughtering these countrymen of
+the Borgia, who "could nowhere find holes to hide in." Even their
+cardinals narrowly escaped a general massacre; and on the 8th of
+September, a proclamation by the College cleared the city of these
+foreigners on pain of the gibbet. Duke Valentino, although prostrated
+in strength, and "seeming as if burnt from the middle downwards,"
+was not without formidable resources. His hope was, that in the
+distracted state of Rome, the cardinals would provide for their
+personal safety by holding the conclave in St. Angelo, where the
+election would be in his own hands. This calculation was, however,
+defeated by their assembling at the Minerva convent, guarded by the
+barons of Bracciano and Palestrina, with the bravest of the citizens,
+and protected by barricades which withstood an assault by the
+redoubted Michelotto. Still his troops were staunch, the Vatican and
+St. Angelo were his, and he had secured the treasure of the Holy See.
+But his nerve gave way, and after turning the castle guns against the
+Orsini palace on Monte Giordano, he fled in a litter to the French
+camp without the gates, on the 1st of September, and thence made his
+way to the stronghold of Nepi. This vacillation brought its fitting
+recompense, and lost him the advantages of his position. Hesitating
+betwixt the Colonna and Orsini factions, wavering between Spanish and
+French interests, his friends dropped off, his forces melted away,
+and he lost the favourable moment for swaying the papal election.
+
+The rival parties in the conclave, having had no time to mature their
+plans, in consequence of the late Pontiff's sudden decease, trusted
+to strengthen their respective interests by delay, and so were
+unanimous in choosing, on the 22nd of September, the most feeble of
+their body, the respected Piccolomini, who survived his exaltation
+as Pius III. but twenty-six days. The state of matters at Naples
+added to the general embarrassment. The ceaseless struggles for that
+crown had of late taken a new turn, the contest being now between
+Louis of France and Ferdinand of Spain. The Borgia, long adherents
+of the former, had recently inclined to the Spanish side; but their
+influence was now irretrievably gone.
+
+ *NOTE.--The following is a list of the chief
+ conquests of Cesare:--
+
+ City. Family. Date. Campaign.
+
+ Imola Riarii Nov. 27, 1499 First.
+ Forlì Riarii Jan. 12, 1500 First.
+ Rimini Malatesta Oct. 10, 1500 Second.
+ Pesaro Sforza Oct. 21, 1500 Second.
+ Faenza Manfredi April 25, 1501 Second.
+ Piombino Appiani Sept. 3, 1501 Second.
+ Urbino Montefeltri June 21, 1502 Third.
+ Camerino Varani July 29, 1502 Third.
+ Sinigaglia Roveri Dec. 28, 1502 Third.
+ Città di Castello Vitelli Jan. 2, 1503 Third.
+ Perugia Baglioni Jan. 6, 1503 Third.
+ Siena Petrucci Jan. (end), 1503 Third.
+
+ Cf. BURD, ed. _Il Principe_ (Oxford, 1891), p.
+ 218, note 15.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+ Duke Guidobaldo restored--The election of Julius II.--The
+ fall of Cesare Borgia--The Duke's fortunate position--Is
+ made Knight of the Garter--The Pope visits Urbino.
+
+
+Whilst Valentino and his partizans thus had their hands full at Rome,
+Romagna and his recent conquests threw off his rule. His officers had
+concealed the first news of the tragedy at the Vatican, but, on the
+22nd of August, authentic intelligence of the death of Alexander and
+the illness of his son having reached Urbino, through some emissaries
+of Guidobaldo who announced that the moment for action had arrived,
+the people ran to arms. The governor fled to Cesena; his lieutenant
+was slain in the tumult; the siege of S. Leo was raised; and in one
+day the entire duchy, except one unimportant castle, returned to its
+lawful sovereign.[*12]
+
+[Footnote *12: During the Duke's absence an interesting
+correspondence passed between Isabella d'Este and Cardinal Ippolito
+d'Este in Rome concerning a Venus and a Cupid of the Duke's. The
+Venus was a torso and antique, but the Cupid was the work of
+Michelangelo. Cf. GAYE, _Carteggio d'Artisti_, vol. II.,
+p. 53; ALVISI, _Cesare Borgia_, p. 537; LUZIO, in _Arch. St. Lombardo_
+(1886), and JULIA CARTWRIGHT, _Isabella d'Este_ (Murray, 1903), vol. I.,
+p. 230 _et seq._]
+
+On hearing that the Pope and Cesare were both ill, the Duke of Urbino
+hastily quitted Venice, his honourable and secure retreat, leaving
+behind, in the words of Bembo, "a high reputation for superhuman
+genius, for admirable acquirements, for singular discretion." As
+a parting favour, that republic advanced him 3000 or 4000 ducats,
+towards the expenses of his restoration. He wrote desiring his
+nephew Fregoso to send over a detachment from S. Leo, to maintain
+order in his capital, and himself following upon the steps of his
+messenger, reached that fortress on the 27th of August. Next day he
+proceeded to Urbino, where, Castiglione tells us, "he was met by
+swarms of children bearing olive-boughs, and hailing his auspicious
+arrival; by aged sires tottering under their years, and weeping for
+joy; by men and women; by mothers with their babes; by crowds of
+every age and sex; nay, the very stones seemed to exult and leap."
+Women of all ranks flocked in from the adjacent townships, with
+tambourines played before them, to see their sovereign, and touch his
+hand; whilst popular fury spent itself upon the usurper's armorial
+ensigns, which had been painted in fresco over the city gates a few
+months before by Timoteo Vite, at the rate of from one to four ducats
+each.[*13]
+
+[Footnote *13: Cf. MADIAI, _Diario delle Cose di Urbino_, in
+_Arch. St. per le Marche e per l'Umbria_, vol. III., p. 444.]
+
+The example of Urbino was quickly followed by Sinigaglia, Pesaro,
+and the other principalities; and by October, a confederacy for
+their common maintenance and defence, under oaths and a mutual bond
+of 10,000 ducats, was organised by these three states, along with
+Camerino, Perugia, Piombino, Città di Castello, and Rimini, in all
+which the exiled seigneurs had resumed their ascendancy.
+
+It was a condition of this league, that no step or engagement should
+be taken by any of the parties without the sanction of Guidobaldo,
+who a month before had strengthened his position by accepting service
+from the Venetians. The Signory engaged to protect him during life in
+his state, against all attacks, and to pay him annually 20,000 scudi,
+he maintaining for them a hundred men-at-arms, and a hundred and
+fifty light cavalry, besides placing at their disposal, for instant
+service, two thousand foot. These were forthwith sent to ravage the
+neighbourhood of Cesena, which remained faithful to Valentino, and
+thereafter, co-operating with other forces of the new league under
+Ottaviano Fregoso, they attacked in succession such citadels and
+castles as were held for the usurper.
+
+The star of Borgia seemed once more in the ascendant. Early
+in October Cesare, now able to bestride a mule, returned to
+Rome, attended by a hundred and fifty men-at-arms and a hundred
+halberdiers, where he patched up a reconciliation with the Orsini
+faction, then dominant. From motives which it would now be difficult
+to trace, the new Pontiff received him with favour, and named
+him captain-general of the Church. But in this crisis of his
+destiny he displayed no elevation of character. Disconcerted by
+the embarrassment of his position, perhaps by the admonitions of
+conscience, uncertain where to repose confidence or look for support,
+he quickly repented having trusted himself in the city, and longed
+to escape from its incensed populace and exasperated factions to
+the shelter of his strongholds in Romagna. Humbling himself before
+Gian-Giordano Orsini, the enemy of his race, he obtained a promise of
+his escort across the Campagna; but perceiving, ere he had cleared
+the gate, that he was in the hands of men by whom old grudges were
+not forgotten, he fled in panic to the Vatican. There he crouched
+beneath the doubtful favour of Pius, and the waning influence of the
+Spanish cardinals, who vainly sought to protect his property from
+pillage, and to expedite his escape in disguise, until the Holy See
+was again vacated by its short-lived occupant.[14]
+
+[Footnote 14: In the communal archives of Perugia, there is a brief
+addressed to the authorities of that town by Pius III., dated 17th of
+October, 1503, "before his coronation," but in fact the day preceding
+his death, which must have been obtained by the influence of Cesare,
+and which speaks a language very different from what his Holiness
+would probably have adopted had his life been spared. Its object
+was to prohibit certain "conventicles" which Gianpaolo Baglioni
+was reported to be holding in Perugia, for the purpose of plotting
+against the person of the Duke of Valenza and Romagna, and to desire
+that he be charged to avoid all courses tending to the prejudice of
+Borgia.]
+
+Thus was that make-shift policy defeated by which the late conclave
+had sought time for strengthening their interests and maturing their
+intrigues: a new election was at hand ere its elements had subsided
+from their recent turmoil. The Orsini were paramount in the city,
+the Spaniards in the Sacred College. A struggle ensued whether the
+former should obtain an order for Valentino's departure, or should
+themselves withdraw from Rome before the conclave was closed. Victory
+declared for the Iberian cardinals, by aid of Ascanio Sforza, who
+sought to conciliate their suffrages for himself. Once again the
+bantling of fortune had the game in his hand, again to play it
+away. Holding, as was supposed, at his absolute disposal the votes
+of the Borgian cardinals, he was courted by all who aspired to the
+tiara; and in hopes of retrieving his affairs by the election of a
+friendly pope, he took measures for throwing his whole influence
+into the scale of Amboise, Cardinal of Rouen, as organ of the French
+party. But that strong will and indomitable resolution which had
+triumphantly carried him through many crimes were now wanting. From
+day to day his plans faltered and his policy wavered; finally his
+efforts failed. Men were wearied of the feeble counsels, the selfish
+epicureanism, the public scandals of recent pontiffs. To rescue
+the Church from utter degradation, a very different category of
+qualifications was required, and even the electors felt that they
+must find a pope in all respects the reverse of Alexander.
+
+There was no member of the Sacred College whom Valentino had such
+reason to fear and hate, none of whose domineering ambition the
+Consistory stood in such awe, as Giulio della Rovere. Yet did his
+master-spirit overcome all opposition. On the day preceding the
+conclave he effected a reconciliation with the Spaniards, and his
+ancient rival Ascanio Sforza sought his friendship. As he rode to
+enter upon its duties, the cortège of attendant prelates equalled
+that which usually swelled the train of an elected pope. Before
+the door was closed, bets of eighty-two to a hundred were made on
+his success, one hundred to six being offered against any other
+candidate. It was, therefore, scarcely matter of surprise that within
+an hour or two thereafter Julius II. was chosen by acclamation,
+without a scrutiny.[15]
+
+[Footnote 15: Our information is in many respects deficient regarding
+the numerous and complicated events occurring at Rome between the
+poisoning of Alexander and the final departure of his son Cesare,
+and authorities are frequently irreconcileable. We are indebted to
+Sanuto's Diary for many unedited particulars, especially of the papal
+elections, but the most distinct account of these transactions, and
+on the whole trustworthy, which we have met with, is given by Masse.]
+
+At the last moment, Borgia's adherents, finding opposition vain,
+thought it best to lay the new occupant of St. Peter's chair under
+the obligation of their suffrages, a policy which Machiavelli had
+justly condemned as the greatest blunder ever committed by their
+leader. Some historians allege that their support was gained by an
+offer of Julius to maintain him in his dignities and investitures,
+betrothing his infant daughter to his own nephew the young Lord
+Prefect. Unlikely as this may seem, there is much apparent
+inconsistency in the Pontiff's treatment of him, which, if our
+authorities are to be trusted, showed nothing of that choleric
+temperament and energetic firmness which habitually characterised
+him. Within two days of his election, when speaking of Valentino
+to the Venetian envoy, he said, "We shall let him get off with all
+he has robbed from the Church in his evil hour, but would that
+the towns of Romagna were taken from him." Yet a change appears
+to have supervened, induced perhaps by Cesare's representations,
+which had formerly been successful with Pius III., that, under his
+sway, the influence of the Church in that province of her patrimony
+would be far better maintained than by handing it again to the old
+dynasties, whom he had with difficulty eradicated, and who had ever
+been turbulent vassals of the Apostolic Chamber. The now manifest
+intention of the Venetians to obtain a footing in that quarter, upon
+various pretexts founded on claims of the Manfredi and others of the
+dispossessed lords, gave cogency to this reasoning in the eyes of
+Julius, whose paramount policy of at all hazards aggrandising the
+keys, rendered Valentino's sovereignty preferable to such extension
+of their dominion, and may have somewhat extenuated the Borgian
+policy in his eyes. He therefore brought the usurper from St. Angelo
+to lodge in the Vatican, and entered with seeming cordiality into
+his views. But the lapse of a few days found his Holiness in another
+mood, declaring that his guest should not hold a single battlement
+throughout Italy, but might be thankful if spared his life and the
+treasures he had plundered, most of which were however already
+dissipated. From that moment the prestige of his position was at an
+end, and he remained at the palace "in small repute."
+
+The crisis soon became urgent, for the Venetian troops were pouring
+upon Romagna, whilst the few fortresses that still owned Borgia as
+their master were gradually falling to the confederate chiefs, led
+by Guidobaldo. On the 9th of November, letters, demanding these
+captured castles in the name of the Signory, found the latter ill
+of gout; but in reply he expressed surprise at the summons, seeing
+that he had wrested them from the usurper, and hoped to hold them
+for the pope elect, and in security for the valuables of which he
+had been pillaged. In consideration, perhaps, of his being then
+actually in pay of the Republic, he agreed to deliver up Verucchio
+and Cesenatico, whereupon the messenger reported him to the Doge as
+"a good Christian, but in want of some one to counsel him."
+
+In this exigency, Cesare proposed to surrender to the Pope the
+citadels of Cesena, Bertinoro, Forlì, and Forlimpopoli, as a means
+of immediately arresting the progress of their assailants, and of
+cutting short the schemes of Venice, offering to serve the Church
+during the rest of his life in any capacity that was thought
+expedient. This offer Julius declined, but gave him liberty to
+repair to the scene of action, and act for the best with what
+troops he could raise. He accordingly went to Ostia on the 19th
+of November, meaning to take shipping for Upper Italy; but on the
+21st the Pontiff, alarmed at the progress of the Venetians, and
+influenced by Guidobaldo, who, arriving on that day, had demanded
+justice upon Borgia, thought better of it, and sent to get from
+him the countersigns of his citadels. These Valentino refusing,
+he was brought back to Rome under arrest on the 29th, and, after
+much temporising, ultimately gave the necessary passwords for the
+surrender of his last hold upon his recent dominions.
+
+Such seem the admitted facts of the Pope's treatment of Borgia.
+His change of conduct may have been dictated by new circumstances
+coming to his knowledge, or it may have been part of a systematic
+deception, in order to turn Valentino's influence to his own
+purposes. The opinions of Giovio and De Thou show that such treachery
+as Guicciardini charges upon Julius, and as Cesare met soon after
+from Gonsalvo di Cordova, was regarded by the lax public and private
+morality of the age as justified by his own infamous perfidies. On
+the other hand, it is admitted that the Cardinal della Rovere's high
+reputation for good faith was one of his recommendations to the
+conclave. Bossi, in an additional note to vol. IV. of his translation
+of _Leo X._, considers this dark passage of history to be cleared up
+by the narrative of Baldi, regarding Guidobaldo's generous treatment
+of the enemy of his house, to which he attributes the moderation of
+his Holiness; but this view does not seem borne out either by dates
+or by Baldi's words.[*16]
+
+[Footnote *16: Cf. the latter, in which an account of the interview
+between Cesare and Guidobaldo is given, UGOLINI, _op. cit._, vol. II.,
+p. 523. It does not bear out Giustiniani's account (q.v. ii., 326) of
+what Guidobaldo said to him, and is probably mere rhetoric.]
+
+Thus terminated Duke Valentino's connection with the immediate
+subject of this narrative. A few words will suffice to trace the
+remainder of his fluctuating fortunes. Having been again transmitted
+to Ostia, he remained there a sort of prisoner at large until
+April, 1504, when his escape to Naples was connived at. There he
+was received with distinction by Gonsalvo di Cordova, viceroy of
+Ferdinand II.; but soon after, an order arrived from that king to
+send him prisoner to Spain. With this command, suggested probably by
+a brief from Julius, which Raynaldus has printed, the Great Captain
+at once complied, although Borgia held his safe-conduct,--a breach of
+faith which the Spanish historians justify by the alleged detection
+of schemes and intrigues, originated by Cesare and perilous to the
+ascendancy of his Catholic Majesty. Yet we learn that the Viceroy's
+last hour seemed troubled by repentance for this stain upon his
+conscience, which even in his day of pride one chivalrous spirit had
+dared thus to question. Baldassare Scipio of Siena, a free captain
+long in Cesare's service, publicly placarded a challenge to any
+Spaniard who should venture to maintain "that the Duke Valentino had
+not been arrested at Naples, in direct violation of a safe-conduct
+granted in the names of Ferdinand and Isabella, to the great infamy
+and infinite faithlessness of all their crowns." On reaching the land
+of his fathers, this incarnate spirit of a blood-stained age was
+confined in the castle of Medina del Campo, and the interest used for
+his release by the Spanish cardinals, and by his brothers-in-law the
+King of Navarre and the Duke of Ferrara, who offered their guarantee
+for his good behaviour, was, during three years, unavailing on the
+ground of his dangerous character. At length he made his escape by
+a rope-ladder or cord, under circumstances so fool-hardy as to be
+ascribed by the country people to supernatural aid, and reached the
+King of Navarre, who gave him the command of an expedition against
+the Count de Lérin. On the 10th of March, 1507, he fell into an
+ambuscade near Viane, and was cut to pieces fighting desperately. By
+a singular coincidence, his stripped and plundered body, having been
+recognised by a servant, was interred in the church of Pampeluna, the
+archbishopric of which had been his earliest promotion. Short as was
+his life (for he seems to have died under thirty) he had survived all
+his dignities and distinctions, realising the distich of Sannazaro,
+
+ "CÆSAR, he aimed at all, he vanquished all;
+ In all he fails, a CYPHER in his fall."[17]
+
+[Footnote 17:
+
+ "Omnia vincebas, sperabas omnia Cæsar;
+ Omnia deficiunt, incipis esse nihil."]
+
+Valentino's was a character peculiar to Spain, with which Pizarro
+alone seems to have matched. His boundless ambition was profoundly
+selfish and utterly unscrupulous; his energy of purpose owned no
+impulse but egotism; his capacity was marred by meanness; his
+splendid tastes served but as incentives to spoliation. The demands
+of honour, the compunctions of conscience, the value of human
+life availed nothing in his eyes. In him foresight became fraud,
+calculation cunning, prudence perfidy, courage cruelty. His daring,
+his constancy, his talent were devoted to murder, rapine, and
+treachery. His campaigns were massacres, his justice vengeance, his
+diplomacy a trick. Generosity was a stranger to his impulses, remorse
+to his crimes.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Fortune, so long adverse to Guidobaldo, at length smiled upon him.
+The election to the tiara of his relative and confidential friend,
+Cardinal della Rovere, freed him from anxiety as to the restoration
+of his duchy, and promised him a long career of prosperity and
+honour. His policy of supporting the Venetians in their views upon
+Romagna thus not only became superfluous as a check upon Borgia,
+but seemed not unlikely to place him in a dilemma with the Camera.
+The new Pontiff, therefore, lost no time in removing him from a
+position of such delicacy, by summoning him to Rome. The invitation
+found him encamped before Verucchio, whence he immediately set out;
+and, after devoting two days at Urbino to public thanksgivings and
+festivities for his own restoration and for the election of Julius,
+he performed the journey in a litter, his gout preventing him from
+riding. On the eleventh day, being the 20th of November, he was met
+at the Ponte Molle by a superbly caparisoned mule, and on it was
+painfully but honourably escorted by an imposing cortège to his
+apartment in the Vatican, under a salute from the artillery of St.
+Angelo. Notwithstanding his fatigue, he was bidden by the impatient
+Pontiff to supper that evening, and was received by his Holiness on
+the landing-place with equal favour and distinction.
+
+In the explanations which followed, their mutual views were frankly
+stated. The claim which the Venetians had upon Guidobaldo, from
+extending to him their hospitality and support in almost desperate
+circumstances, was fully allowed by the Pope, and his avowal that, in
+co-operating with them in an invasion of Romagna, he conceived they
+were thwarting Borgia, not the Church, was accepted as satisfactory.
+But his Holiness intimated, with reference to the future, that the
+vassal of the Apostolic See had duties paramount to all foreign ties;
+and that, since the rights of the Camera over that province admitted
+of no compromise, he would do well to resign the service of the
+Republic, and recall his consort to administer his affairs at home,
+whilst he remained in Rome for the winter. To these suggestions the
+Duke agreed, and wrote in most grateful terms to the government of
+Venice, explaining the obstacles which had unexpectedly arisen to his
+repaying at that moment the obligations he had incurred. We learn
+from Sanuto that on the 10th of October the Duchess with her ladies
+went into college, and being seated near the Doge, thanked the
+Signory in her lord's name for the favour, command, and protection
+granted to him, to which the Doge replied blandly, asserting the love
+borne him by the Republic. Again, on the 15th of November, there came
+into the cabinet of the Signory "the Duchess of Urbino with Madonna
+Emilia and her company of damsels to take leave, for she is departing
+early to-morrow morning for her duchy; she goes in a barge by the Po
+as far as Ravenna, and from thence on horseback: and the Doge spake
+her fair, and having taken leave, we sages of the orders accompanied
+her as far as the palace-gates, and she proceeded along the Mercery,
+reaching home on the 2d of December."
+
+Borgia took the opportunity of Guidobaldo's visit to make advances
+for a reconciliation, having reason to dread his influence with
+the Pope. These were received with courtesy; but, in the words of
+the Venetian chronicler just quoted, "the Duke was resolved to
+have his own again, especially the library, which was promised
+him without damage, with the tapestries, although the Cardinal of
+Rouen had already got a good share of them." According to Baldi's
+elaborate and somewhat too dramatic description of their interview,
+he magnanimously forgave the extraordinary injuries he had received
+from his now humbled adversary. On the authority of private letters,
+an anonymous diary, already noticed, states that the usurper threw
+himself, cap-in-hand, at the Duke's feet, beseeching mercy and
+pardon, and excusing his conduct on the plea of youth, the brutality
+of his father, and the persuasions of others. This incident was
+represented in a fresco by Taddeo Zucchero, which I saw at Cagli in
+1843, and which had been cut from the villa built at S. Angelo in
+Vado, by Duke Guidobaldo II. Cesare is a slight figure handsomely
+dressed, with long sharp features, a high nose and reddish hair. He
+kneels before the Duke of Urbino, raising his cap, whilst one notary
+appears to read aloud an act of surrender, and another makes an
+instrument upon the transaction.[18]
+
+[Footnote 18: Considering that Borgia was probably dead half a
+century before this painting was commissioned, little reliance can be
+placed upon the likeness. *This is the account alluded to in note *1,
+page 29.]
+
+Even after Valentino had given authority for a surrender of the
+citadels in Romagna, they were held by his officers upon the plea
+that he was not a free agent, and the bearer of his missive was
+hanged by the castellan of Cesena. At length the Pope ordered
+Guidobaldo to reduce them by force. For this purpose he named
+him gonfaloniere of the Church, retaining him and four hundred
+men-at-arms, with a year's pay of 7000 ducats in advance. It was
+about this time that he was invested with the insignia of the Garter,
+to which illustrious order he had been elected in February. His
+acquisition of this dignity, and Count Baldassare Castiglione's
+mission to London as proxy at his installation, form an episode of
+so much interest to an English reader that we have gleaned every
+possible notice of these events, and have arranged them in II. of the
+Appendix.
+
+The Duke left Rome for his command, accompanied by his nephew the
+Prefettino, as he was then usually called from his youth, who had
+returned from France three months before to wait upon his Holiness.
+They were attended by Castiglione, who, after charming Julius by
+his polished society, was permitted by him to transfer his services
+to the court of Guidobaldo, of which he became the ornament and
+commentator. On the 1st of June they reached Urbino, and found the
+Duchess re-established among an attached people, who, to drive away
+sad recollections of their recent sufferings, had amused her during
+the preceding carnival with scenic imitations of the principal events
+of the usurpation! One of these was the comedy (so called rather
+in a Dantesque than a comic sense) of the Duke Valentino and Pope
+Alexander VI. In it were successively represented their plotting the
+seizure of the state, their sending the Lady Lucrezia to Ferrara,
+their inviting the Duchess to her wedding, the invasion of the duchy,
+the duke's first return, and his redeparture, the massacre of the
+confederates, the death of the Pope, and the Duke's restoration to
+his rights.
+
+The garrisons of Cesena and Bertinoro had surrendered ere Guidobaldo
+took the field, that of Forlì came to terms as soon as his troops
+appeared. With it passed the last wreck of the Borgian substantial
+power and vast ambition, within a year from the death of Alexander,
+leaving to future times no memorial but a name doomed to lasting
+execration. Guidobaldo had at the same time the satisfaction of
+recovering most of the valuables that had been pillaged from his
+palace, estimated by him at not less than 100,000 ducats, especially
+a large proportion of his father's celebrated library.
+
+On the 6th of September the Duke retraced his steps to Urbino, and
+there at length renewed the long-suspended joys of his secure and
+tranquil residence. Few, perhaps, of their rank and age, less needed
+such rough discipline to inculcate moderation, than this exemplary
+couple. Yet must the lessons of adversity have been ordained for some
+purifying purpose, and we may indulge the hope that they were not
+sent in vain. The Duke devoted his earliest leisure to signalise his
+gratitude for the unflinching loyalty of his subjects by conferring
+upon their several municipalities various privileges and immunities,
+and remitting their fiscal arrears. The Duchess expressed her
+thankfulness by many works of piety, by liberal charities, and by
+instituting a three days' fair on the anniversary of her lord's
+restoration. Their domestic circle was agreeably enlarged by the
+arrival of the Lady Prefectess, as the widow of Giovanni delle Rovere
+was entitled, who, on returning from a similar exile, and after
+paying her reverence to her brother-in-law the Pope, hastened to join
+her son at her brother's court. We have noticed the services which
+when assailed by Valentino, she received from Andrea Doria; they
+were now acknowledged by Guidobaldo with the castle of Sassocorbaro,
+and other holdings. Another guest at Urbino was Sigismondo Varana,
+the young heir of Camerino, who arrived with his mother Maria, sister
+of the Prefettino, and with his uncle and guardian Giovanni Maria,
+who afterwards supplanted him in that state.
+
+Urbino was now enlivened by an event which proved of paramount
+interest to its sovereign, and was destined by providence to carry
+forward its independence and glories under a new dynasty. We have
+seen how it had been proposed between the Cardinal della Rovere and
+Guidobaldo, in 1498, that the latter should adopt the young Prefect
+as his heir, and procure from the Pope a renewal of the Dukedom and
+investitures to his favour.[19] The simulated sanction of Alexander
+to this arrangement led to no result; but, as soon as Julius was
+fixed in the seat of St. Peter, he took measures for placing his
+nephew's prospects beyond question. In the natural course of events
+the state of Urbino would lapse to the Holy See on the Duke's death,
+and, as the uniform policy of this Pontiff was to unite to it as many
+such fiefs as the failure of their seigneurs or the force of his
+arms brought within his grasp, his making an exception of the most
+valuable of them all in favour of his own nephew gave rise to not a
+few strictures. It is, however, the only instance in which nepotism
+can be laid to his charge, and the precedents left him by recent
+Popes may be pleaded in justification of a comparatively trifling
+abuse.
+
+[Footnote 19: See vol. I., p. 371.]
+
+On the 14th of September the Archbishop of Ragusa arrived at
+Urbino as papal nuncio, charged with brieves for the completion
+of this affair, and also with the ensigns of command for the Duke
+as generalissimo of the ecclesiastical troops. The ceremonials
+consequent upon the implement of his mission have been detailed by
+Baldi, and are characteristic of the times we are endeavouring
+to depict. The nuncio and his splendid suite were received with
+distinction, and next day, being Sunday, was fixed for Guidobaldo's
+installation. The whole court and principal inhabitants being
+assembled in the cathedral, high mass was performed by him, after
+which, standing in front of the altar, he laid aside his mitre, and
+pronounced a solemn benediction on the two standards of the Church,
+which were held furled by a canon, whilst he waved incense over them,
+and sprinkled them with holy water. This ended, he desired them to
+be mounted on their staves, and having sat down and resumed his
+mitre, he presented them to the Duke, who received them, devoutly
+kneeling on the altar-steps, and handed one to Ottaviano Fregoso, the
+other to Morello d'Ortona. He then received the baton, with the like
+ceremonies, and rose, after kissing hands; whereupon the audience
+dispersed amid strains of martial music and popular acclamations.
+
+Upon the 18th, there assembled in the Duomo a still more numerous
+and distinguished auditory; when, after celebration of mass by the
+nuncio, he seated himself before the altar, with the Prefect on his
+right, and the Duke on his left, and in an elegant Latin discourse,
+set forth the desire of the latter to make sure the succession by
+adopting his nephew, and the approval of the Pope and college of
+cardinals to that substitution, in evidence of which the brieves and
+other formal documents were read. A magnificent missal,--perhaps
+that painted for Matthew Corvinus King of Hungary, which adorns the
+Vatican Urbino Library,--was then placed in the hands of Francesco
+Maria, opened at a miniature of the holy sacrament, and upon it
+deputies from the communities of the duchy took the oath of fidelity
+and homage to him as their future sovereign; all which having been
+regularly attested in notorial instruments, the solemnity ended.[*20]
+
+[Footnote *20: Cf. MADIAI, _op. cit._, in _Arch. cit._, vol.
+_cit._, p. 451-2.]
+
+These events served to aggravate the jealousy of the Venetians
+against the claims of Julius upon their recent acquisitions of
+Romagna, which they regarded as fairly conquered from Borgia. They
+possessed in this way the states of Ravenna, Faenza, and Rimini, and
+had gained footing upon the territories of Imola, Forlì, and Cesena,
+the inhabitants of which loudly complained of their aggressions.
+Of all these places the Church was the acknowledged superior, and
+the old investitures held under her by their respective princely
+families had been annulled by Alexander, in order to make way for
+his son. Some of these dynasties had died out, and Julius showed
+no disposition to restore the others, his leading object being the
+temporal aggrandisement of the papacy. At this juncture his Holiness
+sent for Guidobaldo, to consult with him; and in order to facilitate
+his arrival, presented him with a commodious litter swung between
+two beautifully dappled horses. The winter journey was, however,
+disastrous to his dilapidated frame, and he was laid up for nine
+days at Narni with gout, complicated by fever and dysentery, and
+consequently did not reach Rome with his nephew and Castiglione
+until the 2nd of January, when they slept outside of the gate, and
+next morning made a solemn entrance. It was the great object of the
+Republic to be received as vicar or vassal of the Holy See in the
+three first-mentioned states, and for this end they were willing to
+abandon all claims and attempts upon the remaining three. Guidobaldo,
+interposing as a mediator to prevent an open breach between parties
+so mutually deserving of his friendship, persuaded the Signory to
+abandon the latter places, and trust to the justice of Julius for the
+fulfilment of their desires. To procure this, they sent, in April,
+a splendid embassy to Rome of eight commissioners, with two hundred
+attendants, headed by Bembo, who, passing by Urbino, received from
+the Duchess a princely welcome. But no benefit accrued from this
+measure, for the Pontiff's ultimatum was announced to the senate
+through Louis XII., giving them Rimini and Faenza, during his life
+only, a result highly unsatisfactory to the Republic.
+
+The Duke's prolonged residence in Rome, where his company became
+greatly prized by the Pope, was little relished by his consort or his
+people; so, to maintain them in good humour, his Holiness announced
+a plenary indulgence for all their broken vows and deeds of violence
+during the late usurpation, to such as should devoutly observe the
+Easter ceremonies. The alms collected at this jubilee, amounting to
+2265 florins, were expended upon the duomo of Urbino. At length, in
+the end of July, 1506, he obtained leave to return home, on the plea
+that change of air was advisable for his health.[*21]
+
+[Footnote *21: Cf. MADIAI, _op. cit._, in _Arch. cit._, vol.
+_cit._, p. 455. This Diary says that the Duke returned at the end of
+February, 1506.]
+
+Julius, having announced to the consistory his intention of extending
+the temporal sovereignty of the Church over such portions of the
+ecclesiastical territory as were possessed by tyrants (for so he
+called the vicars and other lords who ruled their petty states as
+feudatories of the Holy See), carried his design into effect with
+characteristic energy. He set out for Perugia on the 26th of August,
+after having directed the Duke of Urbino and his nephew to march
+thither, each with two hundred men-at-arms, and expel its seigneur
+Gianpaolo Baglioni. Here Guidobaldo again appeared as mediator, and,
+persuaded by him to submit with good grace to a fate that he could
+not avert, the Lord of Perugia gave up his fortresses, and was taken
+into the pay of Julius for his expedition against Bologna. The Pope,
+elated by the ease with which so formidable an opponent had been
+disposed of, pressed on preparations for attacking the Bentivoglii.
+He reached Urbino on the 25th of September, accompanied by twenty-two
+cardinals, with a suitable cortège, and a guard of four hundred men.
+Beyond the walls he was received by forty-five noble youths, dressed
+in doublets and hose of white silk, who, on his alighting, seized as
+their perquisite his richly caparisoned mule, which was afterwards
+redeemed from them for sixty golden ducats. The gates were thrown
+down to receive him, and he was there met by the Duke, disabled from
+dismounting; by the magistracy, who presented the keys; and by the
+court and clergy. A rich canopy shaded him, as the holy sacrament
+was borne before him to the cathedral; and after devotion there, he
+entered the palace, which next evening was illuminated, along with
+the citadel, fireworks being displayed in the piazza. Some singular
+usages of hospitality were adopted on this occasion. The Duke
+presented to his Holiness a hundred sacks of flour, as much barley
+and corn, with a proportionate quantity of live stock and poultry,
+to the value in all of 800 ducats.[*22] This donative was accepted,
+and part of it was handed over to the hospital of the Misericordia.
+In anticipation of the Pope's advent, the roads were repaired and
+smoothed, triumphal arches and statues were erected, flowers and
+evergreens were strewn before him, the streets were adorned with gay
+hangings and shaded by linen awnings, the palace was arrayed in those
+rich tapestries, pictures, and furniture, which the taste of Federigo
+and his son had accumulated. Next evening, the palace roofs and the
+citadel were illuminated, and over the latter was hung a brilliant
+cross of fire. Deputations arrived from Pesaro, and the principal
+places in the duchy, with gifts of provisions; but large supplies had
+been previously laid in by the Duke for so vast an influx; and in
+order to regulate prices, the following tariff, calculated at about
+half the current value, was proclaimed.
+
+ Wheat, per staio or bush 45 bolognini.
+ Barley " " 36 "
+ Oats " " 24 "
+ Wine, per somma 54 "
+ Ditto, new " 27 "
+ Mutton, per lb. 1 "
+ Veal, per lb. 10 "
+ Ox flesh " 8 "
+ Salt meat " 1 to 7 "
+ Capons, per pair 9 "
+ Fowls " 4 to 7 "
+ Pigeons " 4 to 7 "
+ Wood pigeons, per pair 1 to 7 "
+ Eggs, seven for 1 "
+ Cheese, per lb. 1 to 7 "
+ Hay, per cwt. 4 to 7 "
+ Wood, per somma 1/2 carlino.[23]
+
+[Footnote *22: Cf. MADIAI, _op. cit._, _Arch. cit._, vol.
+_cit._, p. 456-7.]
+
+[Footnote 23: These, and many other particulars interwoven with our
+narrative, are taken from the anonymous Diary, Vat. Urb. MSS. No.
+904. During the preceding year of scarcity, wheat had varied in
+different parts of Italy from four to twelve golden ducats, each
+of forty bolognini, a price scarcely credible. Riposati quotes a
+document proving that in 1450 a florin contained forty bolognini of
+Gubbio, of which twenty-nine and a half were coined from an ounce of
+silver, with 9/48 of alloy. Although it seems right to insert the
+above tariff, most of the prices appear enormous, beyond all belief.
+See the Preface to this work, for the comparative value of money.
+*This diary is the one quoted under MADIAI.]
+
+[Illustration: _Anderson_
+
+POPE JULIUS II
+
+_From the picture by Raphael in the Pitti Gallery, Florence_]
+
+On the 29th of the month, his Holiness set out for Bologna, and,
+avoiding the territory held by the Venetians, reached Cesena on
+the 2nd of October by mountain tracks through Macerata and S. Leo.
+Thence he summoned the Bentivoglii to surrender their city to him as
+its lawful sovereign, and ordered the people on pain of interdict
+to abandon their cause, and open the gates. These chiefs had made
+great preparations for defence, but subsequently, on finding
+themselves deserted by Louis XII., offered terms, to which Julius,
+elated at the prospect of French succours, would not listen. The
+war, which promised to be obstinate, passed off in a revolution; for
+the Bentivoglii, losing heart, made their escape, to the delight
+of the citizens, who, thus saved from a siege, threw open their
+gates, and hailed the Pope as their liberator. He made his entry
+on Martinmas-day, and at once confirmed this favourable impression
+by abolishing various grievances, and by scattering in the streets
+4000 golden scudi bearing the legend "Bologna freed from its tyrant
+by Julius."[24] The mob showed their zeal by demolishing the
+palace of their late rulers, one of the most beautiful in Italy,
+wherein miserably perished many treasures of art; and its ill-fated
+master and mistress soon after died of broken hearts in Lombardy.
+But fortune is fickle, and the breath of popular favour still more
+changeful. Four years and a half from this date the war-cry of
+"Bentivoglio" again rang through these streets; the same mob strained
+their brawny sinews to level the citadel which Julius had erected
+to curb them, and to shatter the colossal statue of him with which
+Michael Angelo had adorned their piazza; the same Pontiff saved
+himself from capture, and his legate escaped from the popular fury
+to fall by the dagger of a friend. Such are the retributions of
+HIM "whose ways are unsearchable, and whose thoughts are
+past finding out."[25]
+
+[Footnote 24: In the same feeling, though of later date, a copy of
+Raffaele's speaking portrait of his Holiness, now in the Torlonia
+Gallery, and attributed to Giulio Romano, is inscribed, "The author
+of freedom, for the citizens he saved." This conquest became a
+triumph of art as well as of arms; the colossal statue of Julius,
+begun by Michael Angelo in Nov. 1506, was erected in February, 1508.
+It weighed 17,500 lb. of bronze, and cost about 12,000 golden ducats,
+of which 1000 went to the artist.]
+
+[Footnote 25: See ch. xxxiii. of this work.]
+
+The Pope remained until late in February to settle his new conquest,
+keeping the Duke near him as a friend and counsellor, and on the
+3rd of March, in defiance of the inclement season, repeated his
+visit to Urbino for one day, with a smaller company, while on his
+return to Rome. His host, after conveying him as far as Cagli on the
+5th, pleaded his constitutional malady, and returned home with the
+Prefect. As this was the period selected by Count Castiglione for
+portraying the ducal court, it will be well to pause for a little,
+and consider the representation he has left us of it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+ The Court of Urbino, its manners and its stars.
+
+
+The taste for philosophy, letters, and arts, and the patronage of
+their professors which Cosimo de' Medici and his son Lorenzo the
+Magnificent had introduced among the merchant-rulers of Florence,
+were, as we have already seen, adopted by several petty sovereigns of
+the Peninsula, but chiefly by those in the district of Romagna.[26]
+Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta was the first to engraft these fruits
+of peace upon a military despotism, which his restless ambition and
+fierce temper ever rendered the torment of his neighbours, and the
+scourge of his people. The d'Este of Ferrara, the Sforza of Pesaro,
+but, above all, Duke Federigo of Urbino, improving upon his example,
+had shown how mental cultivation might be brought to modify, or, as
+the Latin idiom has it, to humanise, without enervating, a martial
+character. The reign of Guidobaldo was peculiarly favourable to
+the development of this new and attractive principle; for though
+enabled partially to sustain the fame in arms which his father had
+bequeathed him, his feeble health gave him greater opportunity for
+the cultivation of letters, and for the society of the learned,
+to which he was naturally partial. Seconded by the sympathies of
+his estimable Duchess, his palace became a resort of the first
+literary and political celebrities of the day, who during the few
+years that succeeded his restoration, diffused over it a tone of
+refinement elsewhere unrivalled. To fix for the contemplation of
+posterity those graceful but transient images which flitted across
+this gay and brilliant society was the pleasing task undertaken by
+Castiglione,[*27] one of its most polished ornaments.
+
+[Footnote 26: See above, ch. viii., ix., x.]
+
+[Footnote *27: The following is a short bibliography of _Il
+Cortegiano_, and of works relating to it:--
+
+SALVADORI, _Il Cortegiano_ (Firenze, 1884).
+
+CIAN, _Il Cortegiano_ (Firenze, 1894).
+
+OPDYCKE, _The Book of the Courtier_ (New York, 1901).
+
+BOTTARI, _Studio su B.C. e il suo Libro_ (Pisa, 1874).
+
+LUZIO E RENIER, _Mantova e Urbino_ (Torino, 1893).
+
+CIAN, in _Giornale Stor. d. Lett. It._, vol. XV. fasc. 43 e
+44.
+
+CIAN, _Un Codice ignoto di Rime volgari app. a B.C._ in
+_Giornale cit._, vol. XXXIV., p. 297, XXXV., p. 53.
+
+SERASSI, _Lettere_, 2 vols. (Padova, 1769-71).
+
+RENIER, _Notizia di Lettere ined. di B.C._ (Torino, 1889).
+
+MARIELLO, _La Cronologia del Cortegiano_ (Pisa, 1895).
+
+JOLY, _De B.C. opere cui titulus Il Cortegiano_ (Cadomi,
+1856).
+
+TOBLER, _C. und sein Hofmann_, in Schweizer Museum, 1884.
+
+VALMAGGI, _Per le fonti del Corteg._, in _Giornale cit._,
+XIV., 72.
+
+GERINI, _Gli scrittori pedagog. ital. d. Sec. XVI._ (Torino,
+1897), p. 43.]
+
+The title _Il Cortegiano_,[*28] literally the Courtier, may be
+appropriately translated, "the mirror of a perfect courtier."
+The author intended it, to use the words of his preface, "as a
+portraiture of the court of Urbino, not by the hand of Raffaele or
+Michael Angelo, but by an inferior artist, whose capacity attains no
+further than a general outline, without decking truth in attractive
+colours, or flattering it by skilful perspective."[*29] But laying
+aside metaphor, he thus accounts for the origin of his undertaking.
+"After the death of the Lord Guidobaldo of Montefeltro Duke of
+Urbino, I, with several other knights who had been in his household,
+remained in the service of Duke Francesco Maria della Rovere, his
+heir and successor in that state. And as the fragrant influence
+continued fresh upon my mind of the deceased Duke's virtues, and of
+the pleasure I had for some years enjoyed in the amiable society of
+the excellent persons who then frequented his court, I was induced
+from these reflections to write a treatise of THE COURTIER.
+This I accomplished in a few days, with the intention of subsequently
+correcting the errors incidental to so hasty a composition."
+
+[Footnote *28: In the _Lettera Dedicatoria_. Cf. Ed. Cian, _op.
+cit._, p. 4.]
+
+[Footnote *29: This is the opening of the _Lettera Dedicatoria_ to
+Don Michel de Silva, Bishop of Viseo.]
+
+[Illustration: _Alinari_
+
+PORTRAIT OF A LADY, HER HAIR DRESSED IN THE MANNER OF THE FIFTEENTH
+CENTURY
+
+_From the picture by ? Verrocchio [Transcriber's Note: now attributed
+to Piero del Pollaiolo] in Poldo-Pezzoli Collection, Milan_]
+
+The point which he undertakes is "to state what I consider the
+courtiership most befitting a gentleman in attendance on princes,
+whereby he may best be taught and enabled to perform towards them all
+seemly service, so as to obtain their favour and general applause; to
+explain, in short, what a courtier in all respects perfect ought to
+be."[*30]
+
+[Footnote *30: Opening paragraph of first book. Ed. Cian, p. 11.]
+
+We cannot here follow the Count into the wide field which he thus
+indicates, nor is it necessary, since his own work is accessible in
+several languages. But from various passages we may offer a sketch of
+the manners approved at the pattern court of Urbino, which will not
+be deemed misplaced in these pages. The men who figured there were
+chiefly distinguished in arms or letters. Whilst the former spent
+their leisure in recollections of war and love, or in the congenial
+pastimes of the field and the chase, the conversation of the
+latter was often warped towards scholastic disputation, or tainted
+by classic pedantry. Such manners have often been described, and
+their interest has long passed away; but in a society where female
+influence prevailed, and in an age when female intellect was fruitful
+in prodigies, it may be well to see what were the graces expected
+from a palace-dame.[*31]
+
+[Footnote *31: Concerning Elisabetta Gonzaga. Cf. LUZIO E
+RENIER, _Mantova e Urbino, Isabella d'Este, ed Elisabetta
+Gonzaga_ (Torino, 1893).]
+
+At the head of a string of common-place endowments we find a noble
+bearing, an avoidance of affectation, a natural grace in every
+action. Beauty is considered as most desirable, not indispensable;
+and its improvement by such artificial means as painting and
+enamelling the face, extirpating hairs on the eyebrows or forehead,
+is derided. White teeth and hands are fully appreciated, but
+their frequent display is censured. A neat _chaussure_ is lauded,
+especially when veiled by long draperies. In short, natural elegance
+and the absence of artifice are primary qualifications. A high-born
+lady must be circumspect even beyond suspicion, avoiding ill-timed
+familiarity, and all freedom of language verging upon licence; but
+when casually exposed to discussions tending to pruriency, a modest
+blush would be becoming, whilst shrinking or prudery might expose her
+to sneers. Willingly to listen to or repeat slander of her own sex
+is a fatal error, which will always be harshly construed by men. Her
+accomplishments and amusements should ever be selected with feminine
+delicacy, verging upon timidity; her dress chosen in tasteful
+reference to what is most becoming, but with apparent absence of
+study. In conversing with men she should be frank, affable, and
+lively; but modest, staid, and self-possessed, with a nice observance
+of tact and decorum. Noisy hilarity, a hoyden address, egotism,
+prolixity, and the unseasonable combination of serious with ludicrous
+topics are equally objectionable, but most of all affectation. Yet
+she ought to be witty, capable of varied conversation in literature,
+music, and painting, skilled in dancing and festive games. Nor should
+that of a good housewife be wanting to her other qualities. In short,
+the theory of a paragon lady of the 1500 might equally suit for one
+of the present day. We should come to a very different conclusion
+as to her real character, were we to test it by some passages of
+the _Cortegiano_, wherein the Duchess Elisabetta, in chastity the
+mirror of her age, listens approvingly with her courtly dames to long
+passages of prurient twaddle, ever skirting and often overstepping
+the limits of decency. Nor were the morals around her conformable to
+her own pure example, and that of the immaculate Emilia Pia.[*32]
+One sad instance in the ducal family we shall have to note, while
+narrating the early life of Duke Francesco Maria I.; another,
+remarkable from the subsequent status of the personage to whose birth
+the scandal attaches, will immediately be mentioned in connection
+with Giuliano de' Medici.[33]
+
+[Footnote *32: This lady was the inseparable companion of the Duchess
+Elisabetta. She was the daughter of Mario Pio, of the Lords of
+Carpi. Early the widow of Antonio of Montefeltro, natural brother
+of Guidobaldo, she remained at Urbino. She died, as it seems, a
+true lady of the Renaissance. "Senza alcun sacramento di la chiesa,
+disputando una parte del Cortegiano col Conte Ludovico da Canosso."
+Cf. Rossi, _Appunti per la storia della musica alla Corte d'Urbino_,
+in Rassegna Emiliana, Ann. I. (fasc. VIII.), p. 456, n. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 33: See below, p. 57.]
+
+But it would not be just, after adorning our narrative with
+flattering sketches from Castiglione's pencil, to exclude one or
+two anecdotes of the manners actually permitted among the polished
+society he professes to portray, although their coarseness and
+vulgarity, scarcely redeemed by their humour, may be considered as
+staining our pages. They occur in some memorials of the conversation
+of Francesco Maria, noted by a contemporary from personal
+observation.[34]
+
+[Footnote 34: Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1023, art. 21. There is a copy of
+this MS. in the library of Newbattle Abbey, Scotland.]
+
+The subject of discussion happening to be Mark Antony's weakness
+in permitting Cleopatra to accompany him to the fight of Actium,
+the Duke said, "My father-in-law, the Marquis of Mantua, being at
+Mortara, in the service of France, Ludovico il Moro was in the
+camp with his Duchess, and one day, seeing the Marquis suffering
+from violent pain in the shoulder, said to him, 'Sir, I have
+the Duchess here, what shall I do with her?' The Marquis, being
+otherwise occupied, and suffering great pain, replied, 'How can I
+tell? send her to a brothel!' an answer quite off-hand, and truly
+appropriate"--from the brother of our paragon Duchess Elisabetta.
+
+Niccolo de' Pii, a condottiere in the service of the Duke's father,
+was very fat and overgrown. Dining one day with some Spanish
+officers, after finishing a trout, he sent the head and back-bone
+to one of them called Pedrada, who thereupon caustically retorted,
+"It is yourself that has more want of head than of stomach," a reply
+applauded as most cutting, for, "having more size than sense, he
+needed the brains rather than the belly." The same Spaniard one day,
+at a cardinal's reception, began to eat a candle, which, though
+apparently of wax, was in the centre of tallow; finding it greasy
+between his teeth, he seized the candlestick, and dashed it on the
+floor, muttering, "I swear to God it is not silver:" the candle being
+counterfeit, he fancied the candlestick must needs be so too. When
+talking of absent men, the Duke told these anecdotes of Ottaviano
+Fregoso, a star of the Urbino circle. As he conversed with his aunt
+Duchess Elisabetta, holding her hand, his mind wandered to other
+matters, and he began to twist about her fingers as he would have
+done a switch, finally thrusting one of them into his nose, when a
+burst of laughter from the bystanders recalled his thoughts. Dining
+one day at the table of Julius II., he sheathed and unsheathed his
+poignard, jingling the handle, until the Pope, losing all temper,
+exclaimed, "Begone to a brothel, pox take you! Be off, and the
+devil go with you!" Whereupon Signor Ottaviano began to make humble
+excuses for his natural defect of recollection, to the infinite
+glee of many church dignitaries who witnessed the scene. Yet only
+two days thereafter, chancing to converse in the papal antechamber
+with an ambassador who wore a massive gold chain, he, in a fit of
+abstraction, thrust his finger into one of the links. Just then,
+his Holiness appearing, the courtiers drew aside to make way, and
+Fregoso was dragged along, throwing them all into confusion; nor
+could he get free until he had well "salivated" his finger. Yet when
+his wits were not a wool-gathering, this was considered the most
+finished gentleman in Italy, and the most ready in reply. Thus, his
+uncle, Duke Guidobaldo appearing one day in a violet satin jerkin
+of unexceptionable fit, Ottaviano exclaimed, "My Lord Duke,
+you really are _the_ handsome Signor!" "How disgusting are dull
+flatterers who thus openly display their adulation," was the stinging
+reply. "My Lord Duke," rejoined the courtier, "I meant not to say
+that you are a man of worth, though I pronounced you a fine man and a
+handsome nobleman;" an answer which made the Duke wince, and brought
+credit to its author.
+
+[Illustration: _Alinari_
+
+A LADY OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY]
+
+But enough of this gossip: the reader of the _Cortegiano_, and its
+author's charming letters, will find there many more attractive
+and not less veracious touches of the Montefeltrian court, where
+learning and accomplishment were often called upon to give dignity
+and grace to social pastimes. Thus, the Duchess is represented as
+singing to her lute those verses from the fourth _Æneid_, in which,
+at the moment of self-immolation, Dido apostrophised the garments
+forgotten by her faithless lover when he fled from her charms, until,
+Orpheus-like, she had wiled the savage animals from their lairs, and
+set the stones in sympathetic movement. At her court there were no
+lack of pens to clothe in verse the passing fancies of the hour, and
+adapt them to the musical or melodramatic tastes which gave a tone
+of refinement to its amusements. Thus, for the carnival of 1506,
+Castiglione and his messmate Cesare Gonzaga composed the pastoral
+eclogue of _Tirsis_, which was acted by them before the court, with
+choruses and a brilliant moresque dance. The personages of the
+dialogue are Iola (Castiglione) and Dameta (Gonzaga), who describe
+to Tirsi, a stranger shepherd, the ducal circle of Urbino, with the
+Duchess at its head as goddess of the river Metauro. The Moresca, so
+named from its supposed Moorish origin, was perhaps borrowed from
+the ancient Pyrrhic dance, and consisted in a sort of mock fight,
+performed to the sound of music with measured tread, and blunted
+poignards. Next spring a somewhat similar pastoral, from the pen of
+Bembo, was recited by him and Ottaviano Fregoso to the same audience.
+
+Such and such-like were the favourite court diversions of Urbino.
+Their stately conceits and solemn pedantry suited the spirit of that
+classic age and the genius of a pomp-loving people; but it would be
+scarcely fair to regard them as fully embodying the tone of manners
+prevalent in the palace of Guidobaldo. In it were harmoniously
+mingled the opposite qualities which then predominated at the various
+Italian courts. Scholastic pretensions, still esteemed in many of
+them, here thawed before the easier address of the new school.
+Those abstruse studies which the Medici had brought into vogue were
+eclipsed by a galaxy of brilliant wits. Even the ruthless bearing of
+the old condottieri princes mellowed under the charm of female tact,
+while the sensual splendour indulged by recent pontiffs was chastened
+by the exemplary demeanour of the ducal pair.
+
+Our appreciation of this picture would, however, scarcely be
+correct or complete, did we not bear in mind the inner life of
+contemporary sovereigns. We need not dwell on the contrasts afforded
+in other Peninsular capitals, for these were rather of degree than
+character, and would only show us the prevalence here of a gentler
+courtesy and more pervading refinement. But we may fairly compare
+the palace-pastimes of Urbino with those held in acceptance by
+the princes and peerage of northern states, where deep potations
+dulled the senses, or brutalised the temper; where intellect rarely
+sought a more refined gratification than the monotonous recital
+of legendary adulation; and where wit was monopolised by dwarfs
+and professional jesters. In order better to preserve the form and
+fashion of this pattern for princes, we shall transfer to our pages,
+from Castiglione's groupings, some outlines of its chief ornaments,
+beginning with himself.[35]
+
+[Footnote 35: Castiglione was related through his mother to several
+of the Urbino stars,--the Fregosi, Trivulzio, and Emilia Pia.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+[Illustration: COUNT BALDASSARE CASTIGLIONE.
+
+_Raffaele pinx._ _L. Ceroni sculp._
+
+_From a picture in the Torlonia Gallery, Rome_]
+
+From CASTIGLIONE, in Lombardy, sprang the ancestry of
+COUNT BALDASSARE, and among them were numbered not a few
+names of note in church and state. His father was no mean soldier,
+in times when the captains of Italy bore a European reputation;
+his mother, a Gonzaga of the Mantuan house, was descended from the
+haughty Farinato degli Uberti, who, when accosted by Dante in _The
+Vision_,--
+
+ "His heart and forehead there
+ Erecting, seemed as in high scorn he held
+ E'en hell."
+
+The Count was born at Casatico, in the Mantuese, on the 6th of
+December, 1478.[*36] His education, besides including the various
+studies and accomplishments usual to an Italian gentleman of the
+fifteenth century, was specially directed to those classical
+attainments which entered into the literary pursuits of the age. The
+death of his father left him early master of a handsome patrimony,
+and he at once embraced that courtier-life for which he was
+peculiarly fitted,--a life, which in a land subdivided into petty
+sovereignties, constituted the only profession open to civilians of
+noble birth and distinguished endowments, and on which his pen was
+destined to confer perpetual illustration. After a brief visit to
+Milan,[*37] and a short campaign in Naples with his relative the
+Marquis Francesco of Mantua, he repaired to Rome in 1503, where, by
+discretion and winning address, he quickly gained the new Pontiff's
+favour. In Count Castiglione, the penetration of Julius recognised
+a fit instrument for promoting his favourite scheme of securing
+Urbino to his nephew Francesco Maria della Rovere; and by attaching
+him to Guidobaldo, he fixed at that court a friend whose influence
+was certain to extend itself, and whose example would benefit his
+youthful relation.
+
+[Footnote *36: For the biography of Castiglione, see
+MARLIANI in the Cominana edition of the _Opere Volgari_
+(Padua, 1733), and SERASSI, in _Poesie volgari e latine del
+Castiglione_ (Roma, 1760), as well as the following works:--
+
+MAZZUCHELLI, _Baldassare Castiglione_ (Narducci, Roma).
+
+MARTINATI, _Notizie Stor. bibliogr. intorno al Conte B.C._
+(Firenze, 1890). Cf. on this CIAN, in _Giorn. St. della
+Lett. It._, XVII., 113.
+
+BUFARDECI, _La vita letter. del c. B.C._ (Ragusa, 1900). Cf.
+on this _Giorn. St. della Lett. It._, XXXVIII., 203.
+
+CIAN, _Candidature nuziali di B.C._ (Venezia, 1892, per
+nozze Salvioni-Taveggia).]
+
+[Footnote *37: He was educated at Milan, where he probably learned
+Latin from Giorgio Merula, and Greek from Demetrio Calcondila, and
+cultivated at the same time the _poesia volgare_ (see CIAN,
+_Un Cod. ignoto_, cited on p. 44, note *1). While he was still very
+young he was attached to the Court of Il Moro. His father died in
+1499 from a wound got at the battle of the Taro. He returned to
+Casatico on the fall of Sforza, and then joined Marchese Francesco.]
+
+The court of Urbino had already been for half a century the brightest
+star in the constellation of Italian principalities, and under
+its fostering influence were fully developed those fine qualities
+which nature and early training had formed in Castiglione. His
+first essay was as captain of fifty men-at-arms, with 400 ducats
+of nominal pay, besides allowances; and his earliest exploit in
+this new service was the reduction of Forlì, in 1504. The finances
+of Guidobaldo were necessarily at a low ebb, and it is amusing to
+find Baldassare's frequent lamentations to his mother, over the
+arrears of his pay:--"Our doings are jolly but inconsiderable, that
+is, on small means; we have never yet seen a farthing, but daily
+and most devoutly look for some cash." It was not, however, till
+nearly a year later that he received twenty-five ducats to account,
+having often in the interval asked her aid, representing himself as
+penniless, and living upon credit. In 1509,[*38] after returning
+from his mission to England, which peculiarly required the graces
+of a finished cavalier, and of which some account will be found in
+II. of the Appendix, he attached himself to the Duke's immediate
+person during the brief remainder of his life, and when it closed,
+was sent to Gubbio, to maintain the interests of the succession, in
+event of any popular outbreak. The favour which he had enjoyed from
+Guidobaldo was amply continued under his nephew, whose fortunes he
+followed during several years, sharing his successes in the field,
+and sustaining him under his disgrace at the pontifical court. These
+events must, however, be here touched with a flying pen, that we may
+not anticipate details on which we shall afterwards have to dwell.
+His reward was a grant of Novillara, near Pesaro; and when Francesco
+Maria had exchanged sovereignty for exile, he returned to the service
+of his natural lord, the Marquis of Mantua, whom he long represented
+at the court of Leo X. To this Pontiff, Baldassare had nearly become
+related, by a marriage with his niece Clarice de' Medici, which was
+greatly promoted by Giuliano, during their residence at Urbino.
+The negotiation was, however, broken off in January, 1509, by the
+intrigues of her aunt, Lucrezia Salviati, who persuaded her uncle,
+the Cardinal Giovanni, that, by bestowing her hand upon Filippo
+Strozzi, he would strengthen the interest of his family at Florence.
+The match having been, according to Italian usage, an interested
+arrangement, its dissolution was borne with great philosophy by the
+intended bridegroom; who some seven years later married Ippolita,
+daughter of Count Guido Torelli, a celebrated condottiere, by
+Francesca, daughter of Giovanni Bentivoglio, Lord of Bologna.[*39]
+The ceremony was performed at Mantua, and was celebrated with
+tournaments and pompous shows, in which the court and people took a
+lively interest. But their happy union was of brief duration. The
+Countess died four years after, in childbed of a daughter. Her name
+has been embalmed in a beautiful Latin ode, wherein her husband
+embodied those laments for his absence which he doubtless had often
+heard from her lips, expressing all the tenderness of nuptial love,
+and adorning a woman's pathos with a poet's fire. Nothing can be more
+beautiful than the allusion to her husband's portrait:--
+
+ "Your features portrayed by Raffaele's art
+ Alone my longings can solace in part:
+ On them I lavish jests and winning wiles,
+ As if their words could echo back my smiles;
+ At times they seem by gestures to respond,
+ And answer in your wonted accents fond:
+ Our boy his sire salutes with babbling phrase.
+ Such are the thoughts deceive my lingering days."
+
+[Footnote *38: He was in England in 1506. Guidobaldo died in 1508. It
+was to Duke Francesco he attached himself on his return.]
+
+[Footnote *39: On the various designs for Castiglione's marriage, see
+CIAN, _op. cit._, p. 46, note 1.]
+
+In her epitaph, the Count summed up his wife's character and
+endowments, with a doubt whether her beauty or her virtue were more
+remarkable; to which her eulogist, Steffano Guazzo, has added a third
+grace--her learning. During the first anguish of widowhood he was
+supposed to have turned his thoughts to ecclesiastical orders; but
+whatever views of that nature he may have entertained were speedily
+abandoned; and in 1523 we find him again in Lombardy, with his
+gallant company, under the banner of the Gonzagas.
+
+On the accession of Clement VII., the Marquis of Mantua again sent
+him to represent his interests at Rome, where he was not long in
+obtaining from the new Pope the same favour which he had enjoyed
+under his uncle, Leo X. His diplomatic talents were now acknowledged
+as of the first order; and Clement, foreseeing, perhaps, the
+impending difficulties of his position with the Emperor, prevailed
+upon Castiglione to accept the nomination of nuncio to Madrid. His
+courtly qualities were not less agreeable to Charles V. and the
+grandees of Spain than they had been in Italy; and in the romantic
+project by which the Emperor proposed to decide in single combat
+his unquenchable rivalry with Francis I., the Count was selected as
+his second,--an honour which his diplomatic functions prevented his
+accepting. Even while the troops and name of Charles were used by
+Bourbon to inflict upon the Apostolic See the greatest blow which
+its capital had suffered since the temporal power of the Church
+rose on the ruins of the Roman empire, the Nuncio was receiving new
+honours at Madrid, and was only prevented by his own scruples
+from obtaining the temporalities of the bishopric of Avila, one of
+the richest in Spain. In this most delicate position he retained
+the confidence of his master, who seems to have been satisfied that
+to no remissness on his part were owing the horrors of the sack of
+Rome. But these miserable results of jealousies between the Pope
+and the Emperor, which all his tact and influence were powerless to
+remove, rendered his position anything but enviable, and appear to
+have preyed alike upon mind and body. He sank under a short illness
+at Toledo, on the 2nd of February, 1529,[*40] and was lamented by
+Charles as "one of the best knights in the world." A letter of
+condolence, written to his mother by Clement, affords ample evidence
+that the fruitless results of his diplomacy in Spain had nowise
+diminished the Pope's confidence in his good service and attachment
+to his person.
+
+[Footnote *40: He died on February 7th, not 2nd.]
+
+[Illustration: _Alinari_
+
+HAIR DRESSING IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
+
+_Detail from the fresco by Pisanello in S. Anastasia of Verona_]
+
+In the _Cortegiano_ of Castiglione we are furnished with an
+elaborate, and in the main faithful, delineation of the men, the
+manners, and the accomplishments which rendered the court of Urbino
+a model for his age, and also with an interesting picture of the
+immediate circle which Guidobaldo and his estimable Duchess formed
+around them. We have drawn upon it amply for this portion of our
+volumes, but the notices which it affords of the Duke are of the
+most vague and disappointing character. This deficiency would be
+of little consequence, did the accounts which the same author
+has left in a Latin letter to Henry VIII. do full justice to his
+early patron. But from one whose opportunities of collecting ample
+and authentic particulars were unusual, the passing allusions to
+many momentous incidents are truly unsatisfactory. His details of
+scholarship and accomplishments would be more valuable, if divested
+of an air of exaggeration which even solemn asseverations of veracity
+scarcely remove. With all their faults, these are preferable to the
+compilation of Bembo, to which we shall in due time more particularly
+advert. Those who wade through its laboured and redundant expletives
+will probably come to the conclusion that Castiglione has preserved
+whatever they contain worthy of notice.
+
+The Count was a finished gentleman, in an age when that character
+included a variety of mental acquirements, as well as many personal
+accomplishments. His verses in Latin and Italian breathe a fine
+spirit of poetry; his letters merit a distinguished place as models
+of correspondence; his diplomatic address was highly approved by
+the sovereigns whom he served, as well as by those to whom he
+was accredited; he has been complimented as the delight of his
+contemporaries, the admiration of posterity.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+GIULIANO DE' MEDICI was third son of Lorenzo the
+Magnificent, and was known in the circle of Urbino by the same
+appellation. Born in 1478, he passed at that court several years
+of his family's exile from Florence; nor was he ungrateful for the
+splendid hospitality he there enjoyed, for, while he lived, his
+influence with his brother, Leo X., averted those designs against
+the dukedom, which were directed to his own aggrandisement. After
+the restoration of the Medici, Leo confided to him the government of
+Florence, which he endeavoured to administer in the spirit of his
+father, and succeeded in gaining the good will of the people. But
+the Pope was not satisfied with the re-establishment of his race as
+sovereigns of that republic; and the fine qualities and vast ideas
+of Giuliano suggested him as a fit instrument of further grasping
+schemes. To realise these, Leo coquetted between France and Spain,
+and, like his predecessors, sacrificed the peace of Italy. The prizes
+which he successively proposed for Giuliano, who, by resigning
+Florence into the hands of his nephew Lorenzo, the heir-male of his
+house, was free to accept whatever sovereignty might be had, were
+the duchy of Milan, a state in Eastern Lombardy and Ferrara, or the
+crown of Naples. In June, 1515, the Pontiff conferred on him the
+insignia of gonfaloniere and captain-general of the Church; but he
+was prevented from active service by a fever which cut him off in
+the following March, when only thirty-eight, not without suspicion
+of poison at the hands of his nephew Lorenzo. His name is enshrined
+in Bembo's prose and Ariosto's verse, whilst his tomb by Michael
+Angelo in the Medicean Chapel, which Rogers, with a quaint but happy
+antithesis, calls "the most real and unreal thing which ever came
+from the chisel," is one of the glories of art.[*41] Shortly before
+his death he had married Filiberta of Savoy, whose nephew, Francis
+I., created him Duke of Nemours, and, had his life been prolonged,
+would probably have aided him to further aggrandisement.
+
+[Footnote *41: Giuliano was not so bad a poet himself. Cf. on this
+subject SERASSI, in the Annotazioni to the _Tirsi_ of Castiglione at
+stanza 43, and the five sonnets contained in _Cod. Palat._, 206 (_I
+Cod. Palat. della Nazionale Centrale di Firenze_, vol. I., fasc. 4),
+and the six of _Cod. Magliabech._ II., I., 60 (BARTOLI, _I manoscritti
+della Bib. Nazionale di Firenze_, tom. I., p. 38).]
+
+During his residence at Urbino, from an intrigue with Pacifica
+Brandani, a person of high rank or base condition, for both extremes
+have been conjectured to account for the mystery, there was born to
+him a son, who, after being exposed in the streets in 1511, was sent
+to the foundling hospital, and baptized Pasqualino. Removed to Rome
+and acknowledged in 1513, the child received an excellent education;
+and under the munificent patronage of the Medici became Cardinal
+Ippolito, whose tastes were more for arms than mass-books, and whose
+handsome features and gallant bearing, expressive of his splendid
+character, are preserved to us in the Pitti Gallery by the gorgeous
+tints of Titian, alone worthy of such a subject.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The next personage of this goodly company was CESARE
+GONZAGA, descended from a younger branch of the Mantuan
+house, and cousin-german of Count Baldassare, whose quarters he
+shared in 1504, when they returned together from the reduction of
+Valentino's strongholds in Romagna, where he had the command of fifty
+men-at-arms. We know little of him beyond his having been a knight of
+St. John of Jerusalem, and ambassador from Leo X. to Charles V.[*42]
+Baldi describes him as not less distinguished by merit than blood,
+and Castiglione assigns him a prominent place in the lively circle
+whose amusements he depicts. He was no unsuccessful devotee of the
+muses: a graceful canzonet by him is preserved in the Rime Scelte of
+Atanagi, and he shares the credit of the eclogue of _Tirsis_ already
+alluded to, and printed among the works of Castiglione. Recommended
+by military talent, as well as by diplomatic dexterity and business
+habits, he remained in the service of Duke Francesco Maria during his
+early campaigns; and in September, 1512, after reducing Bologna to
+obedience of the Pope, died there of an acute fever in the flower of
+his age.
+
+[Footnote *42: SERASSI, in _Poesie volgari e latine del B.C.
+aggiunti alcune Rime e Lettere di Cesare Gonzaga_ (Roma, 1760), gives
+a full notice of his life, and CASTIGLIONE, in the Fourth
+Book of the _Cortegiano_, speaks affectionately of him.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The brothers OTTAVIANO and FEDERIGO FREGOSO were
+of a Genoese family, who for above a century had distinguished
+themselves in the military, naval, and civil service of their
+country, and had given several doges to that republic. Their father,
+Agostino Fregoso, had married Gentile, natural daughter of Duke
+Federigo, and the young men were consequently much brought up at
+the court of Urbino, where their sisters Margherita and Costanza
+were long in attendance on Duchess Elisabetta. In 1502, Ottaviano
+accompanied his uncle on his first return from Venice, and we have
+seen him then defending S. Leo during a lengthened siege, sustained
+with great gallantry and skill. For that good service he had from
+the Duke the countship of Sta. Agatha in the Apennines, afterwards
+confirmed to him by an honourable brief of Leo X., and continued to
+his descendants, with the title of Vicar, until their extinction in
+the third generation.
+
+The latter period of Ottaviano's life was actively passed in his
+native city. From 1512 his endeavours were directed to abolish the
+French domination maintained at that time by aid of the Adorni,
+long hereditary rivals of his family. In this he finally succeeded,
+and next year was elected doge, the only one, in Litta's opinion,
+"who gloriously manifested a desire for the public weal." He held
+that dignity during two years of tranquillity to his country, over
+which the benign influence of his mild and impartial sway diffused a
+temporary calm, long unknown to its factious inhabitants. So obvious
+were these beneficial results, that Francis I., on becoming master
+of Genoa in 1515, continued to him a delegated authority as its
+governor. But, seven years later, the restless Adorni, having adhered
+to the Emperor, aided the Marquis of Pescara to carry the city,
+with an army of imperialists, who mercilessly sacked it. Ottaviano
+remained a prisoner in the enemy's hands, and died soon after. He is
+called in the _Cortegiano_ "a man the most singularly magnanimous
+and religious of our day, full of goodness, genius, prudence, and
+courtesy; a true friend to honour and virtue, and so worthy of praise
+that even his enemies are constrained to extend it to him." The
+revolution effected by Andrea Doria, in 1528, forcibly closed the
+feuds of these rival families, which, during a century and a half,
+had outraged public order, and, both being compelled to change their
+name, the Fregosi adopted that of Fornaro.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+FEDERIGO FREGOSO, the younger brother of Ottaviano,
+born in 1480, was educated for holy orders under the eye of his
+maternal uncle Guidobaldo. In the lettered society of Urbino he
+perfected himself in various accomplishments, as well as in a
+thorough knowledge of the world, which enabled him afterwards to
+acquit himself usefully and creditably in many diversified spheres
+of action. It was to the great satisfaction of that court that in
+April, 1507, Julius II. conferred upon him the archbishopric of
+Salerno, a benefice which the opposition of Ferdinand II., founded
+on his leaning to French interests, apparently prevented him from
+enjoying. His life of literary ease remained uninterrupted until
+his brother's elevation as doge of Genoa in 1513, when he hastened
+to support him by his counsels and influence. During the next nine
+years he alternately commanded the army of the republic, led her
+fleet against the Barbary pirates, whom he annihilated in their own
+harbours, and represented her as ambassador at the papal court.
+The revolution of 1522 compelled him to fly from his native city,
+and, taking refuge in France, he received protection and preferment
+from Francis I. He returned to Italy in 1529, and was appointed to
+the see of Gubbio, where his piety, and devotion to the spiritual
+and temporal welfare of his flock, were equally commendable, and
+gained him the appellation of father of the poor and refuge of the
+distressed. A posthumous imputation of heretical error cast upon his
+name had no better foundation than the accident of his discourse
+upon prayer happening to be reprinted along with a work of Luther,
+which occasioned their being both consigned to the Index. In 1539 he
+was made cardinal by Paul III., and died at Gubbio two years after.
+His attainments in philology were eminent, including a profound
+knowledge of Hebrew, with the study of which he is said to have
+consoled his exile in France. Equal cultivation might have gained
+him much fame as a poet, but the works he has left are chiefly of
+a doctrinal character, and his eminence in the literary circle of
+his day rests more upon the correspondence of Bembo, Sadoleto, and
+Cortesio than upon his own writings.[*43] By the first of these, the
+sparkle of his measured wit, the general moderation and suavity of
+his manners, his gentle consideration for other men's habits, his
+personal accomplishments, and the zeal displayed in his studies,
+are all spoken of with warm admiration. The following letter of
+sympathy, addressed to the dowager Duchess by that rhetorician is an
+interesting though mannered tribute to his long friendship:--
+
+ "My most illustrious and worshipful Lady,
+
+ "I had somewhat dried the tears elicited by the death
+ of our very reverend Monseigneur Fregoso, so suddenly
+ and inopportunely taken from us, when your Excellency's
+ autograph letters recalled them to my eyes, and still
+ more abundantly to my heart, on finding that you condoled
+ with me so sensibly, and with so much unction. Not only,
+ indeed, has your Ladyship been bereaved of a rare friend
+ and relative, a most wise and religious gentleman, but,
+ as you observe, all Christendom has thus sustained a loss
+ incomparably great in times so evil and convulsed. Of
+ myself I shall say little, having already written a few
+ days ago to your Excellency; and, knowing the affection
+ and respect mutually existing between you, I appreciate
+ the weight of your grief from my own. Nor can I doubt
+ that your Ladyship is aware of my emotion consequent upon
+ his long kindness towards me, and my respectful but warm
+ affection for him, sentiments never interrupted by a single
+ word on either side, from his early youth and my manly age
+ down to this day. I am further pained to observe that your
+ Ladyship, lamenting for long years your Lord's death of
+ happy memory, and now that of the Cardinal, entertains an
+ impression your life will be short. This is no fruit of
+ that good sense I have ever noticed in you, and which the
+ Cardinal himself inculcated; for the more your Ladyship
+ is left alone to promote the welfare and advantage of the
+ tender plants by your side, you should be more anxious to
+ live on; for, while life is given you, you may benefit
+ their souls by prayers and good deeds, as well as promote
+ the interests of many who look to your pious spirit for the
+ prosperity of their lot. Let not, therefore, your Ladyship
+ speak thus, but bless (_si conforti_) the Heavenly King
+ that he has so willed it, and conform yourself to his
+ infallible will and judgment. As to your observation that
+ I am left to you, in place of this good gentleman, as a
+ protector, father, and brother, be assured that the day
+ shall never come when it will not be my desire to dispose
+ of myself in all respects according to your Excellency's
+ pleasure, yielding therein not even to your [late] most
+ reverend brother. Your Ladyship will consider me as truly,
+ really, and justly your own, to use and dispose of me
+ unreservedly; and for this end I give, grant, and give over
+ to you full leave and power, not to be reclaimed by any
+ change of fortune so long as life remains to me. In return
+ I shall now pray you to attend to your health, and not only
+ to live on, but live as happily as you can, thus avenging
+ yourself of fate, which has done so much to vex you....
+ From Rome, the 2nd of August, 1541."
+
+[Footnote *43: Cf. TIRABOSCHI, _Storia della Lett. Ital._
+(ed. Class. It.), vol. VIII., p. 3.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+PIETRO BEMBO[*44] was born at Venice in 1470, and had the
+first rudiments of education at Florence, whither his father Bernardo
+was sent as ambassador from the Signory. Having learned Greek at
+Messina under Constantin Lascaris, and studied philosophy at Padua
+and Ferrara, he devoted himself to literary pursuits. At the court
+of the d'Este princes, where he was introduced by his father then
+resident as envoy from Venice, he met with the consideration
+due to his acquirements, and found a brilliant society, including
+Sadoleto, the Strozzi, and Tibaldeo. There he was residing when the
+arrival of Lucrezia Borgia threatened to establish for it a very
+different character; but the dissolute beauty seems to have left
+in the Vatican her abandoned tastes, and adopting those of her new
+sovereignty she became distinguished as a patroness of letters.
+The intimacy which sprang up between this princess and Bembo has
+given rise to some controversy as to the purity of its platonism, a
+discussion into which we need not enter. The life of the lady, the
+writings of the Abbé, and the morals of their time combine to justify
+suspicion, where proofs can hardly be looked for.[*45]
+
+ "But if their solemn love were crime,
+ Pity the beauty and the sage,--
+ Their crime was in their darkened age!"
+
+[Footnote *44: For a splendid account of Bembo, cf. GASPARY,
+_Storia della Lett. Ital._ (Torino, 1891), vol. II., part II., pp.
+60-7, and the _Appendice Bibliographica_ there, pp. 284-5.]
+
+[Footnote *45: This is altogether unfair, uncalled for, and untrue.
+Dennistoun is not to be trusted where a Borgia is concerned; like
+Sigismondo Malatesta they hurt the Urbino dukes too much.]
+
+[Illustration: _Anon. des._ _L. Ceroni sculp._
+
+CARDINAL BEMBO
+
+_From a drawing once in the possession of Cavaliere Agricola in Rome_]
+
+Their correspondence lasted from 1503 to 1516, and many of his
+letters are published.[*46] The prevailing tone of these is
+rhetorical rather than passionate, and is quite as complimentary
+to her virtues as to her beauty. The Ambrosian Library at Milan
+possesses nine autograph epistles in Italian and Latin from Lucrezia,
+addressed "to my dearest M. Pietro Bembo," with the dates supplied in
+his hand. A tress of fair auburn hair, originally tied up with them,
+and doubtless that of the Princess, is now shown in the adjoining
+museum. That her tastes and accomplishments were not unworthy of such
+a friendship appears from many dedications of works to her while
+Duchess of Ferrara, including the Asolani of her admirer.
+
+[Footnote *46: Cf. MORSOLIN, _P. Bembo e Lucrezia Borgia_,
+in the _Nuova Antologia_ (Roma, 1885), and BEMBO, _Opere_
+(Venice, 1729), vol. III., pp. 307-17; also CIAN, in _Giorn.
+Stor. della Lett. Ital._, XXIX., 425.]
+
+In 1505 Bembo repaired to Urbino, and sojourned chiefly at that court
+during the next six years, where his varied attainments were highly
+prized, and where his philological pedantry was probably regarded
+as ornamental. Besides enjoying the converse of many congenial
+spirits, he there formed a friendship with Giuliano de' Medici, to
+which he owed many subsequent honours. Accompanying him to Rome in
+1512, he was recommended by him to his brother, the Cardinal, whose
+first act on being chosen Pope in the following year, was to name
+Bembo his secretary, jointly with his friend Sadoleto. For this
+situation he was in many respects well fitted, by the happy union
+of great learning with an extensive knowledge of men and manners,
+which his residence at Ferrara and Urbino had not failed to impart.
+The laxity of his morals, and the paganism of his ideas, were
+unfortunately no disqualifications under Leo X. He continued to earn
+his master's confidence in the discharge of his regular duties, as
+well as in occasional diplomatic missions, but, as Roscoe truly
+observes, his success as a negotiator did not equal his ability in
+official correspondence. The pensions and benefices which rewarded
+his services enriched him for life, and even before that Pontiff's
+death he sought at Padua an elegant literary retirement, refusing
+from Clement VII., and from the Signory of Venice, all offers of
+public employment. He surrounded himself with a most select library,
+including many invaluable manuscripts, and a precious collection
+of medals and other antiquities, which, with the society of the
+learned whom he attracted to his board, gave to his house a wide
+celebrity. It was not regarded as at all degraded by the presence
+of an avowed mistress at its head, with whom he openly lived for
+many years, and had several children; and neither this scandal,
+nor the gross indecency of some of his writings, prevented Paul
+III. from conferring upon him a scarlet hat in 1539. He is said to
+have accepted this dignity unwillingly, but having done so, he had
+the good sense at all events to "cleanse the outside of the cup
+and platter." His mistress was now dead; he laid aside poetry,
+literature, and pagan idioms, and, devoting himself to theological
+studies, at which he had formerly sneered in the habit of an abbé,
+he entered holy orders at the mature age of sixty-nine. In 1541 he
+succeeded Fregoso, his early companion at Urbino, in the bishopric
+of Gubbio, to which was added that of Bergamo. How little these
+preferments contributed to his comfort appears from a letter to
+Veronica Gambara in December, 1543. "Often," he there says, "do I
+desire to be the unfettered Bembo of other days, rather than as
+I now am. But what better can one make of it? Man's existence,
+abounding more in crosses than in gratifying incidents, will have it
+so; and wiser he who least desponds and best puts up to necessity,
+than one that less conforms to it. Yet I own myself unable to do
+this amid these privations, and exiled in a manner from myself.
+For verily I am neither at Venice nor Padua, as your Ladyship
+supposes, but at my church of Gubbio, a very wild place to say the
+truth, and offering few conveniences." He died at Rome six years
+after, in his seventy-seventh year, and was buried in the church of
+the Minerva, between his patrons Leo X. and Clement VII., where a
+modest flag-stone is all the memorial that his natural son and heir,
+Torquato, bestowed on one of the most famous men of his age.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+At the town of Bibbiena, in the upper Val d'Arno, there were born
+about 1470, of humble parentage, two brothers, whose business talents
+procured them remarkable advancement. The elder, Pietro Dovizi,
+became a secretary of Lorenzo de' Medici, into whose family he
+introduced his brother BERNARDO. There this youth gained
+for himself so good a reputation, that he was allowed to share the
+instructions bestowed upon his patron's younger son Giovanni. A close
+intimacy gradually sprang up between these fellow students, which
+the similarity of their talents, their tastes, and their pursuits
+ripened into lasting friendship. Identifying himself with the
+Medici, he followed their fortunes into exile, and attended Giuliano
+to Urbino, where he was received with the welcome there extended to
+all who, like him, combined the scholar and the gentleman. But this
+hospitality met with a very different return from these two guests.
+Of Giuliano's generous forbearance to second the evil designs of his
+brother, the Pope, against the state which had sheltered him, we have
+lately spoken. When we come to narrate the usurpation of the duchy by
+the Medici in 1516-17, we shall find in command of their invading army
+
+ "That courteous Sir, who honours and adorns
+ Bibbiena, spreading far and high its fame,"
+
+and who had adopted that town as a substitute for his own
+undistinguished patronymic. This ingratitude was the more odious if,
+as it was probable, he owed to Guidobaldo, or his nephew, the favour
+of Julius II., who first brought him forward in the public service.
+
+At that Pontiff's death he was acting as secretary to his early
+friend, the Cardinal de' Medici, and in that capacity was admitted
+to the conclave. The intrigues which there effected his patron's
+election have given rise to various anecdotes and controversies,
+which we pass by with the single remark that, by all accounts, the
+address of Dovizi was not unimportant to the success of Leo X. In
+return, he was included in the first distribution of scarlet hats
+as CARDINAL BIBBIENA. In this enlarged sphere his talents
+and tastes had full room for exercise. He was selected for various
+important diplomatic trusts, besides filling the offices of treasurer
+and legate in the war of Urbino. With his now ample means, his
+patronage of letters and arts had ample scope, and he was regarded
+as the Maecenas of a court rivalling that of Augustus. Raffaele
+enjoyed his particular regard, which he would willingly have proved
+by bestowing on him the hand of his niece.
+
+His ambition is alleged to have exceeded even the rise of his
+fortunes, and to have prompted him to contemplate, and possibly to
+intrigue for, his own elevation to the chair of St. Peter, in the
+event of a vacancy. His sudden death in 1520, soon after a residence
+of above a year as legate to Francis I. (who had conferred upon him
+the see of Constance), when coupled with such reports, was construed
+as the effect of poison administered by Leo. Indeed, his friend,
+Ludovico Canossa, observed that it was a received dogma among the
+French at that very time that every man of station who died in Italy
+was poisoned. But such vague conjectures, however specious under
+Alexander VI., are less credible in other pontificates; and if the
+Cardinal were poisoned, that practice was then by no means limited
+to popes. He was an accomplished dilettante when the standards of
+beauty were of pagan origin; and his intimacy with Raffaele dated
+after the painter's Umbrian inspirations had faded before a gradual
+homage to the "new manner." Like his friend Bembo, his morals were
+epicurean to the full licence of a dissolute age. His famed comedy
+of the _Calandra_,[*47] which was brought out at Urbino in 1508,
+and which gave full play to his exquisite sense of the ridiculous,
+justifies this charge, and all that we have so often to repeat of the
+laxity then prevalent in the most refined Italian circles. A notice
+of this, the only important production of his pen, and an account of
+its being magnificently performed before Guidobaldo, will be found
+in our twenty-fifth chapter. Those who regard the pontificate of Leo
+X. as the classic period of Italian letters must feel grateful to
+Cardinal Bibbiena for developing a portion of its lustre; the sterner
+moralist, who brands its vices, will charge him with pandering
+freely to the licence of a court of which he was a notable ornament.
+Castiglione tells us that an acute and ready genius rendered him the
+delight of all his acquaintance; and Baldi adds, that by practice
+in the papal court he so improved that gift, that his tact in
+business was unrivalled, to which his mild address, and happy talent
+of seasoning the dullest topics with graceful pleasantry, greatly
+contributed.
+
+[Footnote *47: For all concerning this play and its performance at
+Urbino in 1513, see VERNARECCI, _Di Alcune Rappresentazioni
+Drammatiche alla Corte d'Urbino nel 1513_ in _Archivio Storico per
+le Marche e per l'Umbria_, vol. III., p. 181 _et seq._ The original
+prologue, by Bibbiena, was only recently made known by DEL
+LUNGO, _La Recitazione dei Menaechmi in Firenze e il doppio
+prologo della Calandria_, in the _Arch. Stor. Ital._, series III.,
+vol. XXII., pp. 346-51. Machiavelli's estimate of Bibbiena will be
+found in _Lettere Famil. di N. Machiavelli_, Firenze, 1883, p. 304,
+"Bibbiena, hora cardinale, in verità ha gentile ingegno, ed è homo
+faceto et discreto, et ha durato a' suoi di gran fatica."]
+
+His personal beauty obtained for him the adjunct of _bel_ Bernardo,
+and he is represented in the _Cortegiano_ as saying, in reference to
+the amount of good looks desirable for a gentleman, "Such grace and
+beauty of feature are, I doubt not, mine, in consequence whereof,
+as you know, so many women are in love with me; but I have some
+misgivings as to my figure, especially these legs of mine, which, to
+say the truth, don't seem to me quite what I should like, though I am
+well enough satisfied with my bust, and all the rest." This, however,
+having been introduced as a jest, may perhaps be understood rather as
+complimentary to his person, than as a sarcasm on his vanity.
+
+A contemporary and unsparing pen thus sketches his qualities, in a
+manuscript printed by Roscoe, from the Vatican archives:--"He was a
+facetious character, with no mean powers of ridicule, and much tact
+in promoting jocular conversation by his wit and well-timed jests.
+He was a great favourite with certain cardinals, whose chief pursuit
+was pleasure and the chase, for he thoroughly knew all their habits
+and fancies, and was even aware of whatever vicious propensities they
+had. He likewise possessed a singular pliancy for flattery, and for
+obsequiously accommodating himself to their whims, stooping patiently
+to be the butt of insulting and abusive jokes, and shrinking from
+nothing which could render him acceptable to them. He also had much
+readiness in council, and was perfectly able seasonably to qualify
+his wit with wisdom, or to dissemble with singular cunning." Bembo,
+with more partial pen, says in a letter to Federigo Fregoso, "The
+days seem years until I see him, and enjoy the pleasing society, the
+charming conversation, the wit, the jests, the features, and the
+affection of that man."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Among the distinguished literary names which have issued from Arezzo,
+several members of the ACCOLTI family were conspicuous in the fifteenth
+and sixteenth centuries. BERNARDO,[*48] of whom we are now to speak,
+had a father noted as a historian, a brother and a nephew who reached
+the dignity of cardinal, and were remarkable in politics and letters.
+He obtained from Leo X. the fief of Nepi, as well as various offices
+of trust and emolument; of these, however, his wealth rendered him
+independent, enabling him to indulge in a life of literary ease. His
+poetical celebrity exceeded that of his contemporaries, and seems
+to have been his chief recommendation at the court of Guidobaldo.
+There, and at Rome, he was in the habit of reciting his verses in
+public to vast audiences, composed of all that was brilliant in
+these cultivated capitals. Nor was his popularity limited to a
+lettered circle. When an exhibition was announced, the shops were
+closed, the streets emptied, and guards restrained the crowds who
+rushed to secure places among his audience. This extraordinary
+enthusiasm appears the more unaccountable, when we find his printed
+poetry characterised by a bald and stilted style, which leaves no
+pleasing impression on the reader. The mystery seems explained by a
+supposition that his talent lay in extemporary declamation.
+
+[Footnote *48: On the Unico Aretino Bernardo Accolti, see especially
+D'ANCONA, _Studi sulla Lett. Ital. de' primi secoli_ (Ancona, 1884),
+in the essay, _Del Seicentismo nella poesia cortigiana del Secolo XV._,
+pp. 217-18. He professed an extraordinary devotion for the Duchess of
+Urbino.]
+
+Instances are far from uncommon in Italy, of similar effects produced
+by the _improvisatori_, whose torrent of melodious words, directed
+to a popular theme, and accompanied by music and impassioned
+gesticulation, hurries the feelings of a sympathising auditory to
+bursts of tumultuous applause, whilst on cool perusal, the same
+compositions fall utterly vapid on the reader. Be this as it may,
+the success of Accolti had the common result of superficial powers,
+and so egregiously inflated his vanity, that he assumed as his usual
+designation "the unique Aretine," by which he is always accosted
+in the _Cortegiano_. Nine years later we find him devoting to
+Duchess Elisabetta attentions which were attributed to a passion
+more powerful than gratitude, but which, knowing as he well did,
+her immaculate modesty, could only have been prompted by despicable
+vanity, and hence exposed him to keen ridicule.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+To few of the pedigrees illustrated by Sansovino is there attributed
+a more remote origin, or a brighter illustration, than to that of
+CANOSSA.[*49] A younger son of the family was COUNT LUDOVICO, who,
+being cousin-german of Castiglione's mother, was perhaps by this
+means brought to Urbino, and thence recommended to Julius II., under
+whose patronage he entered upon an ecclesiastical career. From Leo
+X. he obtained the see of Tricarico, and was sent by him as nuncio
+to England and France, a service which earned him promotion to the
+bishopric of Bajus. Adrian VI. and Clement VII. continued him in this
+post; and during a long residence at the French court, he entirely
+gained the confidence and favour of Francis I. Many of his diplomatic
+letters are printed in various collections; and to him is addressed
+Count Baldassare's curious description of the performance of the
+_Calandra_, at Urbino.
+
+[Footnote *49: For Canossa, cf. LUZIO E RENIER, _op.
+cit._, p. 87, and especially ORTI-MANARA, _Intorno alla
+vita ed alle gesta del Co. Lodovico di Canossa_ (Verona, 1845), and
+CAVATTONI, _Lettere scelte di Mons. L. di Canossa_ (Verona,
+1862).]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ALESSANDRO TRIVULZIO was nephew of Gian Giacomo, the
+distinguished Milanese general of that name, and himself a famous
+captain in the service of Florence, and of Francis I. Sigismondo
+Riccardi, surnamed the Black, Gasparo Pallavicini, Pietro da
+Napoli, and Roberto da Bari,--the last of whom died in the camp of
+Duke Francesco Maria, in 1510,--are mentioned among the military
+notorieties of the Feltrian court. Giovanni Cristoforo, the sculptor,
+may be added to the list of its literary dilettanti; and among its
+musical ornaments were Pietro Monti and Terpandro, with Niccolo
+Frisio, a German, long resident in the land of song, whose exertions
+were often in request by Monti and Barletta, both dancers of note.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+ Emilia Pia--The _Cortegiano_--Death of Duke Guidobaldo,
+ succeeded by Francesco Maria della Rovere.
+
+
+Such were the eminent men, with whom Guidobaldo is described in the
+_Cortegiano_ as living in easy but dignified familiarity, joining
+their improving and amusing conversation, or admiring their dexterity
+in exercises which his broken constitution no longer permitted him
+to share. Thus passed the days in the palace; and, when the Duke was
+constrained by his infirmities to seek early repose, the evenings
+were spent in social amusements, over which the Duchess gracefully
+presided, with her ladies Margherita and Costanza Fregoso, the Duke's
+nieces, Margherita and Ippolita Gonzaga, the Signor Raffaella, and
+Maria Emilia Pia.
+
+[Illustration: ELISABETTA GONZAGA, DUCHESS OF URBINO
+
+_From a lead medal by Adriano Fiorentino in the British Museum_]
+
+[Illustration: EMILIA PIA
+
+_From a medal by Adriano Fiorentino in the Vienna Museum_]
+
+Of the social position of Italian women in this century[*50] we
+may gather many particulars from Ludovico Dolce's _Instituto delle
+Donne_: for although, like most writers on similar themes, he
+represents them "not as they are, but as they ought to be," still,
+knowing the then received standard of female perfection, we can form
+a pretty accurate estimate of their actual qualities. His views
+as to education are exceedingly orthodox. The Holy Scriptures,
+with the commentaries of the fathers, Ambrose, Augustin, and
+Jerome, ought to be day and night before a girl, and suffice for
+her religious and moral discipline. She should be familiar with her
+own language and with Latin, but Greek is an unnecessary burden.
+For mental occupation, Plato, Seneca, and such other philosophers
+as supply sound moral training are excellent, as well as Cicero for
+bright examples and wholesome counsels. History being the teacher
+of life, all classical historians are commended, but the Latin
+poets are vetoed as unfit for honest women, except most of Virgil
+and a few selections from Horace. Many modern Latin writers are
+commended, especially the _Christeida_ of Sannazaro and Vida, but
+all such prurient productions in Italian as Boccaccio's novels are
+to be shunned like venomous reptiles. On the other hand, the poetry
+of Petrarch and Dante is extolled beyond measure, the former as
+embodying with singular beauty an instance of the purest and most
+honourable love, the latter as an admirable portraiture of all
+Christian philosophy. Yet such literary occupations should never
+intrude upon more important matters, such as prayer, nor upon the
+domestic duties of married women.
+
+[Footnote *50: The books, pamphlets, poems, and stories, both
+contemporary and subsequent, dealing with the position, beauty,
+learning, dress, etc., of women would fill a library. I shall content
+myself by naming a very few among them under a few headings for
+the entertainment of the reader. The list of works I give is, of
+course, in no sense a bibliography. The best source is _Castiglione_
+himself--for the sixteenth century and for court life, at any rate.
+But the picture he paints, remarkable as it is, was by no means
+altogether realistic, as a consultation with the following works will
+show. I have included a few dealing with earlier times, and have only
+quoted works with which I am familiar.
+
+
+GENERAL LIFE.
+
+CECCHI, _La Donna e la famiglia Italiana del Secolo XIII. al
+sec. XVI._, in _Nuova Antologia_ (new series), vol. XI., fasc. 19-20.
+
+FRATI, _La Donna Italiana secondo i più recenti studi_
+(Torino, 1889).
+
+VARCONI, _La Donna Italiana descritta da Scrittrici Italiane
+in una serie di Conferenze_ (Firenze, 1890).
+
+VELLUTI, _Cronica Domestica_ (Firenze, 1887).
+
+DAZZI, _Alcune lettere familiari del sec. XIV._ in
+_Curiosità Letterarie_, fasc. XC. (Bologna, 1868).
+
+ANON., _Difesa delle Donne_ (Bologna, 1876).
+
+BIAGI, _La vita Italiana nel Rinascimento_ (Milano, 1897).
+
+BIAGI, _La vita privata dei Fiorentini_ (Milan, 1893).
+
+DEL LUNGO, _La Donna Fiorentina del buon tempo antico_
+(Firenze, 1906).
+
+GUASTI, _Lettere di una gentildonna Fiorentina del sec. XV._
+(Firenze, 1877).
+
+LIBORIO AZZOLINI, _La Compiuta Donzella di Firenze_
+(Palermo, 1902).
+
+ZDEKAUER, _La vita privata dei Senese_ (Conf. d. Com. Sen.
+di St. Pat.), (Siena, 1897).
+
+CASANOVA, _La Donna Senese del Quattrocento nella vita
+privata_ (Siena, 1895).
+
+FRATI, _La vita privata in Bologna_ (Bologna, 1900).
+
+BELGRANO, _La vita privata Genovese_ (Genoa, 1866).
+
+BRAGGIO, _La donna Genovese del sec. XV._, in _Giornale
+Linguistico_, Ann. XII. (1885).
+
+MOLMENTI, _St. di Venezia nella Vita Privata_ (Torino, 1885).
+
+CECCHETTI, _La donna nel Medio Evo a Venezia_ in Arch. Ven.
+Ann., XVI. (1886).
+
+
+THEIR BEAUTY AND ADORNMENT.
+
+In Florence, Siena, and Venice certainly there were regulations of
+the fashions; but not in Naples.
+
+FIRENZUOLA, The two discourses, _Delle bellezze delle donne_
+and _Della perfetta bellezza d'una donna_, in ed. Bianchi, _Le Opere_
+(Firenze, 1848).
+
+MORPURGO, _El costume de le donne con un capitolo de le
+XXXIII. bellezze_ (Firenze, 1889).
+
+ZANELLI, in _Bolletino di St. Pistoiese_, vol. I., fasc.
+II., p. 50 _et seq._
+
+ARETINO, _Il Mareschaio_, atto ii., sc. 5, and _I
+Ragionamenti_.
+
+CENNINO CENNINI, _Trattato della Pittura_, cap. clxi.
+Warning against the general use of cosmetics.
+
+L.B. ALBERTI, _Opere Volgari_ (Firenze, 1849) (Del Governo
+della Famiglia), vol. V., pp. 52, 75, 77. How a wife ought and ought
+not to adorn herself.
+
+FRANCO SACCHETTI, _Novelle_, 99, 136, 137, 177. "Formerly
+the women wore their bodices cut so open that they were uncovered to
+beneath their armpits! Then with one jump, they wore their collars
+up to their ears! And these are all outrageous fashions. I, the
+writer, could recite as many more of the customs and fashions which
+have changed in my days as would fill a book as large as this whole
+volume," etc. etc., with a long description of the dress of the women
+of his time. Consult all the novelists.
+
+DANTE, in _Il Paradiso_, XV.
+
+GIO. VILLANI, _Cronaca_, lib. X., caps. x., xi., and cl.
+
+MATT. VILLANI, _Cronaca_, lib. I., cap. iv.
+
+BOCCACCIO, _De Casibus virorum illustrium_, lib. I., cap.
+xviii. He gives a list of the arts of the toilet of women.
+
+BIAGI, _Due corredi nuziali fiorentini_ (1320-1493). (Per
+nozze Corazzini-Benzini, Firenze, 1899.)
+
+CARNESECCHI, _Donne e lusso a Firenze nel secolo XVI._
+(Firenze, 1903).
+
+ALLEGRETTO, in _Muratori R.I.S._, XXIII., col. 823.
+
+_Diario Ferrarese_, in _Muratori R.I.S._, XXIV., cols. 297, 320, 376
+_et seq._, speaks of the German fashions--"Che pareno buffoni tali
+portatori."
+
+GENTILE SERMINI, _Le Novelle_ (Livorno, 1874), Nov. XXI.
+
+MARCHESINI, _Quello si convenga a una donna che abbia
+marito_ (Firenze, 1890, per nozze). And _Dialogo della bella creanza
+delle donne_ (Milano, 1862), pp. 30, 31.
+
+
+ON WATERS FOR THE FACE, AND PERFUMES.
+
+FALLETTI FOSSATTI, _Costumi Senesi_ (Siena, 1882), p. 133
+_et seq._
+
+PELISSIER, _Le Trousseau d'une Siennoise en 1450_, in _Boll.
+Senese_, vol. VI., fasc. 1.
+
+SANSOVINO, _Venetia città nobilissima e singolare_ (1663),
+fol. 150 _et seq._
+
+YRIARTE, _La vie d'un Patricien de Venise au 16me siècle_
+(Les femmes à Venise) (Paris, 1874), and see rare authorities there
+quoted. In Venice, the prescribed bridal dress seems to have been
+that of Titian's Flora--the hair fell free on the shoulders. The
+_Proveditori alle Pompe_ were established in Venice in 1514.
+
+On the whole subject see, for earlier time, HEYWOOD, _The
+Ensamples of Fra Filippo_ (Siena, 1901), cap. iii.; and for later
+time, BURCKHARDT, _op. cit._, vol. II., part V., caps., ii.,
+iv., v., vii.]
+
+It is unnecessary to follow our author into abstract qualities and
+common-place graces, but the emphasis with which certain things
+are decried affords a fair presumption of their prevalence. Thus,
+excessive luxury of dress, and, above all, painting the face and
+tinging the hair, are attacked as impious attempts to improve upon
+God's own handiwork. In like manner, the assiduity with which modesty
+and purity of mind and person are inculcated confirms what we
+otherwise know of the unbridled licentiousness then widely diffused
+over society. Gaming of every sort is scouted; music and dancing are
+set down as matters of indifference.
+
+In regard to marriage, the selection of a husband is left as matter
+of course to the parents, since a girl is necessarily too ignorant
+of the world to choose judiciously for herself; a reason resulting
+from the education and social circumstances of young women in Italy,
+which sufficiently accounts for this apparent solecism continuing in
+the present day. A prolix exposition of the principles which ought to
+guide fathers in their discharge of this delicate duty may be summed
+up in the very pertinent remark, that few prudent damsels would
+rather weep in brocaded silks than smile in homely stuffs.
+
+But it is time to return from this digression to the LADY
+EMILIA PIA, who merits more special notice in a sketch of the
+Montefeltrian court. She was sister of Giberto Pio, Lord of Carpi in
+Lombardy, and wife of Antonio, natural brother of Duke Guidobaldo.
+After losing her husband in the flower of youth, she remained at
+Urbino, and became one of its prime ornaments, not only by her
+personal attractions, but by a variety of more lasting qualities.
+The part she sustains in the conversation of the _Cortegiano_ amply
+evinces the charm which attached to her winning manners, as well as
+the ready tact wherewith she played off an extent of knowledge and
+graceful accomplishment rare even in that age of female genius. She
+was at all times ready and willing to lead or second the learned
+or sportive pastimes by which the gay circle gave zest to their
+intercourse and polish to their wit, and thus was of infinite use to
+the Duchess, whose acquirements were of a less sparkling quality, and
+of whom she was the inseparable companion. Still more singular and
+proportionately admired were the decorum that marked her conduct in
+circumstances of singular difficulty and the virtue which maintained
+a spotless reputation amid temptations and lapses regarded as venial
+in the habits of a lax age. Her death occurred about 1530,[*51]
+and an appropriate posthumous tribute was paid to such graces and
+virtues in this medallion bearing her portrait, with the Latin motto,
+"To her chaste ashes," on the reverse. Even the luscious verses in
+which Bembo and Castiglione sang the seductions of the Feltrian
+court assumed a loftier tone in their tribute to her heart of
+adamant, which, "pious by name[52] and cruel by nature," and spurning
+the designs of Venus upon its wild freedom, would impart its own
+severity generally to the slaves of the goddess. Yet it was under the
+guidance of this able mistress of the revels, that joy and merriment
+supplanted rigorous etiquette in the palace of Urbino, where
+frankness was restrained from excess by the Duchess' example, and
+where all were free to promote the common entertainment as their wit
+or fancy might suggest. Among the sports of these after-supper hours,
+Castiglione enumerates questions and answers, playful arguments
+seasoned with smart rejoinders, the invention of allegories and
+devices, repartees, mottoes, and puns, varied by music and dancing.
+
+[Footnote *51: She died in 1528, not as Serassi, whom Dennistoun
+follows, says, in 1530.]
+
+[Footnote 52: Her maiden surname, Pio, was habitually punned into
+Pia.]
+
+[Illustration: _Alinari_
+
+HAIR DRESSING IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
+
+_After a picture by Bissolo_]
+
+Such was the mode of life described in the _Cortegiano_, with ample
+details, which we shall attempt slightly to sketch. The scene is
+laid in the evenings immediately succeeding the visit of Julius II.
+The usual circle being assembled in her drawing-room, the Duchess
+desired Lady Emilia to set some game a-going.[*53] She proposed
+that every person in turn should name a new amusement, and that the
+one most generally approved should be adopted.[54] This fancy was
+sanctioned by her mistress, who delegated to her full authority to
+enforce it upon all the gentlemen, but exempted the ladies from
+competition. The courtiers so called upon thus acquitted themselves
+of their task. Gaspar Pallavicino suggested that each should state
+the peculiar excellence and special defect which he would prefer
+finding in the lady of his love. Cesare Gonzaga, assuming that all
+had some undeveloped tendency to folly, desired that every one should
+state on what subject he would rather play the fool. Fra Serafino
+sneeringly proposed that they should successively say why most women
+hate rats and like snakes. The Unico Aretino, whose turn came next,
+thought that the party might try one by one to guess at the occult
+meaning of an ornament, in the form of an S, worn by the Duchess
+on her forehead. The flattery with which this odd suggestion was
+spiced, gave a clue to the Lady Emilia, who exclaimed that, none but
+himself being competent, he ought to solve the mystery; on which,
+after a pause of apparent abstraction, he recited a sonnet on that
+conceit, giving an air of impromptu to what was, in fact, a studied
+composition clumsily introduced. Ottaviano Fregoso wished to know on
+what point each would be most willing to undergo a lover's quarrel.
+Bembo, refining on this idea, was of opinion that the question ought
+to be whether the cause of quarrel had best originate with oneself
+or with one's sweetheart--whether it was most vexatious to give or
+receive the offence. Federigo Fregoso, premising his conviction that
+nowhere else in Italy were there found such excellent ingredients of
+a court, from the sovereign downwards, proposed that one chosen from
+the party should state the qualities and conditions required to form
+A PERFECT COURTIER, it being allowed to the others to object
+and redargue in the manner of a scholastic disputation.
+
+[Footnote *53: Cf. _Il Cortegiano_, lib. I., cap. vi.]
+
+[Footnote 54: DOLCE, in the _Instituto delle Donne_,
+mentions a lady who, being asked to name some pastime at a party,
+sent for a basin and towel, that all of her sex might wash their
+faces, she being the only one present without paint.]
+
+This idea being approved by the Duchess and her deputy, the latter
+called upon Count Ludovico Canossa to begin the theme. Its discussion
+(our observations upon which must be reserved for a future portion
+of these pages) is represented by Castiglione as having been
+prolonged during successive evenings; Federigo Fregoso, Giuliano the
+Magnificent, Cesare Gonzaga, Ottaviano Fregoso, and Pietro Bembo,
+following the cue with which Canossa had opened. At the close of the
+fourth sitting, an argument on love was interrupted by daylight.
+"Throwing open the eastern windows of the palace, they saw the summit
+of Monte Catri already tipped with rosy tints of the radiant Aurora,
+and all the stars vanished except Venus, the mild pilot of the sky,
+who steers along the limits of night and day. From these far-off
+peaks there seemed to breathe a gentle breeze, that tempered the
+air with bracing freshness, and, from the rustling groves of the
+adjacent hills, began to awaken sweet notes of wandering birds." The
+same golden sun continues to dawn upon Urbino, but, ere many months
+had passed, the bright galaxy of satellites that circled round Duke
+Guidobaldo was scattered, for their guiding star had gone to another
+sphere.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+During fifteen years his fine form and robust constitution had been
+wasted by gout, for such was the name given to a disease hereditary
+in his family. Physiologists may decide upon the accuracy of
+this term, and say why, in an age of incessant exposure to severe
+exercise under all weather, and when luxuries of the table were
+little known or appreciated, the ravages of that malady should
+have been more virulent than in our days of comparative indulgence
+and effeminacy.[55] At first he struggled against the symptoms,
+continuing his athletic sports; but in a few years he was reduced to
+a gentle pace on horseback, or to a litter. At length, about the time
+of which we are now speaking, his intervals of ease rarely extended
+to a month, during which he was carried about in a chair; but, when
+under a fit, was confined to bed in great agony. Yet, ever tended by
+his wife, his fortitude never forsook him, and his mind, gathering
+strength in the decay of nature, sought occupation in the converse
+of those able men who made his palace their home, or, in the moments
+of most acute suffering, fell back for distraction upon the vast
+stores of his prodigious memory, whiling away long hours of agony by
+repeating passages from his favourite authors. The palliations of
+medicine lost their effects; his enfeebled frame became more and more
+sensitive to acute pain; in his emaciated figure few could recognise
+the manly beauty of his youthful person; life had prematurely become
+to him an irksome burden.
+
+[Footnote 55: Sanuto strangely ascribes his death to _mal Francese_,
+an example of the way in which that ill-understood scourge was then
+assumed as the origin of many fatal maladies.]
+
+There occurred in Italy at this period a very unnatural change of
+the seasons. On the 7th of April, 1505, snow fell at Urbino to the
+depth of a foot, and scarcity prevailed, followed in June by a
+murrain among cattle. From September, 1506, until January, 1508,
+it is said that no rain or snow fell, except during a few days of
+violent torrents in April. The fountains failed, the springs became
+exhausted, the rivers dried up, grain was hand-ground for want of
+water. The crops were scarcely worth reaping, the pastures were
+scorched, and the fruitless vines shrivelled under an ardent sun.[56]
+
+[Footnote 56:
+
+ "Una stagion fu già, che sì il terreno
+ Arse, che 'l sol di nuovo a Faetonte
+ De' suoi corsier parea aver dato il freno:
+ Secco ogni pozzo, secco era ogni fonte,
+ Gli stagni, i rivi, e i fiumi più famosi,
+ Tutti passar si potean senza ponte."
+
+ ARIOSTO, _Satira_ iii.
+
+*Cf. MADIAI, _Diario_, in _Arch. cit._, vol. _cit._, p. 455.]
+
+On the other hand, December was turned into July; the orchards
+bore a second crop of apples, pears, plums, and mulberries, from
+which were prepared substitutes for wine, then worth a ducat the
+_soma_; strawberries and blackberries ripened in the wood-lands,
+and luxuriant roses were distilled in vast quantities at Christmas.
+With the new year things underwent a sudden revolution, and January
+set in with unwonted rigour. The delicacy of the Duke's now reduced
+frame rendered him peculiarly sensitive to the atmospheric phenomena.
+The long drought had especially affected all gouty patients, and
+the severe weather so aggravated his sufferings that, on the 1st
+of February, he was, by his own desire, removed in a litter to
+Fossombrone. That town is situated on the north side of the Metauro,
+lying well to the sun, and little above the sea level, from which
+it is distant about fifteen miles, and has thus the most genial
+spring climate in the duchy. At first the change was in all respects
+beneficial, and revived the hopes of an attached circle who had
+accompanied the Duchess. But in April winter returned, and with it a
+relapse into the worst symptoms, which soon carried him off. Although
+his great sufferings were borne with extraordinary fortitude, he
+looked forward to death as an enviable release; and when his last
+hour approached, he regarded it with calm resignation. To his
+chaplain he confessed, as one whose worldly account was closed; and
+he acquitted himself of those testamentary duties to his church and
+to the poor, which his creed considers saving works; directing at
+the same time the disposal of his body. Then calling to his bedside
+(where the Duchess and Amelia were in unwearied attendance) his
+nephew the Lord Prefect, Castiglione, Ottaviano Fregoso, and other
+dear friends, he addressed to them words of consolation. Their hopes
+for his recovery he mildly reproved, adapting to himself the lines of
+Virgil:--
+
+ "Me now Cocytus bounds with squalid reeds,
+ With muddy ditches, and with deadly weeds,
+ And baleful Styx encompasses around
+ With nine slow-circling streams the unhappy ground."[57]
+
+[Footnote 57:
+
+ "Me circum limus niger et deformis arundo
+ Cocyti, tardaque palus, inamabilis unda,
+ Alligat, et novies Styx interfusa coercet."
+
+ VIRG. _Georg._ iv. 478.]
+
+To the Duchess and to his nephew were chiefly addressed his parting
+injunctions, the object of which was to recommend them to each
+other's affection and confidence, to comfort them under their
+approaching bereavement, and to counsel implicit obedience on the
+part of Francesco Maria towards his uncle the Pope. It seems enough
+to allude thus generally to his closing scene, for the accounts which
+we have from Castiglione and Federigo Fregoso, one a spectator, the
+other a dear friend, who quickly reached the spot, are unfortunately
+disguised in Ciceronianisms, necessarily inappropriate to a Christian
+death-bed, and in which the spirit of his words has probably
+evaporated.[58] We may, however, trust that
+
+ "They show
+ The calm decay of nature, when the mind
+ Retains its strength, and in the languid eye
+ Religious holy hope kindles a joy;"
+
+for we have seen him neither indifferent nor neglectful of the
+observances dictated by his Church, and, ere the vital spark fled, he
+received its rites and besought the prayers of the bystanders. His
+passage from mortality was peaceful, and death, which he considered
+desirable, spread like a gentle slumber over his stiffening limbs
+and composed features. At midnight of the 11th of April his spirit
+was released from its shattered tenement.[*59] Over the agonised
+and uncontrolled lamentations of the Duchess we draw a veil; the
+description of such scenes must ever degenerate into common-place
+generalities. She felt and suffered as was natural to the best wives
+prematurely severed from the most attached of husbands.
+
+[Footnote 58: What are we to make of the words of Fregoso (as
+preserved by Bembo)--an archbishop who, in describing to the Pope his
+uncle's death, mentions his partaking of the last sacraments from the
+Bishop of Fossombrone, in these terms, "Quiquidem Deos illi superos
+atque manes placavit"? Such idioms will not bear retranslation. The
+expression employed by Castiglione, though tinged with the cold
+formality of classicism, is less startling: "Ut ungeretur more sanctæ
+matris ecclesiæ rogavit." But a pagan taint may often be sadly traced
+upon the devotion of this age. In the first volume of Vaissieux's
+_Archivio Storico d'Italia_, the last hours of a convict, condemned
+at Florence in 1500, are thus narrated by an eye-witness:--Pietro
+Paolo Boscoli, a political reformer of the school of Savonarola,
+thirsted in his dying moments after the living waters of evangelical
+truth, and sought some better solace than the cold formalities of
+an ordinary _viaticum_. Refusing to be shriven by any but a friar
+of St. Mark's, he adjured an attendant friend to aid in getting
+Brutus out of his head, in order that he might make a Christian
+end. Nor was this heterodoxy exclusively Italian. Cervantes, in a
+recently recovered fragment, _El Buscapié_, says, "I dislike to see
+the graceful and pious language befitting the Christian muse mingled
+with the profane phraseology of heathenism. Who can be otherwise
+than displeased to find the name of God, of the Holy Virgin, and
+of the Prophets, in conjunction with those of Apollo and Daphne,
+Pan and Syrinx, Jupiter and Europa, Vulcan, Cupid, Venus, and
+Mars?"--_Bentley's Mag._, XXIV., p. 203.]
+
+[Footnote *59: He died, says the anonymous author of the _Diario_
+cited above (note *, p. 80), between the fourth and fifth hour of the
+night, that is, between 10.30 and 11.30 p.m., and it was Tuesday. The
+news came to Urbino on the 10th, so, according to the Anonimo, he
+died on the 9th.]
+
+Since the Duke's departure to Fossombrone, his state had been
+administered by the Duchess and Francesco Maria. The former, alive to
+the duties committed to her, wrote thus to the priors of Urbino, when
+the danger became imminent.
+
+ "Worthy and well-beloved,
+
+ "The illness of the most illustrious Duke our consort
+ having so increased that the physicians, though not
+ despairing, doubt of his recovery, we have thought fit,
+ by these presents, to exhort and charge you that you be
+ watchful and diligent in regard to whatever may occur,
+ so as to maintain the tranquillity of your citizens; who
+ having, in the recent unhappy times, ever maintained their
+ faith unshaken towards us and our said consort the Duke, we
+ desire that they shall, at the present juncture, persevere
+ in the like mind, whereby we may ascertain the worth of
+ those really deserving. At the same time, if, as we do
+ not believe, any riotous and ill-conducted persons should
+ attempt or plot any disorders, we have taken such steps
+ and means as must put down and chastise their insolence,
+ and leave them a signal example to others. And, as it is
+ necessary to provide against such a contingency, we desire
+ that you forthwith let this be understood in the most
+ fitting manner, it being our intention to maintain the
+ peace in this our well-beloved city.
+
+ "From Fossombrone, 1508.
+
+ "ELISABETTA GONZAGA, DUCISSA URBINI."
+
+Upon hearing from Ludovico Canossa that the Duke's illness approached
+a fatal termination, Julius had, on the 13th, instructed Federigo
+Fregoso to repair to Fossombrone with his own physician, Archangelo
+of Siena, and, after administering such aid and consolation as the
+case might require, to take fit measures for insuring the quiet
+succession of Francesco Maria della Rovere in the dukedom, and for
+the interim administration of affairs by the Duchess. But, ere they
+arrived, mourning had succeeded to suspense, and their sympathies
+were demanded for the widowed Duchess, who had passed two days
+since her bereavement in utter despair, refusing food and sleep. So
+entirely, indeed, were the functions of life suspended, that for some
+time it was feared the vital spark had followed its better half, and
+it was very long ere her ghastly and spectral form gradually resumed
+the aspect of an existence in which all interest was for her gone
+by, and which, but for the representations of her friends, she would
+have wished to quit.[*60]
+
+[Footnote *60: Capilupi, whom Isabella d'Este had sent to Urbino,
+describes in a long letter the mourning and grief he found there.
+It is too long to quote. Cf. LUZIO and RENIER, _Mantova e Urbino_
+(Torino, 1893), p. 185.]
+
+The body was borne on shoulders to Urbino during the following night,
+surrounded by multitudes carrying torches, their numbers swollen, as
+they advanced, by influx of the country population through which the
+funeral cortège passed. Castiglione, who accompanied it, describes
+the night as one of mysterious dread, in which the wailing of the
+people ever and anon was broken upon by piercing shrieks echoed
+from the mountains, and repeated by the distant howling of alarmed
+watch-dogs. The inhabitants of the capital issued forth to meet the
+melancholy procession, headed by their clergy, the monastic orders,
+and the confraternities. In the great hall of the palace the Duke
+lay in state, during two days, upon a magnificent catafalque with
+its usual but incongruous decorations of sable velvet, gold damask,
+and blazing lights. His dress is minutely described by the anonymous
+diarist as consisting of a doublet of black damask over crimson hose,
+a black velvet hat over a skull-cap of black taffetas fringed with
+gold, and black velvet slippers; to which was added the mantle of the
+Garter, in dark Alexandrine velvet, with a hood of crimson velvet,
+lined with white silk damask.
+
+[Illustration: _R. Tammé_
+
+PORTRAIT OF A LADY IN MOURNING
+
+_After the picture by Pordenone in the Dresden Gallery_]
+
+But, with that strange blending of opposite feelings which marks
+the visits of death to regal halls, the mourners were soon summoned
+from this vision of departed greatness to contribute far other
+honours to its living representative. One day having been devoted
+to lament the general loss, the Lord Prefect, Francesco Maria,
+repaired, with the principal authorities, to the cathedral, and,
+after solemn mass, published the will, by which his uncle named him
+heir and successor to his states and dignities, nominating his widow
+to the regency during the nonage of his heir, and leaving her
+Castel Durante, with a provision of 14,000 ducats, besides her own
+dowry of 18,000. During the afternoon succeeding the proclamation of
+Francesco Maria, he visited the Duchess, who was "transfixed with
+grief." He was accompanied by a small deputation of citizens, to
+offer their duty and condolence, and receive her tearful thanks for
+the happy accomplishment of her husband's testamentary intentions,
+with entreaties that they would transfer to his successor the loyal
+affection they had borne to their late sovereign. About four o'clock
+a funeral service was performed in the great hall, from whence,
+at eight, the body was conducted by an again mournful host, to
+remain for the night in the church of Sta. Chiara. Next day it was
+transported, during continual rain, to the Zoccolantine church, in
+the groves around which he had been surprised by the first aggression
+of Cesare Borgia. In its small nave his remains were entombed
+opposite those of his father; and over both there were subsequently
+placed two modest monuments in black and white marble, surmounted by
+busts of the Dukes. The inscription to Guidobaldo is to this effect:
+"To Guidobaldo, son of Federigo, third Duke of Urbino, who, emulating
+even in minority his father's fame, maintained his authority with
+manly energy and success. In youth he triumphed over adverse fortune.
+Vigorous in mind, although enfeebled by disease, he cultivated
+letters instead of arms; he protected men of general eminence instead
+of mere military adventurers; and he ameliorated the commonwealth by
+the arts of peace, until his court became a model to all others. He
+died in the year of God MDVIII., of his age XXXVI."
+
+The solemn obsequies befitting sovereign personages, including six
+hundred masses, were performed on the 2nd of May in the cathedral,
+which was hung and carpeted with black, and illuminated with five
+hundred wax-lights. In the nave was an immense cenotaph, decorated
+with representations of the most important events of the Duke's
+life, his standards and insignia, with suitable legends, and on
+the bier, in place of the body, lay his robes of the Garter. The
+function was attended by the court, five bishops, the clerical
+dignitaries, with deputies from all parts of the duchy, and most of
+the Italian states, as well as the principal inhabitants. Before the
+elevation of the host, a funeral oration was recited by his former
+preceptor Odasio, in which the wonted wordiness of such compositions
+is redeemed by a certain fire of eloquence, mellowed by occasional
+touches of fine sentiment, rendering it the best part of Bembo's
+compilation regarding Guidobaldo. Its excellence, and the vast
+concourse of spectators, estimated at ten thousand, contributed to
+make this the most notable ceremony of the sort then remembered in
+Italy. On the following day, the oaths of allegiance to the new Duke
+were taken, and his predecessor was consigned over to history.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The character of the last Montefeltrian Duke need scarcely be told
+to those who have followed this sketch of his life. Gifted by nature
+with talents of a very high order, he cultivated them in early youth
+with an application rare indeed in his exalted rank, and a success
+which his marvellous memory tended alike to facilitate and to render
+permanent. In times singularly productive of military heroes and
+men of letters, he emulated the celebrity of both, and, had health
+permitted him a prolonged and active career, he might, in the
+ever-recurring battle-fields of Italy, have equalled the renown left
+by his father and earned by his successor.
+
+When disabled from the profession of arms, he fell back with fresh
+zest upon his youthful studies, and drew around him men whose
+converse harmonised with these tastes. To say that his learning
+was unequalled among the princes of his day is no mean compliment.
+His palace became the asylum of letters and arts, over which he
+gracefully presided. Aldus Manutius, in dedicating to him editions
+of Thucydides and Xenophon, addressed him in Greek, of which he was
+so perfect a master as to converse in it with ease. To the latter of
+these historians the Duke was very partial, calling him the siren of
+Attica. Among his other favourite classics, Castiglione names Lucian,
+Demosthenes, and Plutarch; Livy, Tacitus, Quintus Curtius, Pliny,
+and the Orations of Cicero. Most of these he knew intimately, and
+recited entire passages without reference to the book. But besides
+these selected authors, he is said to have made himself acquainted
+with almost every branch of human knowledge then explored. Nor were
+religious studies omitted. The history, rites, and dogmas of the
+Church are mentioned among the topics familiar to his versatile
+genius; St. Chrysostom and St. Basil were among his chosen books. To
+enumerate all the contemporary authors who shared his patronage might
+be irksome, but we shall introduce one letter addressed by him to
+Paolo Cortesio.
+
+ "Most reverend and well-beloved Father in Christ:
+
+ "I have received your letter, with your Treatise on
+ the dignity of Cardinal, which, being full of noble
+ matter gracefully and eloquently handled, has been most
+ acceptable, and I have looked over it with much pleasure. I
+ therefore offer you my best thanks for it, and for having
+ mentioned me in that work; and if I can do anything for
+ you, let me know it, that I may have an opportunity of
+ showing my gratitude for your merits and your services in
+ my behalf. In October next I mean, God willing, to return
+ to Rome, and I shall hold myself prompt to forward your
+ interests there, or wherever else I may chance to be.
+ Urbino, 18th of June, 1506.
+
+ "GUIDO UBALDO, DUKE OF URBINO, and Captain-General
+ of the Holy Roman Church."[61]
+
+[Footnote 61: Bibl. Magliab. Class. viii., No. 68, p. 132.]
+
+The great endowments he thus admirably developed were united
+with a disposition represented as nearly perfect, at all events
+as exempted from the failings most perilous to princes. The bad
+passions which opportunity and indulgence have, in all ages,
+rendered peculiarly fatal to those whose will is law, were almost
+strangers to his breast. Prone to no vicious indulgences, he was
+ever kind and considerate, as well as just and clement. He may, in
+short, be regarded as that rarest of all characters, an unselfish
+despot,--despot as regarded the possession of absolute power, but not
+so in its use. The nobility had nothing to dread from his jealousy
+or his licentiousness; the citizens were spared oppressive imposts;
+the poor looked up to him as a sympathising protector. In short, we
+may pronounce him a magnanimous, a most accomplished, and, so far as
+erring man is permitted to judge, a blameless prince.
+
+Nor was the impression left upon the public mind by the glories of
+Urbino under Guidobaldo of a transient character. Mocenigo, Venetian
+envoy at the court of his grand-nephew, thus speaks of him above
+sixty years after his death:--"Disabled by broken health from active
+pursuits, he fell upon the project of forming a most brilliant court,
+filled with eminent men of every profession; and by rendering himself
+generally popular, with the co-operation of his Duchess, who emulated
+him in welcoming and entertaining persons of talent, he brought
+around him a greater number of fine spirits than any sovereign had
+hitherto been able to attract, and, indeed, gave to all other princes
+in the world the model and example of an admirably regulated court."
+
+[Illustration: _Alinari_
+
+S. MARTIN AND S. THOMAS WITH GUIDOBALDO, DUKE OF URBINO, AND BISHOP
+ARRIVABENI
+
+_After the picture by Timoteo Viti in the Duomo of Urbino_]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The remaining years of the widowed Duchess were in strict
+accordance with a picture sketched of her by Bernardo Tasso, in the
+_Amadigi_:--
+
+ "She too, whose pensive aspect speaks a heart
+ By grievous cares molested and surcharged,
+ An anxious lot shall live; Elizabeth,
+ Of maiden worth, in whom no blandishment
+ Or foolish passion ere with virtue strives;
+ Spouse of our first Duke's son, whose span cut short
+ By cruel death, his scornful mate bereft
+ No after tie shall bind."
+
+The circumstances of her wedded life had not been such as to render
+new ties distasteful to a lady of thirty-seven, described by Bembo as
+still elegant in figure and dress, beautifully regular in features,
+and with eyes and countenance of singularly winning expression. The
+compliment paid to her character, in that author's sketch of the
+Urbino sovereigns, bears upon it a stamp of truthful earnestness
+rarely found in his rhetorical periods.[62]
+
+[Footnote 62: "Itaque multas sæpè feminas vidi, audivi etiàm esse
+plures, quæ certarum omninò virtutum, optimarum quidem illarum atque
+clarissimarum, sed tamèn perpaucarum splendore illustrarentur: in
+quâ verò omnes collectæ conjunctæque virtutes conspicerentur, hæc
+una extitit, cujus omninò parem atque similem aut etiam inferiorem
+paulò, non modò non vidi ullam, sed ea ubi esset etiàm ne audivi
+quidem."--Bembo de Guidobaldo.]
+
+An anonymous and now lost complimentary poem, written about 1512,
+and formerly in the library of S. Salvadore at Bologna, celebrated
+Elisabetta's charitable aid in the establishment of a _monte di
+pietà_,[63] at Fabriano, and alluded to her prudent government of
+the state in the Duke's absence. The terms of affection with which
+she regarded her husband's adopted heir underwent no change after
+her bereavement; and his marriage to her niece Leonora Gonzaga
+strengthened the tie. We shall find her making great personal
+exertions to modify the measures of Leo X. against Francesco Maria;
+and she shared his confiscation and exile, which she could not
+avert. She lived, however, to return with him to the house she had
+twice been compelled to relinquish, and saw his dynasty securely
+established in the state which had owned her as its mistress.
+
+[Footnote 63: The Italian name for those public establishments,
+at which small sums are lent on pledges under government
+superintendence. The Duchess is said to have introduced them
+at Urbino, and to have founded there an academy, which rose to
+considerable celebrity among similar weeds of literature that long
+flourished and still vegetate in Italy.]
+
+Her trials were closed on the 28th of January, 1526, by an easy
+death. She left the residue of her property to Duchess Leonora, after
+payment of numerous pious bequests to various churches, with liberal
+legacies to her household; and she was interred by the side of her
+beloved husband in the church of S. Bernardino.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK FOURTH
+
+ OF LITERATURE AND ART UNDER THE
+ DUKES DI MONTEFELTRO AT URBINO
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+ The revival of letters in Italy--Influence of the
+ princes--Classical tastes tending to pedantry and
+ paganism--Greek philosophy and its effects--Influence of
+ the Dukes of Urbino.
+
+
+When writing upon Italy of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
+a prominent place must be allotted to letters and arts. At Urbino
+in particular, their progress was then great, their influence
+proverbial; and our next eight chapters will contain notices of them
+which would have interrupted the continuity of our previous narrative.
+
+The reigns of Dukes Federigo and Guidobaldo I. extended over a
+period which general consent has regarded as the most brilliant in
+Italian history, and which we have repeatedly named its golden age.
+High expectations are naturally entertained of literature, arts,
+and general refinement in a cycle of such pretension. We look for
+a rapid advance of thought in paths of learning and science whence
+during long centuries it had been excluded. We anticipate a widely
+disseminated zeal for classic writers, an eager rivalry to outstrip
+them in branches of speculative knowledge, which they especially
+cultivated. We imagine the imitative arts revived under the influence
+of new and more exquisite standards. And we reckon upon the diffusion
+of a taste and capacity for enjoying those things among classes
+hitherto excluded from such intellectual enjoyments. In each of these
+expectations the student of literary history will be gratified; yet
+there are several sorts of composition which, if separately examined,
+offer disappointing results, and scarcely a single work written
+during the fifteenth century has maintained universal popularity. The
+explanation is easy. This age was one of unprecedented intellectual
+activity, when men's minds were devoted to the acquisition of
+knowledge which they had laboriously to hunt out, and doubtingly to
+decipher. They had to cut for themselves tracks through an unexplored
+region, without grammars or commentaries to serve them as guides and
+landmarks. The toilsome habits thus formed were forthwith exercised
+for the benefit of subsequent investigators, and were applied to
+smoothing the path which they had themselves penetrated. Thus
+was it that the first successful scholars became grammarians and
+commentators. Surrounded by ample stores of intelligence, they had
+no occasion to cultivate new germs of thought. Their first object
+was to secure and render accessible the treasures which antiquity
+had unfolded to them; their next, to elaborate them in varied forms,
+to reproduce them in the manner most congenial to their intellectual
+wants. Thus they became more industrious than original, laborious
+rather than creative. Again, those who, on entering the garden of
+knowledge, thought of its fruits rather than of its approaches,
+instead of seeking the reward of their toils among the fair mazes of
+poetry and belles lettres, aimed at more arduous rewards, and climbed
+the loftiest and most slippery branches in search of golden apples.
+The harvest of scholastic philosophy which they thus gathered in
+may seem scarcely worthy of the fatigues given to its acquisition;
+but from the seeds so obtained, cultivated and matured as they have
+been by many after labourers, a copious and healthful store of
+intellectual food has been secured for subsequent generations. The
+work performed by these pioneers of learning and truth was, however,
+more calculated to crush than to inspire that more elastic fancy
+which preferred the flowery mead to the tree of knowledge. The spirit
+of the age was ponderous and prosaic, and the few who attempted to
+rise above its denser atmosphere into poetic regions were clogged by
+the trammels of a dead language, and by obsolete associations which
+they dared not shake off. The fifteenth century was consequently rich
+in scholars, copious in pedants, but poor in genius, and barren of
+strong thinkers.
+
+These circumstances necessarily detract from the popular interest of
+Italian literary history at this important period, all influential
+to its after destinies, and we mention them in the conviction that
+general readers must feel disappointed with this portion of our
+work. The vast mass of materials then created now reposes in the
+principal storehouses of learning, much of it unpublished, and but
+a small part rendered accessible in recent editions. As it would
+be an unprofitable task to labour upon these materials for merely
+critical purposes, we have for the most part satisfied ourselves with
+an examination of the authors immediately connected with Urbino; nor
+shall we be tempted much beyond that narrow limit, by the facility
+of borrowing from those copious and intelligent writers who have
+successfully investigated the intellectual progress of Italy.
+
+The revival of civilisation, and its handmaid arts, is a problem
+so inexplicable on the ordinary principles which regulate human
+progress,[64]--its causes were so complex, and many of them so
+remote, and singly so little striking,--that it were, perhaps,
+vain to hope for a satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon. It
+may be, that the ever revolving cycle of human affairs had brought
+round a period predestined to intellectual development, or that mind,
+awakening from the slumber of centuries, possessed the energies of
+renewed youth. But in a season of universal and sudden progress it is
+difficult to distinguish between cause and effect,--to decide whether
+mind aroused liberty, or if freedom was the nurse of intelligence.
+
+[Footnote *64: The secret is not far to seek, but it was inexplicably
+hidden from men in Dennistoun's day. The continuity of life and
+of art the most sensitive expression of life, is understood and
+acknowledged by too few among us; but that there is an historical
+continuity in art as in life would be easy to prove, since no part
+can be adequately grasped or explained save in relation to the whole.
+Of course, as Renan admitted, history has its sad days, but all
+are, as it were, a part of the year which would be incomplete and
+inexplicable without them. Thus there is no gulf fixed between the
+art of Greece and the art of the Middle Age or the Renaissance; each
+is an inevitable part of the whole, and the later was what it was
+because of the old. Burckhardt, one of the greatest students of our
+time, seems to have understood this also with his usual happiness.
+M. Auguste Gerard tells us in his notice of the life of its author,
+which serves as a Preface to the French edition of _Le Cicerone_,
+that "Burckhardt en vrai disciple de la Renaissance considérait
+l'Italie comme un tout continu; et dans l'histoire de l'art de même
+que dans l'énumération des oeuvres, il ne séparait pas l'Italie
+antique de l'Italie moderne. La section du _Cicerone_ qui était
+dédiée à l'architecture commençait aux temples de Paestum pour
+finir aux villas Napolitaines et Génoises des XVIIe et XVIIIe
+siècles." In that idea lies the future of all criticism.]
+
+The feeble hold which the popes retained over their temporal
+power during their residence at Avignon, and during the great
+schism, promoted the independence of the ecclesiastical cities,
+many of which then passed under the dominion of domestic tyrants,
+or assumed the privileges of self-government. In either case the
+result was favourable to an expansion of the human mind. The sway
+of the seigneurs, being based on no such aristocratic machinery
+as supported the fabric of feudalism, threw fewer obstructions in
+the way of individual merit. The popular communities could only
+exist by a diffusion of political and legislative capacity, and
+the commercial enterprises to which they in general devoted their
+energies increased at once the demand for public spirit and its
+production. Even those intestine revolutions to which democracies
+were especially subject contributed largely to the same end; for,
+although in such convulsions the dregs of the populace often rise to
+the surface, talent, when backed by energy and daring, there finds
+extraordinary opportunities for display. Indeed, the multiplication
+of commonwealths, under whatever form of government, tended, in
+a country situated as the Italian Peninsula then was, to the
+development of intellect. Defended by the Alps and the sea from
+invasion, their physical and intellectual advantages constituted
+an influence which supplied the want of union and nationality. They
+thus could safely pursue their individual aims, and even indulge
+in rivalry and contests which, though perilous to a less favoured
+people, were for them incentives to a praiseworthy and patriotic
+exertion. Whilst the separate existence of these petty states was
+calculated to promote both political science and mental culture, it
+rendered the one subservient to the advantage of the other, and, in
+the multitude of official and diplomatic employments, literary men
+found at once useful occupation and honourable independence. Nor was
+this result limited to one form of government. If the tempest-tossed
+democracy of Florence shone the brightest star in the Italian galaxy,
+the stern oligarchy of Venice shed an almost equal lustre in some
+branches of letters and art; and, on the other hand, the not less
+popular institutions of Pisa, Siena, and Lucca emitted but feeble
+and irregular coruscations. So also in the despotic states, whilst
+literature was ever cherished under the ducal dynasty of Urbino, and
+whilst it was favoured at intervals by the Sforza and Malatesta,
+the d'Este and Gonzaga, and by the Aragonese sovereigns of Naples,
+its genial influence was unknown in some other petty courts. Again,
+if we turn to the papal throne, we shall find the accomplished
+Nicolas, Pius, Sixtus, Julius, and Leo, sitting alternately with the
+Boeotian Calixtus, Paul, Innocent, and Alexander. From an impartial
+review of Italian mediæval history it appears that democratic
+institutions were by no means indispensable to the expansion of
+genius, since the progress of letters and arts was upon the whole
+nearly equal in the republics and the seigneuries, under the tyranny
+of a condottiere or the domination of a faction.[*65]
+
+[Footnote *65: Far from being indispensable, the democratic
+institutions had very little to do with the progress of the arts
+which were fostered by individuals, whether in a tyranny such as
+Urbino or in a so-called republic such as Florence.]
+
+But, before entering upon the proper subject of this chapter, it may
+be well briefly to consider the influence which the petty princes
+of Italy exercised upon the revival and cultivation of letters and
+arts. The dominion of these chiefs, though hereditary in name, was in
+general maintained, as it had been gained, by the sword. To them, as
+to the savage, arms were an instinctive pursuit, warfare a primary
+occupation. For their frequent intervals of truce (and in no other
+sense was peace known to them), their circumscribed sovereignty
+gave little occupation. Domestic polity was still an undeveloped
+science, and their leisure fell to be spent upon intellectual
+objects, or in grovelling debaucheries. The number who preferred
+the nobler alternative is very remarkable, when compared with the
+like class in other parts of Europe. During the fourteenth and
+fifteenth centuries literature was cultivated and art was encouraged
+by a large proportion of the sovereigns and feudatories of Italy,
+when the bravest condottieri were often their most liberal patrons.
+Such were the impetuous Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, the gallant
+Francesco Sforza, the treacherous Ludovico il Moro; whilst the
+Gonzaga of Mantua, and the d'Este of Ferrara, but most especially
+the ducal houses of Urbino, extended, during successive generations,
+an enlightened and almost regal protection to genius of every
+shade. Nothing akin to this is to be found in the republics. Siena,
+Pisa, and Lucca produced many great artists, but literature found
+in them neither a cradle nor an asylum. The commercial communities
+of Venice and Genoa belonged to an entirely different category of
+circumstances; and Florence, though an exception to our remark, owed
+its pre-eminence not less perhaps to the patronage of the Medici than
+to an unparalleled prevalence of talent and public spirit among its
+citizens.
+
+In times when the popular will, if not the source of power, was
+its best support, it became the interest of the dominant prince
+or party so to use authority as to please and flatter the masses;
+to cloak their own usurpations by throwing a lustre around their
+administration, and to preserve the confidence of their subjects by
+institutions calculated to promote the national glory. In this way
+individual talent might be stimulated, and public civilisation might
+advance, even whilst freedom was on the decline; and, as the means
+commanded by the seigneurs were ample, they could patronise genius,
+and surround their courts with literary retainers, who in democratic
+communities were left to their own resources. Thus the Sforza and the
+d'Este, even the savage Malatesta of Rimini, befriended genius, which
+found no haven in the republics of Genoa and Lucca, and, the fashion
+having once been established among their princely houses, letters
+were cultivated by not a few of these soldiers of fortune, but more
+especially by the ladies of their families.
+
+These unquestionable facts are met by an allegation that the
+fountains of princely patronage were so tainted, their streams so
+generally corrupt, as to blight the fruits which they seemed to
+foster, and that their influence thus from a blessing became a curse.
+Let us examine a little the grounds for this assertion, for surely it
+is not by such sweeping and prejudiced denunciations that we shall
+arrive at truth. As to the ornamental arts, there cannot be a doubt
+that these received, throughout Italy, from governments of every
+form, as well as from numberless corporations and individuals, a
+hearty encouragement which might well shame our degenerate age. Yet
+the ducal palace at Urbino, the Palazzo del T at Mantua, the tombs
+of the Scaligers, and the medallions of Malatesta, yield the palm to
+no republican works of the same class. It was by Cosimo and Lorenzo
+de' Medici, and by Duke Federigo di Montefeltro, that the undeveloped
+energies of new-born science, and the long neglected classics of
+Greece and Rome were nursed and tended through their years of
+infancy, which storms of faction, in most of the free states,
+condemned to neglect. The enlightened liberality of these princes,
+and of Malatesta Novello, founded libraries for the preservation of
+works composed under their own beneficent encouragement, as well
+as of manuscripts collected by them from all quarters at immense
+cost, and this when no republic but Venice aspired to such literary
+distinctions. Nor were the troubled waters of democratic strife
+safe for the poet's gay bark and light canvas. Even Dante, though
+made of sternest stuff, sought shelter in a courtly harbour from
+the hurricanes of Florentine faction. It is true that, in many
+compositions of minstrels trained in princely halls, the themes
+are ephemeral and the epithets overstrained, savouring, to a purer
+taste and more severe idiom, of unworthy subserviency; nor is the
+other polite literature, emanating from the same atmosphere, exempt
+from similar blemishes. But allowance must be made for the seducing
+fecundity of the language in superlatives, more redolent of dulcet
+sounds than of definite signification, a quality which has ever
+tempted Italian mediocrity to assume the borrowed plumes of poesy,
+and to conceal its native barrenness under magniloquent but flimsy
+common-places. The well earned gratitude of authors is fittingly paid
+in compliments, eulogies, or dedications, and as such coin is at the
+unlimited command of the debtor, and useful only to the receiver, its
+over-issue is fairly excusable. This results from principles inherent
+in human nature, and it matters little whether the obligations have
+been incurred from sovereigns or from subjects, under an autocrat or
+a democracy. Even among ourselves, in times when talent had more to
+hope from private patronage than from extended popularity, a similar
+currency was scarcely less in vogue, and it was only the poverty of
+our idiom that kept its circulation within bounds. Hence, were the
+independence of the best English writers of a century or two ago to
+be estimated from their dedicatory addresses, or their occasional
+odes, a condemnation as unreasonable as sweeping would go forth
+against names long inscribed in our temple of fame. This argument
+might easily be extended; but enough has been said to show that
+more was done for the support of letters under princely than under
+popular institutions, and that the adulatory epithets natural to the
+language, and inherent in the usages of Italy, are no certain index
+of base subserviency.
+
+But, on the other hand, independent sovereignty, irrespective of
+political forms, was of primary importance to the encouragement
+of mental cultivation. The separation of Italy into a multitude
+of petty states converted almost every town into a capital, which
+its rulers and its citizens took equal pride in decorating. The
+patriotism thus generated was intense in proportion to the narrow
+field on which it was exercised, and an expenditure, restrained by
+severe sumptuary restrictions, found scope on monuments honourable
+to the public. Thus there ensued, between hostile communities and
+emulous factions, a rivalry in arts as in arms, whereby public
+institutions prospered, and individual genius was encouraged. Fanes,
+whose glories seem to defy the waste of time, were thus raised for
+the devotional requirements of the people; palaces grew up the
+bulwark of their liberties; citadels were fortified to rivet their
+chains; and even when the ultimate results were fatal to freedom,
+the talent and activity thus stimulated were sure to eventuate in
+industrial progress, as well as in the restoration of letters and the
+improvement of art.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The human mind, when aroused from its long and leaden slumbers, at
+first instinctively leaned for support upon such vestiges of ancient
+learning as had survived the wreck of ages. To excavate and examine
+these was the laborious task assumed by early students, in which
+Petrarch and Boccaccio sedulously joined. But, justly appreciating
+them as materials on which to found a new fabric, rather than as
+the substitutes for original thought, "the all-Etruscan three"
+happily combined enthusiasm for classic models with the power to
+rival them in a language simultaneously matured by themselves for
+the daring undertaking. The fifteenth century arrived; it was an
+epoch of reaction; one of other tendencies and tastes, when genius,
+as Ginguené has happily observed, was superseded by erudition.
+Entering the path which Petrarch had partially explored, its
+pioneers neglected the better portion of his example. They spent
+their energies in rummaging obscure recesses of monastic libraries,
+and wasted time and learning in transcribing, collating, and
+annotating the various manuscripts which thus fell within their
+grasp. In exhuming and renovating these monuments of a long-buried
+literature, they were forgetful of the fact that their dealings were
+with dead corpses; and whilst submitting the recovered fragments to
+philological analysis, they perversely sought to embody their own
+souls in these decayed members. As such materials were incapable
+of being reanimated, or even remodelled into more apt forms,
+this unnatural union was seldom effected without violence to the
+sentiment. Even the ablest writers devoted themselves to the arid
+task of scholia and translations, composing in the dead tongues
+such original works as they attempted. The result was a monstrous
+metempsychosis, whereby thought, enchained in uncongenial bodies,
+lost its due influence, and appeared in, at best, an unseemly
+masquerade. Hence the language of the century was Latin, its manner
+pedantic, its spirit coldly artificial.
+
+But whilst the historian of that age laments the shackles thus
+imposed upon its literature, it were unjust to withhold from it
+the merit of preserving those treasures of ancient history and
+philosophy, eloquence and poetry, which, under happier auspices and
+more judicious treatment, have elevated thought, enlarged intellect,
+and enriched the style of later times. Although unable to refine
+the true metal from its dross, the pedants of "fourteen hundred"
+were miners who discovered the precious ore, and ascertained its
+component ingredients. The fashionable ardour for collecting early
+MSS. of ancient authors was very generally accompanied with untiring
+perseverance in mastering their intricacies. Philology and grammar
+thus grew into sciences, and their professors held the keys of human
+erudition. Deep ought to be our gratitude for the contingent of
+classical literature rescued from a rapid destruction by such arduous
+and self-denying labours; and a history of these discoveries, and
+of the zeal and enterprise volunteered by the early commentators
+and publishers of the ancient authors, would form an interesting
+monument of undaunted and generally successful diligence. Yet,
+in a comprehensive view of the results springing from these new
+tendencies, it is impossible to blind ourselves to the evils that
+emanated from them. From the nerve, grandeur, and elegance of Greek
+and Roman writers, there was much to learn with advantage; but their
+influence was directly antagonist to the highest sentiments of a
+Christian, and, in the main, a devotional people. When tried by such
+a test, their philosophy was hollow, their heroism selfish, their
+refinement corrupted. Nor was it only by reproducing the themes and
+the philosophy of distant ages that classicism clogged the elasticity
+of reviving literature. By inculcating extinct languages as the
+only means fitted for expressing their ideas, Italian literati
+checked the progress of their vernacular tongue,--that best bulwark
+of nationality,--and at the same time impeded the free expansion
+of thought, which, thus conducted into artificial channels, could
+but stagnate or freeze. The mind, habituated to find in literature
+a restraint, came to regard natural feeling as a solecism, living
+images as incongruous anomalies, warmth of sentiment as a blemish
+sedulously to be avoided. Under such false training, knowledge
+received the impress of a languid conventionality; and even those who
+condescended to write in Italian, chilled their compositions with
+the pedantry of antique idioms. The classic style thus introduced
+had many inherent defects. Borrowed plumage is seldom becoming, and
+servile imitations are always bad. Besides, the ancient type had been
+originally modelled by a people, and in an age, little sympathetic
+with those for whom it was now reproduced, and whose sentiments were
+cramped equally by the conventionalisms of an obsolete manner, or
+by the adoption of a dead tongue. Hence is it that the fifteenth
+century, so signalised by the diffusion of knowledge, and the advance
+of the fine arts, has bequeathed to us fewer eminent writers than
+those which immediately preceded and followed it, and that during its
+course Italian literature was unquestionably retrograde.
+
+This is especially true of poetry, in an age of erudition when
+learning was essentially prosaic. The collation of manuscripts,
+the construction of grammars, the mastering of idioms, the revived
+subtleties of Greek dialectics, were ponderous studies with which the
+taste for literature of a lighter and more elastic tendency could ill
+assimilate. The chords whence Dante had evoked majestic notes, that
+seemed to swell from higher spheres, lay silent and unstrung; the
+lyre of Petrarch was left in feebler hands.
+
+Nor was this the only evil resulting from an excess of the classical
+mania. Languages in which Christianity had not been naturalised
+were ill adapted for the expression of revealed truth; and the new
+scholarship, discarding the barbarisms of monastic Latin, imported
+into theological as well as profane compositions, the phrases of
+a pagan age. To find the personages of the Trinity, or even the
+hagiology of Rome, familiarly discussed under mythological names, is
+to us merely absurd and revolting;[*66] but when men, already imbued
+with classical predilections, were accustomed to mix up in words the
+objects of their worship with the demigods of their admiration, the
+natural consequence was a confusion of ideas nowise favourable to the
+maintenance of their faith or the purity of their morals.
+
+[Footnote *66: Neither absurd nor revolting, I think, since, a little
+fantastically certainly, but very truly none the less, it expresses
+that continuity of the religious sense in Europe which is perhaps the
+one eternal thing to be found in it. If the saints are not in a very
+real sense the gods in exile, they are excellent imitations of them.]
+
+A not less prejudicial element emanated from the revived philosophies
+of Greece, which now arrested attention and divided the speculations
+of learned men. That derived from Aristotle, and known to Europe
+through the sages of Arabia, had long occupied the cloisters, where
+alone mind was then exercised, or its operations studied. The rival
+system of Plato came directly from its native soil; and was first
+publicly taught in Italy early in the fifteenth century, by Gemistus
+Plato,[*67] of Constantinople. It attracted the notice of Cosimo
+PATER PATRIÆ, who after having Marsilio Ficino, son of his
+physician, grounded in its mysteries by Greeks of learning, placed
+him at the head of an academy in Florence, instituted by himself
+for the dissemination of its doctrines. From thence these radiated,
+absorbing the attention of literary men, and enlisting many converts
+from the Stagirite faith. Aristotle and Plato became the watchwords
+of contending sects,[*68] and the usual jarring results of such
+logomachy were not long wanting. The merits of a question, at first
+exaggerated by its respective zealots, were lost sight of in the
+torrent of abuse which gradually superseded argument, and inflamed
+every evil passion. Far overleaping the legitimate limits or literary
+warfare, disputant logicians advanced from replies to libels, from
+words to blows, and, after exhausting the armoury of invective,
+had recourse to the dagger. But on a subject so painful we are not
+called to enter. Backed by the authority of Nicholas V., the zeal
+of Cardinal Bessarion, and the example of the Medici, the sublime
+and imaginative speculations of Platonism for a time prevailed over
+the more material system of the Stagirite, and Florence became their
+head-quarters. The human mind, unaided by revelation, has never
+invented any system so abstractly beautiful, so pure in its morals,
+so elevating in its conceptions, so harmonious in its conclusions.
+Its lofty ethics rank next to the doctrines of inspiration, for it
+taught that happiness is the natural result of virtue, and that
+the mischiefs entailed by the passions are ill repaid by their
+transient pleasures. Yet, though thus intrinsically calculated to
+ennoble and refine the heart of fallen man, the Platonic theories
+indirectly led to lamentable results, both to the religion and the
+morality of the age. The divine revelation was by them virtually
+superseded, and paganism, from an affectation, became a conviction,
+or, at the least, a prevailing fashion, warping the manners and
+phrases, the faith and spirit of the age. Men lived for the present
+world by the light of human reason, until they forgot or denied a
+future existence, and a holier wisdom. The first blow struck at this
+practical heathenism came from Paul II., a Venetian, who was behind
+the age in its knowledge, as well as in its extravagances, and who
+relentlessly persecuted what he had not the capacity to redargue.
+Mind was, however, no longer to be silenced by papal bulls, or
+trammelled by penal fetters: it regarded the use of such weapons as
+proof that the spiritual armoury contained none more serviceable, and
+learned to demur to an ecclesiastical despotism it already loathed.
+Succeeding pontiffs disavowed the policy of Paul: but the old respect
+for the papacy was shaken; doubts arrayed themselves against dogmas,
+cavilling superseded blind faith, until the dissolute example set
+by the courts of Innocent, Alexander, and Leo, converted scepticism
+into infidelity, apathy into open aggression. It is impossible to
+contemplate the great talents, the unwearied application, absorbed by
+these rival systems of philosophy, without a sigh that they should
+have been wasted on inquiries so purely speculative; yet, it cannot
+be denied that the controversy prepared weapons that have since
+done good service in many a better cause; that it developed mental
+energies, and matured intellectual discipline, from which the world
+continues largely to benefit.
+
+[Footnote *67: Not Plato, but Plethon. He refused the name of Plato
+with which he was hailed by Cosimo de' Medici. Cf. Ficino in preface
+to his _Plotini Epitome_ (Firenze, 1492). "Magnus Cosimus, quo
+tempore concilium inter Graecos et Latinos, sub Eugenio pontefice
+Florentinæ tractabatur, philosophum Graecum, nomine Gemistum
+cognomine Plethonem, quasi Platonem alterum de mysteriis Platonicis
+disputantem frequenter audivit; e cujus ore ferventi sic afflatus
+est protinus, sic animatus, ut inde Academiam quandam alta mente
+conceperit, hanc opportuno primum tempore pariturus." Marsilio Ficino
+had a poor understanding of Plato.]
+
+[Footnote *68: Cf. GEORGIOS TRAPEZUNTIOS, _Comparatio
+Platonis et Aristotelis_.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Although the revival of letters had been advancing during several
+generations ere the chiefs of Montefeltro sought other laurels than
+those of the battle-field, it was reserved for these princes to
+contribute no mean aids towards their full development in that golden
+harvest which the fifteenth century saw gathered in. Indeed, the
+concurrent testimony of all writers has claimed for the sovereigns of
+Urbino a foremost place among the friends of literature. In the words
+of the general motto of this work, which well condense the prevailing
+opinion, "it is notorious beyond question even of the malignant, that
+the house of Montefeltro and della Rovere has for a long time past
+been that which [most] shed a lustre upon Italy by letters, arms, and
+every sort of rare worth, and that the court of Urbino may be termed
+a Pegasean spring, in the language of historic truth rather than of
+poetic hyperbole." It was to the successive reigns of Dukes Federigo
+and Guidobaldo I. that such expressions were generally applied, and
+to them our attention will now be directed; but in a future portion
+of this work we shall endeavour to maintain for their della Rovere
+successors a similar reputation.
+
+Were we to estimate the celebrities of Urbino by the encomiums of
+their partial countrymen, and measure their claims upon mundane
+immortality by the standard set up by Baldi Lazzari, Grossi,
+Cimarelli, and Olivieri, it would become our indispensable duty
+to add at least a volume to the present work. But these authors
+were deeply imbued with that peculiarly Italian patriotism which,
+narrowing its sympathies within the limits of a township or a petty
+state, enshrined provincial mediocrity in a temple of fame modelled
+upon a scale of national splendour. Believing that the dignity of
+their little fatherland depended upon the notices of its existence
+which they could worm out of antique memorials, however doubtful in
+authority, and upon the number of notable names they could connect
+with its localities, they tasked themselves to this investigation
+with industry worthy of a nobler and more useful object. Many folio
+volumes, ponderous in their contents as in their material, were
+the result; but they preserve only laborious trifling, a harvest
+of wordy conclusions gleaned from a soil barren of tangible facts,
+dissertations which may be summed up in the axiom _ex nihilo
+nihil fit_, "nothing comes of nought." Like those of the northern
+senachies, their themes were often legendary or invented, and it
+would have been scarcely a loss to literature had these productions
+been equally fugitive. Should the worthies mentioned in the following
+chapters seem scarcely to maintain the literary renown of Urbino, our
+readers ought in justice to remember that scarcely a tithe has found
+place in our pages of those whom zealous eulogists have placed upon
+the roll of Italian literati, but
+
+ "Whose obscurer name
+ No proud historian's page will chronicle."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+ Count Guidantonio a patron of learned men--Duke
+ Federigo--The _Assorditi_ Academy--Dedications to
+ him--Prose writers of Urbino--Gentile Becci, Bishop of
+ Arezzo--Francesco Venturini--Berni of Gubbio--Polydoro di
+ Vergilio--Vespasiano Filippi--Castiglione--Bembo--Learned
+ ladies.
+
+
+The reputation long enjoyed by the house of Montefeltro as patrons of
+letters and arts can scarcely be traced further back than Federigo,
+second Duke of Urbino. Yet the few memorials that remain of his
+father, Count Guidantonio, throw some scattered lights upon congenial
+tastes, and from these we select three letters to the magistracy of
+Siena, which are preserved in the Archivio Diplomatico of that city.
+The first of them is written in Latin, the others in Italian.
+
+ "To the mighty and potent Lords the well beloved Fathers,
+ the Lords Priors, Governors, and Captain of the people of
+ the city of Siena.
+
+ "Mighty and potent Lords, my especial Fathers,
+
+ "After the expression of my sincere affection: I
+ understand that your Magnificences are about to agree
+ upon a commendable work, that of endeavouring to amend
+ the course of legal and other educational studies in your
+ city: what is really laudable needs no verbose exposition,
+ the fact being of itself clear and manifest. I have here
+ my compeer the excellent Doctor Benedetto di Bresis of
+ Perugia, a man of great integrity, who, without gainsaying
+ any one, sets forth the law in that city more amply than
+ any of the other judges who expound it there, and whom
+ his sacred Majesty lately invited to undertake the office
+ of captain of Aquila, on the recommendation of his own
+ merits, a charge which he has hitherto declined only from
+ an unwillingness to interrupt those studies to which he
+ is primarily devoted. I, however, hesitate not to propose
+ him as well qualified for your Magnificences, induced by a
+ twofold motive; first, that he may be able to continue his
+ studies; secondly, that he may escape from the contagion
+ of a home now struck by the pestilence; thirdly, that
+ through me you may have the honour of securing for your
+ course of study so able a doctor. I therefore heartily
+ entreat your Magnificences, and again pray and beseech
+ you, to appoint him to your lectureship of civil law with
+ an adequate salary, as a singular pleasure to myself, and
+ as a compliment to him, whose ample qualifications must
+ be satisfactory to the free wishes of your community and
+ the judges. And should he now or in future fall short of
+ these recommendations, which I cannot suppose (for I am not
+ so stupid), I shall consider your Magnificences to have
+ received at my hands a disgrace and injury, entitling you
+ in reason and justice to complain of me, after having so
+ received him into your service; and I shall always continue
+ beyond measure obnoxious to you and your city. Ever ready
+ to do you all service; from Urbino, 1st of August, 1412.
+
+ "COUNT GUIDANTONIO OF MONTEFELTRO AND URBINO."
+
+
+ "Mighty and potent Lords, dearest Fathers:
+
+ "The worthy and skilful Messer Piero di Pergolotti of
+ Verona is repairing to your magnificent Lordships, who
+ for a good while has been at Pesaro, where he practised
+ surgery, conducting himself with propriety and diligence,
+ so that the lords of that place and myself feel much
+ obliged to him, and consider ourselves bound to promote
+ his knowledge by providing him with the means of study.
+ He earnestly desires to enter into your establishment
+ of the Sapienza, where he hopes to do credit to this
+ recommendation, as well as to advance his own honour and
+ advantage. And knowing how much I am devoted to your
+ Magnificences, he has had recourse to me, hoping through
+ me to effect his wish. I, therefore, in consideration of
+ his capacity, science, and worth, pray that on my account
+ you will consider him fully recommended, and will grant him
+ admission into the Sapienza, whereby your Magnificences
+ will greatly gratify me, to whom I ever commend myself.
+ From Durante, the 2nd of May, 1440.
+
+ "GUIDANTONIO, COUNT OF MONTEFELTRO, URBINO, AND
+ DURANTE."
+
+
+ "Mighty and potent Lords, most honoured Fathers,
+
+ "There is in your Sapienza one Messer Zucha da Cagli, my
+ intimate friend, who, as I am informed, is very able in
+ civil rights, and who, for his advancement in reputation
+ and skill, wishes to have a lectureship, either the one
+ read after the first doctors come forth in the morning, or
+ that in the afternoon an hour before the ordinary doctors
+ enter. I hereby pray your magnificent Lordships, that the
+ said Messer Zucha be at my sight recommended to you, and
+ whatever honour or benefit your Lordships grant him I shall
+ consider as bestowed on myself, and shall remain constantly
+ grateful. From Cagli, the 24th of December, 1441.
+
+ "GUIDANTONIO, COUNT OF MONTEFELTRO, URBINO, AND
+ DURANTE."
+
+Among the traits of literary taste displayed by Duke Federigo, we
+learn from his biographer Muzio, that it was his custom to repair
+weekly to the Franciscan convent, and to encourage among its learned
+society debates and discussions on subjects analogous to their
+studies. Upon this somewhat loose foundation, he has been claimed
+as founder of the _Assorditi_, and it has been ranked among the
+earliest academies in Italy. We need not pause to investigate
+their respective titles to honours so questionable, now that such
+associations are generally recognised as prolific of two enormous
+literary nuisances, pedantry and puerility. From their antipathic
+contact genius long has fled, leaving the field open to triumphant
+mediocrity. Pretending to no original efforts, it was their narrow
+aim to imitate standard productions, or to ring the changes upon them
+in prosing and pointless commentaries. To indite two tomes of scholia
+on a sonnet of Petrarch was the dreary task that qualified for
+admission into the Florentine Academy; to string Platonic nothings
+into rhyme was the high ambition which numbered votaries by hundreds.
+The _Assorditi_ were no exception from the usual category of
+mediocrity; and whether they were first associated under Federigo's
+protection, or, as Tiraboschi alleges, sprang into existence under
+Guidobaldo II., is of little moment to the literary history of Urbino.
+
+In times when letters flourished chiefly at courts, patronage was
+the grand end of authorship, every work being inscribed to at least
+one high personage. The character and position of Federigo subjected
+him to a large share of such incense; but among the many dedications
+laid at his feet none perhaps was more fulsome, and at the same time
+more ingenious, than that prefixed by Marsilio Ficino to his Latin
+version of Plato's _Essay on Monarchy_. It narrates that Jupiter,
+willing to found on earth a model sovereignty, resolved to send down
+the beau-ideal of a ruler for its guidance. He, therefore, summoned
+the gods in full convocation, and presented to them his new creation,
+under the title _Fideregum Orbinatem Ducem_, which may be literally
+interpreted "Royal faith, ruler of the world," but which was
+corrupted by human idiom into _Federigo Urbinate Duce_. Pallas and
+Mercury thereupon, in presence of Truth, endowed the new prince with
+crown and sceptre; and the Academy, as a humble handmaid of these
+deities, inscribed to him Plato's work upon mundane sovereignty.
+Although we have had occasion to notice in our tenth chapter this
+Duke's taste for the graver studies of theology, philosophy, history,
+and Grecian literature, and to commemorate the fruit it produced in a
+variety of other dedications, yet few who distinguished themselves in
+these pursuits are sufficiently identified with Urbino to authorise
+our dwelling at any length upon their names. Guarino of Verona,
+Poggio Bracciolini, Donato Acciaiolo, Poliziano, and others of mark,
+may therefore be omitted; and we shall thus have very few prose
+authors to bring before our readers.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+GENTILE DE' BECCI was probably a native of Urbino, but the
+interest attaching to his name is owing rather to the distinction
+attained by his pupils than to his own. He was selected by Pietro
+de' Medici to train up his son Lorenzo the Magnificent; and to have
+educated such a mind is an unexceptionable title to fame. Yet the
+Christian philanthropist who sighs over the dross which mingled
+with its ore, the impure uses to which its bright metal was in some
+respects misdirected, by a master who might have moulded it to
+holier purposes, and might have enriched by its talents the treasury
+of truth and the triumphs of religion, may well hesitate ere he
+grants to the preceptor of Lorenzo a reflected share of his glory,
+without also holding him responsible for that pagan epicureanism
+which spread like a pestilence from the Medicean court throughout
+Italy. Nor do the notices remaining of Becci tend to nullify such
+an inference. The favour of his patrons naturally obtaining for him
+rapid promotion, he was raised to the see of Arezzo in 1473. But
+his life was that of a statesman rather than that of a good pastor.
+We read of his tact as a diplomatist, his skill in public affairs,
+his dexterous civil administration of his diocese, by directing
+towards commercial industry energies which had wasted themselves on
+faction; we are assured that his popularity was confirmed by his
+encouragement of liberal arts, by his mild and courteous character;
+we are told that in political science his pen was ably employed. But
+regarding his theological attainments, the purity of his morals, the
+zeal of his clerical ministrations, his eulogists are silent. We may
+add that to him Guicciardini in some degree imputes the miscarriage
+of the proposed league of Italy against the French invasion in
+1492, in consequence of his personal ambition, when sent to conduct
+the negotiations at Rome on the part of the Medici, whilst his
+thoughtless extravagance there wasted resources of the Florentines
+which might have been better spent on military preparations.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Of LUDOVICO ODASIO it is unnecessary to add anything to what
+we have already had occasion to say.[69] FRANCESCO VENTURINI
+of Urbino is reputed the first after the revival who wrote a complete
+Latin grammar. It was dedicated to Count Ottaviano Ubaldini, and
+was printed at Florence in 1482, and again in his native town by
+Henry of Cologne, in 1493-4.[70] Among his pupils he is said to have
+numbered both Raffaele and Michael Angelo.[*71] Besides BERNI
+DA GUBBIO, whose Diary has been edited in the Scriptores of
+Muratori, there were several annotators of events in their native
+duchy, whose prose writings remain in the Vatican Library, and have
+supplied us with useful information; but they were not historians,
+and it is unnecessary to bring them forth from their obscurity. Of
+one name, however, we may make an exception.
+
+[Footnote 69: See vol. I., p. 297. His oration on the death of
+Federigo is No. 1233 of the Vat. Urb. MSS.]
+
+[Footnote 70: Maestro Arrigo, of Cologne, _alias_ Heinrich v. Coln,
+had then a press at Urbino. The typographic art had been introduced
+there about 1481, and at Cagli five years earlier by Roberto da Fano
+and Bernardino da Bergamo.]
+
+[Footnote *71: Francesco da Urbino, who was certainly Michelangelo's
+schoolmaster, does not seem to be the same as his friend Francesco
+Urbino, so touchingly spoken of in the following letter from
+Michelangelo to Vasari:--
+
+ "Messer Giorgio, Dear Friend,--Although I write but badly,
+ yet will I say a few words in reply to yours. You know that
+ Urbino is dead, for which I owe the greatest thanks to God;
+ at the same time my loss is heavy and sorrow infinite. The
+ grace is this, that while Urbino living kept me alive, in
+ dying he has taught me to die not unwillingly but rather
+ with a desire for death. I had him with me twenty-six
+ years, and always found him faithful and true. Now that I
+ had made him rich and thought to keep him on the staff and
+ rest of my old age he has departed, and the only hope left
+ me is that of seeing him again in Paradise, and of this God
+ has given a sign in his most happy death. Even more than
+ dying, it grieved him to leave me alive in this treacherous
+ world, with so many troubles; the better part of me went
+ with him, nothing is left to me but endless sorrow. I
+ commend myself to you....
+
+ "Your MICHAEL ANGELO BUONARROTI, in Rome.
+
+ "The 23 day of February, 1556."
+
+See Le Lettere, No. CDLXXV., p. 539, in Brit. Museum, and
+HOLROYD, _Michael Angelo_ (Duckworth, 1903), p. 255.
+
+It was this Urbino's brother who was Raphael's well-known pupil, _Il
+Fattore_. Cf. also HOLROYD, _op. cit._, pp. 273 and 314.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+POLYDORO DI VERGILIO was born at Urbino about 1470, and
+studied at Bologna. His relation, Adrian Castellesi, who, when
+Cardinal of Corneto, was well known both in England and at Rome,[72]
+had been sent by Innocent VIII. as legate to Scotland, but remained
+at London in consequence of the death of James III. at the battle of
+Stirling. There he was joined by Polydoro, who, on taking priest's
+orders, had, through his influence, obtained from Alexander VI. the
+collectorship of an old house-tax in England called _Romescot_, or
+Peter's pence, originally imposed in Saxon times for the maintenance
+of English pilgrims to Rome. Aliens being there frequently objects
+of church preferment, he, in 1503, obtained the rectory of Church
+Langton in Leicestershire; and, on his patron's appointment in the
+following year to the see of Bath and Wells, the path of further
+promotion was opened to him. In 1507 he became prebendary of Lincoln
+and of Hereford, and archdeacon of Wells, on which he resigned his
+collectorship. In 1515 he shared an imprisonment in the Tower,
+brought upon Adrian by the jealousy of Wolsey, whose haughty spirit,
+disappointed of the purple, attributed the delayed honours to the
+Bishop's influence. Letters were consequently written by Sadoleto
+in Leo's name to the English court on behalf of Polydoro, and
+Wolsey having received the much coveted scarlet hat, there was no
+further pretext for his detention. The date of his return home is
+variously stated at 1534 or 1550, and he carried from Henry VIII. a
+recommendation which procured him letters of nobility from his own
+sovereign. His literary talents being probably somewhat overrated in
+Italy, the long residence he made in the hotbed of heresy, without
+exercising his pen in defence of his Church, appears to have brought
+the purity of his faith under suspicion. That there was no tangible
+ground for the imputation may be presumed from his spending the rest
+of his life unquestioned at Urbino, where he died in 1555, and was
+buried in the Duomo.
+
+[Footnote 72: Many curious unedited particulars regarding him, with
+reference to the conspiracy against Leo X. in 1517, of which he was
+suspected, are contained in Sanuto's Diaries, but we have not space
+to notice them.]
+
+The favour which Vergilio obtained in Adrian's eyes was partly
+owing to his success in cultivating the niceties of the Latin
+tongue, to restore which in its purity was a favourite project of
+the Cardinal. Before quitting Italy he had dedicated to Guidobaldo
+I. his _Proverbiorum Libellus_, a volume scarcely meriting the
+controversy upon which he entered with Erasmus as to the priority
+of suggesting such a collection. In 1499 he finished his treatise
+_De Inventoribus Rerum_, which was placed in the index of prohibited
+works, in consequence of tracing certain liturgical observances back
+to pagan superstitions; Grossi, however, vindicates his orthodoxy
+by ascribing the obnoxious passages to heretical interpolation. His
+essay _De Prodigiis_ is an attempt to explain upon natural principles
+all omens, auguries, and other superstitious observances. As it is
+inscribed to Duke Francesco Maria I., he probably returned to Italy
+before 1538.
+
+But what chiefly interests us is a Latin _History of England_,
+which he is said to have undertaken at the suggestion of Henry
+VII., or more probably of Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester, who
+procured him access to certain archives. This work, from being the
+first general compilation of the sort given to the public, obtained
+more consideration than its superficial and inaccurate matter
+deserved; and Mr. Roscoe well observes that it has not gained the
+suffrages of posterity, either by ability or freedom from bias.
+Among the impugners of its veracity are Whear, Humphrey Lloyd,
+Henry Savile, and Bishop Bale. Some of these excuse his blunders
+on the questionable plea of his ignorance of English government,
+dialects, and manners, while Leland regrets that a writer so little
+trustworthy should have cast over his deceptions the graces of style.
+Anticipating perhaps such an aspersion, he, in his dedication of
+the work to Henry VIII., dated from London in 1530, compared the
+chronicles of Bede and Gildas, crude in form and phraseology, to
+meat served without the salt which it was his object to supply. Yet
+while the English blame him for misrepresentations,--avenged in the
+stinging Latin epigram,
+
+ "Maro and Polydore bore Virgil's name;
+ One reaps a poet's, one a liar's fame,"--
+
+Giovio cites the testimony of French and Scotch authors to his
+partiality for the land of his adoption. More serious, but
+unestablished, is a charge greatly resented by his countrymen, that,
+after garbling records and ancient muniments thrown open to his
+examination, he consummated the outrage by destroying the evidence of
+his villainy. It may, however, be well to keep in view that, although
+Bale claims him as a willing reformer of certain Romish abuses, his
+adherence to that Church brought on him distrust of the Protestants,
+in an age when theological disputes were matter affecting life and
+limb.
+
+In the Vatican is preserved a MS. of this history in two volumes
+folio, of 1210 pages, in twenty-five books, ending with the death
+of James IV. of Scotland in 1512. The narrative is preceded by a
+dedication in Latin to Francesco Maria II., from Antonio Vergilio
+Battiferri, grand-nephew of the author, which is dated in 1613, and
+mentions the MS. as autograph. Yet on the last leaf is this colophon,
+apparently in the same hand: "Rogo ut bene conserventur, simul cum
+aliis in cenobio venerand. monalium Sce. Clare de Urbino, quousque
+bella, Deo favente, cessabunt. Ego Federicus Ludovici Veterani
+Urbinus scripsi totum opus." But though not the original, that
+transcriber's name guarantees the accuracy of this copy. An extract
+from it in II. of the Appendix proves that the Leyden edition of 1651
+is in fact a loose paraphrase of the work.[73]
+
+[Footnote 73: The MS. is No. 497-8 of the Vat. Urb. MSS. An edition
+in folio was published at Bâle in 1546.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+VESPASIANO FILIPPI[*74] was a Florentine bibliopole, in an
+age when that commerce was carried on by persons of learning, whose
+business it was to transcribe, collate, and critically master the
+MSS. which formed its staple. He was thus in familiar intercourse
+not only with the literary men of the age, but with such princes
+and prelates as turned their attention to the promotion of reviving
+letters by multiplication and preservation of books. Of many such
+he has left us biographical notices, recently given to the world
+by Cardinal Mai from three MSS. in the Vatican library,[75] and in
+the Riccardiana of Florence. His collection of lives of illustrious
+ladies remains unedited. In the former work no memoir is so fully
+extended as that of Duke Federigo of Urbino, upon which we have in
+part drawn in our Second Book. It was inscribed to Duke Guidobaldo
+I., in a dedication which not only testifies to his father's martial
+skill, and a prowess that never knew defeat, but also to the prudence
+of his sway, and assures us that the great powers of Italy had
+frequent recourse to his judicious counsels. Unlike the pedantic
+writers among whom he lived, Vespasiano composed these memoirs in
+the language of the people for whose information he intended them;
+but the long interval that elapsed before they saw the light has
+necessarily prevented them from becoming in any degree popular.
+Muratori, though unable to give an account of their author, has
+printed his lives of Eugene IV. and Nicholas V., and characterises
+his style as possessing a simplicity more precious than eloquence.
+
+[Footnote *74: For Vespasiano da Bisticci, consult (1) his own
+charming and exquisite work, _Vite degli uomini Illustri_ (Firenze,
+1859), with an excellent preface by Bartoli; FRATI, _Lettere_ (Bologna,
+1892-93). ROSSI writes of these in _Giornale Stor. d. Lett. Ital._
+(1892), vol. XX., p. 258, and vol. XXIV., p. 276. (2) FRIZZI, _Di
+Vespasiano da Bisticci e delle sue biografie_ (Pisa, 1887).]
+
+[Footnote 75: _Spicilegium Romanum_, tom. I. (Romæ, 1839). Vat. Urb.
+MSS. 941.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Two members only of the brilliant and lettered court of
+Guidobaldo have gained enduring celebrity from their
+writings--CASTIGLIONE and BEMBO.[*76] The former
+may be considered a pattern of gentlemanly writing, the latter of
+scholarlike composition. We have already said what is necessary
+of both, and have introduced into our narrative an idea of Count
+Baldassare's _Cortegiano_, its objects and style. It is said to
+have been suggested by Louis XII., and written about 1516, but
+the author's preface seems to point at an earlier date. Two of
+his published letters to Bembo show how anxiously he awaited the
+suffrage of his friends, among whom it was handed about; but it was
+sent to press in 1528, only in consequence of the alarm of a pirated
+edition being in preparation, from a MS. which had been submitted
+to the famed Vittoria Colonna, Marchioness of Pescara. The number
+of reprints which issued during the next fifty years was at least
+forty-two. A variety of circumstances conduced to this extensive and
+continued popularity. Books professing to initiate the many into
+habits and mysteries of refined society ever have claims on public
+curiosity, but the attraction was here increased by the dazzling
+reputation of the palace-circle at Urbino, as well as by the charms
+of erudition, wit, elegance, and worldly wisdom which sparkle in
+every page. It has, however, been remarked that most translations of
+the _Cortegiano_ have failed to obtain the applause bestowed upon the
+original. The observation may be taken as a compliment to the polish
+of its diction, and to those delicacies of expression that bear no
+transplanting into another idiom. It also proves that the celebrity
+of this work rests much upon its style. The subject could scarcely
+be treated at such length without falling into that diffuseness and
+repetition, which, though clothed in beauty by the rich fluency of
+the Italian language, must always degenerate into monotony when
+rendered by the bold expletives of a less copious tongue.
+
+[Footnote *76: For Castiglione, see works mentioned in note *2,
+p. 51 _supra_. I understand Mrs. Ady has written a biography of
+Castiglione, which is shortly to appear. For Bembo, I cite here
+a few works more especially relating to Urbino or to his general
+life: MORSOLIN, _Pietro Bembo e Lucrezia Borgia_, in _Nuova
+Autologia_, August, 1885. Cf. CIAN, in _Giornale Stor. d. Lett.
+Ital._, XXIX., p. 425. CIAN, _Un decennio della vita di P. Bembo_
+(1521-31) (Torino, 1885), and LUZIO, in _Giornale St. d. Lett. Ital._,
+VI., p. 270, and D'ANCONA, _Studi sulla Letteratura de' primi secoli_
+(Ancona, 1884), p. 151 _et seq._]
+
+[Illustration: CASTIGLIONE
+
+_After the picture by Raphael in the Louvre_]
+
+In a period when princes and courts little resembled what they have
+since become, we possess from the pens of Machiavelli and Castiglione
+generalised portraits of both; and they may be relied on as genuine,
+although the Tuscan, like the _tenebristi_ painters, overloaded his
+darker shadows, whilst the Mantuan Count employed the roseate tinting
+of licensed flattery. Roscoe considers the _Cortegiano_ an ethical
+treatise, yet it belongs as much to belles-lettres as to moral
+philosophy. Its author has been called the Chesterfield of Italy,
+and the parallel is singularly apt. The Count and the Earl have each
+supplied "a glass of fashion and a mould of form" for the guidance of
+their courtly contemporaries, and the posthumous reputation of both
+with the world at large rests more upon their dicta as arbiters of
+politeness, than upon their rare diplomatic address and statesmanlike
+attainments. With all its interest as a picture of manners and a test
+of civilisation in that proverbially refined age, with every charm
+which elegance of style can impart, it is impossible to dwell on the
+_Cortegiano_ without feeling that its influence was then fraught with
+evil. In the pages of that essay were first systematically embodied
+precepts of tact, lessons of adulation, all repugnant to the stern
+manners and wholesome independence of antecedent generations. The
+homely bearing of honest burghers, the rough and ready speech of men
+who lived in harness, were there put out of fashion by studied phrase
+and cringing flattery, too easy preparations for the effeminate
+euphuism and fulsome servility which Spanish thraldom soon after
+imposed upon Italy.
+
+Another work of Castiglione, to which we have already had occasion to
+refer, is his letter, written in Latin, to Henry VIII., containing
+an account of Guidobaldo's death, with a somewhat meagre sketch of
+his character. But there is in its composition an air of effort, a
+straining at rhetorical effect, which leave upon us the inevitable
+conclusion that he thought more of his style than his hero. These
+faults and deficiencies belong, however, in a still greater degree
+to that more ambitious disquisition, wherein Bembo has sought to
+honour the memory of the Duke and Duchess, whose favour he had amply
+enjoyed. His few fugitive poems well merit the preference accorded to
+them by Tiraboschi over most contemporary effusions, from force of
+sentiment not less than felicitous expression. It would be difficult
+to rival in the literature of any age the pathos of that ode wherein
+his beloved wife is supposed to sigh over his prolonged absence, and
+send him the sympathetic yearnings of her long-suppressed affection.
+Of this, however, and his Tirsis, we have already said enough.[77]
+
+[Footnote 77: See above, pp. 49-50, 53-4, 58.]
+
+The courtly qualities of Count Baldassare are acknowledged wherever
+his native literature is known; that they were not inconsistent with
+his observance of parental feelings is proved by an interesting
+Latin letter addressed to his children the year before his death,
+which has been preserved by Negrini in his _Elogii Historici_ of the
+Castiglione family.
+
+ "To my beloved children, Camillo, Anna, and Ippolita.
+
+ "It is my belief, dearest son Camillo, that you, above
+ all things, desire my return home, for nature and the
+ laws equally inculcate veneration for our parents next to
+ God; and in your case there may be a special duty, since
+ I, content with but one boy, would not have another to
+ share with you my property and parental affection. That I
+ may not have to repent of such a resolution, I shall own
+ myself free of doubt as to yourself; yet would I have you
+ aware that I look for such duty at your hands rather as a
+ debt, than with the indifference of most parents. It will
+ be easily paid, if you regard in the light of a father
+ that excellent preceptor obtained by your friends, and
+ implicitly follow his advice. From my prolonged absence,
+ I have nothing to inculcate upon you beyond this line of
+ Virgil, which I may without ostentation quote:
+
+ "From me, my son, learn worth and honest toil;
+ Fortune from others take."[78]
+
+ "And do you, Anna, who first endeared to me a daughter's
+ name, so perfect yourself in moral graces, that whatever
+ beauty your person may develop, shall be the handmaid of
+ your virtues, and shall figure last in the compliments
+ paid you. And you, Ippolita, reflect on my love for her
+ whose name you bear; and how charming it would be for your
+ merits to surpass your sister's as much as her years do
+ yours. Go on both, as you are doing, and, having lost the
+ mother who bore you before you could know her to be so, do
+ you imitate her qualities, that all may remark how greatly
+ you resemble her. Adieu.
+
+ "From Monzoni, the 13th July, 1528.
+
+ "Your father,
+
+ "BALTHASSAR CASTILION."
+
+[Footnote 78:
+
+ "Disce, puer, virtutem ex me, verumque laborem;
+ Fortunam ex aliis."
+
+ _Æneid_ XII., 345.
+
+Dryden has missed the point of this passage.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The position which BEMBO holds in the literature of Italy's
+golden age is not less singular than prominent. As an historian and
+poet, a philologist and rhetorician, and as a voluminous writer of
+official and private letters, he challenges criticism and has gained
+applause. It is, however, as a reformer of style that his claims
+have been most freely accorded, and his example held up to general
+imitation. Following the fashion of his day, he regarded classical,
+and especially Latin, attainments, as the attribute most needful for
+an accomplished man. But he went further; and, aware of the coarse
+and rugged manner into which literature had fallen, sought to correct
+Latin composition, and to perfect his own tongue, after the purest
+ancient standards. On this object he spared no pains, till by long
+and laborious practice he wrote in both with equal precision. He is
+said to have subjected each of his works to forty separate critical
+revisions, and no one can read a page without feeling that, as with
+too many of his countrymen, the manner has occupied quite as much
+thought as the matter. This naturally tended to an opposite extreme,
+for the studied structure of his sentences, and the fatiguing
+recurrence of mythological allusion, are blemishes greatly detracting
+from the pleasure afforded by his works.[79] Scaliger, accordingly,
+has scourged his pagan misnomers of divine things, while his
+"childish heresy" of abject Ciceronian imitation is ridiculed by
+Lansius and Lipsius. Yet there is justice in the test applied to
+them by Tiraboschi; for great and wide-spread evils require extreme
+remedies, and the prevailing laxity of style having been once
+brought into discredit by his example, those who followed were able
+to avail themselves of his guidance and taste, without falling into
+the rigidity and constraint which blemish his compositions. Indeed,
+notwithstanding these obvious blots, which hero-worship has mistaken
+for beauties, his History of Venice, his Essay on Imitation, his
+diplomatic and familiar correspondence, and even his poetry, must,
+when tried by then-received standards, be allowed a merit entitling
+them to the general suffrage of contemporaries. It is to his Latin
+prose that our strictures are most applicable. Forgetting, in his
+zealous imitation of Cicero, the allowance due to modern themes,
+principles, and feelings, he so slavishly followed that heathen
+philosopher's idioms, as to clothe what he meant for Christianity
+in the words of paganism. Even his letters, running in name of the
+successor of St. Peter, transmuted the Almighty into a pantheistic
+generality, our Saviour into a hero, and the Madonna into a goddess
+of Loreto. It may be feared that this latitudinarianism was not
+limited to manner, for an anecdote alleges him to have seriously
+recommended a young divine to avoid reading St. Paul's Epistles, lest
+they might mar his style.
+
+[Footnote 79: "Quid autem ineptius quam, toto seculo renovato,
+religione, imperiis, magistratibus, locorum vocabulis, ædificiis,
+cultu, moribus, non aliter audire, loqui, quam locutus est
+Cicero? Si revivisceret ipse Cicero, rideret hoc Ciceronianorum
+genus."--ERASMUS.]
+
+Compositions conceived and executed in so eclectic a spirit could
+scarcely avoid falling into coldness and pedantry; and such are
+prominent faults in his Venetian history, and his tribute to Duke
+Guidobaldo,--two works especially connected with the subject of
+these pages. The former is the most important production of his pen,
+and was begun in 1529, by desire of the Signory, in continuation of
+Sabellico's narrative, It is comprised in twelve books, extending
+from 1487 to 1513, where it remained unfinished at his death, but
+was continued by Paruta. From a contemporary possessing talent,
+industry, leisure, and high literary reputation, as well as many
+opportunities of personal observation, very large expectations might
+be legitimately entertained. But as a churchman, he is said to have
+been jealously excluded from the Venetian archives, a condition
+which, in the judgment of Tiraboschi, ought to have disqualified
+him from the task, and which may account for, if it cannot excuse,
+the superficial character of the narrative, the poverty of graphic
+details, and the teasing absence of dates. On the composition, too,
+his classic mania has left its withering traces. It was his ambition
+here to rival the Commentaries of Cæsar; and, in perfecting the
+idiom of a dead language, he has constrained freedom of thought, and
+polished away the life and spirit of his theme. We have examined his
+pages, as an indispensable authority upon events which occupy several
+chapters of our work; but those who read Italian history for pleasure
+will generally prefer to do so either in the Italian tongue or their
+own. Conscious probably of this, the author himself translated the
+work into his vernacular language, and both versions were published
+soon after his death.
+
+His dissertation on the characters of the Duke and Duchess of
+Urbino is written in Latin, and exhibits all those blemishes of
+style to which we have just referred, and which so strangely jar
+upon the fulsome flattery and elaborate verbiage which he labours
+to reduce into Ciceronian terseness. Though entitled a "Book," the
+whole occupies but a hundred pages in the octavo edition of his
+works (1567), whereof scarcely one third is original matter. It is
+addressed to Nicolò Tiepolo, a literary gentleman of Venice, and
+professes to have been committed to writing for the satisfaction
+of some Venetians who, feeling an interest in Guidobaldo as their
+former guest, had applied to the father of Bembo for some account of
+his death. It is thrown into a dialogue between himself, Sadoleto,
+Filippo Beroaldo the younger, and Sigismondo [Conti?] of Foligno.
+The last-named personage supplies to their inquiries a narrative
+of the Duke's closing hours, addressed to Julius II., by Federigo
+Fregoso, along with the funeral oration pronounced at his obsequies
+by his preceptor Odasio. The former of these is written in a strain
+beseeming a heathen philosopher, rather than a Christian dignitary;
+the latter, which Tiraboschi has detected as very different from the
+printed oration, is to the full as turgid and tiresome as are most
+such efforts of Italian adulation; neither of them tell anything of
+importance that Castiglione has not better given us.
+
+The whole discourse is, as I have had occasion to mention,[80] of
+but trifling value to the biographer of these personages. Facts
+are generalised until no substance remains; incidents and traits
+of character are lost in the multiplicity of epithets; and thus we
+have, instead of a speaking likeness, a vague and showy picture,
+overladen with ornaments until individuality is gone. The warmer
+emotions of the heart could scarcely, perhaps, be happily clothed in
+the abstractions of a dead tongue, unadapted to the times, and to
+circumstances which required the outpourings of unaffected grief;
+at all events, these measured periods and studied phrases give no
+real pleasure. Bembo was an elegant Latinist, but in such a work the
+language of nature could alone afford satisfaction. When we seek
+to know the true characters of his distinguished patrons, we are
+dismissed with an inflated rhetorical exercise; we are offered bread,
+and find it a stone. These strictures apply to the long funeral
+oration, but still more to the dull didactic discourse of the four
+friends, which wants the fire and feeling of the eulogy, and is
+soiled by gross details gratuitously introduced on a point at which
+good taste would have barely glanced. In all respects, the most
+interesting portion of the work is Fregoso's letter, upon which we
+have drawn in describing the death-bed of Guidobaldo. On the whole,
+this production may be dismissed with a doubt whether its prosiness
+or its pruriency is most offensive. Nor will the perusal of those
+papal brieves, extended by the same writer, which despoiled of his
+inheritance the Duke's adopted child, blasphemously ejecting him from
+the pale of Christendom, give a higher opinion of the sincerity of
+this ungrateful sycophant.
+
+[Footnote 80: Vol. I., p. 298, 392; II., 114.]
+
+His other works, having no immediate reference to our subject,
+may be dismissed with few words. _The Prose_, a treatise upon
+rhetoric, intended to fix the standard of pure Italian composition,
+is a dialogue, to which Giuliano de' Medici and Federigo Fregoso
+are parties. _Gli Asolani_, a more juvenile production, was named
+from the castle of Asolo, at which some youths are represented as
+discussing the tender passion in all its moods and modifications.
+This theme, notwithstanding the tedious manner in which it is
+treated, gave it great popularity over western Europe in the
+sixteenth century, but the style and substance alike render it
+unpalatable to modern amateurs of light reading. His Latin treatise
+_De Imitatione_ is a dull defence of his Ciceronian mannerisms;
+his essay in the same language upon Virgil and Terence a laboured
+philological critique; his _De Ætna Liber_ a report of physical
+observations during an early residence near that volcano. His poetry,
+both Latin and Italian, enjoyed high reputation at a period when
+imitations of Petrarch had degenerated into common-place; for he
+succeeded in brushing away the rust of ages, and restoring much
+of the bright polish peculiar to the bard of Arqua. Lastly, his
+very numerous private and official letters have preserved to us a
+valuable store of facts, and much curious illustration of coeval
+manners and individual character.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The share of laborious learning voluntarily borne by ladies of
+the highest birth in the fifteenth century is a singular problem.
+There was scarcely a sovereign family that could not boast among
+its daughters some votary of intellectual pursuits, in an age when
+mental cultivation was of a sort more calculated to overburden
+genius, than to give wings to fancy in her flight after knowledge.
+A familiar acquaintance with Latin was then requisite, being the
+key to modern as well as classic and biblical literature, and also
+the current language of diplomacy or courtly intercourse.[*81] The
+abstruse distinctions of ancient philosophy, the complex tenets of
+dogmatic theology, the fatiguing jargon of scholastic disputation,
+were all included in the circle of female accomplishments. Such were
+the graces for which Bianca d'Este, Isotta Nogarolo, and Veronica
+Gambara were famed; while another Isotta, paramour of the truculent
+Lord of Rimini, divided contemporary adulation between the beauties
+of her person and her mind. The vagueness of such eulogies might
+well justify scepticism as to the profundity of that lore they
+were intended to vaunt; but in the case of Ippolita Maria Sforza,
+daughter of Francesco Duke of Milan, and wife of Alfonso King of
+Naples, chance has afforded us a standard of the knowledge mastered
+by these learned ladies. It was for this princess that Constantine
+Lascaris composed the earliest Greek Grammar; and in the convent
+library of Sta. Croce at Rome there is a transcript by her of
+Cicero De Senectute, followed by a juvenile collection of Latin
+apophthegms curiously indicative of her character and studies. The
+house of Montefeltro could boast a full share of such distinction,
+in Princess Battista, wife of the wretched Galeazzo Lord of Pesaro,
+to whose literary celebrity we have elsewhere paid our tribute,
+and whose progeny we have seen maintaining the prestige of her
+accomplishments to the third generation. Her great-granddaughter
+Battista Sforza rivalled her accomplishments, and those of her cousin
+Ippolita Maria, and, when placed by her marriage at the head of the
+court at Urbino, contributed much to the literary reputation which
+it then first obtained. Its two succeeding duchesses of the Gonzaga
+race, although women of remarkable talent, did not carry so far the
+cultivation of their natural powers; but we have found, in their
+relative and associate Emilia Pia, one whose learning was scarcely
+less notable than her wit.
+
+[Footnote *81: On the whole subject of women, see note *1, p.
+72. Their education was the same as that of their brothers. Cf.
+SYMONDS, _The Renaissance in Italy_ (1904), vol. V., p.
+250, note 1, and BURCKHARDT, _The Civilisation of the
+Renaissance_ (1878), vol. II., p. 161.]
+
+Such were the examples of female genius which emanated from the
+courts of Italy, and, spreading to her universities, installed
+feminine erudition in professorial chairs. Nor was this questionable
+practice limited within the Italian peninsula. Many Spanish dames
+were conspicuous in scholarship, and, at the close of the century,
+Salamanca and Alcala saw their professorships held with applause by
+ladies equally distinguished for birth and accomplishments.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+ Poetry under the Montefeltri--Sonnets--The
+ Filelfi--Giovanni Sanzi--Porcellio Pandonio--Angelo
+ Galli--Federigo Veterani--Urbani Urbinate--Antonio
+ Rustico--Naldio--Improvisatori--Bernardo Accolti--Serafino
+ d'Aquila--Agostino Staccoli--Early comedies--_La
+ Calandra_--Corruption of morals--Social position of women.
+
+
+Were the lettered court of Duke Federigo to be judged by its
+minstrels, a harsh sentence might perhaps be awarded. Nor would this
+be quite fair. Their cold and common-place ideas, their rude and
+vapid verses, are indeed far beneath the standard of our fastidious
+age, and scarcely repay those who decipher them in venerable
+parchments. Yet have we ample evidence of their superiority to many
+poetasters of Italy, who then emulated Virgil's hexameters, or abused
+the facilities of their vernacular versification; and it is just the
+fact of these laureates of Urbino so long surviving the countless
+rhymers of other principalities, that proves the discriminating
+patronage of a sovereign, who attached to his court the best writers
+of his time. Nor must we fail to remember that the now prominent
+blemishes of their works were then their most admired qualities. The
+classical sympathies which we usually leave in schools and colleges,
+or which, when carried prominently about us in the busy world are
+stigmatised as a pedantic and ungraceful encumbrance, were then in
+high fashion. They were indispensable to the man of liberal education
+as his sword and buckler to the soldier; they were adopted among
+the conventional elements of all literature, poetry, and taste.
+A standard being thus set up so antipathic to the ideas of our
+practical age, we are called upon, before proceeding to judgment, to
+divest ourselves of prejudices which may in their turn become the
+marvel and ridicule of our posterity.
+
+The inherent defects of that minstrelsy,
+
+ "Whose melody gave ease to Petrarch's wounds,"
+
+have been aptly set forth by Roscoe, but he appears to overlook its
+special adaptation for the Italian tongue. Limited to one theme,
+which it is required to exhaust in a fixed number of lines, and
+fettered by the frequent and stated recurrence of a few rhymes, no
+language less copious and pliant can be woven into a sonnet, without
+occasionally betraying, in bald, formal, or rugged versification,
+the torture to which it has been subjected. Again, the constraint
+and mannerism which often deform this metrical composition in
+other idioms are here its safeguard from a mellifluous but insipid
+verbiage, so often fatal to the lyrics of Italy: on a poetry
+habitually turgid and redundant, terseness is thus absolutely imposed.
+
+With these few words of apology for doggerel hexameters and
+indifferent sonnets, we shall shortly pass in review some of those
+who thus wooed the muses in the Montefeltrian court.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Among the most widely known names of this age was FRANCESCO
+FILELFO, whose venal pen often wantoned in biting lampoons,
+whose sickening vanity was obtruded in the most repulsive egotism,
+and whose vagrant habits strangely combined assiduous study with lax
+morals. In most respects he anticipated the bad notoriety acquired
+a century later by Pietro Aretino, and like him alternately fawned
+upon and flagellated princely patrons of literature. Were his life
+to be written, it would be difficult to extract truth by balancing
+his own self-vaunting letters against the scurrilous philippics of
+his untiring enemy Poggio Bracciolini. But we are fortunately spared
+this task, and may refer to Tiraboschi, Roscoe, and Shepherd for
+illustrations of his restless existence and fractious temper.[82]
+In both these respects GIAN MARIA,[*83] the son, seems to
+have resembled Francesco the father, whilst he even exceeded him in
+the number and variety of his compositions. He sought audiences in
+many cities of Italy and Provence for his prelections in grammar and
+philosophy, as well as for his improvisations of Latin or Italian
+verse; and among the numerous patrons he thus courted was the good
+King René, who bestowed on him the laurel crown, a guerdon which his
+rude numbers ill-deserved at the hands of that graceful troubadour.
+Tiraboschi makes no allusion to his intercourse with Duke Federigo,
+whereof we know little beyond two works which he inscribed to that
+Prince, and which remain unedited in the Vatican Urbino Library.
+The former of these, dated at Modena in 1464, was corrected by the
+author, "doctor in arts and both faculties of law, knight, and poet
+laureat," he being then in his thirty-eighth year. It is numbered
+702, and contains about two thousand five hundred Latin hexameters
+and pentameters, entitled _Martiados_, an obvious imitation of his
+father's _Sfortiados_. The theme is thus set forth in a dedication to
+the Duke of Urbino:--
+
+ "Primus et in Martem quæ sint pia fata Tonantis,
+ Et manibus nati monstra parenta refert;
+ At liber et bellis laudatque et honore secundus,
+ Et gestis magnum rebus in orbe Ducem."
+
+[Footnote 82: TIRABOSCHI, _Storia della Letteratura
+Italiana_, VI., ii., p. 317-30; SHEPHERD'S _Life of Poggio
+Bracciolini_, _passim_; ROSCOE'S _Lorenzo de' Medici_, ch.
+i.]
+
+[Footnote *83: Cf. FLAMINI, _Versi inediti da G.M. Filelfo_
+(Livorno, 1892, per nozze).]
+
+The very moderate anticipations raised by this proemium, which we
+leave in its rugged original, are not surpassed in the context, dull
+and common-place as it is in sentiment, prosaic and unpolished in
+style. Losing sight of his avowed object of keeping apart the deeds
+of Mars, the ancient divinity, from those of Federigo, his living
+type, in order to illustrate the parallel which it is his plan to
+draw between them, he strangely jumbles both; and, following the
+new-born classicism of the day, he has crammed his rough verses with
+nearly every name that heathen mythology, history, or geography can
+muster, in senseless and jarring confusion. With a view to exalt
+his hero as a second Hercules, he enumerates a series of labours
+and achievements from his childhood, when he sprang from bed and
+strangled a snake that had frightened all his attendants. This is
+followed by a farrago of allegorical struggles, combats, and triumphs
+over temptations or evil principles, anticipating somewhat the idea
+of the _Pilgrim's Progress_, but with this important difference, that
+the motives, arms, and aids are all borrowed from pagan mythology.
+So entirely is Federigo lost among the gods and demigods who crowd
+the stage, that his character or actions are seldom brought on the
+foreground at all, and never with sufficient idiosyncracy to avail
+for the development of either. Finally, we find him deified in
+Olympus, and the epic closes with an empty bravado that none ever
+more worthily emulated Alcides.
+
+The other MS. of Gian Maria Filelfo which demands a passing note is
+No. 804 of the same library, and is dated seven years later than the
+_Martiados_. It contains some six thousand Italian verses, consisting
+for the most part of minor poems on a variety of subjects; the
+volume is dedicated to Federigo, but many of the _Canzoni morali_
+are inscribed to distinguished personages, not omitting the Duke's
+rancorous foe Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, to whose vanity such
+incense could not have been unpalatable. In treating of religious
+topics, the author, for the time, and by an effort, lays aside the
+pagan strain which prevails in his other lays, and though generally
+selecting the sonnet or _terza rima_, he thus affects to disclaim all
+rivalry with their mighty masters:--
+
+ "To these rude rhymes, alas, nor Petrarch's style
+ Is given, nor the good Dante's pungent file."
+
+Yet there is considerable ambition in the rhythm, and although
+prolix, like other contemporary compositions, and inflated by
+superabundant episodes, it is not devoid of occasional poetic
+feeling. In the dedicatory address he thus speaks of his volume:--
+
+ "De! dunque Signor mio, per tua merciede
+ Con lieta fronte schorri esto libretto,
+ Il qual sotto il tuo titolo honor chiede.
+ Forse leggiendol' ne fia alcun dilecto,
+ Per esser di molte herbe uno orticciuolo,
+ Quantunque el vi sia dentro erro e diffecto:
+ Pur che 'l non sia di tutto il vano orciuolo
+ Col qual l'aqua si tira, da le donne
+ Che feciono ai mariti si gran duolo.
+ Ogni casa non è posta in colonne;
+ Ognuno esser non può Dante o Patrarcha;
+ Ognun non porta pretiose gonne.
+ Ma spesse volte piccoletta barcha
+ Arriva in luoco, ove andando s'anniegha
+ Tal grossa nave che molto è men charcha.
+ De! s'al huom val quanto il Signor più priegha,
+ China la fronte altiera a questa scorza,
+ Ch'in questo mio arbor del pieta non niegha.
+ Et come il navichare hor poggia, hor orza,
+ Hor pope avvien, secondo i venti e l'onde
+ Cosi convien ch'in vario error mi torza.
+ Hor la mia voglia la ragion confonde,
+ Hor l'appetito impera, hor vivo in doglia,
+ Hor lieto, hor desioso, et non so donde.
+ Qual l'autunno ogni verde arbor spoglia,
+ Inverno asciugha, e primavera inverde,
+ Tal varia e nostra externa et mental voglia.
+ Ma tristo chiunque indarno il tempo perde,
+ Ch'è peggio ch'esser rozzo e senza lima,
+ Però che chi non è mai non riverde.
+ De! leggi, Signor mio, la vulghar ryma,
+ Et sia ti un modo da cacciar la noia,
+ Quando di gran facciende hai maggior stima."
+
+As we shall give a place in our Appendix to Giovanni Sanzi's judgment
+upon the painters of his day, we may here insert Filelfo's sonnet to
+Gentile Bellini.
+
+ "Bellin! s'io t'hebbi mai fitto nel cuore,
+ Se mai chognobbi it tuo preclaro ingiegno,
+ Hor confess'io che sei fra gli altri degno,
+ D'haver qual hebbe Apelle ogni alto honore.
+ Veduta ho l'opra tua col suo cholore,
+ La venustà col suo sguardo benegno,
+ Ogni suo movimento et nobil segno
+ Che ben demonstri il tuo gientil valore.
+ Gientile! io t'ero affectionato assai,
+ Parendomi la tua virtu più rara
+ Che soglia esser l'ucciel che è solo al mondo;
+ Ne pingier sa chi da te non impara,
+ Che gloria a quegli antiqui hormai tolta hai,
+ In chi questa arte postha ogni suo pondo.
+ Forsse che troppo habondo
+ A te che non ti churi di tue lode,
+ Ma diciendone assai l'alma mia ghode."
+
+When compared with contemporary efforts, these specimens, and others
+which it would be easy to add, deserve a better fate than the neglect
+to which, in common with most of their author's works, they have been
+consigned; nor do they bear out the imputation of careless haste,
+alleged by Tiraboschi as the prevailing error of his very numerous
+and various productions. The paucity of these which have issued from
+the press may, however, be taken as confirming that judgment, as
+well as the suppression of his narrative of the campaign of Finale
+in 1447, after it had been printed by Muratori for his Scriptores.
+But poetry may be accounted his forte,--a somewhat remarkable
+circumstance, considering the unrivalled reputation he established as
+an _improvisatore_ of verses on any number not exceeding one hundred
+themes suddenly proposed, as such facility has rarely been conjoined
+with true poetic fire.
+
+It were to be desired that we knew more of his intercourse with
+Duke Federigo. In one of his dedicatory epistles, after alluding
+to the likelihood of that prince reading the work, he, in a vein of
+fulsome compliment and impudent conceit, complains of neglect from
+friends, and hints at a visit to Urbino. It is difficult to glean
+facts from the vague common-places of such letters; but in 1468 he
+thanks his patron for retaining at his court Demetrio Castreno, a
+learned Greek fugitive from Constantinople. Equally mannered and
+cold are his flattery and his condolence, on the death of Countess
+Battista in 1472. Next year he writes that, having begun a commentary
+on Federigo's life, and completed two books, he had been induced to
+submit them to the Duke of Milan, from whom he never could recover
+the manuscript.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Another _protégé_ of Duke Federigo was PORCELLIO PANDONIO,
+of Naples,[*84] whose pen was ever at command of the readiest
+patron, as historiographer or laureate. From his partiality to the
+designations of bard and secretary to Alfonso of Naples, it would
+seem that he chiefly rested his fame on his poetical compositions.
+From this judgment Muratori differs, protesting that in historical
+narrative none excelled his ease and elegance of diction.[85] Abject
+classicism, in thought and style, was then a common weakness of
+the learned; and however correctly Porcellio may have caught the
+Latin phraseology, it is difficult to get over the jarring effect
+of an idiom and nomenclature foreign to the times and incidents
+which it is his object vividly to portray. In his printed work, on
+the campaigns of 1451-2, between Venice and Milan, he uniformly
+disguises Sforza and Piccinino, their respective commanders, as
+Scipio and Hannibal, under which _noms de guerre_ it requires a
+constant effort to recognise mediæval warriors, or to recollect
+that we are considering events dating some two thousand years after
+those who really bore them had been committed to the dust. The same
+affectation, common to many authors of his day, mars his unpublished
+writings which we have had occasion to examine in the Vatican Urbino
+Library, and their authority is greatly impaired by what Muratori
+well calls "prodigality of praise" to his heroes, that is, to his
+generous patrons. In a beautifully elaborated MS. (No. 373) he has
+collected, under the title of Epigrams, nearly fifty effusions in
+honour of our Duke and Duchess, and of members of their family
+or court, a favourite theme being the love-inspired longings of
+Battista for her lord's return from the wars. In the same volume
+is his Feltria, an epic composed at Rome about 1472, and narrating
+Federigo's campaigns, from that of 1460-1, under the banner of Pius
+II., by whose command Porcellio undertook to sing his general's
+prowess in three thousand Virgilian verses. Its merits may be fairly
+appreciated from extracts already given,[86] and from this allusion
+to the state of Italy at the outbreak of the war:--
+
+ "Jamque erat Ausoniæ populos pax alta per omnes,
+ Et tranquilla quies: jam nulli Martis ad aras
+ Collucent ignes; jam victima nulla cadebat.
+ Dantur thura Jovi; fumabat oliva Minervæ:
+ Sus erat in pretio, Cereris aptissima sacris,
+ Pampineique dei caper, et qui vitibus amens
+ Officit, atque merum ante aras cum sanguine fundit."
+
+[Footnote *84: Porcellio Napolitano was the laureate and secretary
+of Alphonso I. of Aragon and of Naples, and later the secretary and
+familiar of Sigismondo Malatesta. Porcellio seems to have hated
+Basinio, another court poet, whose works, with a long commentary,
+have been published (BATTAGLINI, _Basinii, Parmensis Poetæ
+Opera Præstantiora_ (Rimini, 1794)). Basinio seems to have proved
+before the Court of Rimini that Porcellio was ignorant of Greek.
+"One can be a fine Latin poet without knowing Greek," he answered in
+a rage, but truly enough. Basinio, however, asserted that not only
+Virgil and all the great poets and prose writers knew Greek, but
+showed that while that language was forgotten Italy was plunged in
+darkness. But enough of such absurdities, which have besides nothing
+to do with Urbino or even Dennistoun's history of it.]
+
+[Footnote 85: Nearly all we know of him will be found in the
+Scriptores, XX., 67, and XXV., 1.]
+
+[Footnote 86: See vol. I., pp. 209-11. Portions of the same poem
+are contained in Nos. 709 and 710 of the Urbino Library, the former
+corrected by the author, the latter in his autograph. Some of his
+minor lyrics were published at Paris in 1549, along with those of two
+other minstrels who sang the praises of the Malatesta.]
+
+Such were the foreign poets who frequented Duke Federigo's court.
+Its native bards left few works meriting particular notice, with one
+interesting exception. We have elsewhere to discuss Giovanni Sanzi
+or Santi,[*87] of Urbino, his merits as a painter, and the celebrity
+reflected on him from the eminence of his son, the unequalled
+Raffaele. Here we shall speak of his epic on that Duke's life, of
+which we have made frequent use in our first volume, and which
+demands attention on account of its excellence, as well as from the
+intimate connection with our subject of its author and theme.
+
+[Footnote *87: On Giovanni Santi, see CAMPORI, _Notizie
+e docum. per la vita di Giov. Santi e di Raffaello Santi da
+Urbino_ (Modena, 1870); GUERRINI, _Elogio Stor. di Giov.
+Santi_ (Urbino, 1822); SCHMARZOW, _Giovanni Santi der Vater Raffaels_,
+in _Kunstchronik_ (Leipsig), An. XXIII., No. 27; SCHMARZOW, _Giovanni
+Santi_ in _Vierteljahrsschrift für Kultur und Lett. der Renaissance_
+(Leipsig), vol. II., Nos. 2-4. Cf. also CROWE & CAVALCASELLE, _History
+of Painting in Italy_, vol. III.]
+
+This poem, having remained unedited in the Vatican arcana, long
+escaped the literary historians of the Peninsula, but it has been
+recently quoted by two writers, Pungileone and Passavant, the former
+of whom had not seen it.[88] Although, in his dedication to Duke
+Guidobaldo, composed after 1490, the author accounts for his becoming
+a painter, as we shall see in chapter xxviii., he gives no further
+explanation of the motives which inspired the labour of a poem,
+containing some twenty-four thousand lines, than "that after anxious
+thought and consideration of such new ideas as offered themselves, I
+wished to sing in this little used style of _terza rima_, the story
+of your most excellent and most renowned father's glorious deeds,"
+whose "brilliant reputation not only was and is well known throughout
+Italy, but is, if I may say so, the subject of discourse beyond the
+Caucasus," "not without a conscious blush at the idea of dipping so
+mean a vessel in the water of this limpid and sparkling spring."
+With equal modesty, he deprecates all rivalry with the learned
+commentators who had celebrated the same theme in Latin, limiting the
+ambition of his "rude and brief compend" to rendering its interest
+accessible to more ordinary readers; but, looking back upon his
+twenty-three ample cantos, he fervently thanks the Almighty that an
+undertaking of so extended time and toil had at length attained its
+termination, and concludes by "humbly beseeching that you will regard
+the hero's far-famed actions, rather than the baseness of my style,
+whose only grace is the sincere devotion of a faithful servant to his
+lord." A similar tone marks the outset of his Chronicle:--
+
+ "If e'er in by-gone times a shallow mind
+ Shrank from the essay of a grand design,
+ So quake I in the labour-pangs of fear."
+
+[Footnote 88: _Elogio Storico di Giovanni Santi_, pp. 14 and 69,
+etc.; Rafael von Urbino. The original and only MS. is described in
+III. of our Appendix.]
+
+Compared with contemporary epics, the rhythm is smooth and flowing,
+and the style dignified, interspersed with highly poetical episodes
+and finely expressed moral reflections as well as apt illustrations
+from ancient history and mythology. The epithets, though abundant,
+are more than usually appropriate, and many terse maxims are happily
+introduced. Yet, in his object of placing his poem and his hero among
+the popular literature of the day, Giovanni must have failed, the
+Vatican MS. being the only known copy. Readers it, however, doubtless
+had, one of whom has curiously commemorated his admiration by jotting
+on the margin, "Were you but as good a painter as a poet, who knows!"
+Modern critics, contrasting his fresco at Cagli with the rhyming
+Chronicle, would probably arrive at an inverse conclusion, especially
+were they to pronounce upon the latter from the preamble which called
+forth that exclamation--an allegorical vision, told in nine weary
+chapters, wherein figure a motley crowd of mythological and heroic
+personages belonging to ancient and contemporary times.
+
+It would occasion much useless repetition to enter here into any
+detailed analysis of the work, as we have formerly drawn upon its
+most valuable portions for the history of Duke Federigo. When
+considering the state of the fine arts, we shall have to notice
+a very important part of the poem touching upon that subject--an
+æsthetic episode on the art and artists of his day, which is
+introduced on occasion of the Duke's visit to Federigo I., Marquis of
+Mantua. In regard to the merit of this epic, due allowance must be
+made for the taste of the age. Its great length necessarily infers a
+tediousness of detail much more adapted to prose than verse, indeed
+inherently prosaic. Yet it contains not a few continuous passages
+of sustained beauty, and it would not be difficult to cull many a
+sparkling thought and bright simile, while from time to time the
+dull narrative is enlivened by lyric touches and strokes of poetic
+fancy, adorning sentiments creditable to the genius and the heart
+of its author, who, with much sweetness of disposition, appears to
+have possessed endowments beyond his humble sphere. His patriotic
+indignation at the ceaseless broils and strifes which convulsed his
+fatherland may supply us with an example or two:--
+
+ "Ma non potendo Italia in pace stare
+ Sotto lunga quiete, o mai, parendo
+ Putrida vile e maricia diventare."
+
+ No long repose Ausonia e'er can brook,
+ For peace to her brings languor, and she deems
+ It loathsome to lie fallow.
+
+ "Cum qual costum, che Italia devora,
+ Del sempre stare in gran confusione,
+ Disjunta et seperata, e disiare
+ L'un stato al altro sua destructione."
+
+ Sad is the usage that Italia wastes
+ In ceaseless struggles, aye for separate ends;
+ Sever'd her states, and each on others' ills
+ Intent.
+
+ "O mischinella
+ Italia! in te, acecata e disunita
+ Hor per dollor, te batte ogni mascella."
+
+ Ah, poor and wretched Italy! all blind
+ And disunited, chattering thy jaws
+ In torments sad.
+
+ "O instabil fortuna! che fai secco
+ Ogni arbor verde, quando te impiacere,
+ In un momento."
+
+ Ah fickle fortune! which the greenest tree
+ Mayst in a moment wither at thy will.
+
+The following sentiments were likely to find little sympathy among
+his contemporaries:--
+
+ "Il sfrenato desio che nel cor tiene
+ Di nuova signoria e altrui dominio
+ L'huom mai si satia; e pur morir conviene."
+
+ Man ne'er his soul's unbridled lust can slake
+ Of further sovereignty, and wider sway;
+ Yet 'tis appointed him to die.
+
+ "Che el facto d'arme se devea fare
+ Sol per due cose, e l'altre lassar gire:
+ L'uno è per lo avantagio singolare
+ E grande oltra misura; e in caso extremo
+ Si deve l'huomo a la fortuna dare."
+
+ Twain are the pleas that justly may be urged
+ For armed aggression,--aggrandisement great
+ Beyond all calculation, or extreme
+ Necessity: nought else can justify
+ Such hazard of men's fortunes.
+
+A long and somewhat tedious chapter of moralities on the uncertain
+tenure of life among princes, introduced after describing the
+assassination of Galeazzo Maria Duke of Milan, in 1476, opens
+finely:--
+
+ "Vedendo il breve e vil peregrinare
+ Che noi facciam per questo falso mondo,
+ Anzi un pugno di terra al ver narrare,
+ Dove, con tanto afanno e tanto pondo,
+ De dì e nocte, e inextimabil cure,
+ Cerchiam sallire in alto e andamo al fondo.
+ Qual e quel si potente che asicure
+ Ogi la vita sua per l'altro giorno,
+ Tante son spesse et orende le sciagure?"
+
+ Seeing how brief the pilgrimage and vile,
+ Whereby through this false world we wend our way,
+ A little earth our only heritage,
+ Where day and night, with pain and load of care
+ Incalculable, still we seek to soar,
+ Yet ever downward sink: where is the man
+ Potent to day, to-morrow's life to count,
+ So frequent its mishaps and horrible?
+
+The bland transition from a rigorous winter to balmy Italian spring
+is thus apostrophised:--
+
+ "Intanto el verno
+ El mondo gia copria col fredo smalto;
+ E raro volte fu che el tempo iberno
+ Tanto terribile fusse, onde asvernarsi
+ Tucti ne andar, per fin che del inferno
+ Proserpina torno, per adornarsi
+ De vaghi fiori e de novelle fronde,
+ Cum lauree chiome al vento dolce sparsi."
+
+ Winter meanwhile the far-spread world had clad
+ In cold enamel; rarely was it known
+ More rigid: gladly all the troops retired
+ To quarters, waiting Proserpine's return
+ On earth, with beauteous flowers bedecked, and leaves
+ Of freshest green, when in the gentle breeze
+ Should stream her laurel tresses.
+
+The poet's eloquent tribute to Florentine freedom, and its value to
+the cause of liberty, must close our sparing extracts.[89]
+
+ "Perche privato el popul Fiorentino
+ Della sua libertade, era cavare
+ Un occhio a Italia, e metterla al declino."
+
+ For to curtail fair Florence of her freedom
+ Were to pluck forth an eye from Italy,
+ And cause her orb to wane.
+
+[Footnote 89: See others in vol. I., and _passim_ in Book II.; also
+in IV. of the Appendix below.]
+
+In Sanzi's Chronicle we seek in vain for the riper beauties of
+succeeding epics; but the flashes of poetry which it embodies are
+not the less effective from their simple diction, nor from the
+comparatively unpolished narrative which they adorn.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+No. 699 of the Urbino MSS. contains the collected minor poems and
+songs of ANGELO GALLI of Urbino, knight, and secretary to
+Duke Federigo. They are three hundred and seventy-six in number,
+all in Italian, and unedited, but beautifully transcribed on vellum
+by Federigo Veterani. Although varied by the introduction of sacred
+subjects, most of them are occasional amorous effusions, wherein
+names of the Montefeltri, Malatesta, Sforza, and other Umbrian
+families frequently occur. The dates affixed to them extend from
+1428 to 1457. It appears that the author attended the Council of
+Basle in 1442, and he is said by Crescimbeni to have survived until
+1496. His mellowed versification is in general superior to that of
+the age, while his trite and limited matter is pleasingly relieved
+by many happy turns of thought and graces of language. Though unable
+to supply any particulars of one who has almost escaped notice, we
+give place to two specimens of his muse. His canzonet addressed to
+Caterina, "the noble, beautiful, discreet, charming, gentle, and
+generous Countess of Urbino," runs thus:
+
+ "El mirabil splendor del tuo bel viso
+ Pusilanimo famme, a tanta parte
+ Che l'ingegno in tal carte
+ Non tangeria, s'il ver ch'io non errasse.
+ Forsa che la natura in paradiso
+ Per aiuto sali ad informarte,
+ E poi per divin arte
+ A gloria de se eterna giù te trasse.
+ Qual oro si micante s'aguagliasse
+ Cum sua chiareza a tui biondi capegli!
+ E gli occhi, ch'a vede gli
+ L'invidia affreccia el sol a ricolcarse.
+ Qual perle, qual coragli, al riso breve!
+ Le guance han sangue, spirto in bianca neve!"
+
+The other is upon Costanza Varana, wife of Alessandro Sforza, and
+mother of Battista Countess of Urbino.
+
+ "Che la sua faccia bella
+ Mostro d'inverno sempre primavera,
+ Real costume, aspetto di signora,
+ Viso di dea e d'angioli a favella.
+
+ Ma questa donna, ch'a la mente diva,
+ Depinge di honestà omne suo gesto:
+ Non pur suo guardo honesto,
+ Ma li suo panni, gridan' pudicitia.
+
+ Questa madonna è el mar' de tutto el senno
+ Renchiuso, e posto dentro da bel ciglio,
+ Chi vuol vecchio consiglio
+ Recinga ai teneri anni di costei.
+
+ Mille viole e fiore
+ Sparge sopra la neve el suo bel viso;
+ E dolce del suo riso
+ Faria piatoso Silla a la vendetta,
+ E spontaria de Giove omne saetta."
+
+FEDERIGO VETERANI has been repeatedly mentioned as a
+transcriber of MSS. for Duke Federigo, whom he also served as
+librarian and secretary, besides being one of the judges at Urbino.
+Those who have had occasion to examine the library formed by that
+prince, are well acquainted with his beautiful autograph, and might
+imagine his whole life to have been spent upon its fair volumes. One
+of them, containing the Triumphs of Petrarch, No. 351, is subscribed
+by him, with a memorandum that it was the last of about sixty volumes
+he had written out before the death of Federigo, which he thus
+deplores:--
+
+ "Fedrico Veterano fui, che scripse
+ Questo e molti altri, cum justa mercede,
+ Usando diligentia, amore et fede
+ Al Duca Federigo in sin ch'el vixe:
+ Le cui memorie sempre al mondo fixe
+ Sonno e seranno; e ben certo si crede,
+ Mentre sta el mondo e la natura in pede
+ Ch'ogni virtù dal cielo in lui venisse.
+ Quello mi piango, e mai ho 'l viso asciutto;
+ Quel chiamo, quel mi sogno, e quel mi stringo
+ Ai labri, sculpto in cara tavletta;
+ La qual, così machiata del mio lucto,
+ Adoro, honoro in verso, e vivo el fingo,
+ Per lenimento di mia vita abiecta."[90]
+
+[Footnote 90: See a translation of these lines, vol. I., p. 269.]
+
+But, in addition to his miscellaneous avocations, Veterani was a
+copious versifier. Besides an epic, De Progenie Domus Feretranæ,
+there are other volumes of poetry, apparently his, remaining unedited
+in the library,[91] of which he continued custodian until the reign
+of Francesco Maria I. One of those beautiful manuscripts, the fair
+vellum and gem-like illuminations of which have been the theme of
+many a eulogy, contains the collected verses of Cristoforo Landini
+and six other less-known poets of the fifteenth century. On the
+concluding page, in a trembling and blotted hand, we read these
+touching lines, the tribute of its lettered scribe to the temporary
+eclipse of his sovereign's dynasty:[92]--
+
+ "1517.
+
+ "FEDERICUS VETERANUS, URBINAS BIBLIOTHECARIUS, AD REI
+ MEMORIAM.
+
+ "Ne careat lacrymis liber hic, post fata Feretri,
+ Hic me subscripsi, cumque dolore gravi.
+ Hunc ego jamdudum Federicus, stante Feretro,
+ Transcripsi, (gratus vel fuit ille mihi
+ Quem modo vel semper fas est lugere parentem,
+ Et dominum qui me nutriit,) atque diu
+ Pagina testis erit, lacrymis interlita multis,
+ Hæc tibi, qui moesta hæc carmina pauca legis.
+ Et si dissimilis conclusit littera librum,
+ Scriptorem ignarum me dolor ipse facit."
+
+[Footnote 91: Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1293, 303, 699.]
+
+[Footnote 92: _Ibid._, No. 368, f. 188.]
+
+Among the minor fry slumbering unknown in the Vatican Library
+is URBANI of Urbino, who left a few rude elegiac and complimentary
+ditties in Latin or Italian upon members of the Montefeltrian line,
+and compiled a confused account of their pedigree. We may also name
+ANTONIO RUSTICO of Florence, whose _Panegiricon Comitis Federici_,
+dedicated to him in 1472, contains above seven hundred Italian lines
+of _terza rima_, unpolished in style, and in matter a mere tissue of
+fatiguing verbiage. Scarcely more valuable is NALDIO'S account of the
+Volterran campaign of 1572 in Latin verse, to which we have vainly
+had recourse for new information on that obscure passage of our
+memoirs.[93]
+
+[Footnote 93: These three works are Nos. 736, 743, and 373.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+While enumerating in our twenty-first chapter the celebrities of Duke
+Guidobaldo's court, we mentioned Bernardo Accolti, and endeavoured
+to explain the inadequacy of his published works to sustain his
+contemporary reputation, by supposing that his strength lay in
+extemporé recitation. The high place which his vanity claimed, in
+assuming "the Unique" as a surname, appears to have been freely
+accorded by the most able of his contemporaries. Ariosto says of him,
+not perhaps without a sneer at his notorious conceit,--
+
+ "The cavalier amid that band, whom they
+ So honour, unless dazzled in mine eye
+ By those fair faces, is the shining light
+ Of his Arezzo, and Accolti hight."[94]
+
+[Footnote 94: STEWART ROSE'S Translation, XLVI., 10.]
+
+Castiglione assigns him a prominent rank among the Urbino stars,
+whilst Bembo and Pietro Aretino testify to his merits. We, however,
+would try these by his surviving works, which, as Roscoe observes,
+are fatal to his reputation, and which are indeed rather a beacon
+than a model to succeeding genius. It is, therefore, unnecessary
+to pause upon them, or to add here to our previous notice of their
+author and his position at the Montefeltrian court. Nor was Accolti
+the only poetaster who attained in that polished circle, or in other
+Italian courtlets, a celebrity from which posterity has withheld
+its seal. A solution of this success may perhaps be found in the
+circumstance that many of these owed it either to personal popularity
+or to their musical accomplishments. Thus SERAFINO D'AQUILA,
+who either improviséed his verses, or chanted them to his own
+accompaniment on the lute, was generally preferred to Petrarch.
+He died at thirty-four, in 1500, after being sought by all the
+petty sovereigns from Milan to Naples, and ere two generations had
+passed away his poetry was utterly forgotten. So, too, AGOSTINO
+STACCOLI of Urbino, whose sonnets delighted Duke Federigo, and
+obtained for him a diplomatic mission to Rome in 1485, has been long
+consigned to oblivion.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The older comedies of Italy become a subject of interest to us, for
+one of the earliest was written by Bernardo Bibbiena, a friend of
+Guidobaldo I.,[95] and was first performed in the palace of Urbino.
+The revival of the comic drama may be traced to Ferrara; and, though
+the pieces originally represented there before Duke Ercole I. were
+translations from Plautus and Terence,[96] Ariosto made several
+boyish attempts to vary the entertainment by dramatic compositions
+of his own. This was just before 1500, and to about the same time
+Tiraboschi ascribes the comedies of Machiavelli. There is thus
+much probability that these attempts preceded the _Calandra_ of
+Bibbiena, which has, however, been generally considered the oldest
+regular comedy in the language. It seems also to have been the first
+that attracted the notice of his patron Leo X., whose delight in
+comic performances was excessive; and, although now superseded by
+pieces more in accordance with the age, it long enjoyed a continued
+popularity. Giovo celebrates its easy and acute wit, and the talent
+of its mobile and merry author for scenic representation, which must
+have greatly tended to ensure its success. It is doubtful in what
+year it was played at the Vatican in presence of his Holiness, on
+the visit of Isabella, Marchioness of Mantua, when the decorations
+painted by Baldassar Peruzzi obtained unbounded applause. But this
+probably happened after its performance at Urbino, which collateral
+evidence discovered by Pungileone, has fixed as taking place in the
+spring of 1513.[*97] This gorgeous entertainment, and the scenery
+executed for it by Timoteo della Vite and Girolamo Genga, are
+commemorated in a letter of Castiglione, which throws light upon the
+manner of such festivities in that mountain metropolis.
+
+[Footnote 95: See above, pp. 65-69.]
+
+[Footnote 96: See these described, vol. I., App. xiii.]
+
+[Footnote *97: Cf. VERNARECCI, _Di Alcune Rappresentazioni
+Drammatiche alla Corte d'Urbino nel 1513_ in the _Arch. St. per le
+Marche e per l'Umbria_, vol. III., p. 181 _et seq._]
+
+ "The scene was laid in an open space between a city-wall
+ and its farthest houses. From the stage downwards, there
+ was most naturally represented the wall, with two great
+ towers descending from the upper part of the hall, on one
+ of which were bagpipers, on the other trumpeters, with
+ another wall of fine proportion flanking them; thus the
+ hall figured as the town-ditch, and was traversed by two
+ walls to support the water. The side next the seats was
+ ornamented with Trojan cloth, over which there projected a
+ large cornice, with this Latin inscription, in great white
+ letters upon an azure ground, extending across that part of
+ the theatre:--
+
+ "'BOTH WARS ABROAD AND SPORTS AT HOME
+ GREAT CÆSAR PATRONISED;
+ LIKE DOUBLE CARE BY MIGHTY MINDS
+ 'MONGST US SHOULD STILL BE PRIZED.'
+
+ "To the roof were attached large bunches of evergreens,
+ almost hiding the ceiling; and from the centres of the
+ rosettes there descended wires, in a double row along
+ the room, each supporting a candelabrum in the form of
+ a letter, with eight or ten lighted torches, the whole
+ diffusing a brilliant light, and forming the words
+ POPULAR SPORTS. Another scene represented a
+ beautiful city, with streets, palaces, churches, towers,
+ all in relief, but aided by excellent painting and
+ scientific perspective. There was, among other things,
+ an octagon temple in half-relief, so perfectly finished
+ that the whole workmen of the duchy scarcely seemed equal
+ to produce it in four months; it was all covered with
+ compositions in stucco: the windows were of imitation
+ alabaster, the architraves and cornices of fine gold and
+ ultramarine, with here and there gems admirably imitated in
+ glass; besides fluted columns, figures standing out with
+ the roundness of sculpture, and much more that it would
+ be long to speak of. This was about in the middle; and at
+ one end there was a triumphal arch, projecting a couple
+ of yards from the wall, and as well done as possible,
+ with a capital representation of the Horatii, between
+ the architrave and the vault, painted to imitate marble.
+ In two small niches, above the pilasters that supported
+ the arch, there were tiny figures of Victory in stucco,
+ holding trophies, whilst over it an admirable equestrian
+ statue in full armour was spearing a naked man at his feet.
+ On either side of this group was a little altar, whereon
+ there blazed a vase of fire during the comedy. I need not
+ recapitulate all, as your Lordship will have heard of it;
+ nor how one of the comedies was composed by a child and
+ recited by children, shaming mayhap their seniors, for
+ they really played it astonishingly; and it was quite a
+ novelty to see tiny odd men a foot high maintaining all the
+ gravity and solemnity of a Menander. Nor shall I say aught
+ of the odd music of this piece, all hidden here and there,
+ but shall come to the _Calandra_ of our friend Bernardo,
+ which afforded the utmost satisfaction. As its prologue
+ arrived very late, and the person who should have spoken
+ failed to learn it, one by me was recited, which pleased
+ much: but little else was changed, except some scenes of
+ no consequence, which perhaps they could not repeat. The
+ interludes were as follows. First, a _moresca_ of Jason,
+ who came dancing on the stage in fine antique armour,
+ with a splendid sword and shield, whilst there suddenly
+ appeared on the other side two bulls vomiting forth fire,
+ so natural as to deceive some of the spectators. These
+ the good Jason approached, and yoking them to the plough,
+ made them draw it. He then sowed the dragon's teeth, and
+ forthwith there sprang up from the stage antique warriors
+ inimitably managed, who danced a fierce _moresca_, trying
+ to slay him; and having again come on, the each killed the
+ other, but were not seen to die. After them, Jason again
+ appeared, with the golden fleece on his shoulders, dancing
+ admirably. And this was the first interlude. In the second
+ there was a lovely car, wherein sat Venus with a lighted
+ taper in her hand; it was drawn by two doves, which seemed
+ absolutely alive, and on which rode a couple of Cupids
+ with bows and quivers, and holding lighted tapers; and it
+ was preceded and followed by eight more Cupids, dancing
+ a _moresca_ and beating about with their blazing lights.
+ Having reached the extremity of the stage, they set fire
+ to a door, out of which there suddenly leaped nine gallant
+ fellows all in flames, and danced another _moresca_ to
+ perfection. The third interlude showed Neptune on a chariot
+ drawn by two demi-horses with fish-scales and fins, so
+ well executed. Neptune sat on the top with his trident,
+ and eight monsters after him (or rather four of them
+ before and four behind) performing a sword-dance, the car
+ all the while full of fire. The whole was capitally done,
+ and the monsters were the oddest in the world, of which no
+ description can afford an idea. The fourth showed Juno's
+ car, also full of fire, and herself upon it, with a crown
+ on her head and a sceptre in her hand, seated on a cloud,
+ which spread around the car, full of mouths of the winds.
+ The chariot was drawn by two peacocks, so beautiful and
+ well managed that even I, who had seen how they were made,
+ was puzzled. Two eagles and as many ostriches preceded
+ it; two sea-birds followed, with a pair of parti-coloured
+ parrots. All these were so admirably executed that I verily
+ believe, my dear Monsignore, no imitation was ever so like
+ the truth; and they, too, went through a sword-dance with
+ indescribable, nay incredible, grace. The comedy ended, one
+ of the Cupids, whom we had already seen, suddenly appeared
+ on the stage, and in a few stanzas explained the meaning
+ of the interludes, which had a continued plot apart from
+ the comedy, as follows. There was, in the first place,
+ the battle of these earth-born brothers, showing, under
+ the fabulous allegory of Jason, how wars prevail among
+ neighbours who ought to maintain peace. Then came Love,
+ successively kindling with a holy flame men and earth, sea
+ and air, to chase away war and discord, and to unite the
+ world in harmony: the union is but a hope for the future;
+ the discord is, to our misfortune, a present fact. I had
+ not meant to send you the stanzas recited by the little
+ Love, but I do so; your Lordship will do with them what
+ you like. They were hastily composed whilst struggling
+ with painters, carpenters, actors, musicians, and ballet
+ dancers. When they had been spoken, and the Cupid was
+ gone, there was heard the invisible music of four viols,
+ accompanying as many voices, who sang, to a beautiful air,
+ a stanza of invocation to Love; and so the entertainment
+ ended, to the immense delight of all present. Had I not
+ so bepraised it in describing its progress, I might now
+ tell you the part I had in it, but I should not wish your
+ Lordship to fancy me an egotist. It were too good fortune
+ to be able to attend to such matters, to the exclusion of
+ more annoying ones: may God vouchsafe it me."
+
+Though much of this detail regards the accompanying entertainment
+more than the comedy, it cannot be deemed out of place, as
+illustrative of the way in which these were managed in a court where
+we have frequent occasion to allude to such pastimes: the preceding
+description fully explains the often-mentioned _moresca_, and almost
+entitles us to translate that word by the better known French
+_ballet_. The _Calandra_ continued to be played on select occasions
+in Italy, and we hear of its being produced at Lyons in 1548, before
+Catherine de' Medici and her husband, whose largess to the actors
+exceeded 2500 crowns.
+
+This piece, though improved in incidents, is avowedly indebted
+for its plot to the _Menecmo_ of Plautus, a comedy already
+popular through a translation performed at Ferrara, in 1486-7, by
+the children and courtiers of Ercole I., in a theatre built on
+purpose within the palace-yard, and costing with its decorations
+1000 ducats. In regard to its proper merits, no one can deny the
+amusing complexity of the plot, the constant succession of absurd
+mistakes among the personages, the ingenious contrivances by which
+these are alternately occasioned and extricated, the bustle of the
+entertainment, and the racy humour of the dialogue. In order to let
+these be appreciated, an analysis larger than our space can permit
+would be necessary, and neither the character nor the wit of the
+piece could be preserved without introducing intrigues and language
+repugnant to modern decency. Ginguené has conveyed a tolerable
+idea of the comedy without greatly shocking the reader, but has
+consequently suppressed much of its fun, and to his pages we must
+refer for detail.[98] The story turns upon the adventures of twins,
+a brother and sister, who, perfectly resembling in person, but
+unknown to each other, are simultaneously parties to love intrigues,
+carried on through the agency of a clever valet, and at the cost of a
+drivelling husband (Calandro) in the course of which they frequently
+interchange the dress and character of their respective sexes, a
+magician being ever at hand to bear the blame of what appear physical
+transmutations, and a double marriage of course happily solving all
+embarrassments. Although unquestionably rich in the materials of
+broad farce, it is evident that such a plot is but indifferently
+adapted for embodying manners sketched from life.
+
+[Footnote 98: See also Panizzi's London edition of the _Orlando
+Innamorato_ and the _Furioso_, vol. VI., p. 59.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The corruption of morals in Italy during the golden age of her
+literature and civilisation is a painful topic, but one naturally
+suggested by these remarks, and which cannot with truth be entirely
+thrown into the shade.[*99] It was especially developed in the
+free gratification of passions to which an enervating climate
+is considered peculiarly incentive, and which induce to amorous
+indulgence. The due restraint of these was reckoned neither among
+the virtues nor the decencies of life, nor was their licentious
+exercise limited to persons of exalted station. The sad example set
+in luxurious courts spread to classes whose sacred calling and vows
+of continence rendered their lapses doubly disgraceful; and those
+whose tastes and cultivated understandings were fitted for purer
+and nobler pursuits wallowed without discredit in the slough of
+sensuality. With such instances, even among the finest characters,
+these pages render us unfortunately too familiar. Instead of
+multiplying or repeating them, let us hear the calm admissions of a
+late writer, whose evidence cannot be deemed partial on such a topic.
+In talking of Bembo, the Italian translator of Roscoe's _Leo X._ thus
+touches upon this delicate subject: "It must be observed that most
+of the poets and writers of that age, although resident at Rome,
+and dignified by prelacies, preferments, and offices of the Church,
+were infected with the like vices, or, as some would express it,
+tarred with the same pitch. The spirit of that court, the manners of
+these times, the licence of ideas among literary men, their constant
+reading of ancient poets not always commendable for modesty, the
+long established and uniform intercourse of the Muses with Bacchus
+and Venus, the fatal example afforded by certain cardinals, and
+even by several of the papal predecessors of Leo, whose children
+were publicly acknowledged ... all these considerations show how
+difficult it was at such an epoch, and especially in the capital of
+Christendom, to continue exempt from corruption and licentiousness."
+
+[Footnote *99: This hardly needs comment: it has become universally
+accepted as the truth. The _Prediche Volgari_ of Fra Bernardino
+afford ample evidence, as do the _Novelle_ generally. I shall
+therefore confine myself to referring to two English writers who have
+treated of this subject: WILLIAM HEYWOOD, _The Ensamples of
+Fra Filippo_ (Siena, 1902), pp. 118, 122 _et seq._ and 295 _et seq._,
+who gives an infinite number of authorities and is exhaustive in his
+evidence; VERNON LEE, _Euphorion_ (Fisher Unwin, 1899), pp.
+25-109, who treats of it in two essays, _The Sacrifice_ and _The
+Italy of the Elizabethan Dramatist_, with exquisite understanding and
+the wide tolerance of a poet. Nothing is to be gained by going into
+this subject so casually as Dennistoun does. He speaks of the Italian
+genius without understanding either its strength or its weakness. He
+judges Machiavelli, for instance, or Cesare Borgia, as one might have
+judged an Englishman of the depressing age he himself lived in, and
+thus his judgment is at fault in regard to nearly every great man of
+whom he writes.]
+
+In no language, perhaps, does there exist a jest-book more
+disgustingly prurient or so full of sacrilegious ribaldry as
+the _Facetiæ_ of Poggio Bracciolini. Were such a work published
+now-a-days, the author would be hooted from society, and the printer
+laid hold of as a common nuisance. Though the parties to above half
+its obscene anecdotes are from the clergy or the monastic orders,
+there occurs throughout the foul volume no word of blame nor burst
+of indignation. Yet it was compiled for publication by a priest,
+the confidential secretary of pontiffs, and one of the stars of a
+literary age. If more direct evidence of dissolute habits among the
+clergy be required, it will be found in the reports of P. Ambrogio
+Traversari on his disciplinarian circuits among the Camaldolese
+convents, of which he was general from 1431 to 1434.[100] It would
+be loathsome to enter upon the details, but a generally lax morality
+among those specially devoted to religious profession must be
+considered as at once the occasion and the effect of much social
+perversion. The poison disseminated from such a quarter was sure
+to pervade all ranks, and the standard of public decency must have
+sunk low indeed ere monastic debauchery ceased to create universal
+scandal. When churchmen had become very generally latitudinarians in
+theology and libertines in morals, the corruption of their flocks
+need be no matter of surprise. It was in the beginning of the
+sixteenth century that these evils had reached their height, and
+the miseries of foreign invasion under the Medicean popes were even
+then regarded by many as judicial inflictions from Heaven. Hence was
+it, that, although Italy was supereminent among nations, although
+illustrated by the triumphs of mind, adorned by the productions of
+genius, and enriched by the gains of intelligent enterprise, she was
+nevertheless deficient in moral power, and when tried in the furnace
+of adversity was found wanting. With institutions whose freedom had
+no longer vitality, with rulers intent only on selfish ends, and with
+citizens relaxed in principle and knit by no common political ties,
+the very advantages lavished upon her by nature and civilisation
+proved her bane, attracting spoilers whom she was powerless to
+resist. Melancholy is the thought that all her mental superiority
+was ineffectual for her defence; but yet more humiliating the fact
+that those on whom nature's best gifts were showered, and who were
+foremost as protectors of literature and the arts, were often, by
+their fatal example, chief promoters of the general demoralisation.
+No wonder then that she fell, and in her fall presented a signal
+lesson to future times "of the impotence of human genius and of the
+instability of human institutions, however excellent in themselves,
+when unsustained by public and private virtue."[101]
+
+[Footnote 100: Hodoeporicon and Epistola, _passim_.]
+
+[Footnote 101: PRESCOTT'S _Ferdinand and Isabella_.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+ Mediæval art chiefly religious--Innovations of Naturalism,
+ Classicism, and Paganism--character and tendencies of
+ Christian painting ill understood in England--influence of
+ St. Francis--Mariolatry.
+
+
+In order to comprehend the peculiar tendency which painting assumed
+in Umbria, it will be necessary briefly to examine the principles
+and history of what is now generally known under the denomination of
+CHRISTIAN ART.[*102] Until after the revival of European
+civilisation, painting had scarcely any other direction than
+religious purposes. For household furniture and decoration, its
+luxuries were unheard of; the delineation of nature in portraits
+and landscapes was unknown. But pictorial representations had
+been employed for embellishment of churches from the recognition
+of Christianity by the Emperors of the West, and they had assumed
+a conventional character, derived chiefly from rude tracings in
+which the uncultivated limners of an outcast sect had long before
+depicted Christ, his Mother, and his apostles, for the solace of
+those whose proscribed creed drove them to worship in the catacombs.
+When these delineations, originally cherished as emblems of faith,
+had been employed as the adjuncts, and eventually perverted into
+the objects of devotion, they acquired a sacred character which
+it was the tendency of ever-spreading superstition continually to
+exaggerate. They became, in fact, the originals of those pictures
+which in subsequent ages were adopted as part and portion of the
+Roman worship; and forms, which they derived perhaps from the
+fancy or caprice of their inventors, came to be the received types
+to which all orthodox painters were bound to adhere.[*103] The
+means adopted for repeating them were enlarged or narrowed by
+various circumstances; the success with which they were imitated
+fluctuated with the advance or decline of taste. But whether traced
+upon the tablets of ivory diptychs, or blazoned in the pages of
+illuminated missals; whether depicted on perishable ceilings,
+or fixed in unfading mosaics; whether degraded by the unskilful
+daubing and spiritless mechanism of Byzantine artists,[*104] or
+refined by the holier feeling and improved handling of the Sienese
+and Umbrian schools,--the original types might still be traced.
+Indeed, those traditionary forms were as little subjected to
+modification by painters as the dogmas of faith were open to the
+doubts of commentators. Heterodoxy on either point was liable to
+severe denunciation, and pictorial novelties were interdicted by
+the Church, not as absolutely wrong, but as liable to abuse from
+the eccentricities of human fancy.[105] It was in Spain, the
+land of suspicion and priestcraft, that such jealousy was chiefly
+entertained, and the censorship of the fine arts there became in the
+sixteenth century a special duty of the Holy Office.
+
+[Footnote *102: I have not deleted these pages partly because it has
+been thought better to give the whole text as nearly as possible as
+Dennistoun wrote it, and partly too because they serve to show that
+Dennistoun was in advance of the general taste of his day in England.
+But, of course, the whole of our knowledge about Italian art has
+been revolutionized since he wrote. It is almost hopeless to try to
+annotate these pages. To begin with, the author is dealing with a
+subject of which even to-day we know very little. And then Urbino
+seems to have had almost nothing to do with the rise of the Umbrian
+school of painting. The reader must therefore accept with care every
+statement which follows.]
+
+[Footnote *103: This is true in a sense, but the work in the
+catacombs and the mosaics (III. cent.) in S. Maria Maggiore, for
+instance, are based on classic models, and are often very excellent
+and beautiful.]
+
+[Footnote *104: The Byzantine work was not always "unskilful," only
+its intention seems to have been rather decorative than realistic,
+yet in _S. Maria Antigua_, for instance, we can see the models were
+classical.]
+
+[Footnote 105: A large picture of the Glorification of the Madonna,
+long placed in the Belle Arti at Florence, was painted by Sandro
+Botticelli for Matteo Palmieri, who, in his Dantesque poem entitled
+_La Città della Vita_, has advanced a theory that, in Lucifer's
+rebellion, a certain number of angels assumed a neutral attitude,
+as a punishment for which they were doomed to a term of trial in
+the quality of human souls. Although never printed, this work was
+solemnly condemned by the Inquisition after the author's death,
+and the picture, which had been composed under his own direction,
+fell under similar suspicion of heresy. On a rigid examination, the
+censors having discovered a sort of fullness in the draped bosoms
+of some angels, pronounced them females, and for this breach of
+orthodoxy denounced the painting. It was accordingly covered up,
+and the chapel where it hung in S. Pietro Maggiore was for a time
+interdicted; but, having escaped destruction, it was offered for
+sale a few years ago by the heirs of Palmieri. The opportunity
+for procuring for our national collection a most interesting and
+characteristic example of early art was as usual lost; but it was
+brought to England by Mr. Samuel Woodburn in 1846, and has now found
+a resting-place at Hamilton Palace, in one of the few collections of
+art which contain nothing common-place or displeasing.[*B]]
+
+[Footnote *B: This picture, now in the National Gallery [No. 1126] is
+by Botticini, not Botticelli.]
+
+With the aid of authorities thus deduced through an unbroken chain
+from primitive times,--to conceive and embody abstractions "which
+eye hath not seen nor ear heard," was reckoned no rash meddling
+with sacred mysteries. On the contrary, the subjects almost
+exclusively selected for the exercise of Christian art, belonged to
+the fundamental doctrines of Christian faith, to the traditional
+dogmas of the Church, to the legendary lives of the Saviour and of
+saints, or to the dramatic sufferings of early martyrs. Such were
+the transfiguration, the passion, the ascension of our Lord; the
+conception, the coronation, and the _cintola_ of the Madonna[106];
+the birth and marriage of the Blessed Virgin; the miracles performed
+by popular saints, the martyrdoms in which they sealed their
+testimony. The choice, and occasionally the treatment, of these
+topics was modified to meet the spiritual exigences of the period,
+or the circumstances of the place, but ever in subservience to
+conventional standards derived from remote tradition. Thus we detect,
+in works of the Byzantine period, rigid forms, harsh outlines,
+soulless faces; in the schools of Siena and Umbria, pure figures lit
+up by angelic expressions; in the followers of Giotto, a tendency to
+varied movement and dramatic composition.
+
+[Footnote 106: The Gospel account of St. Thomas's doubtings finds a
+counterpart in the Roman legend of the Madonna, after her interment,
+being seen by him during her corporeal transit to heaven; whereupon,
+his wonted caution having led him to "ask for a sign," she dropped
+him her girdle or _cintola_, which he carried to the other apostles
+in proof of his marvellous tale; and the fact of her assumption was
+verified by their opening her tomb and finding it empty.]
+
+There is yet another reason for what to the uninitiated may seem
+monstrosities. The old masters had not generally to represent men
+and women in human form, but either prophets, saints, and martyrs,
+whom it was their business to embody, not in their "mortal coil,"
+but in the purer substance of those who had put on immortality; or
+the Mother of Christ, exalted by mariolatry almost to a parity with
+her Son; or the "Ancient of Days,"--the personages of the Triune
+Divinity with their attendant heavenly host, whom to figure at all
+was a questionable licence, and who, if impersonated, ought surely
+to seem other than the sons and daughters of men. Of such themes
+no conception could be adequate, no approximation otherwise than
+disappointing; and those who were called upon to deal with them
+usually preferred painting images suggested by their own earnest
+devotional thoughts, to the more difficult task of idealising human
+models. Addressing themselves to the spirit rather than to the eye,
+they sought to delineate features with nought of "the earth, earthy,"
+expressions purified from grovelling interests and mundane ties.
+
+How much this religious art depended for its due maintenance upon
+the personal character of those whose business it was to embody and
+transmit to a new generation its lofty inspirations, can scarcely
+require demonstration. That they were men of holy minds is apparent
+from their works. Some, by long poring over the mystic incarnations
+which they sought to represent; others, by deep study of the pious
+narratives selected for their pencils; many, by the abstraction of
+monastic seclusion, brought their souls to that pitch of devotional
+enthusiasm, which their pictures portray far better than words can
+describe. The biographies that remain of the early painters of Italy
+fully bear out this fact; and of many instances that might be given
+we shall select three from various places and periods.
+
+Of the early Bolognese school, Vitale and his pupil Lippo di Dalmasio
+were each designed _delle Madonne_, from their formally devoting
+themselves to the exclusive representation of her
+
+ "Who so above all mothers shone,
+ The mother of the Blessed One."
+
+So far indeed did the latter of these carry enthusiastic mysticism,
+that he never resumed his labours without purifying his imagination
+and sanctifying his thoughts by a vigil of austere fasting, and by
+taking the blessed sacrament in the morning. In like manner did one
+of his comrades gain the appellation of Simon of the crucifixes. A
+century later, Gentile Bellini painted three of his noblest works for
+a confraternity in Venice, who possessed a relic of the True Cross,
+and chose for his subject various miracles ascribed to its influence.
+Refusing all remuneration, he affixed this touching record of his
+pious motives: "The work of Gentile Bellini, a knight of Venice,
+instigated by affection for the Cross, 1496." Similar anecdotes might
+be quoted of Giovanni da Fiesole, better known in Italy as Beato
+Angelico, whose life and pencil may well be termed seraphic, and to
+whom we shall again have occasion to allude; while parallel cases
+of a later date are found in Spain, where religion, and religious
+fervour, influenced by the self-mortification of dark fanatics and
+dismal ascetics, generally assumed less attractive forms.
+
+A Christian ideal was thus the aim of the early masters; and
+most surviving works of the Umbrian and Sienese schools carry in
+themselves ample evidence of intensely serious sentiment animating
+their authors. But to those who have not enjoyed opportunities of
+observing this peculiar characteristic of a style of art almost
+unknown in England, it may be acceptable to trace the same spirit
+in a language legible by eyes unaccustomed to the delicacies of
+pictorial expression. This confirmation is found in the rules
+adopted by guilds of painters, incorporated in different towns of
+Italy, which are upon this point more important, as proving how
+entirely devotional feeling was systematised, instead of being left
+to the accident of individual inspiration. The statutes of the
+Sienese fraternity, confirmed in 1357, are thus prefaced: "Let the
+beginning, middle, and end of our words and actions be in the name of
+God Almighty, and of his Mother, our Lady the Virgin Mary! Whereas
+we, by the grace of God, being those who make manifest to rude and
+unlettered men the marvellous things effected by, and in virtue of,
+our holy faith; and our creed consisting chiefly in the worship and
+belief of one God in Trinity, and of God omnipotent, omniscient, and
+infinite in love and compassion; and as nothing, however unimportant,
+can have beginning or end without these three necessary ingredients,
+power, knowledge, and right good-will; and as in God only consists
+all high perfection; let us therefore anxiously invoke the aid of
+divine grace, in order that we may attain to a good beginning and
+ending of all our undertakings, whether of word or work, prefacing
+all in the name and to the honour of the MOST HOLY TRINITY.
+And since spiritual things are, and should be, far preferable and
+more precious than temporal, let us commence by regulating the fête
+of our patron, the venerable and glorious St Luke," &c. Several
+subsequent rules relate to the observance of other festivals, whereof
+fifty-seven are enjoined to be strictly kept without working, a
+number which, added to Sundays and Easter holidays, monopolises for
+sacred purposes nearly a third of the year.[107] The Florentine
+statutes, dated about twenty years earlier, direct that all who come
+to enrol themselves in the Company of painters, whether men or
+women, shall be penitent and confessed, or at least shall purpose
+to confess themselves at the earliest opportunity; that they shall
+daily repeat five paternosters, and as many aves, and shall take the
+sacrament at least once a year.[108] Nor let these be regarded as
+mere unmeaning phrases, or as the vapid lip-service of a formalist
+faith. The ceremonial observances of an age in which the Roman
+Church was indeed Catholic cannot fairly be judged by a Protestant
+standard, yet few, who have seen with intelligence the productions of
+those painters, will doubt that they were men of piety and prayer.
+A vestige of the same holy feeling hung over artists, even after it
+had ceased to animate their efforts; the forms survived, when the
+spirit had fled. Thus, "On Tuesday morning, the 11th of June 1573,
+at eleven in the forenoon, Giorgio Vasari began to paint the cupola
+of the cathedral at Florence; and, before commencing, he had a Mass
+of the Holy Spirit celebrated at the altar of the sacrament, after
+hearing which he entered upon the work."[109] Vasari was a religious
+man; but the favourite painter of a dissolute court could scarcely be
+a religious artist, nor could the pupil of Michael Angelo appreciate
+the quiet pathos or feel the gentle fervour of earlier and more
+spiritualised times.
+
+[Footnote 107: _Carteggio d'Artisti_, II., p. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 108: _Carteggio d'Artisti_, II., p. 33.]
+
+[Footnote 109: _Ibid._, III., p. 352.]
+
+In Spain, where art was always in the especial service of the
+priesthood, and not unfrequently subservient to priestcraft, religion
+was a requisite of painters to a much later date. The rules of the
+academy established at Seville by Murillo, in 1658, imposed upon each
+pupil an ejaculatory testimony of his faith in, and devotion for,
+the blessed sacrament and immaculate conception.[110] But whilst the
+piety of the Sienese and Florentine guilds was an inherent sentiment
+of their age, willingly adopted by professional etiquette, that of
+the Iberian artists in the sixteenth century was regulated by the
+Inquisition, and savoured of its origin. The former was joyous as the
+bright thoughts of youthful enthusiasm springing in a land of beauty;
+the latter shadowed the grave and sombre temperament of the nation
+by austerities congenial to the Holy Office. Hence the religious
+paintings of Spain, appealing to the spectator's terrors rather than
+to his sympathies, revelled in the horrible, eschewing as a snare
+those lovely forms which in Italy were encouraged as conducive to
+devotion.
+
+[Footnote 110: STIRLING'S _Annals of the Artists of Spain_,
+p. 848.]
+
+Yet, if the genius of early painters was hampered, and the effect
+of their creations impaired, by prescribed symbols and conventional
+rules, they were not without countervailing advantages. A limited
+range of forms did not always imply poverty of ideas, nor was
+simplicity inconsistent with sublimity. Those, accordingly, who look
+with intelligence upon pictures, which, to the casual glance of an
+uninformed spectator, are mere rude and monstrous representations,
+will often recognise in them a grandeur of sentiment, and a majesty
+of expression, altogether wanting in more matured productions,
+wherein truth to nature is manifested through unimportant
+accessories, or combined with trivial details. Familiarity is
+notoriously conducive to contempt; and to associate the grander
+themes and dogmas of holy writ with multiplied adjuncts skilfully
+borrowed from ordinary life, is to detract from the awe and mystery
+whereof they ought to be especially suggestive.
+
+But here it may be well to premise that, our observations upon
+Christian art being purely æsthetical, it forms no part of our plan
+to analyse its influences in a doctrinal view, or to discuss the
+Roman system of teaching religion to the laity, by attracting them
+to devotional observances through pictures and sculpture, to the
+exclusion of the holy scriptures; still less to raise any controversy
+regarding the incidents or tenets thus usually inculcated. We,
+therefore, pause not to inquire how far the Roman legends--often
+beautifully suggestive of truth, but how frequently redolent of fatal
+error!--have originated in art, or been corrupted by its creations.
+One danger of teaching by pictures is obvious; for where the eye
+is offered but a few detached scenes, without full explanation of
+their attendant circumstances and connecting links, very imperfect
+impressions and false conclusions may result. Under such a system,
+figurative representation will often be literally interpreted,
+symbols will be mistaken for facts, dreams for realities; and thus
+have the fertile imaginations of artists and commentators mutually
+reacted upon each other, until historical and spiritual truth is
+lost in a maze of allegory and fable, and error has been indelibly
+ingrafted upon popular faith. The dim allegories of early art have
+accordingly been overlaid by crude inventions, or obscured by gross
+ignorance and enthusiastic mysticism. Religious truth being thus
+misstated, or its symbols misread, those who thirsted for the waters
+of life were repelled by tainted streams, and hungry souls were
+mocked by stones for bread. It ought, however, to be constantly borne
+in mind that we are dealing with times when the authority of Rome was
+absolute throughout Europe; and that, whatever may now be alleged
+against the dogmas or legends embodied by early artists, they were
+then universally received. For our purpose they ought, therefore,
+to be examined by the light then enjoyed, not by that shed upon
+them in after times of gospel freedom. Neither ought we to forget
+the impressionable qualities of a southern people, when disposed to
+question the tendencies of religious instruction through the senses
+and the imagination. And, granting that it is well to employ such
+means, the mute eloquence of an altar-picture, or a reliquary, though
+less startling than impassioned pulpit appeals, less thrilling than
+choral voices sustained by the organ's impressive diapason, had the
+advantages of being accessible at all hours to devout visitors, and
+of demanding from them no sustained attention.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Such was Christian art in Italy during the fourteenth century, when
+it was destined to undergo very considerable modifications. As yet
+it had been exercised almost exclusively for decorating churches
+and monastic buildings with extensive works intended to nourish or
+revive devotion in the masses who resorted to them. In ages when the
+intelligence capable of ordering these works was almost limited to
+convents, and when it was only from such representations that the
+unlettered eye could convey impressions to the mind of the laity,
+Christian paintings were an effective adjunct to Christian preaching
+and devotional exercises. But, as the dark cloud began to roll away
+before the dawn of modern cultivation, mankind awoke to new wants. No
+longer content with the pittance of religious knowledge which their
+spiritual guides doled out to them, they sought to secure a store for
+their own uncontrolled use. Those who could vanquish the difficulties
+of reading, found in their office-books a continuation of the church
+services; the less educated placed by their bed, or in their domestic
+chapel, a small devotional picture, as a substitute for the larger
+representations which invoked them to holy feelings in the house
+of God. Thus there arose a general desire for objects of sacred
+art. The privilege assumed by all who wished for such, of ordering
+them in conformity with their individual feelings or superstitions,
+quickly introduced greater latitudinarianism as to the selection
+and treatment of the subjects. The demand so created exceeded the
+productive powers of such painters as had been regularly initiated
+into the language of form, according to the settled conventionalities
+of their sanctified profession. The chain of pictorial tradition was
+snapped, when a host of new competitors entered the field, free from
+its trammels. But the public taste had been too long and thoroughly
+imbued with a uniform class of religious compositions to relish any
+great innovations; and although historical painting began to find
+a place in the palace-halls of the princes and republics of Italy,
+works commissioned by private persons continued almost exclusively of
+a sacred cast. Thus for a time was the new path little frequented.
+Artists felt their way with caution, unaware of the direction
+whither it might lead them; timid of their own powers, doubtful of
+their influence on the public. They contented themselves at first
+with enlarging the range of subjects, or with varying the pose of
+the actors. Fearing to abandon traditional types, they ventured not
+beyond the addition of accessories, such as architecture, landscape,
+animals, fruits, and flowers, or a disposal of the draperies with
+greater freedom and attention to truth. But, the further they
+departed from received forms, the more willingly did their genius
+pluck by the way those graceful aids and appliances which spontaneous
+nature offered in a land of beauty; and every new combination which
+that awakened genius inspired, induced, and to a certain extent
+authorised, fresh novelties.
+
+The modifications thus introduced have been distinguished in modern
+phrase by the term naturalism, in contradistinction to those
+traditional forms and spiritualised countenances which constitute
+the mysticism of mediæval art. It would lead us too far from
+our subject to trace the progress of naturalism from such early
+symptoms as we have indicated, until portraits, at first interponed
+as donors of the picture, or as spectators of its incident, were
+habitually selected as models for the most sacred personages. That
+the adaptation of nature to the highest purposes of art, by skilful
+selection and by judicious idealisation, is the noblest object which
+pictorial genius can keep in view for its inventions will scarcely
+be contested. But another consideration, inherent in the axioms of
+the mystic school, was too often lost sight of by the naturalists.
+The portraiture of criminal or even vulgar life, in deeply religious
+works, is an outrage upon all holy feeling, whether in the example of
+Alexander VI., who commanded Pinturicchio to introduce into one of
+the Vatican frescoes his own portrait, kneeling before the ascending
+Redeemer;[111] or in the case of those painters in Rome whose
+favourite model for the Saviour has of late years been a cobbler,
+hence known in the streets by the blasphemous name of Jesus Christ.
+
+[Footnote 111: Roscoe, who wrote without an opportunity of seeing
+these paintings, describes this Pope as kneeling in his pontificals
+before the Madonna, in whom is portrayed his mistress, Julia Farnese.
+In this palpable blunder he has been followed by Rio and others. It
+would be curious to discover on what authority Gordon, in his life
+of Borgia, states that a likeness of La Vanosia, another of his
+mistresses, hung for Madonna-worship in the church of the Popolo at
+Rome. The circumstance coming from such a quarter is questionable; at
+all events, it is no longer true. Alexander kneels before the Risen,
+not the Ascending Christ. *Roscoe followed Vasari.]
+
+To the naturalism which became gradually prevalent in most Italian
+schools after the beginning of the fourteenth century, there was,
+in the fifteenth, added another principle of antagonism to mystic
+feeling. In purist nomenclature it has been denominated paganism, but
+it seems to consist of paganism and classicism. By the former is to
+be understood that fashion for the philosophy, morality, literature,
+and mythology of ancient Greece and Rome, which, introduced from
+the recovered authors of antiquity, was assiduously cultivated by
+the Medici in their lettered but sceptical court, until it left a
+stamp on the literature and art of Italy not yet effaced. Under its
+influence, the vernacular language was neglected, or cramped into
+obsolete models; dead tongues monopolised students; the doctrines of
+Aristotle and Plato divided men, clouding their faith, and warping
+their morals from Christian standards; the beauty of holiness
+yielded before an ideal of form; and that unction which had purified
+the conceptions and guided the pencils of devotional painters,
+evaporated as they strove to master the technical excellences of the
+new manner. To the maxims and principles of revived pagan antiquity,
+the philosophic Schlegel has traced the selfish policy and morals of
+Italian tyrants and communities; but it seems easier to detect their
+fatal tendency in painting and sculpture than upon statecraft and
+manners.
+
+Classicism, as here used, means that innovation of antique taste in
+art which arose out of renewed interest in the picturesque ruins of
+Rome, in her mighty recollections, in the excavation of her precious
+sculptures, and which imparted to pictorial representations sometimes
+a hard and plastic treatment, sometimes ornamental architecture,
+bas-reliefs, or grotesques. By paganism a blighting poison was
+infused through the spirit of art, while classicism has often
+ennobled the work and enriched its details, without injury to its
+sentiment. To schools such as those of Florence and Padua, wherein
+nature or classic imitation prevailed, there belonged the materialism
+of facts, the severity of definite forms.[*112] These qualities
+obtained favour from men of mundane pursuits and literary tastes;
+from citizens greedy after gainful commerce and devoted to political
+intrigue; or from princes who patronised, and pedants who deciphered,
+long forgotten, but at length reviving lore. The "new manner," as
+it was called, had, in Michael Angelo, a supporter whose mighty
+genius lent to its solecisms an irresistible charm. Yet against such
+innovations protests were long occasionally recorded. An anonymous
+writer, in 1549, mentions a _Pietà_, said to have been designed
+by "Michael Angelo Buonarroti, that inventor of filthy trash, who
+adheres to art without devotion. Indeed, all the modern painters and
+sculptors, following the like Lutheran [that is, impious] caprices
+now-a-days, neither paint nor model for consecrated churches anything
+but figures that distract one's faith and devotion; but I hope that
+God will one day send his saints to cast down such idolatries."[113]
+In a land where mythology had slowly been supplanted by revelation,
+especially in a city successively the capital of paganism and
+Christianity, these influences were necessarily in frequent
+antagonism, or in forced and unseemly juxtaposition. Whilst art
+thus lost in sentiment, it gained in vigour; and although classic
+taste and the study of antique sculpture unquestionably tarnished
+its mystical purity, may they not have preserved it from the fate
+of religious painting in Spain, which, debarred by the Inquisition
+from access to nude models, and elevated by no refined standard,
+oscillated between the extremes of gloomy asceticism and grovelling
+vulgarity? The paganism of the Medici and Michael Angelo scared away
+the seraphic visions of monastic limners, but it also rescued Italy
+from religious prudery, and saved men from addressing their orisons
+to squalid beggars.[*114]
+
+[Footnote *112: For instance, in the work of Botticelli, I suppose,
+or Verrocchio, or Mantegna?]
+
+[Footnote 113: GAYE, _Carteggio_, II., 500.]
+
+[Footnote *114: Can this be an allusion to S. Francesco of Assisi?]
+
+The brief sketch which we have thus introduced of the progress
+and tendency of Christian art, may be fittingly concluded by the
+definition of it supplied by Baron v. Rumohr, one of the laborious,
+learned, and felicitous expositors of mediæval art whom the reviving
+taste of later times produced. "It is consecrated to religion alone;
+its object is sometimes to induce the mind to the contemplation of
+sacred subjects, sometimes to regulate the passions, by awakening
+those sentiments of peace and benevolence which are peculiar to
+practical Christianity." To narrate its extinction in the sixteenth
+century, speedily followed by the decline of all that was noblest in
+artistic genius, is a task on which we are not now called to enter.
+We approached the subject because, in the mountains of Umbria, that
+mystic school long maintained its chief seat; because there its
+types sank deepest into the popular mind; and because it reached its
+culminating point of perfection and glory in RAFFAELE of
+URBINO.
+
+We are fully and painfully aware how opposed some of these views
+are to the received criticism and popular practice of art in
+England; but it were beyond our purpose to inquire into the many
+causes which combine to render our countrymen averse from the
+impartial study, as well as to the even partial adoption of them.
+Hogarth, the incarnation of our national taste in painting, saw in
+those spiritualised cherubim which usually minister to the holiest
+compositions of the Umbrian school, only "an infant's head with a
+pair of duck's wings under its chin, supposed always to be flying
+about and singing psalms."[115] The form conveyed by the eye, and the
+description of it traced by the pen, are here in accurate unison.
+Alas! how hopelessly blinded the writer's mental vision. As directly
+opposed to such grovelling views, and contrasting spiritual with
+material perceptions of art, it may not be out of place here to cite
+a passage from Savonarola, whose stern genius gladly invoked the muse
+of painting to aid his moral and political reformations. "Creatures
+are beautiful in proportion as they participate in and approximate
+the beauty of their creator; and perfection of bodily form is
+relative to beauty of mind. Bring hither two women equally perfect in
+person; let one be a saint, the other a sinner. You shall find that
+the saint will be more generally loved than the sinner, and that on
+her all eyes will be directed."
+
+[Footnote 115: Our reference to this quotation (made long ago) has
+been mislaid, but it appears perfectly consistent with Hogarth's
+habitual train of ideas, and quaint rendering of them. See
+IRELAND'S _Hogarth Illustrated_, I., p. lxix.; II., p. 194,
+195; III., p. 226-40. NICHOL'S _Anecdotes of Hogarth_, p.
+137. In his plate of Enthusiasm Delineated, he has actually appended
+a pair of duck's legs to a cherub.]
+
+These quotations illustrate two extremes,--ribald vulgarity on
+the one hand, and transcendental mysticism on the other, between
+which the standard of sound criticism may be sought. It would be
+as unreasonable to suppose Hogarth capable of comprehending or
+appreciating the fervid conceptions of Christian art, as to look
+for sympathy from Savonarola, with his pot-house personifications.
+Each of those styles has its peculiar merit, which cannot fairly be
+considered with reference to the other: they differ in this among
+many respects,--that whilst English caricatures and Dutch familiar
+scenes are addressed to the most uncultivated minds, Umbrian or
+Sienese paintings can be understood only after long examination and
+elevated thought. The former, therefore, gratify the unintelligent
+many, the latter delight an enlightened few.
+
+The difficulty of justly appreciating this branch of æsthetics is
+greater among ourselves than is generally imagined, as our best
+authorities have entirely misled us, from themselves overlooking
+its true bent. More alive to the naturalism and technical merits
+of painting than to subtleties of feeling and expression, they are
+neither conscious of the aims nor aware of the principles of purist
+art. They look for perfection where only pathos should be sought.
+Burnet, a recent and valuable writer, considers Barry "one of those
+noble minds ruined by a close adherence to the dry manner of the
+early masters," an analogy which cannot but surprise those who
+compare the respective works of those thus brought unconsciously into
+contrast. Even Sir Joshua Reynolds was not exempt from prejudice on
+this point, for he sneers at the first manner of Raffaele as "dry
+and insipid," and avers that until Masaccio, art was so barbarous,
+"that every figure appeared to stand upon his toes." There is but one
+explanation applicable to assertions thus inconsistent at once with
+fact and with sound criticism, in a writer so candid and generally
+so careful. Living in an age devoid of Catholic feeling (we employ
+the phrase in an æsthetic sense), which classed in the same category
+of contempt all painting before Michael Angelo, and speaking of
+"an excellence addressed to a faculty which he did not possess,"
+he assumed, without observation or inquiry, that "the simplicity
+of the early masters would be better named penury, as it proceeds
+from mere want,--from want of knowledge, want of resources, want
+of abilities to be otherwise; that it was the offspring, not of
+choice, but of necessity." No argument is required to convince those
+who have impartially studied these masters, that a condemnation so
+sweeping is erroneous. In our day, the number of such persons is
+happily increasing, but there are still many impediments to a candid
+appreciation of the subject. So long as art was the handmaid of
+religion, its professors were ranked almost with those who ministered
+in the temple, and interpreted the records of inspiration. In absence
+of priests, their works became guides to popular devotion, and
+consequently were addressed to spectators who came to worship, not
+to criticise; whose credulous enthusiasm was nourished by yearnings
+of the heart, not by the cold judgment of the eye. How different the
+test applied by men who look upon such paintings as popish dogmas
+which it is a duty to repudiate, it may be to ridicule! How futile
+the perhaps more common error of trying them by the matured rules
+of pictorial execution, apart from their object and intention!
+Connoisseurship in painting, especially in England, has indeed too
+long consisted in a mere appreciation of its technical difficulties,
+and perception of their successful treatment. For it was not until
+Raffaele had attained grace, and Michael Angelo had mastered
+design,--until Correggio had blended light and shade into happy
+effect, and Titian had taught the gorgeous hues of his palette to
+mingle in harmony, that such perfections were looked for, or reduced
+to a standard. Why, then, apply such standard to works already old
+ere it had been adopted? The very imperfections of general treatment,
+the absence of linear perspective and anatomical detail, tended to
+develop what should be chiefly sought and most valued in these early
+productions; for the artist's time was thus free to elaborate the
+heads and extremities, until he gave them that grace and expression
+which constitutes their interest and their charm.
+
+There are, however, no longer wanting writers in England, as well as
+in Germany, France, and Italy, to appreciate their lofty motives,
+and solemn feelings, and gentle forms. In the words of Ruskin,
+whose earnest and true thoughts are often most happily expressed,
+"the early efforts of Cimabue and Giotto are the burning messages
+of prophecy, delivered by the stammering lips of infants," but they
+are unintelligible to "the multitude, always awake to the lowest
+pleasures which art can bestow, and dead to the highest," for
+their beauties "can only be studied or accepted in the particular
+feeling that produced them." Under the modest title of _Sketches_
+Lord Lindsay has enriched our literature with the best history of
+Christian art as yet produced. He has brought to his task that
+sincerity of purpose, veneration for sacred things, and lively
+sense of beauty, which impart a charm to all he puts forth; and he
+has peculiarly qualified himself for its successful performance,
+by an anxious study of preceding writers, by a faithful, often
+toilsome, examination of monuments, even in the more obscure sites
+of Italy, and by a candour and accuracy of criticism seldom attained
+on topics singularly liable to prejudice. Public intelligence and
+taste must improve under such direction, notwithstanding passing
+sneers at "his narrow notions of admiring the faded and soulless
+attempts at painting of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,"
+or sapient conclusions that "the antiquities and curiosities of
+the early Italian painters would only infect our school with a
+retrograding mania of disfiguring art, and returning to the decrepit
+littleness of a period warped and tortured by monkish legends and
+prejudices."[116] In order to be comprehended, such "curiosities"
+must not only be seen, but studied maturely: both are in this country
+alike impracticable. When Wilkie first entered Italy, he found
+nothing to rank them above Chinese or Hindoo paintings,[*117] and
+could not discern the majestic simplicity ascribed to the primitive
+masters. Yet, ere six weeks had passed, he recorded the conviction
+"that the only art pure and unsophisticated, and that is worth study
+and consideration by an artist, or that has the true object of art in
+view, is to be found in the works of those masters who revived and
+improved the art, and those who ultimately brought it to perfection.
+These alone seem to have addressed themselves to the common sense of
+mankind. From Giotto to Michael Angelo, expression and sentiment seem
+the first thing thought of, whilst those who followed seem to have
+allowed technicalities to get the better of them, until, simplicity
+giving way to intricacy, they seem to have painted more for the
+artist and the connoisseur than for the untutored apprehensions of
+ordinary men." So, too, in writing to Mr. Phillips, R.A., he
+says, "respect for primitive simplicity and expression is perhaps the
+best advice for any school."[118]
+
+[Footnote 116: _Art Union_, January and April, 1847. We have read
+with regret, in a periodical justly entitled to great weight,
+criticisms so at variance with its wonted candour and good sense.]
+
+[Footnote *117: Evidently Chinese and Japanese art were not
+understood in England in 1859.]
+
+[Footnote 118: CUNNINGHAM'S _Life of Wilkie_, II., pp. 197,
+506.]
+
+Neither are religious innovations a necessary accompaniment of
+such tastes among ourselves, as is too generally supposed. The
+present reaction in favour of Romanist views, prevalent in England
+among a class of persons, many of whom are distinguished by high
+and cultivated intellect, as well as by youthful enthusiasm, takes
+naturally an æsthetic as well as theological direction. The faith
+and discipline, which they labour to revive, having borrowed some
+winning illustrations and much imposing pageantry from painting,
+sculpture, and architecture, their neophytes gladly avail themselves
+of accessories so attractive. Nor can it be doubted that the same
+qualities which render such persons impressionable to popish
+observances, predispose them to admire or imitate works of devotional
+art. Yet there is no compulsory connection between these tendencies.
+Conversion to pantheism is not a requisite for appreciating the
+Belvidere Apollo or the Medicean Venus; and a serious Christian may
+surely appreciate the feeling of the early masters, without bowing
+the knee to their Madonnas,--may admire the
+
+ "Prelibations, foretastes high,"
+
+of Fra Angelico's pencil, whilst demurring to the miracles he has so
+charmingly portrayed.
+
+There is another observation of Wilkie's which merits our notice:
+"Could their system serve, which I think it may, as the border
+minstrelsy did Sir Walter Scott, it would be to any student a most
+admirable groundwork for a new style of art." This somewhat hasty
+hint must be cautiously received. The very absence of technical
+excellence interests us in the formal compositions and flat
+surfaces of the early masters. We feel that movement and distance,
+foreshortening and relief, symmetry and contrast, tone and effect,
+are scarcely wanted, where "a truth of actuality is fearlessly
+sacrificed to a truth of feeling." We are forced to admit that men
+who regarded form but as the vehicle of expression, attained a severe
+grandeur, a noble repose, very different from exaggerated action.
+Archaisms of style are, however, ill suited to our times. Originally
+significant, they are now an affectation--the offspring of penury or
+perverted taste, rather than of spiritual purity. So must they seem
+in modern productions, affectedly divested of the artificial means
+and improved methods which centuries of progress have developed, by
+artists who forget their academic studies and neglect the contour of
+the living model, without attaining the old inspiration. The spirit
+which animated devotional limners being long dead, any imitation
+of their style must be mechanical--a reproduction of its mannerism
+after its motives are extinct. Whilst, therefore, I endeavour to
+point out the merits of the old religious limners, it is with no
+wish to see their manner revived. Among a generation whose faith
+has been remodelled, whose social and intellectual habits have been
+entirely revolutionised, the restoration of purist painting would be
+a mockery. But it should not, therefore, be forbidden us to study
+and sympathise with forms which, though rigid and monotonous, were
+sufficient to express the simple faith of early times, and in which
+earnestness compensates the absence of skill, and fervour the lack of
+power.
+
+During the early years of the thirteenth century, there appeared on
+the lofty Apennines of Central Italy, one of those mysterious beings
+who, with few gifts of nature, are born to sway mankind; whose brief
+and eccentric career has left behind a brilliant halo, that no lapse
+of time is likely to dim. Giovanni Bernardoni, better known as St.
+Francis of Assisi, by his eloquence, his austerities, and all the
+appliances of religious enthusiasm, quickly gathered among the fervid
+spirits of his native mountains a numerous following of devoted
+disciples. In a less judicious church, he might, as a field-preacher,
+have become a most dangerous schismatic; but, with that foresight
+and knowledge of human nature which have generally distinguished the
+Romish hierarchy, the sectarian leader was welcomed as a missionary,
+"seraphic all in fervency," and in due time canonised into a saint,
+whilst his poverty-professing sect was recognised as an order, and
+became one of the most influential pillars of the Papacy.
+
+It was
+
+ "On the hard rock
+ 'Twixt Arno and the Tiber, he from Christ
+ Took the last signet."
+
+From the desolate fastnesses of Lavernia, which witnessed his ascetic
+life and ecstatic visions, to the fertile slopes of Assisi, where
+his bones found repose from self-inflicted hardships, the people
+rallied round him while alive, and revered him when dead. Nor did the
+religious revival which his preaching and example there effected pass
+away. Acknowledged by popes, favoured by princes, his order rapidly
+spread. In every considerable town convents of begging friars were
+established and endowed. Still, it was in his mountain-land that
+his doctrines took deepest root, among a race of simple men, reared
+amid the sublime combinations of Alpine and forest scenery, familiar
+from their days of dreamy youth with hills and glades, caverns and
+precipices, shady grottoes and solitary cells. The visionary tales
+of his marvellous life, penetrating the devotional character of the
+inhabitants, became favourite themes of popular superstition.
+
+ "A spirit hung,
+ Beautiful region! o'er thy towns and farms;
+ And emanations were perceived, and acts
+ Of immortality, in nature's course
+ Exemplified by mysteries, that were felt
+ As bonds on grave philosopher imposed,
+ And armed warrior; and in every grove
+ A gay or pensive tenderness prevailed."[119]
+
+[Footnote 119: WORDSWORTH'S _Excursion_.]
+
+Assisi in particular was the focus of the new faith. To its shrine
+flocked pilgrims laden with riches, which the saint taught them
+to despise. This influx of treasure had the usual destination of
+monastic wealth, being chiefly dedicated to the decoration of its
+sanctuary. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the best
+artists in Italy competed for its embellishment, and even now it
+is there that the student of mediæval art ought most to seek for
+enlightenment.
+
+With the legends of St. Francis thus indelibly stamped on the
+inhabitants, and with the finest specimens of religious painting
+preserved at Assisi, it need scarcely be matter of surprise that
+devotional art, which we have endeavoured to describe, should have
+found in Umbria a fostering soil, even after it had been elsewhere
+supplanted by naturalist and pagan novelties; for the feelings which
+it breathed were those of mystery and sentiment--its beauty was
+sanctified and impalpable. By a people so trained, its traditional
+types were received with the fervour of faith; while to the limited
+range of its themes the miraculous adventures of the saint were
+a welcome supplement. The romantic character of these incidents
+borrowed from the picturesque features of the country a new but
+fitting element of pictorial effect, and for the first time nature
+was introduced to embellish without demeaning religious painting. But
+let us hear Rio, the eloquent elucidator of sacred art, upon this
+subject. "To the Umbrian school belongs the glory of having followed
+out the leading aim of Christian art without pause, and without
+yielding to the seductions of example or the distractions of clamour.
+It would seem that a peculiar blessing belongs to the spots rendered
+specially holy by the sainted Francis of Assisi, and that the odour
+of his sanctity has preserved the fine arts from degradation in that
+mountain district, where so many pious painters have successively
+contributed to ornament his tomb. From thence rose to heaven, like
+a sweet incense, prayers whose fervour and purity ensured their
+efficacy: from thence, too, in other times, there descended, like
+beneficent dew upon the more corrupt cities of the plain, penitential
+inspirations that spread into almost every part of Italy."
+
+Since these pages were written I have met with a passage in the
+introduction of Boni's Italian translation of the work just quoted,
+which I subjoin, at the risk of some repetition, as a fair specimen
+of the ideas on Christian art now entertained by many on the
+Continent, but as yet little known to English literature.
+
+"On the Umbrian mountains, by Assisi, slept, in the peace of Heaven,
+St. Francis, who left such sweet odour of sanctity in the middle
+ages. Round his tomb assembled, from every part of Christendom,
+pilgrims to pay their vows. With their offertories there was erected
+over his grave a magnificent temple, which became the point of
+concourse to all painters animated by Christian feeling, who thus
+displayed their gratitude to the Almighty for their endowment of
+genius, who in that solitude laid in a new store of inspiration,
+and who, after leaving on these walls a testimony of their powers,
+returned home joyful and enriched. Cimabue, among the first that
+raised a holy war against the Byzantine mannerism,[*120] there
+painted the most beautiful of his Madonnas; his pupil, the shepherd
+of Bondone, there traced those simple histories which established
+his superiority; thither sped the artists of Siena, Perugia, Arezzo,
+and the best of the Florentines,--the beatified Fiesole, of angelic
+life and works, Benozzo Gozzoli, Orcagna, Perugino, and, finally,
+Raffaele, the greatest of painters.
+
+[Footnote *120: Cimabue raising a holy war against Byzantine
+mannerism is an amusing spectacle. All we know of him was that his
+pupil was a great painter. Whether or no he painted at Assisi it is
+impossible to say.]
+
+"Thus was there formed in the shadow of that sanctuary a truly
+Christian school, which sought its types of beauty in the heavens;
+or, when it laid the scene of its compositions here below, selected
+their subjects from the sainted ones of the earth. Its delight was
+to represent, now the Virgin-Mother kneeling before her Son, or
+seated caressing or holding him up for the veneration of patriarchs
+and saints; now the life of Christ, his preaching, his sufferings,
+his triumph; or, again, to embody the touching legends told in these
+simple times, or the martyrs crucified by early tyrants, or an
+anchorite's devotion in a lonely cave, or some beatified soul borne
+away on seraph's wings; or a religious procession, the miracle of a
+preacher, the solemnity of a sacrament: but ever, images of solace
+and of hope, cherubs singing and making melody, maidens contemplating
+with smiles the opening heavens, the scenes begun on earth but
+continued far beyond the clouds, where the Madonna and the Saviour
+are seen, radiant with serene exultation, beholding the concourse of
+suppliant faithful beneath."
+
+But lest, in quoting from writers zealously devoted to the Roman
+Creed, we may seem to admit that such sympathies belong not to
+Protestant breasts, it will be well to appeal to one whose pen
+has, with no common success, combated the usages wherein popery
+most startles those whose faith is based on the Reformation. "I
+never looked at the pictures of one of these men that it did not
+instantaneously affect me, alluring me into a sort of dream or
+reverie, while my imagination was called into very lively activity.
+It is not that their drawing is good; for, on the other hand,
+it is often stiff, awkward, and unnatural. Nor is it that their
+imagination, as exhibited in grouping their figures or embodying
+the story to be represented, was correct or natural; for often
+it is most absurd and grotesque. But still there is palpably the
+embodiment of an idea; an idea pure, holy, exquisite, and too much
+so to seem capable of expression by the ordinary powers either of
+language or of the pencil. Yet the idea is there. And it must have
+had a mysterious and wondrous power on the imagination of these men,
+it must have thoroughly mastered and possessed them, or they never
+could have developed such an exquisite ideal of calm, peaceful, meek,
+heavenly holiness, as stands out so constantly and so pre-eminently
+in their paintings." In noticing the cavils of connoisseurs upon
+these paintings this author happily observes, that they were "looking
+for earthly creatures and found heavenly ones; and, expecting unholy
+expressions, were disappointed at finding none but the holy."[121]
+
+[Footnote 121: REV. M.H. SEYMOUR'S _Pilgrimage to Rome_, a
+work remarkable for accurate observation of facts, and the candid
+tone of its strictures.]
+
+We may here remark, in passing, the nearly coeval introduction of a
+class of themes which, though innovating upon the purity of Catholic
+faith, were admirably adapted to develop the mystic tendencies of
+devotional painting. It was about the thirteenth century that the
+Madonna acquired the unfortunately paramount place in the Romish
+worship she has since been permitted to hold. Her history became a
+favourite topic of Franciscan and other popular preachers, at once
+facile and fascinating. Not content with describing the scriptural
+events of her life, they adopted traditions regarding her birth,
+marriage, and death; or the more abstruse and questionable legends
+of her miraculous conception, her assumption, exaltation, and her
+coronation as queen of heaven, and the _cintola_ or girdle by which
+she drew up souls from limbo. It would be quite foreign to the
+matter in hand were we to examine the orthodoxy of these devotional
+novelties, or their influence upon the social estimate of the
+female character. Enough to observe that they speedily enriched
+Christian art in all its branches, but chiefly in Umbria, where, in
+accordance with the prevailing popular taste, such of them as partook
+of dogmatic mystery gained a preference over more real or scenic
+incidents. The early Giottists were wont to close their dramatic
+delineations of her earthly history with a peaceful death, its only
+artistic licence being the transit of her soul in the shape of a
+swaddled babe. But the Madonna-worship of this more spiritual school
+was satisfied with nothing short of her translation in the body,
+direct to realms of bliss from amid a concourse of adoring disciples.
+In like manner, the old Byzantine painters inscribed over her image
+one uniform epigraph, "the Mother of God"; whilst the devotional
+masters delighted to seat her beyond the skies, where her blessed
+Son placed a diadem upon her brows as the queen of heaven. It hence
+became an established practice of the latter to depict her charms,
+not after the mould in which nature cast fair but frail humanity, but
+to clothe them in abstract and purer beauty appropriate to one whom,
+though incarnate, they were taught to regard as divine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+ The Umbrian school of painting, its scholars and
+ influence--Fra Angelico da Fiesole--Gentile da
+ Fabriano--Pietro Perugino--Artists at Urbino--Piero della
+ Francesca--Fra Carnevale--Francesco di Giorgio.
+
+
+The Umbrian art, of which we have attempted to trace the origin,
+has not hitherto met with the notice which it merits. Lanzi allowed
+it no separate place among the fourteen schools under which he has
+arranged Italian painting, and, by scattering its most important
+names, has lost sight of certain characteristics which, rather
+than any common education, link its masters together. Nor was this
+omission wonderful, for the Umbrian painters and their works were
+dispersed over many towns and villages, none of which could be
+considered the head-quarters of a school, and to visit these distant
+localities would have been a task of difficulty and disappointment.
+The patronage of princes and communities seems to have been sparingly
+bestowed in that mountain-land. Assisi, adorned by many Florentine
+strangers, was mother rather than nurse of its native art, and
+other religious houses wanted the means or the spirit to follow her
+brilliant example. Hence the comparatively few opportunities afforded
+to the Christian painters of Umbria of executing great works in
+fresco, the peculiar vehicle of pictorial grandeur; and alas! of
+these few, a considerable proportion has been lost to us under the
+barbarism of whitewash.[122] The revival of feeling for religious
+art, of late commenced by the Germans, and their persevering zeal in
+illustrating its neglected monuments, have established the existence
+of an Umbrian school in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; but
+its history remains to be written.[*123] The task would carry us too
+far from the leading subject of these volumes, yet we shall endeavour
+in a few pages to sketch its development, from the dreamy anchorites
+whose rude pencils embodied the visions of their favourite St.
+Francis, to Raffaele, whose high mission it was to perfect devotional
+painting,[*124] apart from the alloy of human passions, and to
+withstand for a time that influx of pagan and naturalist corruptions,
+which after his premature death overwhelmed it.
+
+[Footnote 122: In 1843, I saw fragments of fine frescoes in two
+churches at Cagli which had just been cleared of this abomination;
+and I was assured that the small church of Monte l'Abbate near Pesaro
+has but recently been subjected to it, by order of its ignorant
+curate. The abbey church of Pietra Pertusa at the Furlo is another of
+many similar instances.]
+
+[Footnote *123: It still remains to be written; but see the Essay of
+BERENSON, _Central Italian Painting_ (Putnams, 1904), and
+the valuable list of pictures appended to it.]
+
+[Footnote *124: This is an example of the taste of our fathers,
+almost inexplicable to-day. To consider Raffaele as a greater
+"devotional" painter than Duccio, Simone Martini, Fra Angelico,
+Sassetta, or Perugino might almost seem impossible.]
+
+Two fanes were commenced in the thirteenth century near the Tiber,
+which became conspicuous as shrines equally of Christian devotion
+and Christian art. The cathedral of Orvieto for two hundred years
+attracted from all parts of Italy many of the best artificers in
+sculpture and painting, some of whom, arriving from Umbria, carried
+back new inspirations to their homes. The sanctuary of St. Francis,
+at Assisi, coeval with the dawn of Italian art, borrowed its earliest
+embellishments from Tuscany,[*125] where Giotto and his followers
+were ingrafting on design two novel ingredients--dramatic composition
+and allegorical allusion. The former of these elements distinguished
+the Florentine from contemporary schools, and carried it beyond
+them in variety and effect, preparing a way for the pictorial power
+which Raffaele and Michael Angelo perfected. To the inspirations of
+Dante it owed the latter element, and to the enthusiastic though
+tardy admiration which his fellow-citizens indulged for his wildly
+poetical mysticism, may be ascribed the abiding impress of a tendency
+which not only authorised but encouraged new and varied combinations.
+The rigid outlines, monotonous conventional movements, and soulless
+countenances of Byzantium gradually were mellowed into life and
+beauty; but it is curious to observe how much sooner genius caught
+the spirit than the form,--how it succeeded in embodying expression
+long before it could master the more technical difficulties of
+design, action, and shadow. The credit claimed for Giotto of
+introducing physiognomical expression is, however, only partially
+true. Compared with the Greek works, or even with those of his
+immediate antecedents, Cimabue, Guido, and Margaritone, his heads,
+indeed, beam with animated intelligence, and feel the movement which
+he first communicated to his groups. Yet not less was the still and
+unimpassioned, but deep-seated emotion which the Umbrian painters
+embodied in their miniatures and panels, an improvement upon the
+lifeless and angular mechanism of the Byzantine artificers, although
+these very opposite qualities are generally condemned to the same
+category of contemptible feebleness by our pretended connoisseurs,
+glibly discussing masters whose real works they never saw, or are
+unable from ignorance and prejudice to appreciate. Such a state
+of art could not, however, remain wedded to a few fixed types. It
+was inherently one of transition, and necessarily led to a gradual
+abandonment of the Giottist manner of representation, while it
+enlarged the principles of composition introduced by Giotto. Beato
+Angelico, the first Florentine who successfully departed from that
+style, reawakening the old religious spirit, and embodying in it
+forms of purity never before or since attained, forsook not wholly
+the Dantesque spirit. His passing influence yielded to a manner more
+in unison with the times, which was formed and nearly perfected by
+Masaccio; but still Dante was not left behind. Luca Signorelli,
+issuing from his Umbrian mountains and his Umbrian master, imbibed at
+Florence the lofty images of "the bard of hell," and energetically
+reproduced them in the duomo of Orvieto, in startling contrast with
+the works of Angelico, and other devoted masters, who had previously
+decorated that museum of art.
+
+[Footnote *125: The Roman school was painting at Assisi in the Upper
+Church before Giotto. Cf. CROWE & CAVALCASELLE, _op. cit._,
+vol. II., p. 4.]
+
+There, too, had been wrought some choice productions of the Pisan
+sculptors,[*126] but their tendency to clothe nature in the forms
+of antique design met with little sympathy, and no imitation, from
+students whose minds were preoccupied by tales of St. Francis, and
+thus it is unnecessary here to notice them further. The Sienese
+school is in an entirely different category. Without encumbering
+ourselves at present by the definitions and distinctions of German
+æsthetic criticism, we shall merely remark that the painters of
+Siena, from Guido until late in the fifteenth century, never lost
+sight of that sentimental devotion which we have already described
+as the soul of Christian art, and which so curiously pervades the
+statutes of their guild formerly quoted. The cathedral of Orvieto was
+founded in 1290 by a Sienese architect, who, as we may well suppose,
+brought some of his countrymen to assist in its embellishment, and
+to infuse these principles among the native students, who, from
+assistants, became master-artificers of its decorations. Nor was
+this the only link which connected Sienese art with the confines
+of Umbria. The scattered townships in the Val di Chiana preserve
+in their remaining early altar-panels clear evidence that these
+were supplied from Siena; and Taddeo Bartolo, repairing thence in
+1403 to Perugia, and perhaps to Assisi, left proofs that the bland
+sentimentalism of his native school might be united with a tranquil
+majesty, to which the Giottists had scarcely attained.[*127]
+
+[Footnote *126: The Pisan sculptors were for the most part Maitani,
+the Sienese. Cf. L. DOUGLAS, in _Architectural Review_,
+June, 1903.]
+
+[Footnote *127: Dennistoun says nothing of the magnificent work of
+Simone Martini, the Sienese, in S. Francesco, at Assisi.]
+
+Having thus briefly touched upon foreign influences which told on
+the pictorial character of Umbria, we are prepared to consider the
+most remarkable artificers whom it has produced, especially in the
+duchy of Urbino. Of these the first place is due on many accounts
+to ODERIGI DA GUBBIO,[*128] for, besides his claim to be
+founder of the schools of Gubbio and Bologna, he is celebrated among
+the most excellent miniaturists of his time by Dante, who has placed
+him in purgatory, a sentence justly deemed by Ticozzi somewhat severe
+for "the head and front of his offending," that of over-zeal in his
+art.
+
+ "'Art thou not Oderigi? Art not thou
+ Agobbio's glory, glory of that art
+ Which they of Paris call the limner's skill?'
+ 'Brother,' said he, 'with tints that gayer smile,
+ Bolognian Franco's pencil lines the leaves:
+ His all the honour now, my light obscured.
+ In truth I had not been thus courteous to him
+ The whilst I lived, though eagerness of zeal
+ For that pre-eminence my heart was bent on.
+ Here of such pride the forfeiture is paid;
+ Nor were I even here, if, able still
+ To sin, I had not turned me unto God.
+ O powers of man! how vain your glory, nipt
+ E'en in its height of verdure, if an age
+ Less bright succeed not. Cimabue thought
+ To lord it over painting's field, and now
+ The cry is Giotto's, and his name eclipsed.'"[129]
+
+[Footnote *128: Cf. VENTURI, _Storia dell'Arte Italiana_
+(Milano, 1907), vol. V., 837, 1003-4, 1014, 1022.]
+
+[Footnote 129: CAREY'S _Dante_, Purg. XI., 76.]
+
+Baldinucci has written a life of this master, chiefly in confirmation
+of his theory that all modern painting was produced from the
+personal influence of Cimabue, a dogma combated by Lanzi. His death
+is placed in 1299, which would make him contemporary with that
+Florentine artificer, and Vasari calls him the friend of Giotto, who
+was much his junior. The preservation of his name is perhaps chiefly
+owing to Dante's notice, though the antiquaries of Gubbio now reject
+the lapidary inscription which claims for the latter a residence in
+their town. There is in truth a sad deficiency of facts regarding
+Oderigi, and no work from his hand being now known, speculation as
+to his style would be useless.[130] That the painters connected with
+Gubbio in the following generation may have been formed under his
+instructions, is however a conjecture fairly admissible.
+
+[Footnote 130: The Ordo Officiorum Senensis Ecclesiæ, a MS. of 1215,
+in the library of Siena, has been ascribed to him, by confusion
+with another Oderico, a canon there; it possesses no artistic merit
+whatever.]
+
+Of these Cecco and Puccio were employed, probably as mosaicists,
+in 1321, upon the cathedral of Orvieto, whence they may have
+brought back to Umbria enlarged principles of art. But, abandoning
+conjectural grounds, let us notice the earliest Eugubinean painter
+whose works have survived to our own time. GUIDO PALMERUCCI
+is said to have been born about the time of Oderigi's death, while
+others consider him as his pupil. Assuredly the observation of Lanzi,
+which appears to rank him with the Giottists, is not borne out by the
+frescoes in his native town attributed to him, for these have nothing
+of the dramatic action which Giotto introduced, and their details,
+as well as their general manner, resemble colossal miniatures.
+This is especially the case in a figure of S. Antonio, the only
+remains of some mural paintings which covered the exterior of a
+chapel[*131] belonging to the college of painters, founded at Gubbio
+in the thirteenth century. The character of the saint is grand, the
+attitude solemn, the expression spiritualised; and an Ecce Homo still
+in the Church of S. Maria Nuova there, exhibits a similar style.
+Among the few fragments of mouldering frescoes to be seen at Gubbio,
+I have found no others ascribed to Palmerucci, but Passavant tells
+us he wrought in the town-hall about 1345. At Cagli two interesting
+frescoes in the church of S. Francesco have been lately brought to
+light from behind a great altar picture, and successfully moved to
+the adjoining wall. They represent two miracles of St. Anthony of
+Padua, and I am inclined to ascribe them to Palmerucci, or some able
+contemporary. The actors and bystanders are equally remarkable for
+heads of staid devout composure, which under Giottesque treatment
+would have been in a far higher degree animated and dramatic. In the
+beautiful art of pictorial glass, Gubbio has also a notable name in
+ANGIOLETTO, who embellished the chapel-window of St. Louis
+at Assisi, and enriched the cathedrals of Orvieto and Siena with his
+gem-like decorations.
+
+[Footnote *131: He refers to S. Antonio Abate, I suppose. There is
+nothing by Palmerucci in S. Maria Nuova, but a Madonna and Saints and
+Gonfaloniere kneeling are attributed to him in the Prefettura.]
+
+To the same city belongs the little we know of the Nelli
+family,[*132] yet that little is well calculated to call forth
+our regrets for their lost works. MARTINO NELLI was a junior
+contemporary of Palmerucci. In his fresco over the gate of
+S. Antonio, representing the Madonna enthroned, with elaborate
+architectural accessories, there may be traced an approach to the
+mild devotional abstraction with which the purist Christian artists
+tempered the
+
+ "Maternal lady with the virgin grace."
+
+But in a smaller work of his son OTTAVIANO, the church
+of S. Maria Nuova possesses the very finest existing specimen of
+the Umbrian school, exempt from injury or restoration. The lovely
+and saint-like Madonna, the seraphic choir that forms a glory
+around her, the Almighty crowning the "highly favoured among women,"
+have perhaps never been equalled among the happiest embodyings of
+devotional genius; nor are the rich colouring, the accessory saints,
+and the portraits of the Peroli family, who, in 1403, commissioned
+this grand work, inferior in merit. He is supposed to have been
+born about 1375, and, after executing in Assisi, Urbino, and other
+circumjacent towns, works long perished, to have died in 1444. Of the
+mural paintings by his brother Tomaso, in S. Domenico and under the
+Piazzone of his native town, it is impossible to say more than
+that whatever of the family inspiration may have guided his pencil
+has been nearly obscured by cruel restorations.
+
+[Footnote *132: Cf. MAZZATINTI, _Documenti per la storia
+delle Arti a Gubbio_, in _Arch. St. per le Marche e per l'Umbria_,
+vol. III., p. 1-48. Ottaviano was living certainly after 1444.]
+
+[Illustration: _Alinari_
+
+MADONNA DEL BELVEDERE
+
+_After the fresco by Ottaviano Nelli in S. Maria Nuova, Gubbio_]
+
+Among the pupils of Ottaviano,
+
+ "Who on high niche or cloister wall,
+ Inscribed their bright-lined lays,"
+
+about Gubbio, are PITALI, DOMENICO DI CECCHI, and
+BERNARDINO DI NANNI: to these may be added GIACOMO
+BEDI, a name that has escaped the historians of Italian art,
+by whom were painted in the church of S. Agostino four scenes in
+the life of the saint, which retain a freshness and force of colour
+equal to any productions of the age. With these the influence of
+Oderigi seems to have become extinct in his native town, before the
+close of the fifteenth century, long ere which it had, however, been
+transported elsewhere by Gentile da Fabriano, who, emerging from his
+Apennine home, reproduced in Florence and in Rome the characteristics
+of that master, amid universal applause, and, carrying them to
+Venice, founded there the religious feeling which the Bellini,
+Vivarini, and Cima di Conegliano sustained, imparting at the same
+time that taste for luxuriant colouring which Titian brought to
+perfection. But, ere we turn to the school of Fabriano, we may here
+translate from the original quaint Italian a letter from Ottaviano,
+illustrative of the early patronage of art by the Montefeltrian
+family. No trace of the works there mentioned now remains.[133]
+
+[Footnote 133: _Carteggio d'Artisti_, I., p. 131. Countess Caterina,
+to whom it is addressed, was wife of Count Guidantonio, mentioned
+in vol. I., p. 42. For some notices of Ottaviano, I am indebted to
+a short account of him by Signor Luigi Bonfatti of Gubbio, whose
+zealous researches will, it is to be hoped, soon enable him to
+illustrate as it deserves the hitherto neglected art of Umbria. His
+theory that Gentile was a pupil of Ottaviano may be redargued by
+their ages being nearly equal, but an examination of the surviving
+frescoes at Gubbio has inclined me to believe that the former drew
+from the same school of Oderigi, as represented by the Nelli,
+some of those inspirations of holy pathos, and something of that
+playful brilliancy of tints, which he subsequently combined with new
+principles.]
+
+ "To the illustrious and lofty Lady, the Lady Caterina,
+ Countess of Montefeltro, and my special Lady.
+
+ "My special Lady, illustrious and lofty Madam, after due
+ commendation, &c. I have received your benign letter,
+ reminding me of the figures which I promised to make for
+ your Ladyship. When your servant Pietro found me, I was on
+ horseback, going upon certain business of my own, and so
+ could not well tell him all my reasons, which I now expose
+ to your Ladyship. When your Ladyship left Gubbio, I was, as
+ you know, to furnish the _palliotto_;[134] after I had done
+ it, I went from Gubbio to execute a small job which I had
+ promised above a year past; for they would wait no longer,
+ and I should have lost it had I not forthwith commenced.
+ But I trusted that your Ladyship's kindness would hold me
+ excused, for I counted that your commission, and that of my
+ Lord, your son, would be completed against your Ladyship's
+ return to Gubbio. In order, however, that your piety may be
+ satisfied, I shall set myself warmly and fervently to do it
+ quickly, and thus your intention will take effect. There
+ is no one at S. Erasimo, so I must cause lime and sand be
+ carried thither, and get them ground down, and also wood
+ for the framework. If your Ladyship would but write to the
+ friars of S. Ambrogio, or indeed to your factor, to prepare
+ these things for me: but if not, I shall do my best; for
+ you, my special Lady, never had servant more willing to
+ do your Ladyship's commands than myself, and so you may
+ count upon me as a faithful servant to the utmost of my
+ power. I believe I have instructions for the work you wish
+ in S. Erasimo [representing] your son, my Lord, kneeling
+ with his servant and horse before that patron saint. Thus
+ I recollect everything your Ladyship wishes of me, and God
+ grant me grace to perform it all. Prepared for whatever
+ your Ladyship wills; your most faithful,
+
+ "OTAVIANO, painter of Gubbio.
+
+ "From Urbino, the last of June, 1434."
+
+[Footnote 134: Palliotto was the painting or wood-carving
+occasionally placed on the altar-front in early times, for which a
+hanging of brocade or muslin was afterwards substituted.]
+
+In a sketch having no pretensions to a history, we need not pause
+upon names now known only from old records, and must keep strictly to
+those whose genius has left a decided impress upon the development of
+art in Umbria. We therefore pass over artificers belonging to various
+communities along the Apennines who appear on the rolls of Orvieto,
+including several from Fabriano. About the middle of the fourteenth
+century, the latter town boasted an ALLEGRETTO NUZIO, some
+of whose altar-panels may still be traced in La Marca, embodying
+a sentimentalism of expression, combined with a richness in the
+accessories, which remind one strongly of the finest productions of
+Memmi, and lead us to suspect an infusion of the Sienese style.[*135]
+But the renown of Allegretto rests more on that of his pupil
+Gentile, whom we have already named as the first who carried the
+characteristics and fame of the Umbrian manner beyond the seclusion
+of its highland cradle.
+
+[Footnote *135: Some magnificent works by Allegretto Nuzi of a most
+surprising loveliness may be seen in Fabriano.]
+
+FRANCESCO DI GENTILE was born at Fabriano about 1370, and,
+after maturely studying all that was best there and at Gubbio,
+he set forth to enlarge his field of observation. Florence was
+perhaps his first point of attraction, for nowhere else could he see
+such beautiful art. But resisting those seductions which the vast
+compositions of the Gaddi, Orcagna, and other Giottists held out to
+an ardent and youthful ambition, he preserved in their purity the
+holy inspirations of the fatherland, and meeting little sympathy for
+these among the fraternity of St. Luke, he sought for himself a more
+suitable companionship in the cloister of S. Domenico. There it was
+his good fortune to discover a man whose rare character realised
+those transcendental qualities, of which we read in the saintly
+legends of pristine times, without regarding them as real ingredients
+in human character.
+
+FRA GIOVANNI DA FIESOLE had spent the years which other
+youths wasted on stormy pleasures in acquiring the art of miniature
+painting, and its sacred representations took such hold of his
+feelings, that, abjuring the world, he assumed the habit of St.
+Dominic. But finding that his art, far from interfering with the
+holy sentiments which a tender conscience considered as inseparable
+from his new profession, tended directly to spiritualise them,
+the neophyte continued to exercise it; and upon settling himself
+in the convent of S. Marco, he extended his style to fresco, ever
+adhering to those pure forms of celestial bliss which no one before
+or since has equalled. It is related of him that, regarding his
+painting in the light of a God-gift, he never sat down to exercise
+it without offering up orisons for divine influence, nor did he
+assume his palette until he felt these answered by a glow of holy
+inspiration. His pencil thus literally embodied the language of
+prayer; his compositions were the result of long contemplation on
+mystic revelations; his Madonnas borrowed their sweet and sinless
+expression from ecstatic visions; the passion of our Saviour was
+conceived by him in tearful penitence, and executed with sobs
+and sighs. Deeming the forms he thus predicted to proceed from
+supernatural dictation, he never would alter or retouch them; and
+though his works are generally brought to the highest attainable
+finish, the impress of their first conception remains unchanged. To
+the unimaginative materialism of the present day, these sentences
+may seem idle absurdities, but they illustrate the character of Fra
+Giovanni, and no painter ever so thoroughly instilled his character
+into his works. Those who have not had the good fortune to see
+any of these cannot form an idea of the infantine simplicity, the
+immaculate countenances, the unimpassioned pathos apparent in his
+figures, nor of the transparent delicacy of his flesh-tints, and the
+gay and cheerful colouring which he introduces into the details,
+without injury to the angelic grace of the whole. These qualities
+procured for their author the epithet of Angelico; his personal
+virtues were acknowledged by an offer of the see of Fiesole, which
+his humility declined and by the posthumous honour of beatification;
+his paintings, to borrow the words of Vasari, elevated the utmost
+perfection to the ideal of art, by improving without abandoning
+its original type; and, in the characteristic language of Michael
+Angelo, he must have studied in heaven the faces which he depicted on
+earth.[136]
+
+[Footnote 136: Such testimony, from artists so antipathic to his
+practice, is a curious tribute at once to his merit and influence.]
+
+Such was the instructor with whom, although his junior, Gentile
+thought it no disparagement to place himself,[*137] and his works
+testify to his having caught much of the spirit as well as the
+elaborate finish of his master. But whilst Angelico passed his
+time in decorating the cells of his convent with frescoes, whose
+holy beauties have confirmed the faith and purified the secret
+contemplations of many a recluse, his pupil returned to the world,
+to follow up a successful career. Called to Orvieto about 1423,
+he there painted two altars, which, though not his best works, are
+peculiarly interesting in contrast with the grand productions which
+at a later period his master executed for that cathedral.[*138] In
+the registers of the fabric, he is, in 1425, designated as "master
+of the masters"; and the fame which he thus acquired brought him
+successive commissions at Florence and Siena, after which he was
+extensively employed in enriching the cities of Umbria and La Marca
+with works of which no trace now exists.[*139] Among these towns
+were Gubbio and Urbino; but still more interesting to our immediate
+subject,--the development of art under the Feltrian dukes,--is
+the altar-piece executed by him at Romita, near Fabriano, and now
+plundered and scattered by the French, part of which adorns the
+Brera Gallery at Milan. The Madonna is crowned by her Son, the Dove
+fluttering between them, the Father rising pyramidally behind, amid a
+choir of cherubim; below, in the empyrean void, is an arch spanning
+the sun and moon, on which stand eight angels, making melody of
+praise on various instruments. So extended was the reputation of this
+work, that Raffaele is believed to have been attracted thither in
+his youth, to imbibe that devotional sentiment which he was destined
+to advance to its culminating point of excellence. Another fountain
+of his early inspiration was the famous, but now defaced, Madonna of
+Forano, near Osimo, whose angelic beauty is described as well-fitted
+to have left an indelible charm upon minds less pure and enthusiastic
+than his. On the mere evidence of its ecstatic loveliness, it was
+generally ascribed to Beato Angelico; but as there is no account of
+the Frate having visited La Marca, it may probably have been produced
+by Gentile, when his return to his native mountains had freed him
+for a season from mundane impressions, and had restored him to the
+sanctifying influence of its legendary abstractions.
+
+[Footnote *137: Gentile da Fabriano was the pupil of Allegretto Nuzi,
+not of Fra Angelico.]
+
+[Footnote *138: There is only one fragment of Gentile's work in the
+Duomo of Orvieto: a Madonna, painted in 1425.]
+
+[Footnote *139: A fine work still remains at Perugia, No. 39, in Sala
+V., Pinacoteca.]
+
+[Illustration: _Alinari_
+
+MADONNA DEL SOCCORSO
+
+_After the gonfalone by a pupil of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo in S.
+Francesco Montone_]
+
+From thence he proceeded to Venice, where many of his most brilliant
+performances were achieved; but these, too, are nearly all lost to
+us. There, in contact with the busy world, and sharing its honours,
+distracted, it may be, by the bright tints and smiling landscapes
+just then imported from northern lands, his devotional inspirations
+were gradually tinged by naturalism. His principal commission was
+a fresco of the naval victories of the Republic; and I have seen
+a small picture by him of the rape of the Sabines, whose feeble
+paganism belongs, no doubt, to his later years, and sadly proves how
+essential were these inspirations to his success. At Venice he opened
+a school, which enjoyed high reputation, and which probably numbered
+among its pupils Pisanello, the Vivarini, and Bellini, although
+chronology throws a doubt upon some of Vasari's assertions as to this
+point. A new field of glory opened before Gentile, when invited by
+Eugene IV. to decorate with mural paintings the since rebuilt church
+of the Lateran, where he painted four prophets in chiaroscuro, and
+placed below them the life of the Baptist,--works unfinished at his
+death in 1450, and now destroyed, but which Michael Angelo, little
+qualified as he was to appreciate the delicacies of religious art,
+characterised as worthy the _gentle_ name of their author.
+
+On quitting the cloister of S. Marco, Gentile had carried with him
+a portion of the devotional feeling which hung around the studio of
+Fra Giovanni, and along with it much of the taste for rich ornaments,
+for gold and brocades, for fruit and flowers, in which both of his
+instructors delighted. But whilst Allegretto and Angelico kept such
+foreign aids in subservience to the predominating sentiment of their
+works, their pupil caught from the great world, in which he freely
+mingled with credit and applause, an admiration of mundane grandeur
+which, in his later compositions, is singularly combined with the
+spirit of religious art. His immaculate Madonnas are worshipped
+less by angelic choirs of cherubim and seraphim, than by the great
+ones of the earth in their trappings of dignity; and of all sacred
+themes, the Epiphany, or adoration of the Magi kings at the stable
+of Bethlehem, was his choice. Such is the magnificent altar-panel
+which he wrought in 1423, for the church of the S. Trinità at
+Florence, now one of the most precious monuments in the Belle Arti
+there. Still more gorgeous is his crowded composition painted for
+the Zeni of Venice; but there he has contaminated the purist spirit
+of Christian painting, for in the suite of the eastern kings is
+portrayed the patron of the picture, with all the gallant company who
+attended his embassy from the Republic to Usamkassan, sovereign of
+Persia. The unequalled variety of groups, the elaborate splendour of
+oriental costumes, the crowd of horsemen in contrasted attitudes, the
+lavish adoption of gold, form a dazzling but harmonious whole, which
+has scarcely any parallel in painting. It is not improbable that
+this and similar works, besides introducing a new element into the
+semi-Byzantine practice of the Venetian school, may have spread to
+Albert Durer and other Germans, who long after visited that
+
+ "Ruler of the waters and their powers,"
+
+an influence carried by them to Nuremberg and Cologne, to enrich
+the already gaudy tendencies of ultramontane taste. But Gentile da
+Fabriano possesses another claim upon the student of early painting,
+hitherto inadequately noticed. To the lessons of his father, a
+learned mathematician, he may have owed the linear perspective which,
+in many of his productions, anticipated the improvements of Piero
+della Francesca. This is observable in the Zeno picture, and still
+more in a small predella in my possession, where his favourite theme,
+the Epiphany, is completed by a background accurately laid out in
+lines and compartments, such as we see in the Dutch gardens of the
+seventeenth century. But to this question we must return.
+
+Among the artists who maintained in Umbria the influences left
+by Ottaviano and Gentile, two were of special merit, NICOLÒ
+ALUNNO, of Foligno, and BENEDETTO BONFIGLI, of Perugia. Their works
+have been often confounded, but with the latter only have we to do,
+for, besides being nearer to Gentile both in age and in manner, he
+is generally considered as the master of PIETRO PERUGINO,[*140] and
+thus forms a link in the artistic chain which we are endeavouring to
+establish, through the best Umbrian painters, from ODERIGI OF GUBBIO
+to RAFFAELE OF URBINO. Of Bonfigli there are several interesting and
+well-preserved specimens in his native town, dated about 1466, but
+it must be owned that none of the earliest known works of Perugino
+exhibit much trace of his style. These, however, are all supposed
+posterior to Pietro's first visit to Florence, where his ideas must
+have undergone vast development from the examples of Masaccio and
+other masters, who there formed a galaxy of talent about the middle
+of the fifteenth century.[*141] In that city he formed his early
+friendship with Leonardo da Vinci, which Sanzi says was cemented
+by parity of age as of affection; and it is singular how little
+such sympathy can be traced in their genius or works. When, on the
+other hand, we contrast the placid features which Vannucci uniformly
+limned, rarely ruffled by sorrow, never clouded by sin, with the
+furious mien and restless energy of Michael Angelo's creations, we
+may well credit Vasari's story of their quarrel, and can account
+for the scrimp justice accorded to the painter of Città della Pieve
+by his Florentine biographer. They pretend not, indeed, to the
+bold character of Signorelli, nor even to the severity of Mantegna,
+or Piero della Francesca; but those who criticise them as stiff,
+timid, and monotonous, in contrast with the performances of the next
+generation, would arrive at more just conclusions did they include in
+the comparison those painters who had preceded him, and whose example
+was his early guide.
+
+[Footnote *140: We do not know who Perugino's Perugian master was;
+but it was more likely to be Fiorenzo di Lorenzo than Bonfigli.]
+
+[Footnote *141: There is no trace of Masaccio's influence in
+Perugino's work. He was influenced by Signorelli, and slightly by
+Verrocchio.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Let us turn to Urbino. Lanzi tells us that Giotto, Gentile da
+Fabriano, and their respective followers, left works in that little
+capital; where Pungileone has shown that Ottaviano Nelli exercised
+his profession from 1428 to 1433, and Paolo Uccello of Florence in
+1468, with other artists detected by the same zealous antiquary. Of
+such works, however, nothing can now be traced. The oldest paintings
+I could discover there were those in the oratory of St. John Baptist
+by Lorenzo and Giacomo di San Severino, Lanzi's blunders regarding
+whom have been corrected by the Marchese Ricci. The principal
+composition is the Crucifixion, with a dramatic action influenced by
+Giottesque feeling: the three other walls seem to have been occupied
+by a history of the titular saint, two passages of which are almost
+destroyed. Those remaining, though not exempt from retouching, are
+sufficiently preserved to enable us to detect a masterly and novel
+arrangement, and a character of devotion more consistent with the
+Umbrian manner, though marred by hard colouring. The date 1416 is
+added to the painter's epigraph. We learn from an old chronicle that
+Antonio da Ferrara painted the Montefeltro chapel in the church of
+S. Francesco in 1430, a fact scarcely reconcileable with Vasari's
+assertion that he was a pupil of Angelo Gaddi. He is also said to
+have executed an _ancona_ for the church of S. Bernardino, portions
+of which may probably be recognised in some figures still in the
+sacristy. In that of S. Francesco at Mercatello, among several
+memorials of a similar period, are {1843} two frescoes characterised
+by grand design, ample draperies, and full colouring, but deficient
+in delicacy. The _lunette_ of the marriage of St. Catherine outside
+the door is somewhat later, and very superior, and may be from the
+pencil of Pietro della Francesca. Of none of these works, nor of
+two good panel pictures in the same church, have I been able to
+find any account. In the hospital of S. Angelo in Vado is a panel
+altar picture in utter ruin, which has possessed surpassing beauty.
+The martyrdom of St. Sebastian is there powerfully conceived, and
+executed with the finest feeling. The inscription seems to have been,
+_Hieronymus Nardia Vicentis fecit_; the date probably towards the
+close of the fifteenth century. Such is the beggarly account we have
+to offer of early art in the country of Raffaele, and thus might we
+dismiss the speculations of those who would fondly trace its primary
+influences on his dawning genius.
+
+But though time and whitewash have combined to narrow this branch of
+our inquiry, we must not overlook an artist who ranks high among the
+reformers of painting, and upon whom the patronage of Duke Federigo
+was specially lavished. His family name has not come down to us, but
+he is generally known by the matronymic of Piero della Francesca,
+from the Christian name of his mother, though sometimes designed
+Pietro del Borgo, or Il Borghese, from Borgo S. Sepolcro, his native
+town. His life has unfortunately been left in much obscurity by his
+only biographer Vasari, who might have well bestowed somewhat more
+pains upon the career of one born in a neighbouring town, who left
+his finest works at Arezzo, and whose merits he is more inclined to
+magnify than to slight. The loose assertions of this author have
+been adopted by most succeeding writers, without addition and with
+little investigation; but of the school in which Pietro acquired the
+rudiments of his art, and of the earlier period of his career, we
+remain still uninformed, though his age and Apennine origin favour
+the conjecture that he may have imbibed his first lessons from works
+of Ottaviano Nelli the contemporary Umbrian master.[*142] Beyond
+question two very different manners appear in the productions of his
+pencil; the first, crudely composed and laboriously frittered into
+detail, with much of the contracted ideas and bright tinting of the
+old miniaturists; the second, broad and masterly in conception, and
+executed with a flowing pencil, though retaining an elaborate finish.
+Both styles are united in a little picture at Urbino, which we shall
+presently describe, the Flagellation being in the earlier, the three
+portraits in the larger manner. If born, as Vasari incorrectly
+states, in the last years of the fourteenth century,[*143] Piero,
+instead of being patronised by Guidobaldo I., must have reached at
+least eighty-four in that Duke's time; indeed, he would have been
+past middle life ere Federigo, whom, as we shall presently see, he
+calls his chief patron, succeeded to that state in 1443. "Guidobaldo
+Feltro" may, however, probably be a mistake of Vasari for Count
+Guidantonio, in which case a solution would be afforded for several
+of his manifold contradictions; and at that court, if not in earlier
+life, our artist might have been the associate or pupil of Nelli.
+Passing over works now lost which del Borgo is stated on the same
+authority to have executed at Pesaro, Ferrara, Ancona, and Loreto,
+we find him called by Nicholas V. to Rome, where his frescoes appear
+to have been destroyed in the many alterations made on the Vatican
+Palace before that century closed.
+
+[Footnote *142: Piero della Francesca was the pupil of Domenico
+Veneziano.]
+
+[Footnote *143: Piero was born in 1416.]
+
+Piero della Francesca is also asserted by Vasari to have been
+one of the most profound mathematicians of his day, and to have
+improved perspective and the management of light by an adaptation
+of geometrical principles to painting. The latter of these opinions
+has been received, and constitutes the highest claim of this
+master upon the historians of art. The point has not as yet been
+illustrated by any writer competent to pronounce with accuracy
+upon such pretensions,[*144] but the merit of having shown how to
+ameliorate perspective, especially in architectural design, is
+generally granted to Piero. Pascoli and others have regarded him as
+its father. Lanzi thinks him the first who revived the ancient Greek
+notion of rendering geometry subject to painting in general, although
+Brunelleschi, Paolo Uccelli, and others had already applied the same
+principles with less science to architectural details; and he combats
+the priority in these respects asserted by Lomazzo for Foppa of
+Brescia. The claims of Leon Battista Alberti,[*145] the architect,
+seem to have been settled by Vasari's opinion that distance was
+better described by his pen than delineated by his pencil. The same
+author enlists our sympathy in favour of Il Borghese, representing
+him as defrauded of his fame by an unscrupulous scholar, Fra Luca
+Pacioli, a Franciscan, who, after learning from him mathematics,
+availed himself of his instructor's after blindness to plagiarise his
+manuscripts, and eventually published them as his own.[*146] Into
+this controverted matter we need not enter, further than to pronounce
+with Tiraboschi, Rosini, and Gaye a verdict of _not proven_, and to
+observe that the celebrity attained by the friar's scientific works
+ought to reflect some merit upon his instructor. Yet justice to both
+parties requires us to extract the generous testimony volunteered to
+the painter by his pupil, in dedicating to Duke Guidobaldo his Summa
+de Arithmetica, Geometria, &c.: "Perspective, if closely looked into,
+would certainly be nothing without the aid of geometry, as has been
+fully demonstrated by Pietro di Franceschi, our contemporary, and
+the prince of modern painting. During his assiduous service in your
+Excellency's family, he composed his short treatise on the art of
+painting and the power of linear perspective, which is now deservedly
+placed in your library, rich with books in every branch." These,
+surely, are not the words of a literary pirate; indeed, Vasari's
+whole account is vague and confused. After telling us that Pacioli
+had appropriated the matter of Piero's many MSS., then existing at
+Borgo San Sepolcro, he adds that most of his writings were deposited
+in the Urbino library, where it is obvious that neither he nor
+those who have repeated his assertions ever sought them. After
+every possible search, I have reason to believe that that library
+now contains but two treatises by Il Borghese, nor have I found any
+evidence of others having ever been there. Both are in Latin, and are
+fairly transcribed on vellum in contemporary hands, with diagrams
+upon the margin.[147] The former is entitled _De Perspectiva_, but
+the subject is, in fact, Light,[*148] and its effect upon objects
+and colours. In place of a general title, it sets out with a dictum
+that "light is to philosophical inquiry what demonstrative certainty
+is to mathematics." The volume, bearing the arms and initials of
+Duke Federigo, must have been written for his library: though
+anonymous, it is clearly the work referred to in a dedication which
+we shall presently quote, the only other MS. upon perspective in the
+collection being that by Vitellioni (No. 265).
+
+[Footnote *144: Cf. PICHI, _La Vita e le Opere di Piero
+della Francesca_ (Borgo S. Sepolcro, 1893); WITTING, _Piero
+dei Franceschi_ (Strassburg, 1898); CROWE & CAVALCASELLE,
+_op. cit._, vol. III. BERENSON, _op. cit._, p. 69, says:
+"The pupil of Domenico Veneziano in characterisation, of Paolo
+Uccello in perspective, himself an eager student of this science, as
+an artist he [Piero] was more gifted than either of his teachers."
+Fra Luca Pacioli, one of the finest mathematicians of his day,
+praises Piero, and speaks of his renowned treatise on perspective,
+"now in the library of our illustrious Duke of Urbino."]
+
+[Footnote *145: Cf. on this point MUNTZ, _Precursori e
+propugnatori del Rinascimento_ (Firenze, 1902), p. 59 _et seq._ For
+his life _Vita Leonis Baptistae de Albertis_, by an anonymous author,
+believed to be Alberti himself, in MURATORI _R.I.S._, vol.
+XXV., partly translated in EDWARD HUTTON, _Sigismondo Malatesta_
+(Dent, 1906), pp. 163-9. Cf. also MANCINI, _Vita di L.B.A._ (Firenze,
+1882), and _Nuovi documenti e notizie sulla vita e gli scritti di
+L.B.A._, in _Arch. St. It._, Series IV., vol. XIX.; also SCIPIONI, in
+_Giornale St. d. Lett. Ital._, vol. II., p. 156 _et seq._, and vol.
+X., p. 255 _et seq._]
+
+[Footnote *146: This is a tale like so much in Vasari. Piero
+was never blind at all it seems. BOSSI, in his work on Leonardo's
+_Cenacolo_ (Milan, 1810), deals minutely with this libel.]
+
+[Footnote 147: Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1374 and 632. The manuscripts
+by him, mentioned in No. 131 of the _Quarterly Review_, as in the
+possession of his descendant, Count Marini, of Borgo S. Sepolcro, no
+longer exist; and a small portrait there of himself does not appear
+to be by his hand. As a further specimen of the Friar's ideas on
+this matter, we may offer an extract from his _De Divina Proportione
+Epistola_ (Venice, 1509), wherein he compares perspective to music,
+ranking both with the geometrical sciences, since just as "the former
+refreshes the mind with harmony, the latter delights it greatly by
+correct distance and variety of colours." "Who, indeed, is there
+that, seeing an elegant figure with its exact outlines well defined,
+and seeming to want nothing but breath, would not pronounce it
+something rather divine than human? And painting imitates nature as
+nearly as can be told, which is proved to our eyes in the exquisite
+representation, so worthily composed by the graceful hand of our
+Leonardo, of the ardent desire after our salvation; wherein it is
+impossible to imagine greater attention than that of the apostles,
+aroused on hearing, in the words of infallible truth, 'One of you
+shall betray me,'--when, interchanging with each other attitudes and
+gestures, they seem to converse in startled and sad astonishment."]
+
+[Footnote *148: "He was perhaps the first," says Mr. Berenson, "to
+use effects of light for their direct tonic or subduing or soothing
+qualities." He uses light as the "plein air" school of France uses
+it. See a chapter devoted to his work in my _Cities of Umbria_
+(Methuen, 1904).]
+
+The other volume has for title _Petri Pictoris Burgensis de Quinque
+Corporibus Regularibus_. The five bodies discussed in it are, the
+triangle of four bases, the cube with six faces, the octagon with
+eight faces and as many triangles, the duodecahedron with twelve
+faces and as many pentagons, the icosahedron with twenty faces and as
+many triangles. We shall extract from the dedication to Guidobaldo I.
+a passage relating to the essay and its author: "And as my works owe
+whatever illustration they possess solely to the brilliant star of
+your excellent father, the most bright and dazzling orb of our age,
+it seemed not unbecoming that I should dedicate to your Majesty this
+little work, on the five regular bodies in mathematics, which I have
+composed, that, in this extreme fraction of my age, my mind might not
+become torpidly inactive. Thus may your splendour reflect a light
+upon its obscurity: and your Highness will not spurn these feeble and
+worthless fruits, gathered from a field now left fallow, and nearly
+exhausted by age, from which your distinguished father has drawn
+its better produce; but will place this in some corner, as a humble
+handmaid to the numberless books of your own and his copious library,
+near our other treatise on Perspective, which we wrote in former
+years. For it is usual to admit, at the most luxurious and festive
+banquets, fruits culled by a rude and unpolished peasant. Indeed, its
+novelty may ensure its proving not unpleasing; for though the subject
+was known from Euclid and other geometers, it is now [first] applied
+by me to arithmetical science. At all events, it will be a token and
+memorial of my long-cherished attachment and continual devotion to
+yourself and your illustrious house."
+
+This must have been written after 1482, when, if Vasari's dates be
+accurate, Piero was at least eighty-four years old, and had been
+blind during five lustres; a circumstance which, though not entirely
+inconsistent with his cultivation of the exact sciences, would
+occasion an impediment not likely to be passed over by him, when
+pleading as an apology the disabilities of age. The researches of
+Abbé Pungeleoni have, however, established that no such calamity
+had befallen our painter in 1469, when he was the guest of Giovanni
+Sanzi, at Urbino; and it is no way referred to in Pacioli's
+dedication, written in 1494, while he was still alive. Altogether,
+it may be questioned whether that alleged bereavement was not one
+of Vasari's many inaccuracies, the most valuable portion of whose
+account of this master is a notice of the frescoes executed by
+him in the choir of S. Francesco, at Arezzo, wherein are depicted
+the Discovery and Exaltation of the true Cross, and the Vision
+and Victory of Constantine. These noble works, uniting a happy
+application of his favourite studies on perspective and light, with
+a grandeur and movement unknown to most of his compositions, are
+now mere wrecks,[*149] in which, however, may be traced not a few
+ideas subsequently appropriated by more celebrated artists. The
+most remarkable of them is the Vision, the original drawing for
+which has been published by Mr. Young Ottley. In the play of light
+and the management of chiaroscuro, there is far more profound study
+than was usual among his contemporaries, and in no other work of so
+early a date have these been as successfully treated. By a not very
+intelligible juxtaposition, the companion compartment is occupied
+by an Annunciation, grave, solemn, almost severe, as are most of
+his later paintings. The lowest and largest space on either side
+of the choir, is filled by the Battle, whilst Constantine prays in
+a corner, surrounded by his courtiers. These may have suggested to
+Raffaele the same subject for the Stanze, but they afford no details
+calculated to animate his pencil. Soldiers, horses, and banners are,
+indeed, mingled together with a bustle and energy of action hitherto
+unattempted; but the effect is neutralised by an all-prevailing
+confusion, and by a want of groups or episodes to concentrate
+the spectator's scattered interest or admiration. The design is
+generally good; the modelling and character of the heads are, as
+usual, excellent; the costumes are richly varied; and the horses
+remind us, by their action, of Pisano's pictures and medals. If it be
+true that Raffaele has repeated some of the noble ideas here freely
+lavished, it seems more probable that, in his Liberation of St.
+Peter, he wished to excel the tent scene, than that he bore in mind
+the crowded men-at-arms when composing the Victory of Constantine.
+The elements have conspired against this _chef-d'oeuvre_ of Pietro
+del Borgo. Its walls were frightfully riven during last century by
+an earthquake, and its menacing cracks have since been shaken by
+thunderbolts. Although the repairs have been judiciously limited
+to securing the plaster, without attempting any restoration of the
+frescoes, several compartments are almost wholly defaced. Some female
+groups, however, remain, which yield to nothing that Masaccio has
+left for the plaudits of posterity.
+
+[Footnote *149: They are in quite fair preservation as things go.]
+
+In much better preservation is a hitherto unnoticed painting on
+the wall of a chapel in the cathedral of Rimini, dated 1448. It
+represents Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, whom we have so often
+named in the first volume of this work, kneeling in prayer before
+his patron saint, Sigismondo, king of Hungary. The wide and once
+beautifully graduated landscape has unfortunately suffered; but the
+favourite dog,[*150] crouching behind, is evidently as striking
+a likeness as his master, whose dignified character and serious
+pose give to what is but a laboriously accurate portrait, the
+spiritualised grandeur of a noble devotional composition. It embodies
+the verity of nature, exempt from the vulgarity of naturalism.
+
+[Footnote *150: There are two greyhounds lying side by side facing
+opposite ways.]
+
+We have to lament the disappearance of whatever works in fresco
+Pietro del Borgo may have executed for Urbino, unless we attribute
+to him, on an already noticed lunette over the outer doorway of S.
+Francesco, at Mercatello, a beautiful half-length Marriage of St.
+Catherine. Of the small pictures, which he is said by Vasari to have
+painted for that court, one only remains; it is in the sacristy
+of the Urbino cathedral, and is a monument of great interest as
+regards the master and his patrons. On one side is the Flagellation
+of Christ before Pilate, in an open court enriched with a beautiful
+perspective of colonnades and architectural ornament. On the other
+is introduced a detached group of three figures in conversation,
+magnificently attired, who are generally called at Urbino the
+successive sovereigns Oddantonio, Federigo, and Guidobaldo I.; but
+their ages, compared with that of the painter, are irreconcileable
+with such a supposition. The Abbé Pungeleoni, in his _Life of
+Sanzi_, considers them to represent Count Guidantonio and his
+successors, Oddantonio and Federigo; or they may more probably be
+portraits of Oddantonio and the two evil counsellors who led him and
+themselves to destruction, as narrated in our third chapter.[151]
+In the graphic character and fine modelling of their features is
+displayed one of those peculiar excellences which Il Borghese was
+able, from his knowledge of perspective and light, to introduce into
+the practice of pictorial art, and which he is said to have carried
+out by making finished figures of clay, and draping them with various
+materials. This precious little picture is signed _Opus Petri de
+Borgo Sci. Sepulcri_, and we have already quoted it as illustrative
+of both his first and second manner. I have been so fortunate as to
+trace three more of the Urbino pictures of this master, hitherto
+unnoticed. At the devolution of the duchy to the Holy See, they
+found their way into the possession of Urban VIII., and now adorn
+the private apartment of his successor, Prince Barberini, at Rome,
+where they pass under the name of Mantegna. The first, a portrait
+of Duke Federigo and his son, has been already described. Having
+been executed about 1478, when Guidobaldo was five or six years
+old, and when the painter, according to Vasari, was above eighty,
+it would afford conclusive evidence against the hitherto received
+date of Pietro's birth.[152] The other two are companion pictures,
+and though hung too high, appear in excellent preservation. Both
+are architectural designs on panel, one representing the court of a
+palace, the other a basilicon-like interior, with elaborate plastic
+decorations and very clever perspective; a variety of figures are
+introduced, but the subjects are not known.[*153] To these, and
+still more to some of his earlier productions, may be applied the
+observation of Fra Castiglione, that "the works of Pietro, and those
+of his contemporary, Melozzo da Forlì, with their perspective effects
+and intricacies of art, are appreciated by connoisseurs rather than
+admired by the uninitiated."[*154]
+
+[Footnote 151: Passavant conjectures this group to be a satire upon
+three neighbouring princes who were Duke Federigo's enemies, and
+seems to consider the picture influenced by some Flemish master. If
+painted after the visit of Justis of Ghent, it can hardly represent
+Oddantonio. See below, ch. xxx.]
+
+[Footnote 152: It is very unsatisfactorily engraved in
+BONNARD'S _Costumes du Treizième au Quinzième Siècle_.]
+
+[Footnote *153: None of these three belongs to Piero.]
+
+[Footnote *154: It is a curious comment on this that a man like Mr.
+E.V. Lucas, certainly not "a connoisseur," tells us in his book,
+_A Wanderer in London_ (Methuen, 1906), that he "once startled and
+embarrassed a dinner table of artists and art critics by asking
+which was the best picture in the National Gallery. On my modifying
+this terrible question to the more human form--Which picture would
+you choose if you might have one? and limiting the choice to the
+Italian masters, the most distinguished mind present named at
+once Tintoretto's _Origin of the Milky Way_.... After very long
+consideration," he continues, "I have come to the conclusion that
+mine would be Francesca's _Nativity_. Take it for all in all, I am
+disposed to think that Francesca's _Nativity_ appeals to me as a work
+of compassionate beauty and charm before any Italian picture in the
+National Collection."]
+
+The important influence of Pietro del Borgo upon Umbrian art is
+confirmed by Vasari, in naming among his scholars Perugino and
+Signorelli, the latter of whom worked at Urbino in 1484, and again,
+ten years later. But were our information as to his pupils more
+ample, we might probably find among them Melozzo da Forlì, to whom,
+and to other names connected with the duchy we shall return in our
+thirty-first chapter. Prominently among its painters, Lanzi has
+enumerated Bartolomeo Corradi, who became a predicant friar by the
+title of FRA CARNEVALE. Nothing is known of this talented
+limner beyond the fact that he combined his art with the duties of
+parish priest, at Castel Cavellino, and died soon after 1488. His
+best known work was executed for the great altar of S. Bernardino,
+near Urbino, as an _ex voto_ commemoration of Federigo's piety on
+the birth of his son in 1472. In it the Duke's portrait, and those
+of several of his children, are said to be introduced. Indeed, there
+are not wanting old authorities who regard the Madonna and Child as
+likenesses of Countess Battista and her infant Guidobaldo. I receive
+with caution a conjecture which, repugnant to the ideas of Umbrian
+art at that period, would fasten a charge of profane naturalism upon
+one whom I should gladly consider as a purely Christian painter.
+Pungeleoni ascribes to him a small devotional picture preserved in
+the church of the Zoccolantines at Sinigaglia, in which two accessory
+figures probably represent the Prefect Giovanni della Rovere and his
+wife, the sister of Duke Guidobaldo I.; but their marriage only took
+place about the supposed time of this painter's death; and, at all
+events, had the Abbé ever seen it, he could not have mistaken it for
+a sketch of the altar-piece of S. Bernardino. The latter remains in
+the Brera, at Milan, among the unrestored French plunder; and I have
+sought in vain for other identified works of Carnevale in the duchy,
+although inclined to attribute to him more than one fine but nameless
+altar-picture which I have found there.[155]
+
+[Footnote 155: Such is the magnificent Annunciation in a small chapel
+three miles west from Pesaro, known as the Madonna del Monte, but
+properly the oratory dedicated in 1505 to the Madonna dell'Annunziata
+di Calibano, by Ludovico del Molino, _alias_ degli Agostini. Its pure
+and beautiful countenances are less beatified in expression than
+earlier Umbrian works, but in composition and draperies it yields to
+none, and excels all others in gorgeous effect. The gilding is freely
+laid on in broad masses, and a scintillation in solid gold streams
+from the Almighty upon the Madonna's bosom, while the angels' wings
+are starred with peacock's plumage. Yet, as in Gentile da Fabriano's
+best works, all this glitter is subdued by an earnest and solemn
+feeling becoming the theme. The panel is inscribed "_Ludovicho di
+Jachomo Aghostini merchatanti da Pesaro a fato [fare] deta tavola a
+di xxiv. di Decienbre, mdx._" How unfortunate that the pious donor
+had not recorded the artist's name as well as his own! I was unable
+to visit an altar-piece at Montebaroccio ascribed to Fra Carnevale's
+pencil.]
+
+Our description of Duke Federigo's palaces has made us acquainted
+with the name of FRANCESCO DI GIORGIO, a painter and sculptor, as well
+as an architect and engineer. In the two former of these capacities
+he can be appreciated only in his native Siena, where two of his
+very rare pictures remain in the Belle Arti.[*156] His tendency
+to Umbrian feeling is obvious, and had Padre della Valle been
+acquainted with the productions of Fabriano and della Francesca,
+he would have detected in him a nearer approach to their manner
+than to that of Signorelli. But his fame depends on his numerous
+creations in architecture and fortification; whilst his inventions
+in military engineering were important additions to the art of war,
+as then conducted. Vasari's brief and blundering notice of him was
+supplemented by the researches of Padre della Valle, whose greedy
+patriotism maintained for him the merit of the Urbino palace, a
+claim of which we have formerly disposed.[157] Gaye, and the editor
+of the Florentine edition of Vasari {1838}, have added many new and
+interesting notices;[*158] but his name has of late received still
+more ample illustration at the hands of Carlo Promis, of Turin, by
+whom his life and principal writings have been edited, at the expense
+of the Chevalier Saluzzi. Francesco, son of Giorgio, son of Martino
+of Siena, was born in a humble rank about 1423; and, our earliest
+notice of his professional labours is in 1447, when we find he was
+one of the architects of the Orvieto cathedral. In 1447, we find him
+in Duke Federigo's service, which Promis supposes him to have entered
+shortly before; and there he appears to have remained until the death
+of that prince in 1482. The palace of Urbino having been already
+many years in progress, and not being mentioned by him, there is no
+reason to suppose he was much occupied upon it; and we find his own
+pen attesting the onerous duty imposed upon him by Federigo, as his
+military engineer. In July 1478 he was attached to the allied army,
+which the Duke commanded; and, in his autograph MS. speaks of having
+a hundred and thirty-six "edifices" on hand at once by his order.
+Among these, doubtless, there were many strongholds in the duchy; and
+he has left descriptive plans of Cagli, Sasso Feretro, Tavoletta, and
+Serra di S. Abondio. From various authorities cited by Promis, we may
+add, as probably of his construction, Castel Durante, S. Angelo in
+Vado, Orciano, S. Costanzo, S. Agata, Pietragutola, Montecirignone,
+S. Ippolito, Montalto, La Pergola, Cantiano, Fossombrone,
+Sassocorbaro, Mercatello, Costaccioro, Mondavio, and Mondolfo,
+besides numerous churches which he certainly planned for Federigo.
+The fortresses of Urbino have been estimated at nearly three hundred,
+a number which must seem at once superfluous and incredible, but
+for the entire change which the arts of war and defence were then
+undergoing, consequent on a general introduction of artillery.[*159]
+Federigo, perceiving the importance of strengthening his castles and
+citadels against
+
+ "The cannon-ball, opening with murderous crash
+ The way to blast and ruin,"
+
+not only kept in active employment the most able engineer whom Italy
+then possessed, but, according to that artist's testimony, by his own
+experience and judicious suggestions, greatly facilitated the tasks
+which he imposed upon Francesco di Giorgio.
+
+[Footnote *156: There is a predella picture by him at S. Domenico,
+in Siena, and another in the Uffizi Gallery. He was the pupil of
+Vecchietta.]
+
+[Footnote 157: See vol. I., pp. 147-50, 161-3; _Lettere Sanesi_,
+III., p. 79; _Carteggio d'Artisti_, _passim_, I., pp. 255-316.]
+
+[Footnote *158: Cf. also BORGHESE & BANCHI, _Nuovi Documenti
+per la Storia dell'Arte Senese_ (Siena, 1898).]
+
+[Footnote *159: On the fortresses of the Marche generally, see
+GASPARI, _Fortezze Marchigiane e Umbre_, in _Arch. St. per
+le Marche e per l'Umbria_, vol. III., p. 80 _et seq._]
+
+Nor was it his professional services alone which the Sienese artist
+placed at his patron's disposal. The documents published by Gaye and
+Promis show him accredited on various occasions as the Duke's envoy
+to the government of his native city; and his _Liber de Architectura_
+is dedicated to Federigo, at whose request, probably, it was
+composed. Vasari adds that he portrayed him both in painting and on
+a medal; and, in return perhaps for these diversified labours, that
+prince thus interceded for his admission into the magistracy of Siena.
+
+ "Mighty and potent Lords and beloved Brethren;
+
+ "I have here in my service Francesco di Giorgio, your
+ fellow-citizen and my most favourite architect, who desires
+ to be placed in your magnificent magistracy, as the
+ ambition of his genius, excellence, prudence, and worth. I
+ therefore pray your Highnesses that you will be pleased to
+ elect him thereto, and to admit him into the number of your
+ public men, which I shall regard as a special boon, as will
+ be more fully stated to you on my behalf by your mighty
+ ambassador. And your Lordships may be assured that were I
+ not convinced that only good, faithful, and useful service
+ is to be looked for from him, I should not propose him, nor
+ intercede in his favour. And nothing more gratifying could
+ I ever receive from your Lordships, to whom I offer and
+ commend myself.
+
+ "From Durante, the 26th July, 1480.
+
+ "FEDERICUS DUX URBINI AC DURANTIS COMES, et Regius
+ Capit. Gener., et S. Ro. Ecclesie Gonfalonierus."[160]
+
+[Footnote 160: MSS. in Public Library at Siena; printed in Bottari,
+Lettere Pittoriche I. App. No. 36, and in Gualandi, Memorie
+Artistiche.]
+
+Although this request was unsuccessful, so well was Francesco
+appreciated at home, that on several occasions Duke Guidobaldo vainly
+applied to the magistracy for his services. Yet he was frequently
+employed in the duchy from 1484 to 1489, the palace at Gubbio
+affording him partial employment. His military reputation being now
+widely spread, he had commissions from various princes, especially
+the sovereigns of Milan and Naples; but through these labours we need
+not follow him. The time of his death is not known; he, however,
+outlived most of the fortresses he had raised for Federigo, which
+were dismantled by order of his son, on abandoning his state in
+1502, a policy suggested by confident reliance on his subjects'
+attachment, as the best guarantee of his eventual restoration.
+Francesco's MSS., dispersed in various libraries, are described in
+Promis's first volume. One of them, on architecture, transcribed for
+Guidobaldo II., was presented by him to Emanuel Filibert, Duke of
+Savoy, in 1568, and now ornaments the Royal Library at Turin. The
+invention of that variety of bastion called in Italy _baluardo_, and
+in Germany _bollwerk_, has been claimed for several engineers, among
+whom are three names belonging to Urbino,--Duke Francesco Maria I.,
+Centogatti the painter, and Commandino the mathematician. Promis, in
+the second volume of his work already quoted, disposes of all these
+pretensions in favour of Francesco di Giorgio. His learned discussion
+may be allowed to decide this point, to which little interest
+now attaches, as well as the question of explosive mines for the
+destruction of military defences. Such an application of gunpowder
+had already been partially resorted to, but the Sienese engineer
+first established its importance and methodised its application.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+ Giovanni Sanzi of Urbino--His son the immortal
+ Raffaele--Early influences on his mind--Paints at Perugia,
+ Città di Castello, Siena, and Florence--His visits to
+ Urbino, and works there.
+
+
+With GIOVANNI SANZI[*161] we have already made acquaintance
+as an epic poet. The patient labour of the Abbé Pungeleoni, and
+the critical acumen of Passavant, have amply refuted Malvasia's
+spiteful, and Lanzi's careless but often quoted assertions, that
+the father of Raffaele was an obscure potter, or, at best, an
+indifferent artist, from whom his son could learn little.[162] Those
+only who have traced out his pictures in the remote townships and
+villages of his native duchy, and who estimate his works by coeval
+productions, can appreciate his real merits. Giovanni Sanzi was of
+a humble family in the village of Colbordolo, a few miles east of
+Urbino, for whose fictitious ancestry of artists there has been
+substituted by his painstaking but most puzzle-headed eulogist, a
+pedigree of peasantry from the middle of the fourteenth century. The
+son of one Sante, he assumed the patronymic Santi or Sanzi, which
+was subsequently euphonised by Bembo for his son into Sanzio. His
+grandfather Peruzuolo, after his losses by the Malatesta forays
+already alluded to,[163] had sold the petty holdings he possessed at
+Colbordolo, and removed his family to Urbino, where Sante became a
+retail dealer in various wares, and where he seems to have died in
+easy circumstances in 1485, nine years before his son. The inquiries
+of Pungeleoni have failed to ascertain the time of Giovanni's birth,
+but it was probably to these losses that the poet thus touchingly
+alludes, in his dedication,[164] as the impulse under which he
+became a painter:--"It would be tedious to relate the many straits
+and headlong precipices through which I have steered my life since
+fate devoured in flames my paternal nest, wherein was consumed all
+our substance; but arriving at the age when perhaps inclination
+would have led me to some more useful exercise of talent, of the
+many lines by which I might have gained a living, I devoted myself
+to the marvellous art of painting, which indeed (in addition to the
+round of domestic cares, of all human concerns the most ceaseless
+torment) imposes a burden heavy even to the shoulders of Atlas,
+and in which distinguished profession I blush not to be enrolled."
+Neither are we enabled to throw any light upon the lessons to which
+Giovanni resorted for instruction in the calling which he thus, at
+some sacrifice of material interests, had adopted. The catalogue of
+contemporary artificers introduced into his Chronicle, including
+all that was eminent from Gentile da Fabriano to Leonardo da Vinci,
+shows a most extensive acquaintance with their respective styles, as
+well as their names.[165] Mantegna is one of them whom he specially
+extols; there is, however, no similarity between their productions.
+Yet, though we know nothing of Sanzi's artistic education, the
+works which Nelli, Gentile da Fabriano, and Piero della Francesca
+left in Urbino must have influenced his early impressions; and it
+is singular that nothing is said by them of these, and others who
+painted in the duchy, beyond the passing notice bestowed with little
+discrimination on all his contemporaries. The marked exclusion
+from this list of Justus of Ghent is plausibly conjectured by
+Passavant to indicate a professional jealousy of one who treasured
+as his secret the so-called oil painting brought by him from
+Flanders, and certainly never attained by Giovanni. Sanzi's manner
+partakes generally of the Umbrian character,--grave, reflective,
+self-possessed, without aiming at dramatic effect or artificial
+embellishment, yet not deficient in variety, or graceful expression.
+More severe than Perugino, he approaches the serious figures of
+Melozzo da Forlì, but subdues their naturalism by an infusion of
+devotional sincerity and simple feeling. He is partial to slender
+forms and delicately drawn feet and hands, but the contours are dark
+and hard, the flesh-tints dull and heavy, tending to cold gray in the
+shadows, and generally deficient in middle tints and reflections.
+His female faces are oval, often of a dusky complexion, and their
+foreheads singularly full. In the nude, he was in advance of his
+age, and in landscape he attained great proficiency. Pungileone
+enumerates about twenty of his pictures, many of them still in their
+original sites, and exhibiting considerable inequality of merit.
+But his _capo-d'opera_, and one of the most important monuments of
+Umbrian art, is the fresco in the Tiranni chapel, at S. Domenico
+of Cagli. In the recess over the altar is the Madonna, enthroned
+between two angels, in one of whom is understood to be portrayed
+the young Raffaele, then a child of eight or nine years old. At the
+sides stand Saints Peter, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, and
+John Baptist. On the lunette above, Christ has just emerged from his
+tomb in the mountain rock: a glorious Deity, the conqueror of death,
+he bears in his left hand the banner of salvation, while his right
+is raised to bless a redeemed world, and scattered around lie six
+guards asleep, foreshortened in various and difficult attitudes. The
+vaulted roof displays a choir of angelic children, sounding their
+instruments and chanting songs of glory to the Saviour, who occupies
+its centre, holding the book of life: and on the external angles
+are small medallions of the Annunciation. There is, perhaps, no
+contemporary painting superior to this in grandeur of composition and
+stately pose of the figures; nor is it less admirable for novelty of
+composition and variety and ease of movement. The design is at once
+correct and flowing, and the expression, though fervid, oversteps not
+truth and nature. Passavant well observes that the breadth, vigour,
+and dexterous treatment of this painting proved its author to have
+been well practised in fresco, although but one other such work of
+his has escaped destruction or whitewash. In his house at Urbino,
+there is a small mural painting, removed many years since from the
+ground-floor to the first story, which tradition fondly claims as a
+boyish production of Raffaele, but which Passavant ascribes to Sanzi,
+conjecturing it to represent his wife and child. It is impossible to
+pronounce a satisfactory judgment as to the master, from the load of
+over-painting in oil. Though called a Madonna and Child, it seems
+rather a gentle mother, who, having hushed her babe to sleep upon
+her knee, reads from the breviary on a stand by her seat, and the
+composition and attitudes present a charming naïveté and natural
+expression. Connoisseurs agree in rejecting its claims as a work of
+Raffaele; nor does it quite resemble his father's usual type, though
+it is difficult to substitute any more plausible theory for the
+conclusion of Passavant. The reader may form his own judgment from
+the accompanying outline, bearing in mind that much of the drapery
+belongs to the pencil of a merciless restorer.
+
+[Footnote *161: See works quoted p. 138, note *1 _supra_.]
+
+[Footnote 162: _Elogio Storico di Giovanni Santi_; Rafael von Urbino.
+The few facts of importance which the Abbé's microscopic researches
+have ascertained are scarcely extricable from the confusion that
+prevails in his eulogy and its accompanying, or rather darkening,
+notes. The catalogue of Sanzi's works is useful to travellers, though
+sadly deficient in judicious criticism. The good Padre was more able
+to appreciate a mouldering MS. than a fine painting.]
+
+[Footnote 163: See vol. I., p. 94.]
+
+[Footnote 164: See it already described at p. 138.]
+
+[Footnote 165: See Appendix III.]
+
+[Illustration: Rafaello Sanzi di Anni Sei nato il dì 6 apr. 1483
+Sanzi Padre dipinse
+
+_Gio. Sanzi pinx._ _L. Ceroni sculp._
+
+RAPHAEL, AGED SIX YEARS
+
+_From a picture once in the possession of James Dennistoun_]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Such was the father to whom there was born at Urbino, on the 6th of
+April, 1483,[*166] a son RAFFAELE[167]; the superiority of
+whose qualities to those of preceding artists, and to ordinary men,
+has been acknowledged in several languages by the epithet "divine."
+Although ever the object of pride and popularity to all Italy, the
+incidents of his life have, until of late years, been comparatively
+neglected, and more ample justice has been rendered to his fame by
+ultramontane than by native biographers. Vasari's narrative, though
+compiled with more than his usual pains, and lavish in laudatory
+epithets, is far from satisfactory. Its author was the partial
+historian of a rival school, the favourite pupil of its jealous head.
+As a Florentine, moreover, he was bound by Italian usage to keep in
+shadow the merits of all "foreign" competitors and teachers. Raffaele
+he never saw, whose best pupils had left Rome ere Vasari visited the
+eternal city: with his Apennine home, its records and memorials, the
+latter had probably no personal acquaintance. While, therefore, we
+own our obligations to the writer of Arezzo for many important facts
+and valuable criticisms, we feel surprised that during above two
+centuries no attempt was made to supplement his obvious deficiencies.
+
+[Footnote *166: The works on Raphael would fill a library. In
+addition to the usual sources of information, see--
+
+BRANCA, _L'ingegno l'arte e l'amore di R. e la nevrosi del
+suo genio_ (Firenze, 1895).
+
+CAMPORI, _Notizie ined. di R. tratte da docum. dell.
+archivio palatino di Modena_ (Modena, 1862).
+
+CAMPORI, _Notizie e docum. per la vita di Giov. Santi e di
+R._ (Modena, 1870).
+
+CROWE & CAVALCASELLE, _Raphael: His Life and Works_ (London,
+1882-1885).
+
+FUA, _Raffaello e la Corte di Urbino_, in _Italia
+Artistica_, An. IV., p. 178 _et seq._
+
+MUNTZ, _R. sa vie, son oeuvre et son temps_ (Paris, 1881).
+
+MUNTZ, _Raphael: His Life, Works, and Times_. Edited by Sir
+W. Armstrong (London, 1896).
+
+ALIPPI, _Un nuovo documento int. a R._ (Urbino, 1880).
+
+ROSSI, _La casa e lo stemma di R._, in _Arch. St. dell'arte_
+(Roma), An. I., fasc. I.
+
+ANON., _La Casa di R. in Roma_, in _Arte e Storia_
+(Firenze), An. VI., No. 17.
+
+RICCI, _La Gloria d'Urbino_ (Bologna, 1898).
+
+ANON., Notice of a portrait of R. in the collection of James
+Dennistoun (Edinburgh, 1842).]
+
+[Footnote 167: We have already accounted for the change of his
+surname to Sanzio, at p. 216. His Christian name, in modern Italian
+Raffaello, seems to have been spelt by himself Raphællo and Raffaele.
+*Raphael was born on Good Friday, 28 March, 1483.]
+
+[Illustration: _Anderson_
+
+RAPHAEL
+
+_After the portrait by himself in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence_]
+
+Another meagre life of Raffaele, composed soon after his death, and
+upon which Vasari seems to have drawn largely, was published by
+Comolli in 1790, from an anonymous MS.
+
+It may be well to preface these observations by borrowing a passage
+of equal aptness and eloquence from an able review of Passavant's
+work.[168]
+
+[Footnote 168: _British and Foreign Review_, vol. XIII., p. 248.]
+
+"We may doubt whether in the whole range of modern history, or
+within the compass of modern Europe, one moment or one spot could
+be found more singularly propitious than those which glory in
+Raffaele's birth. He was happy in his parentage and in his patrons,
+in his master and in his pupils, in his friends and in his rivals:
+the first misfortune of his life was its rapid and untimely close.
+He was late enough to profit by the example, early enough to feel
+the living influence of four of the greatest masters of his art, of
+Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Giorgione, and Fra Bartolomeo. The
+art of painting in oil had been introduced into Italy barely half a
+century before his birth; its technical difficulties were already
+mastered, but it still awaited a master's hand to develop its latent
+capabilities. His short life included the Augustan age of papal Rome,
+the age of its splendour and magnificence, if not of its power, and
+he died almost before the far-off sound of the rising storm had
+broken the religious calm, or foretold the coming miseries of Italy.
+The two pontiffs whom he served out-shone the most illustrious of
+their predecessors in their luxurious tastes and lavish patronage
+of the fine arts; and these arts still served the Church, not only
+with the grateful zeal of favoured children, but with the earnest
+devotion of undoubting faith.... In the age of Raffaele, while the
+rich and often graceful legends of the Catholic mythology still
+retained their ancient hold on the popular belief, the growing taste
+among the learned of the day for the literature and philosophy of
+ancient Greece had done much, by softening their early rudeness ere
+it chilled their early feeling, to mould them to the higher purposes
+of art. Christian art too, relinquishing at last her long attachment
+to traditional types and conventional treatment, was willing to
+exchange a fruitless opposition to the graces and beauties of ancient
+art, for a bold attempt to enlist them in her service."
+
+In truth, when we examine the character and the times of those men
+who have left the stamp of their genius most deeply on the mind or
+destinies of mankind, we generally find a providential adaptation
+of the one to the other. So was it with the greatest masters of
+art. Had Michael Angelo appeared a century sooner, he would have
+found the public unprepared, by a gradual advance of naturalism,
+for the revolution which he was destined to bring about. They would
+have seen in him the terrible, without perceiving how much truth
+accompanied it. Deprived of the sympathy and encouragement which no
+wayward spirit ever more demanded, he would have failed to achieve
+the marvellous, and might have perhaps scarcely risen above the
+monstrous. Leonardo da Vinci could, in any epoch, have given sweet or
+intellectual qualities to beautifully moulded features, but instead
+of enlightening the world upon the theory and practice of his art,
+and developing the infant powers of mathematical engineering, he
+might in an earlier age have been an alchymist, in a later one the
+improver of spinning-jennies. Titian, who would have been cramped by
+the lessons of a Crivelli, grew to manhood ere the league of Cambray
+had curbed the golden coursers of St. Mark's; and thus he formed
+his beau-ideal of noble bearing ere the subjects for his pencil had
+ceased to be the arbiters of Italy, the merchant-princes of the
+world. A mind such as Raffaele's, would in all circumstances have
+found or created materials of beauty. He might have been the purest
+of devotional painters in the days of Giotto, a reformer of corrupted
+taste in those of Bernini; but, placed on the confines of the old
+manner and the new, it was his proud distinction to perfect them both.
+
+Our antecedent remarks on the Umbrian masters have afforded us data
+for ascertaining the state of painting in the duchy at the advent
+of Raffaele. There were, indeed, few pictures within its bounds
+upon which the youthful aspirant might form an exalted style, but
+in his father he possessed an instructor competent to point out
+all that was worthy of study among contemporary limners, as well
+as to initiate him in the mechanism of his profession.[169] Too
+early was he deprived of this advantage,[*170] but not before he
+had been the companion of his parent's labours. Whilst we refuse to
+even his precocious genius the credit of working upon the fresco at
+Cagli,[171] the introduction of his portrait into it proves that he
+witnessed its progress. It was perhaps on similar opportunities that
+he imbibed, before the beautiful Madonnas of Romita and Forano, those
+purely devotional inspirations which are believed to have influenced
+his earlier and happier creations.[172]
+
+[Footnote 169: See Appendix IV.]
+
+[Footnote *170: Giovanni died when Raphael was eleven, in 1494.]
+
+[Footnote 171: See above, p. 218.]
+
+[Footnote 172: See above, p. 195-6.]
+
+With a mind thus prepared, and with the encouraging example of the
+Feltrian court, where talent and genius were sure passports to
+patronage and distinction, he was sent to study at Perugia soon after
+his father's death. This bereavement, which clouded his domestic
+peace not less than his artistic prospects, occurred in 1494, and
+was immediately followed by the loss of his maternal grandfather
+and grandmother, leaving him in the hands of a selfish and litigious
+stepmother. At this juncture, his guardian and paternal uncle
+Bartolomeo judiciously selected as a master for him Pietro Vannucci,
+called Perugino,[*173] the tender melancholy of whose candid and
+unimpassioned countenances contradict Vasari's wanton libels on
+his fair name, not less than a motto on his self-limned portrait,
+first noted by Mr. Ruskin, which indicates his belief that the fear
+of God is the foundation of artistic excellence.[*174] Whatever
+difference of opinion regarding the merits of that painter may have
+originated in the occasional inequality of the works attributed to
+him, no contemporary sent forth more scholars of excellence, or so
+faithfully maintained the integrity of Christian sentiment against
+ever increasing innovations. Unfortunately we are possessed of no
+authentic particulars regarding the interval which young Sanzio spent
+in a studio so congenial to his nature, or the paintings in which
+he had a hand; and thus those years most important to the formation
+of his character and style are a blank in his biography.[*175] At
+Perugia and elsewhere there are a few devotional pictures ascribed
+to him, by tradition or as signed with his initials; but even were
+their authenticity less doubtful, their insignificance and entire
+conformity to the type of Perugino would almost remove them from
+criticism. The admitted fact that Pinturicchio, a man of high genius,
+and about thirty years his senior, had recourse to the beardless
+Raffaele for designs, when employed to paint the cathedral-library
+at Siena, establishes thus early the two leading features of his
+after life, supereminent ability and conciliatory manners; and two
+of these drawings remain to prove how superior were the conceptions
+of the boy, to the execution of his matured comrade, excellent as
+that beyond all question is. He probably attended Perugino to Fano
+in 1497, when painting those lovely altar-pieces in S. Maria Nuova,
+which yield to no other production of his placid and expressive
+pencil, although we can scarcely accept a tradition which ascribes
+to the pupil some Madonna groups in the predella, upon the ground of
+their excelling his master's capacity.
+
+[Footnote *173: This is not so. The first master of Raphael was
+Timoteo Viti, who, having left home in 1490 to enter Francia's
+workshop, returned to Urbino in April, 1495. Timoteo was then
+twenty-six years old. There is a beautiful portrait of him by himself
+in the British Museum. The first undoubted work of Raphael, probably
+painted while he was a pupil of Timoteo, is the _Vision of a Knight_,
+in the National Gallery. Having served his apprenticeship to Timoteo,
+Raphael entered the most famous workshop in Umbria--one of a crowd of
+pupils--that of Perugino.]
+
+[Footnote *174: The suggestion that Perugino was an atheist, and died
+without the Sacraments of the Church, rests on no good foundation.]
+
+[Footnote *175: The first independent picture which he painted after
+coming to Perugia was the _Crucifixion_, now in the possession of Mr.
+Ludwig Mond. This was painted in 1501 or early in 1502, because the
+Vitelli for whom it was painted were driven out of Città di Castello
+in the latter year. I know nothing of any return to Urbino in 1499.
+He went back in 1504.]
+
+[Illustration: _Alinari_
+
+MADONNA AND CHILD
+
+_After the picture by Giovanni Santi, in the Pinacoteca of Urbino_]
+
+Raffaele is supposed to have returned in 1499 to a home where he
+found few attractions. The moment was unpropitious for attracting
+the ducal patronage. Guidobaldo had retired from the Bibbiena
+campaign invalided and dispirited; the descent of French armies upon
+Italy banished from his thoughts the congenial pursuits of peace,
+and he repaired to Venice to take part in the coming strife. There
+was little inducement for the young Sanzio to establish himself
+at the board of an ungracious stepmother, so he set forth to try
+his fortunes at the neighbouring capital of Vitelli, and Città di
+Castello was enriched by the first works undertaken on his own
+account. One of these, S. Nicolò di Tolentino crowned by the Madonna,
+has disappeared in the rapine of the French revolutionary invasion;
+but another altar-picture of the Crucifixion, lately obtained
+from the Fesch Gallery by Lord Ward, enables us to appreciate
+this artist's extraordinary promise. But for the name RAPHAEL
+URBINAS, this would probably be ranked with the works of
+Perugino in which he was assisted by his pupil; and such as best
+know the paintings of that master at his happiest moment, can most
+appreciate the compliment of classing with them the unaided though
+imitative efforts of a lad of seventeen. The Sposalizio of the
+Madonna, abstracted from Città di Castello by the French, and now at
+Milan, is of four years later date, being marked 1504; but it was
+little more than a repetition of a similar work of his master, which,
+during the same havoc, was carried across the Alps, and remains at
+Caen in Normandy.[*176] The only specimen of his pencil still in the
+city which was the cradle of his fame, is a processional standard of
+the _confraternita de' giustiziati_ in Trinity Church, representing
+on its two sides the Trinity with Christ on the Cross, and the
+Creation of Eve.[*177] Though a mere wreck, it shows a novelty of
+composition and a delicacy of execution already distinguishing him
+from the manner of Perugino.
+
+[Footnote *176: This work is a copy of Raphael's picture by Lo
+Spagna. Cf. BERENSON, _The Study and Criticism of Italian
+Art_, vol. II., p. 1-22.]
+
+[Footnote *177: The only work of Raphael's left in Perugia is the
+fresco of Christ and Saints, in St. Severo, 1505.]
+
+The fame of these maiden efforts spread along the valley of the
+Tiber, and the novice was soon recalled to Perugia, to paint for the
+Oddi family an altar-piece of the Coronation of the Madonna, now with
+its predella in the Vatican Gallery. In rich and varied composition,
+it excels all antecedent representations of this favourite Umbrian
+theme, and establishes a decided advance beyond the standard of
+beauty adopted by Perugino. Now, too, he began his wonderful series
+of small devotional pictures, embodying the Madonna in conceptions of
+beauty which none other but the sainted limner of Fiesole has ever
+approached. On this his first emancipation from Umbria, he became
+acquainted with the classicism and naturalism then revolutionising
+art. At Siena, his perception of beauty was gratified by an exquisite
+Grecian statuary group of the Graces, which he transferred to his
+tablets, and afterwards reproduced in a picture. Tempted by the
+proximity of Florence, he seems to have then glanced at, rather
+than examined, those new elements which Masaccio and Verocchio had
+introduced, and which a host of able masters were enthusiastically
+developing.[178]
+
+[Footnote 178: The frequent contradictions of the many writers upon
+Raffaele throw a doubt upon most of his movements. Our rapid sketch
+has been compiled after a careful comparison of authorities, which
+we cannot stay to criticise or reconcile. *In 1504 Raphael went to
+Florence. The assertion that he accompanied Pinturicchio to Siena
+seems a mere invention of Sienese municipal vanity.]
+
+[Illustration: _Alinari_
+
+ECCE HOMO
+
+_From the picture by Giovanni Santi in the Palazzo Ducale, Urbino_]
+
+The miserable state of his native duchy, as well as his many
+professional engagements, fully accounts for his prolonged absence
+from it; but a better state of things was now restored, of which
+he hastened to avail himself. He reached Urbino in 1504, before
+midsummer of which year, the Duke had returned to enjoy a tranquil
+home, for the first time during above two years. The visit was well
+timed, and fraught with important results to the young painter, for,
+besides sharing his sovereign's patronage, he became known to his
+sister, widow of the Lord Prefect, and to her son, who was about that
+time formally adopted as the future Lord of Urbino. The accession of
+Julius II., uncle to this youth, and his partiality to art, opened
+up a wide field of promise to one thus favourably introduced to the
+Pope's nearest relatives. But these dazzling prospects, and the
+charms of a cultivated court, were postponed to that professional
+improvement for which he thirsted; and, after executing some minor
+commissions for Guidobaldo, the young Sanzio hastened back to
+the banks of the Arno, where the muse of painting was rewarding
+the worship of her ardent and talented votaries with revelations
+of high art rarely before or since vouchsafed. The favour he had
+already earned from the Prefectress is testified by the following
+recommendation, which he received from her on setting out.
+
+ "To the magnificent and lofty Lord, regarded with
+ filial respect, the Lord Gonfaloniere of Justice of the
+ distinguished republic of Florence.[179]
+
+ "Magnificent and lofty Lord, respected as a father! The
+ bearer hereof will be Raffaele, painter of Urbino, who,
+ having a fine genius for his profession, has resolved to
+ stay some time at Florence for study. And knowing his
+ father to be very talented, and to possess my particular
+ regard, and the son to be a judicious and amiable youth, I
+ in every way love him greatly, and desire his attainment
+ in good proficiency. I therefore recommend him to your
+ Lordship, in the strongest manner possible, praying you,
+ as you love me, that you will please to afford him every
+ assistance and favour that he may chance to require; and
+ whatever such aids and obligations he may receive from
+ your Lordship, I shall esteem as bestowed on myself, and
+ as meriting my special gratitude. I commend myself to your
+ Lordship.
+
+ "From Urbino, 1st October, 1504.
+
+ "JOANNA FELTRIA DE RUVERE, Ducissa Soræ et Urbis
+ Prefectissa."
+
+[Footnote 179: Pietro Sodarini, Gonfaloniere for life. The original
+in Latin is printed in BOTTARI'S _Lettere sulla Pittura_,
+I., 1. A loose expression might lead to the conclusion that Giovanni
+Sanzi was still alive, though he died in 1494; and on the strength of
+it, Rosini raises doubts as to the authenticity of the letter, or the
+identity of the painter, in which we cannot join.]
+
+This letter probably obtained him more civility than substantial
+benefit; as his various Florentine works attributed to this period
+were commissioned by private parties. Among these was Taddeo Taddei,
+correspondent of Bembo, and a well known friend of letters, for whom
+he painted the Madonna del Cardellino and another Holy Family, and of
+whose hospitalities and many favours he expresses a deep sense, in
+recommending him to his uncle's good offices at Urbino, whither the
+Florentine probably repaired to visit its famed court. Other kind
+friends and patrons were Lorenzo Nasi and Angelo Doni; but his chief
+object seems to have been the society and instructions of the best
+painters, which the acquaintance of his early master Perugino with
+Florence, as well as his own winning manners, must have facilitated.
+Leonardo da Vinci, whom Giovanni Sanzi couples with Perugino, as
+
+ "Two youths of equal years and equal love,"
+
+was then at the height of his fame, and in direct competition with
+Michael Angelo, the eventual rival of Raffaele, whose energetic
+genius was already striding forward on his ambitious career.
+Fra Bartolomeo was adapting their new and advanced style to the
+devotional feeling which hung around his cloister in the frescoes
+of Beato Angelico. Domenico Ghirlandaio was dead, but his mantle
+had fallen on a son Ridolfo, whom the young Sanzio selected as
+his favourite associate, to the mutual advantage of both. In such
+companionship did Raffaele study the grand creations of preceding
+painters; borrowing from them, or from living artists, ideas and
+expedients which his fertile genius reproduced with original
+embellishments. The influence of Da Vinci may be distinctly detected
+on some of his Madonnas and portraits of this period,--that of the
+Dominican monk on others, and on his general colouring; but the
+fresco of the former at S. Onofrio, and many works of the latter,
+prove that they reciprocated the obligation, by freely adopting
+his design. Early prepossessions as yet kept him exempt from the
+contagion of mythological compositions; but in portraiture he found
+a new and interesting field, and several admirable heads, produced
+at Florence, attest his great success, as a naturalist of the most
+elevated caste.
+
+[Illustration: _Alinari_
+
+S. SEBASTIAN
+
+_After the picture by Timoteo Viti in the Palazzo Ducale, Urbino_]
+
+In an æsthetic view, the paintings and drawings executed by Raffaele
+at Florence are of infinite importance, but it would lead us much too
+far to examine the progressive development and naturalist tendencies
+which they display. We have not attempted to separate his various
+residences there from 1504 to 1508; for during these three years and
+a half, that city may be regarded as his head-quarters, varied by
+visits to Perugia, Bologna, and Urbino, which we shall now notice.
+In 1505, he was summoned to the first of these cities to execute
+three altar-pictures; one of which, at Blenheim, has been beautifully
+engraved by Gruner[*180]; another adorns the Museo Borbonico; the
+third, representing the coronation of the Madonna, is in the Vatican.
+Of the last commission some curious particulars are preserved.
+The nuns of Monte Luce having selected the young Sanzio, on the
+report of several citizens and reverend fathers, who had seen his
+performances, agreed to give him for the picture 120 golden ducats,
+and to another artist, Berto, 80 more for the carved framework and
+cornice, including three predella subjects; 30 ducats of the price
+being paid in advance. Raffaele's impatience to return to his studies
+soon carried him again to Florence, and a new contract for execution
+of the work was made in 1516; but death had removed both the abbess
+and the artist ere it was fulfilled, and ten years more elapsed
+before the picture was terminated by his pupils. The earliest attempt
+of Raffaele upon fresco, in the church of S. Severo, at Perugia,
+is dated 1505; its chief interest arises from being a first and
+incompleted idea of the grand composition which, originating with
+Orcagna and Fra Angelico, he developed in the Disputa of the Vatican
+Stanze. Two years later he revisited Perugia, to paint for the
+Baglioni one of his noblest and most elaborate altar-pictures, which,
+indeed, may be regarded as his first important dramatic composition.
+Its subject was the Entombment; the many extant sketches for which,
+prove the care exercised upon the cartoon, which he prepared at
+Florence. It is now the chef-d'oeuvre of the Borghese Gallery, and
+its beautifully pure predella is preserved in the Vatican. The
+same subject was treated by Perugino, in, perhaps, the finest of his
+panel pictures, which now ornaments the Pitti Gallery.
+
+[Footnote *180: Now in the National Gallery.]
+
+[Illustration: _Alinari_
+
+MARGHERITA "LA FORNARINA"
+
+_After the picture by Raphael called La Donna Velata in the Pitti
+Gallery, Florence_]
+
+We shall not discuss whether Raffaele's acquaintance with Francia
+was formed by correspondence, or during a visit to Bologna, but
+one letter addressed by him to that charming artist is preserved,
+referring to much previous intercourse, and to a friendly interchange
+of drawings, and of their respective portraits. Their works, at all
+events, were mutually well known to each other, partly no doubt
+through Timoteo Viti, the pupil of both. It is worthy of note that
+Sanzio, writing to this friend after quitting Florence, the hotbed of
+classicism and naturalism, commends his Madonnas as "unsurpassed in
+beauty, in devotion, or in execution," thus showing the comparative
+value he attached to these respective excellences, among which
+"truth to nature," the favourite test of Vasari and later critics,
+has no place; and it is only when he comes to speak of the artist's
+own portrait, that he lauds it as "most beautiful, and life-like
+even to deception." It was this common sentiment that linked these
+master-minds: Raffaele was in the main a devotional painter, Francia
+was almost exclusively so.
+
+The year 1506 was momentous to Urbino. In the spring Guidobaldo
+returned, after a long absence from his capital, occasioned by
+pressing solicitations of his brother-in-law the Pope, that he would
+remain near him. The following autumn brought the Pontiff in person
+to visit his relation, at whose court his Holiness spent four days.
+During part of this year, Raffaele is supposed by Passavant to have
+resided in his native city, and possibly he may there have been
+presented to Julius; at all events he must have become known to
+several members of the polished circle at Urbino, whose acquaintance
+ere long proved useful and honourable to him at Rome, and who
+were able to forward his interests, both with that Pope and his
+successor. Such were Giuliano de' Medici, Castiglione, Bembo, and the
+Cardinal Bibbiena, while the high tone of intellect and taste, which
+prevailed in that select society, was calculated to improve as well
+as gratify his noble nature. Nor was his pencil idle in the Duke's
+service. Our information does not enable us absolutely to decide what
+of his Urbino works were produced on this occasion, and which of them
+are referable to his former visit, but we willingly adopt Passavant's
+classification of the pictures he is supposed to have painted for
+Guidobaldo, the first three being ascribed by that author to the year
+1504.
+
+1. Christ in the Garden, with three disciples sleeping in the
+distance, No. VIII. of Passavant's Engravings, a Peruginesque
+picture, "of miniature finish" as described by Vasari, before whose
+time it had passed to the Camaldolese Convent at Urbino, having been
+gifted by Duchess Leonora to two members of that fraternity at her
+son's baptism. Long subsequently, a prior of the Gabrielli is said
+to have alienated it to his own family; and in 1844 it was purchased
+from the Roman prince of that name by Mr. William Coninghame, at the
+sale of whose interesting collection in 1849, it was acquired by Mr.
+Fuller Maitland of Stansted in Essex.
+
+2. and 3. Two small pictures which, unless commissioned as _ex voto_
+offerings, belong rather to the class of romantic than devotional
+compositions. They represent St. George and St. Michael subduing
+their respective monsters, allegories of their triumphs over sin. The
+former of these is supposed to have been executed for Guidobaldo, and
+presented by him to the French King, by whom the latter was ordered
+as its companion. Both remain in the Louvre.
+
+4. Another St. George slaying the Dragon with a lance, while the
+former one uses a sword. This picture, signed on the horse trappings
+RAPHELLO V., is of especial interest to our countrymen,
+the Knight's knee being encircled by the Garter of England, as patron
+of that order: it was painted by the Duke's command in commemoration
+of his receiving this distinction; and in all probability was
+carried as a present to Henry VII. by Castiglione, in 1506, when
+he went to London as proxy at his master's installation. There it
+graced the palace of the Tudors and Stuarts until sold for £150 by
+the Commonwealth to Lord Pembroke. It was subsequently purchased
+by Catherine of Russia from the Crozat Collection, in which it is
+engraved.
+
+[Illustration: _Anderson_
+
+MARGHERITA LA FORNARINA
+
+_After the spoiled picture by Raphael in the Galleria Barberini in
+Rome_]
+
+5. and 6. Two easel pictures of the Madonna, stated by Vasari to have
+been commissioned for the Duke of Urbino, are traced by Passavant
+to the Imperial Gallery at St. Petersburg, and to M. Nieuwenhuys of
+Brussels.
+
+7. The portrait of Raffaele by himself, now in the Florence Gallery,
+is understood to have been executed at Urbino in 1506, whence it was
+carried to Rome by Federigo Zucchero, and placed in the academy of
+St. Luke, until obtained thence by the influence and gold of Cardinal
+Lorenzo de' Medici. Passavant considers that the hair and eyes have
+been darkened by restorations, and corrects a mistake of the Canonico
+Crespi, who has occasioned some confusion by mistaking an old copy of
+it still in the Albani Palace at Urbino for a fresco, and by writing
+to Bottari in 1760 as if he had there discovered an original likeness
+of Sanzio.[*181]
+
+[Footnote *181: None of these pictures save the last seems to be from
+Raphael's hand.]
+
+The Holy Family and St. John in the Ellesmere Collection, called the
+Madonna del Passeggio, is alleged to have been presented by a duke of
+Urbino to Philip II., and by him to the Emperor. Thence it is traced
+through Queen Christina to the Odescalchi and Orleans Galleries.
+Passavant appears to consider the Penshanger Madonna to have also
+been painted in the duchy. To the same period are ascribed missing
+portraits by Sanzio of Duke Guidobaldo I. and his Duchess, as well
+as of Bembo, Giuliano de' Medici, and others of their court.
+
+Though somewhat out of chronological order, we may here mention
+the portrait of a duke of Urbino, with those of Julius II., and a
+Magdalene, all said to have been from his easel, and to have belonged
+to the ducal family, particulars of which will be found in the list
+of Urbino pictures in the Appendix to our third volume. It, however,
+seems doubtful if he ever did portray either of his successive
+legitimate sovereigns; but a half-length of Lorenzo de' Medici, the
+usurping Duke, was purchased in Florence by the late M. Fabre about
+twenty-five years ago, and is now in the museum bequeathed by him to
+Montpellier. It is ascribed to Raffaele, and there is a good copy of
+it in the hall of Baroccio at the Uffizi of Florence. We have not
+connected any other works of his with Urbino, which, after the visit
+of 1506, he was not destined again to see.
+
+Writing from Florence to his maternal uncle, on the 21st of April,
+1508, he expresses his regrets for the recent death of Guidobaldo, in
+brief and somewhat common-place terms; and, passing to other matters,
+begs that the Duke's nephew and heir may be requested to recommend
+by letter his services to the Gonfaloniere, for employment on some
+frescoes then in contemplation at Florence. He desires that the
+favour may be asked in his own name, as essentially advantageous to
+his views, specially commending himself to the young Prefect as an
+old servant and follower. Yet it would seem that he had already made
+for himself a better title to such patronage, in a mural painting of
+the Last Supper in the refectory of S. Onofrio. The recent discovery
+of this precious work, after centuries of oblivion, restores to him
+the credit of his most important Tuscan production, and adds another
+to the many attractions of Florence.[*182]
+
+[Footnote *182: This is not by Raphael.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+ Raffaele is called to Rome, and employed upon the
+ Stanze--His frescoes there--His other works--Change in his
+ manner--Compared with Michael Angelo--His death, character,
+ and style.
+
+
+The letter alluded to at the close of our preceding chapter may be
+regarded as the matured result of Raffaele's careful study of the
+Tuscan masters, and an index of his resolution to rival the admired
+cartoons which had recently placed Da Vinci and Buonarroti at the
+head of living artists. Another scene was, however, reserved for his
+triumphs. Julius II. had begun to construct the metropolitan church
+and palace of Christendom with an energy befitting his character and
+the undertaking. Michael Angelo and Bramante were already in his
+service, and he sought to enlist talent and genius from all quarters
+for this object. The friendly influence of the ducal family, the
+recommendations of Bramante, or his own extending fame, possibly an
+acquaintance formed with him at Urbino in 1506, may have suggested
+Raffaele as a worthy associate in the work. On the Pope's summons
+he abandoned his projects at Florence early in the autumn of 1508,
+and, leaving several pictures to be finished by his worthy follower
+Ridolfo Ghirlandaio,
+
+ "Repaired
+ To the great city, an emporium then
+ Of golden expectations, and receiving
+ Freights every day from a new world of hope."
+
+The tower of Borgia, named from Alexander VI., was at that period
+the pontifical residence, and on its decoration the best artists
+had been successfully employed. The lower story was terminated under
+Alexander by Pinturicchio and his pupils; the upper had already
+engaged the hands of Piero della Francesca, Signorelli, and Perugino,
+but several of its compartments remained unpainted. One of these
+was assigned to Raffaele, and so gratifying was his success that
+the Pope, with headlong and unhappy haste, ordered all the finished
+frescoes of the upper suite to be demolished, and the four rooms of
+which it consisted to be delivered over to his unfettered discretion.
+This lamentable precipitancy effaced many works of inestimable
+importance to art, and condemned the noblest productions of pictorial
+genius to walls in every respect ill-adapted for their reception.
+The frescoes now occupying these _stanze_ are to Italian painting
+what the Divina Commedia of Dante is to Italian poetry: the lovers
+of both, in despair of imitating their excellences, have expended
+their enthusiastic admiration in volumes of illustrative criticism.
+These compositions of Raffaele form a magnificent epic in which
+are strikingly interwoven the endowments of human intellect, the
+doctrines of Catholic faith, and the incidents of ecclesiastical
+history, all as conducing to the triumphs of the Christian church.
+
+The four rooms may be regarded as four books, each subdivided
+into as many themes or cantos. In the Camera della Segnatura, the
+ceiling presents allegorical figures of Poetry, Jurisprudence,
+Philosophy, and Theology, with a large composition on the side walls
+corresponding to each. For Poetry we have Mount Parnassus, with
+Apollo and the Muses on its laurel-clustered summit, surrounded by
+the most famous bards and minstrels. Jurisprudence is a severely
+simple group, consisting of Prudence, Temperance, and Fortitude,
+the virtues by which justice is promoted on earth; while the
+text-books of Roman and Canon law are issued by Justinian and
+Gregory IX., in subsidiary panels. Philosophy is embodied in the
+famous School of Athens, as it has been incorrectly named, where
+fifty figures, attending a scholastic disputation between Plato
+and Aristotle, include the noblest names of ancient science, the
+selection of whom displays extraordinary knowledge of the history
+of mind. Theology, generally called the Disputa del Sacramento,
+is divided into two scenes. Seated in the heavens amid an angelic
+choir, the Holy Trinity is surrounded by the Madonna, the Precursor,
+and a glorified assemblage of patriarchs, prophets, and warriors of
+the Old Testament; apostles, evangelists, and martyrs of the New
+Dispensation. Below, the fathers of the Church and its most eminent
+divines expound to an audience of distinguished personages the
+mysteries of faith, which are symbolised by the Eucharist exposed
+upon an elevated altar in token of man's redemption.
+
+The stanza called that of Heliodorus has on the roof four signal
+manifestations of himself by the Almighty to the patriarchs. The
+first mural compartment represents the holiest mystery of the Romish
+faith established in the Miracle of Bolsena, whereby a doubting
+priest was supernaturally convinced of the divine presence in
+transubstantiation. Opposite is the miraculous deliverance from
+prison of St. Peter, the founder of the Romish Church; and the
+two corresponding subjects illustrate the power committed to his
+successors for arresting the invasion of pagan force personified in
+Attila, and for cleansing from the temple of Christ its sacrilegious
+plunderers, with Heliodorus at their head.
+
+Having thus illustrated the divine origin of man's chief faculties,
+and of ecclesiastical authority, Raffaele in the two remaining rooms
+exchanged allegory for historical delineation. That called the Stanza
+del Incendio shows us the Coronation of Charlemagne by Leo III., and
+the justification of that Pontiff on oath in presence of the same
+Emperor; the Victory of Leo IV. over the Saracens at Ostia, and his
+supernaturally staying a conflagration which threatened the basilicon
+of St. Peter,--a theme belonging rather to the category of the
+second room. The ceiling here, having been executed by Perugino, and
+reverently spared by Raffaele from the sweeping sentence of Julius,
+has no immediate bearing upon these subjects, though full of fervid
+feeling.
+
+The last and largest of the suite is called the Hall of Constantine,
+whose religious history is there delineated in four leading scenes:
+his Baptism, by St. Silvester; his Vision of the Cross before Battle;
+his Victory over Maxentius at the Ponte Milvio; and his Donation of
+Rome and its temporalities to the successors of St. Peter. The roof,
+of posterior date and far inferior merit, has nothing to do with
+Raffaele's creations.
+
+This meagre outline may indicate the leading theme of these the
+grandest compositions of modern art; but to form an idea of their
+difficulties, of the varied and profound knowledge they display, of
+the many noble episodes they embrace, and of all the interesting
+portraits they embody, demands no brief or light study, no ordinary
+learning or accomplishment. Nor is it easy to appreciate their
+technical merits or artistic beauties, vast as is their extent, with
+baffling and insufficient cross-lights, and a surface considerably
+impaired. Hence the general disappointment felt by casual and
+superficial visitors, and the superior gratification afforded
+by good engravings of the series. In these, and in the not less
+perfect tapestry-cartoons which it is the privilege of our country
+to possess, may be appreciated Raffaele's unity of composition, his
+symmetrical and unostentatious design, his full contours and flowing
+lines, and the earnest but unaffected sensibility which distinguishes
+his transcendent works.
+
+That the whole sixteen mural paintings and two of the ceilings were
+designed by Raffaele is beyond question; the portions executed by
+himself, and those assigned to his pupils, are matter of keen
+controversy, upon which we need not enter. It is, however, agreed
+that the Camera della Segnatura, and half that of Heliodorus, belong
+to the reign of Julius, whilst the Stanza del Incendio was painted
+under Leo X., when Sanzio's manifold employments and commissions
+obliged him to entrust too much to his scholars. Of the Sala di
+Costantino only two figures, painted in oil as an experiment, had
+been finished when premature death closed his career of glory. The
+price allowed for each fresco seems to have been about 1200 ducats of
+gold.[183] Theology, the earliest of the series, painted immediately
+on his arrival at Rome, has most of the freshness and devotional
+sentiment of his early genius and Umbrian education. It and the
+Philosophy are most pregnant with abstruse scholarship, drawn in
+part from the learned companionship of Duke Guidobaldo's court. The
+glowing and harmonious colouring of the Heliodorus, and Miracle of
+Bolsena fully equals any known production of Venetian art; and in the
+Incendio, the Heliodorus, and the Battle of Maxentius, we have the
+energy and vigour of Michael Angelo, without his exaggerations. In
+all may be seen the vast stride he had made from the timid Cenacolo
+at Florence, while his transition from Peruginesque hatching to a
+full and free streak, and a bold handling, is particularly traceable
+in the Disputa, which Passavant justly characterises as surpassing
+every antecedent effort of pictorial art.
+
+[Footnote 183: FEA, _Notizie_, p. 9. Raffaele's own letter
+of 1514 mentions that sum for each Stanza.]
+
+The death of Julius II. in 1513, eventually proved nowise detrimental
+to Raffaele's advancement; for the new Pope not only followed out
+those decorations which he found in progress at the Vatican, but soon
+made new calls upon their artist, whose labours during the remaining
+seven years of his short span appear almost beyond belief. Of the
+Stanze, ten new subjects were composed, and several of them in part
+executed by him in that time, besides the architecture and all the
+elaborate decoration of the Loggie, the finished cartoons for twelve
+or thirteen large tapestries, the decorations of the Farnesina,
+Bibbiena, Lante, Madama, and Magliana villas, the frescoes of Sta.
+Maria della Pace, the Chigi Chapel in Sta. Maria del Popolo, a
+variety of altar and cabinet pictures, including his Madonnas of San
+Sisto and del Pesce, the Sta. Cecilia, and, last but most glorious
+of all, the Transfiguration; besides numerous portraits, and many
+drawings for the burin of Marcantonio. Add to this a journey to
+Florence in 1514, his architectural designs for several palaces there
+and at Rome, a general superintendence of the antiquities in and
+around the Eternal City, and the principal charge of the building of
+St. Peter's, at a yearly salary of 300 scudi.
+
+The necessary results of thus over-taxing mind and body was
+prejudicial to the quality of the works, and to the constitution
+of their author. His paintings, left in a great measure to pupils,
+often showed a hurried and inferior execution, ill compensated
+by the broader treatment which he was forced to adopt. The
+metropolitan fabric, itself an ample occupation for the highest
+genius and constant industry of one man, languished under inadequate
+superintendence. The delicate frame of Raffaele, exhausted by mental
+fatigue, was incapable of resisting the first attack of disease.
+
+But brief and utterly imperfect as this sketch has hitherto been, we
+must now greatly curtail it, and pass by many of his most glorious
+undertakings, to touch upon one or two general views.
+
+[Illustration: _Alinari_
+
+THE SPOSALIZIO
+
+_After the picture by Raphael, once in the Ducal Collection at
+Urbino, now in the Brera, Milan_]
+
+The devotional influences of the Umbrian school, from which Raffaele
+must have imbibed his youthful impressions, were reproduced in his
+juvenile works under forms of loveliness new to that mountain land.
+His visits to Florence offered fresh inspirations, and taught him
+to ingraft upon the conventionalities of Christian art, whatever
+his keen sense of beauty could cull from the creations of beneficent
+Nature. But he painted her and all her works,
+
+ "Not as they are, but as they ought to be;"
+
+nothing mean or debasing found a place in his inventions, and homely
+accessories were either refined or thrown into shade. On the banks of
+the Arno he became acquainted with another class of elegant forms,
+wherein the ancients had developed a beau-ideal, faultless in its
+external qualities, but alien to religious sentiment. The reaction
+against paganism, which Savonarola's eloquence had effected in the
+Tuscan capital, contributed perhaps to save Raffaele from this snare;
+but at the court of Rome, and more especially under the Medicean
+Leo, the temptation became too strong. Before the twofold seduction
+of incarnate beauty and classic forms, the types of his pristine
+admiration were gradually effaced, and his fidelity to them waxed
+faint. After elevating Christian painting to its culminating point,
+he lent himself unwittingly to its degradation, by selecting depraved
+loveliness equally for a Madonna or a Venus, by designing from it
+indiscriminately a Galatea or a saint. True, that what he lost in
+purity is, in the opinion of many, more than counterbalanced by his
+progress towards breadth and vigour; but without entering upon so
+wide an element of controversy, we may note the fact that, though
+all his pupils boldly followed that "new manner," their career was
+one of rapid descent, and that those who departed most widely from
+their master's purest conceptions have obtained least admiration from
+posterity.
+
+Yet we must in a great measure acquit Raffaele of participating in
+the corruption which he shrank from combating. No work of depraved
+taste or immoral tendency has been brought home to his pencil,
+though the dissolute habits of his age readily applauded such
+libertinism in Giulio Romano, Titian, and Correggio. As to the
+long current statement, that his premature death was a well-earned
+result of vicious indulgences, the evidence, when sifted by
+recent research, entitles him to at least a negative verdict. No
+contemporary testimony gives the slightest countenance to the charge.
+It originated in a vague and random sentence of a commentator upon
+Ariosto, wherein four assertions out of six are palpably unfounded,
+and its gossiping character procured it a too ready admission from
+Vasari. The pure character of his works meets it with an effectual
+contradiction, on which those who best understand physiological
+conformation will most implicitly rely:--
+
+ "Love is too earthly, sensual for his dream;
+ He looks beyond it with his spirit eyes."
+
+Another allegation remains to be examined, more detrimental to the
+artist, though less so to the man. During his progress through
+various styles, and in the composition of many works, Raffaele is
+said to have freely appropriated the ideas of others. There can
+scarcely be a doubt that his Graces were suggested by the antique
+marble at Siena; that several noble conceptions were transferred by
+him from the Carmine to the Vatican; that a group in the Incendio del
+Borgo was borrowed from Virgil's Trojan epic; that the arabesques of
+the Loggie were partly taken from the thermal corridors of Titus;
+and that other still more curious resemblances have been detected
+by an acute writer to whom we have already referred.[184] But such
+appropriations were established by authoritative precedents, from
+the conventionalities of Christian painting to the plagiarisms
+of Michael Angelo. The right to repeat themselves or others was
+recognised, though men of high genius rarely stooped to its absolute
+exercise. Raffaele,--"always imitating, always original," if we
+follow Sir Joshua's not unbiased strictures,--will accordingly be
+found, on closer examination, to have adapted rather than adopted
+the thoughts of others. Like the busy bee, culling sweets from every
+flower, he separated the honey from the wax, and reproduced, in new
+shapes and varied combinations, whatever of beauty he met with in
+nature or art. We may add another dictum of Sir Joshua,--"his known
+wealth was so great, that he might borrow where he pleased without
+loss of credit." These considerations seem fairly applicable to the
+influence exercised by Michael Angelo upon a few works of Sanzio.
+But if not the canon of criticism must be impartially administered.
+When the vigour of Buonarroti is adjudged to have been filched from
+Signorelli, his stalwart anatomy acknowledged as the legacy of
+Pollaiuolo; when Domenichino stands arraigned for transferring to
+his chef-d'oeuvre, the communion of St. Jerome, the exact motive
+and theme of his master, Ludovico Caracci's canvas in the Pinacoteca
+at Bologna, it will be time to admit Reynolds's proposition, that
+"it is to Michael Angelo we owe even the existence of Raffaele,
+and that to him Raffaele owes the grandeur of his style." Sanzio,
+in truth, shrank not from competing with whatever he deemed worthy
+of emulation. But his was a fair and friendly rivalry, however
+little its spirit was understood or reciprocated by the wayward and
+overbearing Florentine, whose charge against Raffaele and Bramante
+of undermining him with Julius II., adduced in an idle letter, is
+not only contradicted by the character of these great men, but it
+is palpably improbable. To their influence, Buonarroti ascribes the
+suspension of that Pontiff's tomb, regarding which we shall have
+much to say in our fifty-third chapter. But as neither of them were
+sculptors, and as the Florentine was not yet known to the Pope,
+either as an architect or a painter, such jealousy would have been
+absurd; whilst the taunt of Sanzio's owing all he knew of art to
+Michael Angelo can only be regarded as the petty ebullition of a
+notoriously wayward temper. The employment of the latter upon the
+huge bronze statue of his Holiness at Bologna, was the real reason
+for the interruption of the monument, which it was reserved for Duke
+Francesco Maria I. to have completed.
+
+[Footnote 184: _Quarterly Review_, No. cxxxi. pp. 20, 25, 32, 42.]
+
+Between these great masters no parallel can be fairly drawn, and
+had they wrought in the same town they would seldom have been
+placed in rivalry. But belonging to different states, and heading
+the antagonist schools of Rome and Florence, the sectional spirit
+of Italy has placed them in contrast, and has adopted their names
+as watchwords of local jealousy. In truth, Raffaele's advancement
+in anatomical accuracy was a necessary consequence of the growing
+naturalism of his time; and the improvement could not fail to
+develop the breadth of his pencil, as well as to enlarge the sphere
+of his compositions. The absolute amelioration of his works, after
+he settled at Rome, was therefore inevitable from the spirit of
+the age acting upon a genius not yet matured. That spirit Michael
+Angelo exaggerated rather than embodied; and to the purer taste of
+his rival many of his productions must have been beacons rather
+than models. There is, indeed, some truth, with much malice, in the
+sarcasm of Pietro Aretino, that the former painted porters, the
+latter gentlemen. Induced, perhaps, by some such idle sneer, Raffaele
+executed his Isaiah, to prove that the new manner was not beyond
+his grasp; but this, his first, and fortunately his last work, in
+which a direct imitation of the terrible Florentine is discernible,
+is now the least admired of his mural paintings; and some portion
+of its Michael Angelesque character has even been attributed to the
+after-restorations of Daniele di Volterra. The Poetry in the Stanze
+and the frescoes in the church of La Pace, which he has been supposed
+to have borrowed from the same source, are traced by more recent
+critics to works of Andrea l'Ingegno at Perugia and Assisi. After
+these observations, it is scarcely requisite to notice the remark
+of Vasari regarding the opportunity stealthily afforded to Raffaele
+by Bramante for plagiarising from his rival's gigantic creations on
+the roof of the Cappella Sistina. The casual manner in which the
+allusion is made does not warrant its being taken up, as it has been,
+in the light of a charge against the honour both of Sanzio and his
+friend; and even had it been so intended by the Florentine, various
+circumstances, besides the high character of those inculpated, are
+sufficient to negative the charge. If Raffaele followed Buonarroti's
+manner, it must be admitted that he alone did so without thereby
+deteriorating his own. Nor ought we to forget that most critics by
+whom this question is handled have merely repeated the loose views
+of the biographer of Arezzo, whose great aim it was to prove that
+the excellences of Sanzio were all borrowed from his Florentine
+contemporaries.
+
+The parallel which suggests itself between these gifted
+competitors[*185] has been thus stated with equal eloquence and
+truth: "The genius of Michael Angelo differed from that of Raffaele
+even more in kind than in degree; limited in its object, but intense
+in its energy, it gloried in the exhibition of its own colossal
+strength, and looked with contempt on those gentler graces that
+waited unbidden on the pencil of their favourite worshipper. When the
+rivals approached, it was by no common movement; Michael Angelo stood
+aloof on the lofty eminence he had chosen; it was Raffaele alone who
+dared at times to traverse the wide space that divided them. So great
+were the difficulties, so bold the attempt, that all his success,
+rapid and wonderful as it was, would have seemed almost necessary
+to rescue a character less modest and unassuming than his, from the
+charge of hardihood and presumption. With a noble candour he could
+scarcely have learned from his haughty antagonist, Raffaele was among
+the first to see, the most prompt to acknowledge, the new grandeur
+he had given to art.... Even when he rises to the very confines of
+sublimity, it is still the sublimity of the beautiful; and when
+Michael Angelo stoops for a brief space to court the aid of beauty,
+it serves like a transparent veil to soften rather than conceal the
+native sublimity of his genius.... Michael Angelo, the painter of
+the old covenant, has embodied his genius in the stern and gigantic
+forms of Moses and the Prophets; but he failed where Raffaele has
+shown as signally his skill, in the gentle dignity of the Saviour
+and the heavenly purity of a mother's love.... In his paintings, as
+in his character, there appears an unconsciousness of excellence,
+a consummation of art carried up to the simplicity of nature, that
+anticipates criticism, and allows us to indulge undisturbed in a
+fulness of admiration, which grows on the reason long after it has
+satisfied the heart. In Michael Angelo's best works there is often,
+on the contrary, somewhat so strange and so studied in gesture
+and attitude, so evident a design upon our wonder, as almost to
+provoke us to resistance, and impair the pure magic of the effect by
+attracting our attention to the cause."[186]
+
+[Footnote *185: Far from the parallel "suggesting itself," only a
+disorderly mind would make it. No comparison is thinkable between
+work that is absolutely different. One might as well compare a valley
+with the sea.]
+
+[Footnote 186: _British and Foreign Quarterly_, vol. XIII.]
+
+Honoured by the Pontiff and his brilliant court, idolised by a band
+of enthusiastic pupils, engrossed by distinguished commissions,
+Raffaele had few thoughts to bestow on his early home. His ties
+there had become few and feeble. His father's house had entirely
+failed; his only near relation was a maternal uncle, who retained
+his warm affection, and scarcely survived him. In writing to that
+uncle in 1514, to acquaint him with his signal success and augmenting
+wealth, he desires special commendations to the Duke and Duchess,
+modestly suggesting that they might be pleased to hear how one
+of their servants was doing himself honour. Gratifying as his
+extending reputation must have been to them, we find no trace of
+special exertions on their part to promote it. Indeed, they had ample
+occupation on their own concerns, in the revolution which soon after
+exiled them during the rest of Leo's pontificate.
+
+[Illustration: ISABELLA OF ARAGON
+
+_After the picture by Raphael in the Louvre_]
+
+One of Raffaele's best patrons was Agostino Chigi, a Sienese banker,
+who, after a most successful career at Rome, became in the prime
+of life the millionaire of his day, and who employed his great
+wealth, and the preponderating influence it gave him with the papal
+government, in a judicious promotion of art. His commissions to
+Raffaele include the mural paintings of his chapel in the Madonna
+della Pace, the architecture, sculpture, and mosaics of his other
+chapel in the Madonna del Popolo, and the architecture and internal
+decorations of his urban villa, now the Farnesina. The last has a
+melancholy interest, from being the latest work which exercised the
+cares of the illustrious artist. Whilst superintending its frescoes
+in March, 1520,[187] a summons from the Pope brought him with hurried
+steps to the Vatican, where, arriving overheated, he was detained in
+a large and chilly saloon until perspiration was checked. An attack
+of fever naturally followed, which, advancing to the stage called
+pernicious, proved too much for his delicate and over-excited frame,
+especially when still further exhausted by injudicious bleeding, in a
+belief that the attack was pleurisy. Aware of his danger, he sought
+support in his hour of need from the ministrations of religion and
+the rites of his Church. Such is the now received account. The most
+authentic particulars are contained in a letter, dated from Rome five
+days after his death.
+
+[Footnote 187: Yet this casino, begun in 1511, is by some said to
+have been completed several years before.]
+
+"About ten o'clock on Good Friday night [April 6th] died Raffaele of
+Urbino, the most gentle and most eminent painter, to the universal
+regret of all, but especially of the learned.... Envious death,
+cutting short his beautiful and laudable undertakings, has torn
+from us this master, still young, upon his very natal day. The Pope
+himself indulges in uncontrolled grief, and, during the fifteen
+days of his illness, sent at least six times to visit and console
+him.... We have, indeed, been bereaved of one of rare excellence,
+whose loss every noble spirit ought to bewail and lament, not simply
+with passing words, but in studied and lasting elegies. He is said
+to have left 16,000 ducats, including 5000 in cash, to be divided
+for the most part among his friends and household; the house of
+Bramante,[188] which he purchased for 3000 ducats, he has given to
+the Cardinal [Bibbiena] of S. Maria in Portico. He was buried at the
+Rotonda, whither he was borne by a distinguished cortège. His soul
+is beyond a doubt gone to contemplate those heavenly mansions where
+no trouble enters, but his memory and his name will linger long on
+earth, in his works and in the minds of virtuous men.--Much less
+loss, in my opinion, though the populace may think otherwise, has
+the world sustained in the death of Agostino Chigi last night, as
+to which I say little, not yet having heard of his affairs. I have
+only learned that, between cash, debts owing to him, securities,
+alum-mines, real estate, bank capital, appointments, bullion, and
+jewels, he has left eight millions of golden ducats."
+
+[Footnote 188: It stood in front of St. Peter's, and was removed when
+the piazza was extended.]
+
+It may be that Raffaele was timeously taken from the evil to come;
+since death exempted him from witnessing like Michael Angelo, a
+deluge of mediocrity he would have been powerless to withstand.
+But the blow was deadened by no such calculation, and seldom have
+obsequies so pompous been accompanied by grief as universal. By the
+bier, around which his funeral rites were celebrated, there was
+hung his great picture of the Transfiguration: the inspired beauty
+of its upper portion, and the unfinished state of the remainder,
+most touchingly testified his almost superhuman powers, and their
+untimely extinction. The place of his sepulture was behind an altar
+in the Pantheon Church, for the erection and endowment of which he
+provided by testamentary bequest, and where his bones have of late
+been reverently but unwarrantably disturbed. This selection appears
+to have been dictated by the recent interment near the spot of Maria
+Bibbiena, the grand-niece of his friend the Cardinal, to whom he had
+been betrothed, and who had lately predeceased him. The little that
+we know of this engagement is from the painter's own letter to his
+uncle in 1514; and it would seem to have been sought by the Cardinal
+rather than by the bridegroom, who appears to have abandoned his
+matrimonial arrangements to friendly match-makers with more than
+Italian indifference. The idle tale of his looking to a Cardinal's
+hat is now set at rest, as well as nearly all the gossip that had
+long circulated as to his supposed dissolute habits, and his liason
+with that Roman matron whose ample contours and rich flesh-tints have
+come down to us on his canvasses, and who, whether his mistress or
+not (examples of such licence being then almost universal), seems to
+have been a favourite model in his school.[189]
+
+[Footnote 189: Passavant treats the usual legends regarding the
+Fornarina as after inventions, and ascribes the earliest notice of
+her to PUCCINI'S _Real Galleria di Firenze_, I., p. 6.]
+
+The same pure taste and feeling for beauty, which characterise
+the frescoes and pictures of Sanzio, would have raised him to
+equal excellence in other branches of art. They are visible in
+his architectural compositions, and in his numerous drawings. The
+statue of Jonah in the Sta. Maria del Popolo, supposed to have been
+modelled, if not wrought, by his hand, proves what he might have
+attained in sculpture. He had no time for literary undertakings, but
+some sonnets, casually preserved on the back of his sketches, exhibit
+him as a cultivator of letters. An interesting result of his official
+charge of the antique monuments remains in an eloquent report to the
+Pope, in which,
+
+ "Rome's ancient genius, o'er its ruins spread,
+ Shakes off the dust, and rears its reverend head."
+
+Its authorship has given rise to some controversy, and it seems not
+unlikely that the materials supplied by Raffaele were thrown into
+shape by his friend Castiglione.
+
+It would be interesting as well as easy to adduce from contemporary
+pens proofs of the general admiration for his talents, and popularity
+of his manners. But we close this notice, too brief for the subject,
+though already exceeding our due limits, with the testimony of his
+earliest biographer, and of one of his most recent critics. Vasari
+thus commences his life of Sanzio: "The great bounty which Providence
+occasionally displays, in heaping upon a single individual an
+unlimited measure of favours, and all the rare gifts and graces which
+generally are distributed over a long interval and many characters,
+may well be seen in Raffaele Sanzio of Urbino. Equally worthy and
+engaging, he was endowed with a modesty and goodness sometimes united
+in those who, adding to a certain noble refinement of disposition
+the attraction of amiable manners, are gracious and pleasing at all
+times and with all persons. Nature presented him to the world when,
+already vanquished in art by the hand of Michael Angelo, she wished
+to be outdone by Raffaele, alike in art and in courtesy. In him she
+luminously displayed the most singular excellences, conjoined with
+such diligence, discretion, grace, comeliness, and good breeding, as
+might have concealed even the greatest blemish, or the most hideous
+vice. Hence it may safely be asserted, that those who possess such
+rare qualities as were united in Raffaele of Urbino are not mere
+human creatures, but rather, if such language be allowable, mortal
+divinities." Still more eloquent is the passage lamenting his
+untimely death: "Oh, happy and blessed spirit, every one delights to
+talk of you, to dwell upon your actions, and to admire every design
+which you have left. Well might the art of painting die when this her
+noble child was called away; for when his eyes were closed she was
+left all but blind. To us, his survivors, it now remains to follow
+the example of his excellent manner, cherishing in our memory, and
+testifying by our words, the remembrance due to his worth and our
+own gratitude. For in truth we have colouring, invention, indeed the
+whole art brought by him to a perfection hardly to have been looked
+for; nor need any genius ever think to surpass him." In the words of
+a writer upon whom we have already drawn:--"Cut down in the flower of
+his age, and,--like a favoured tree of his own most favoured land,
+while laden with golden fruit, bearing in still unopened blossoms
+the promise of a yet brighter future,--he was mourned widely as he
+was admired, deeply and truly as he had been loved. Young as he was
+in years, and modest in his bearing, there is a feeling of reverence
+blended in the fond regret with which even strangers dwell upon his
+memory, recount his virtues, and seek to read their impress and
+reflection in his works."[190]
+
+[Footnote 190: _British and Foreign Review_, vol. XIII., p. 274.]
+
+A critical examination of the peculiar merits of Raffaele's pencil,
+and of the benefits which he brought to art, would lead us further
+than this sketch will permit: yet there are certain points so
+apparent even to superficial observers, some qualities so unanimously
+dwelt upon by his eulogists, that it would be incomplete without
+a passing notice of them. To him the perception of beauty was a
+sixth sense, ever in exercise, and applied to the creations of his
+genius, as well as to his studies from nature. To its test were
+submitted those traditional forms of devotional art which influenced
+his early training; it imparted life and movement to Perugino's
+so-called monotonous poverty; it modified the dramatic action of the
+Florentine manner; it caught the full tones of Fra Bartolomeo, and
+gave dignity to the simper of Leonardo; it showed that anatomical
+accuracy required no muscular contortions; it realised the grand
+without verging upon the monstrous; it separated grace from grimace.
+This was an innate and personal gift, that could neither be taught
+nor imitated. The elevated character, harmonious composition, correct
+design, and just colouring which Raffaele stamped upon his school,
+were manifested in various degrees by his pupils, but the spirit of
+their master was a boon from nature, which none of them could seize
+or inherit. There are impetuous and daring minds who delight more
+in the energy of Michael Angelo's terrible forms; others luxuriate
+with greater fondness on the mellowed depth of Titian's magic tints;
+whilst to some the artificial contrasts of Correggio's brilliant
+lights, and Leonardo's unfathomable _chiaroscuri_ have irresistible
+charm. These eminent qualities are, however, the separate endowments
+of four individual minds; but Raffaele, deficient in none of them,
+possessed, in no less perfection, other more important requisites
+which we have noticed. It was this happy union that rendered him the
+unquestioned prince of painters, while the ready obedience of his
+unerring hand enabled him to realise the pure conceptions of his
+refined mind with a delicacy and truth which seem to defy imitation.
+
+Yet his sterling merit was undeviating propriety in the conception
+and execution of his works. Nothing ever emanated from his pencil
+offensive to religion, morals, or refinement; all that bears his
+name would honour the most fastidious reputation. To him accordingly
+there was granted a purity of taste, in none other united to equal
+genius. It was this that maintained the elevation of his style amid
+the conflicting difficulties and temptations of that "new manner"
+which it was his mission to perfect. Thus, although it is in the
+productions of his second period that we find the beau-ideal most
+perfectly realised, yet, even his later works, which descend to
+a closer imitation of nature, seldom fail to invest her with a
+dignity rare in the external world. In proportion, therefore, as he
+discovered or adopted the more elaborate resources and processes of
+his art, his ripening mind supplied him with themes and conceptions
+worthy of them, and of immortality. The various series of subjects
+which he invented for the Stanze, the Tapestries, and the Loggie,
+indicate a grasp of intelligence, a variety of acquirement, never
+before or since brought into the service of art, and establish
+beyond question that the intellect of Raffaele fully equalled his
+taste.[*191]
+
+[Footnote *191: Raphael seems to us to-day to have been a supreme
+portrait painter. His other easel pictures, splendid as they often
+are in "space composition," seem to lack sincerity. His frescoes have
+a perfect decorative value, but little force or real contact with
+life. If they sum up the Renaissance, they do so only in part, with
+much sacrifice of truth and of that virility and assured contact of
+life which were its most precious possessions.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+ Timoteo Viti--Bramante--Andrea Mantegna--Gian
+ Bellini--Justus of Ghent--Medals of Urbino.
+
+
+Having thus traced the advance of painting in the duchy of Urbino,
+from Oderigi da Gubbio, the friend of Dante, to Raffaele Sanzio,
+its _facile princeps_, it might be well to pause, and leave its
+rapid descent under a new dynasty of dukes to be followed in a
+future portion of our work. Yet there are still some native names,
+belonging to the better period both by date and by merit. Of these
+the principal was TIMOTEO VITI, who was born of reputable
+parentage in Urbino about 1470, and whose mother Calliope was
+daughter of Antonio Alberti of Ferrara, by whom the Giottesque
+manner had been brought to that city. Timoteo was sent to Bologna to
+profit by the instructions of Francesco Francia, and remained there
+from 1490 to 1495. The Christian painters of that city had chosen
+for their Madonnas a peculiar type, which, after being transmitted
+through several artists, attained its perfection from Francia's
+pencil. It may be distinctly traced in the best remaining specimen
+of Lippo Dalmasio, of whom we have already spoken,[192] a lunette in
+fresco, representing the Madonna and Child between two saints, which
+is over the door of S. Procul at Bologna. There we find a pensive
+cast of head gently bent on one side in dreamy contemplation,--the
+sweetly naïve features, with less indeed of a divine or seraphic
+expression than we see in those imagined by the Florentine and
+Sienese masters, but whose look seems to indicate that, though
+of earth, their owner was not earthy,--though a child of fallen
+humanity, she had not tasted of actual guilt. Those who know the
+Madonnas of Francia need not be told that they resemble sinless
+women more than beautiful beings. Somewhat of the same sentiment
+may be traced in the earlier productions of Timoteo Viti. Thus his
+Magdalen, which, though now in the Pinacoteca of Bologna, was painted
+for Urbino, is a grand figure in red drapery largely cast, standing
+in front of a wide cavern. Her girlish countenance appears too pure
+and gentle to have felt carnal passion, too placid to have wept over
+human sin; her reverential attitude aspires heavenward, without, like
+most of her class, appearing to loathe the earth. The mild character
+of Timoteo, as well as his promising talents, established him in
+the friendship of his master, whose diary touchingly records the
+affection with which he bade god-speed to his pupil, on quitting his
+studio.[193]
+
+[Footnote 192: See above, p. 161.]
+
+[Footnote 193: "On the 4th April, 1495, my dear Timoteo went away,
+to whom may God grant all good and success." He seems to have been
+received at first into Francia's "workshop" as a goldsmith, to work
+for the first year without pay, the second at sixteen florins a
+quarter, the last to be free, working by the piece. This indenture
+was, however, broken by mutual consent after fourteen months, on his
+wish to pass into the painters' studio.]
+
+[Illustration: _Alinari_
+
+ST. SEBASTIAN
+
+_From the picture by Timoteo Viti in the Palazzo Ducale, Urbino_]
+
+Few of this painter's early works are identified, and no frescoes
+from his designs appear to survive; but his altar-picture painted
+for the Bonaventura chapel in the church of S. Bernardino at Urbino,
+and now by the hazards of war in the Brera at Milan, offers one of
+the most remarkable compositions of the age. The Annunciation, that
+graceful theme of Christian art, had hitherto been treated upon one
+uniform type, and though ever attractive was generally trite. The
+Virgin surprised by her heavenly visitor was a subject requiring, in
+contrast, the purest earthly and celestial beauty which the painter
+could invent. The early masters sought not to introduce any other
+character than that of hallowed loveliness, refined from worldly
+sentiment; their successors added what was meant for grace of manner,
+which in their hands generally fell into affected mannerism. Timoteo
+held a middle course, giving play to his fancy, but restraining its
+flight by the spell of holy reverence. Amid a fine and far-stretching
+landscape stands the Virgin, nobly beautiful, gazing with prayerful
+aspect upon an angel, whose demi-figure issues from a cloud.
+Far above her head the infant Saviour, supported by a dove in a
+triangular halo of dazzling splendour, descends from the skies to
+become incarnate in the womb of Mary; his foot poised upon a globe,
+and the cross resting in his left hand, whilst his right is raised
+in benediction. The archangel with out-stretched arms indicates the
+mother to the child, and the child to the mother, thus beautifully
+executing his mission by an expressive sign. In front of her, but
+on a lower level, so as to appear of less majestic presence, stand
+the Precursor and St. Sebastian; the former points to the principal
+group as the fulfilment of a cycle of prophecy which in his person
+was complete; the latter is a graceful prototype of that long series
+of martyrs who were destined to seal with blood their testimony to
+the atonement thus initiated. One portion of this novel theme had
+been anticipated by Giovanni Sanzi, in whose representation of the
+same subject at the Brera, though composed after old conventional
+ideas, the divine Infant is seen descending from the Almighty upon
+the Virgin, instead of the dove, which usually figures as the Holy
+Spirit. But such innovations were looked upon with watchful jealousy
+by a Church wedded to traditional conventionalities. Doubts were
+raised as to the orthodoxy of this representation of the Trinity,
+and an unfortunate ruddy tint suffused over the plumage of the snowy
+dove was construed into a stain on the immaculate character of the
+conception, which is usually represented as coincident with the
+Annunciation. The altar-piece was removed to undergo along with its
+author a searching examination, which resulted in its restoration as
+an object of devotion, and in his escape from the rigours of the Holy
+Office.
+
+Two altar-pictures by Timoteo remain in the cathedral-sacristy of
+his native city,[*194] besides a St. Apollonia in the church of
+the Trinità. These exhibit much soft expression and devotional
+feeling, combined with considerable breadth of execution; yet
+they scarcely possess the simple sentiment of the earlier Umbrian
+artificers, the noble character of Sanzi, or the fervour and finish
+of Francia. During his residence at Urbino, he may not improbably
+have influenced the young Raffaele's opening genius; but, ere long,
+fame's many-tongued trumpet told him how much he had to learn of his
+countryman, from whom he soon received an invitation to assist in
+executing the commissions which were crowding upon him at Rome; and,
+like many other gifted artists, Timoteo deemed it no degradation to
+work under his younger but more matured genius. Although one of the
+latest painters who retained that devotional spirit which we have
+endeavoured to trace from the Umbrian sanctuaries, his manner, at an
+after period of his life, changed with the influences to which he was
+exposed in the atmosphere of the Vatican; and some of those works
+produced under the superintendence of Raffaele which are generally
+ascribed to his hand, such as the Sybils in the S. Maria della
+Pace,[*195] display a very decided tendency to "the new manner."
+Few paintings have given occasion to greater variety of opinion
+and conjecture than this fresco, both as to the share in it which
+belongs to Timoteo, and as to the source from which the conception
+was derived. The theme is unquestionably referable to an authority
+older than that of Michael Angelo; and it is remarkable that, instead
+of the charge of plagiarism from his great rival being brought home
+to Raffaele, as has been frequently asserted, the former must have
+owed to Perugino, Pinturicchio, and Andrea d'Assisi the idea of
+rendering the sybils of mythological fable subservient to religious
+representation.[*196] By all these artists, pagan pythonesses
+had been grouped with scriptural prophets, as foreshadowing the
+mysterious plan of human salvation, and the fresco of the Pace must
+be regarded as a felicitous adaptation of Umbrian feeling to the
+tastes of such a patron as Agostino Chigi, deeply imbued with the
+classic tendencies of the Roman court.[197] The repeated restorations
+to which this fine work has been subjected render criticism of its
+merits in a degree nugatory, but the inferiority of the Prophets to
+the Sibyls is generally admitted.
+
+[Footnote *194: In the Cathedral sacristy is the St. Martin and St.
+Thomas of 1504, with the founders beside them. In the Pinacoteca
+there is a half figure of S. Sebastian, the figures of S. Roch and of
+Tobias with the Angel. The S. Apollonia, once in S. Trinità is now in
+the Gallery. Of these, the S. Sebastian, S. Roch, and Tobias show the
+influence of Giovanni Santi, the other two the influence of Raphael.]
+
+[Footnote *195: Timoteo painted the Prophets above the Sibyls in S.
+Maria della Pace, in Rome.]
+
+[Footnote *196: The Sibyl was not exclusively Pagan. Consider the
+first verse of the _Dies Irae_, which ends--
+
+ "Teste David cum Sibylla."]
+
+[Footnote 197: See the learned observations of PUNGILEONE,
+in the _Elogio Storico di Timoteo Vite_, pp. 23-38.]
+
+Vasari, after communication with our painter's family, represents
+him as pining for his native air in the capital of Christendom,
+where his stay cannot have been of very long duration, as we find
+him in 1513 one of the magistracy of Urbino. Here he shared his time
+between the sister arts of poetry, music, and painting, "delighting
+to play upon various instruments, but especially the lyre, to which
+he sang improviso with uncommon success." On Vasari's authority,
+we are also told that he "was a cheerful person, naturally gay and
+jovial, handsome, facetious in conversation, and happy in his jokes."
+One of the most remarkable productions of his Raffaelesque period
+is a _Noli me tangere_ (the appearance of Christ to the Magdalen
+after his resurrection), in the chapel of the Artieri, at Cagli,
+executed about 1518, which has been, perhaps, over-praised by Lanzi
+and others: the difficulty of the subject may in some degree disarm
+our criticism of its rather crowded and ungainly composition. On
+the whole, the merit and beauty of the few known productions of
+his pencil may well make us regret those which have disappeared,
+or which pass under other names; and, although Passavant accuses
+him of affectation and mannerism, the constraint apparent in some
+of his earlier productions may possibly be more justly ascribed to
+awkwardness. Pungileone supposes him to have returned to Rome in
+1521, two years before his death, and there to have acquired a number
+of the cartoons and drawings of his friend Raffaele. Of these, and
+his own designs, a considerable portion passed a few years ago into
+the Lawrence collection, which the vacillation and ill-timed economy
+of our rulers allowed to be in a great measure dispersed.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Few artists have been the subject of more controversy than
+BRAMANTE. His architectural works procured him high reputation, for he
+is associated with the genius of Julius II., and the vast piles of
+the Vatican: but his name and family have been disputed, as well as
+the place and province which gave him birth; while his biographers,
+besides confounding him with an entirely different person, Bramantino
+of Milan, have aggravated the confusion by conjuring out of these
+two a third artist, who exists only by their blundering. Bartolomeo
+Suardi, instead of being master of Bramante, as Orlandi and others
+have supposed, was a pupil who, from attachment to his instructor,
+added to his own name the diminutive Bramantino. He chanced, however,
+to have a scholar, Agostino, who, by also adopting that designation,
+has further perplexed matters; three persons being thus almost
+inextricably mixed up. For our purpose it is enough thus to supply
+a key to these masters, and to observe that their relative merits
+coincide with their chronology; the first being a bright light of
+the golden age, the last an obscure painter of the _decadence_, who
+has left us little beyond the reflected lustre of a borrowed surname.
+But although the minute diligence of Lazzari and Pungileone seems to
+have set this matter at rest, their tedious disquisitions supply few
+important facts or useful criticisms, and a brief notice will suffice
+for our present purpose.
+
+Donato Bramante appears to have been born at Monte Asdrualdo, near
+Fermignano, in 1444, of parents in comfortable circumstances. As
+his first efforts were devoted to painting, he would naturally find
+instructors among the Umbrian artists already noticed; but for
+his education we have no particulars, beyond a conjecture that he
+studied under Fra Carnevale.[*198] At his father's death, in 1484,
+he was already abroad, probably in Lombardy, where most of his
+pictorial works were produced, and where some frescoes may still be
+seen, meriting no ordinary meed of approbation, and particularly
+distinguished by fidelity in portraits and accuracy of architectural
+perspective; qualities learned, doubtless, from the productions of
+Melozzo da Forlì and Piero della Francesca. Of these mural paintings,
+the most interesting remains in the church of the Canepa, at Pavia,
+and exhibits the artist presenting a model for that building to its
+founder, Duke Gian Galeazzo Sforza, his Duchess, and his mother.
+Rosini ascribes to him freedom of design, ease in movement and
+draperies, grand conceptions, and much ability in perspective.
+Indeed, whilst the colder genius of ultramontane nations has seldom
+occupied itself with more than one branch of art, many Italian
+masters attained to excellence in several; and Bramante's reputation
+as an architect being established, his engineering talents were
+called into exercise by Ludovico il Moro, upon the fortifications
+of Milan. There too he built several churches, and constructed as
+a sacristy for S. Satiro, one of those small round Grecian fanes
+which have been considered so peculiarly his own, that various
+churches of that type are ascribed to him on no better grounds than
+their form. The conception is, however, of earlier origin, for it
+appears in not a few miniatures and small devotional panels of the
+preceding century. He had adopted it in a little chapel of the
+Madonna di Riscatto, on the banks of the Metauro, opposite Castel
+Durante, said to have been his earliest work, and the idea was freely
+used by Perugino and his pupils, Raffaele included. It takes the
+form of a round building cased by Corinthian pilasters, in an easel
+picture preserved at Urbino, in the sacristy of Sta. Chiara, which
+is interesting as an architectural study, and has been attributed to
+Bramante, or to Giorgio Andreoli, the porcelain enameller of Gubbio.
+A symmetrically elegant Doric chapel, at S. Pietro in Montorio
+at Rome, is the chef-d'oeuvre of this classic style, and it was
+reproduced by della Genga in scenic decorations prepared at Urbino
+for the representation of Bibbiena's _Calandra_.
+
+[Footnote *198: He was probably the pupil of Luciano da Laurana and
+Piero della Francesca.]
+
+As the flower of Bramante's life went by during his long stay
+in Upper Italy, it is there that his pictorial talents must be
+appreciated, and that his most numerous, if not his most famous
+fabrics, may be found. But when Lombardy became the battle-field
+of Italian independence, when art was there neglected and personal
+safety compromised, he bethought him of the monuments of antique
+genius still scattered over the capital of her classic times, and
+came to Rome in quest of improvement as well as employment. The
+moment was not propitious, for Alexander VI. was no Maecenas. Yet in
+the public works, both of fresco-painting and architecture, Donato
+had a share; and he supplied designs for several private churches
+and palaces, varying the scene of his labours by prolonged visits to
+Naples and Tivoli.
+
+On the accession of Julius II. his star rapidly rose to the zenith
+of his reputation. His Urbino extraction was a recommendation to
+the new Pontiff, which his talents fully justified, while the vast
+conceptions and daring energy of his Holiness found in Bramante a
+willing and apt minister. To raise a temple wherein the Christian
+world might worship the living God, was a project worthy of their
+united genius, and it was entertained in a manner befitting the
+enterprise. There, grandeur of design was seconded by resolute
+purpose; nor were means and will deficient for levying from the piety
+or fears of mankind contributions apparently inexhaustible. But in
+a struggle with time, man is seldom victorious. The shadows of age,
+falling upon the Pontiff and his architect, warned them that their
+day was far spent. Anticipating the night that approached to arrest
+their labours, they worked with a zeal which knew no repose, but
+which proved fatal to the stability of their fabric. Death overtook
+them both ere any part of St. Peter's approached to completion, yet
+not before the too hurried masonry had begun to yield under its own
+weight. The inadequate foundations occasioned much supplementary
+trouble and outlay to those who conducted the edifice towards a
+conclusion, which it did not reach until 1626, a hundred and twenty
+years after it had been begun by Bramante.
+
+By some who witnessed the rapid and indiscriminate destruction
+of old St. Peter's,--that ancient basilicon, which early art had
+done its best to decorate, which Christian devotion had sanctified
+by cherished traditions, and over which time had cast a solemn
+halo,--Bramante has been blamed as a reckless innovator; and the
+charge meets a ready response from those who, in their search for
+primeval monuments of Catholic faith, pass from the glare and
+magnificence of the modern fane to mourn over broken sculptures and
+shattered mosaics buried in its rayless crypt. It would be easy to
+defend the architect at the expense of his master; but upon looking
+more closely into the charge, we shall find that the original fabric
+having become ruinous, its reconstruction was begun half a century
+before the accession of Julius, and that its last remains were
+not removed until a hundred years later. Thus it would seem that
+the demolition of so much that is ill replaced to the churchman
+and scholar of art, even by the gorgeous temple which commands
+our wondering admiration, must have proceeded from other reasons
+than haste. The slippery foundations that from time to time have
+occasioned infinite anxiety and expense, both for the church and
+adjoining buildings, were doubtless the original cause which lost us
+the basilicon of Constantine.
+
+But Julius was not the man to devote himself exclusively to one idea,
+even though a favourite one. Wishing to provide a palace for his
+successors worthy of the neighbouring fane which he had founded, he
+put the Vatican into Donato's hands. That pontifical residence, after
+being enlarged by Nicolas V. and Sixtus IV. was in a great measure
+reconstructed by Alexander VI., whose predecessor, Innocent VIII.,
+had erected a casino in the adjoining gardens of the Belvidere.
+In order to unite this casino to the palace, Bramante contrived a
+double corridor, the vast intervening area of which he designed for
+festive spectacles. This fine idea, left by him unfinished, was
+marred by succeeding architects, who broke up the extensive court by
+cross galleries and unseemly appendages. We may, however, pardon the
+transmutation, as it has afforded admirable accommodation for the
+treasures of art, ever since accumulating in these almost boundless
+museums. In that handsome street to which Julius bequeathed his name,
+there may be seen near the church of S. Biagio, straggling vestiges
+of vast substructions, with rustic basements resembling the gigantic
+masses of fabulous ages, on which have been reared some mean and
+modern dwellings. These are the sole remains of a vast undertaking,
+nobly conceived by the Pontiff, and ably commenced by his architect,
+in order to unite under one palace the scattered law-courts and
+public offices of Rome. But it was Bramante's misfortune to serve a
+restless spirit, which attempting more than the span of human life
+could overtake, left its finest conceptions abortive.
+
+The merits of Bramante were appreciated by his contemporaries as well
+as by posterity, and gained him a substantial meed of honour and
+wealth. At the pontifical court he moved in a circle where refinement
+perfected the emanations of genius, and which included the choicest
+spirits of a brilliant age. Enriched by papal favour, magnificent in
+his expenditure, frank and joyous in his nature, he lived up to the
+advantages of his position, and made his palace the resort of many
+celebrities: there his Umbrian countrymen, Perugino, Pinturicchio,
+and Luca Signorelli, frequented his board; and after his death the
+house was bought by his friend Raffaele. He was a poet, for in Italy
+all sentiment readily falls into rhyme; but he was likewise a man
+of the world, whose natural tact and ready fluency compensated for
+a defective education. Dying in March, 1514, he was buried beneath
+that splendid fane which he had founded, but which many successive
+architects failed to raise. No monument testifies the gratitude of
+his countrymen, yet his name is entwined with garlands of undying
+verdure, and some of the noblest Italian piles bear the impress of
+his solid and enduring style.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+FRA BERNARDO CATELANI was a Capuchin monk of Urbino, whose
+devotion sought scope in the exercise of Christian art, and who is
+generally considered a follower of Raffaele, although this is doubted
+by Grossi. Nor does it much matter, for the only work now identified
+with his name is an altar-piece of the Pietà with two attendant
+saints, in the church of his order at Cagli. Still less is known
+of one CROCCHIA of Urbino, named by Baldinucci as a pupil
+of Raffaele. His countryman, Centogatti, is said to have exercised
+the arts of architecture, sculpture, and painting, and to have
+instructed Duke Francesco Maria I., and also Gian Battista Comandino,
+in engineering. To him Lomazzo ascribes the invention of _baluardi_,
+and the erection of walls round his native town; but in both respects
+he appears mistaken, as we have had occasion to show in speaking of
+Francesco di Giorgio.[199]
+
+[Footnote 199: See p. 214 above. In an old MS. chronicle I
+find, besides most of the names here enumerated, the following
+now-forgotten painters of Urbino, at the close of the fifteenth
+century:--Bartolomeo di Maestro Gentile, Bernardino di Pierantonio,
+Ricci Manara, Francesco di Mercatello, and in 1528 Ottaviano della
+Prassede.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The patronage extended to Francia by Duke Guidobaldo seems, from
+Vasari's authority, to have been of a very undiscriminating
+character, for his commissions to that painter of sweet Madonnas
+consisted of a Lucrezia, and a set of horse-trappings, whereon was
+depicted a blazing forest, with various animals escaping from it.
+Gaye has recovered some facts as to the favour bestowed by this
+dynasty upon Andrea Mantegna. In 1511, Duchess Elisabetta wrote
+to interest her brother, the Marquis of Mantua, in favour of his
+son Francesco, expressing herself as mindful of the regard she had
+borne his father, on account both of his own merits and his devotion
+to her family. Andrea's acquaintance with Giovanni Sanzi, already
+referred to, may have been formed on his journey to Rome in 1488,
+or on his return thence in 1490; but his fame had ere then reached
+Umbria, for in 1484 Ludovico Gonzaga, bishop of Mantua, wrote to the
+Prefect della Rovere, pleading his excuse for declining an order for
+a Madonna, his time being engrossed in the palace of Mantua. Vasari
+further tells us that Marco Zoppo, another Lombard painter, took a
+portrait of Guidobaldo when in the Florentine service. To his reign
+probably belongs a very grand specimen of Giovanni Bellini in the
+church of S. Francesco at Pesaro. We have already noticed him as a
+pupil of Gentile di Fabriano; and his visit to the duchy may have
+enabled him to confirm his early devotional impressions, by there
+depicting that favourite theme of the mystic school, the Coronation
+of the Madonna, surrounded by witnessing saints. The countenances,
+though without the unearthly inspiration belonging to the Umbrian
+art, have great beauty softened by reverential sentiment, and a
+colour which glows even through the dirt of centuries. In the Sta.
+Maria Nuova of Fano are preserved two of Perugino's finest works,
+the Annunciation, and the Madonna enthroned between six saints,
+exhibiting all the qualities of his best time, with less timidity
+than belongs to his manner. The latter was executed in 1490, and
+the predella had been considered equal to Raffaele, who of course
+was then too young for such an undertaking. Such are some of the
+remaining pictures which must have influenced taste and art in
+the duchy. The catalogue is far from complete, for in the obscure
+villages may still be discovered altar-panels of scarcely inferior
+importance, besides not a few transported thence to Milan, Berlin,
+and other galleries.
+
+We owe to Lord Lindsay some very interesting views on the influence
+of early Teutonic art beyond the Alps, a subject long overlooked
+and still far from exhausted.[200] Among its masters no celebrity
+equals that of Jean Van Eyck. He was not only _capo-scuola_ in the
+Low Countries and inventor of a new method and vehicle of painting,
+but was the first to introduce that "feeling for nature and domestic
+sentiment" which, subordinate at the outset to religious delineation,
+has continued, through many phases, and for the most part with
+strictly naturalist aims, to characterise the Flemish pencil. The
+fame of his mechanism spread into Italy, and Vasari speaks of a
+bath scene being sent by him to Duke Federigo of Urbino. This was,
+however, probably the same work described as belonging to Cardinal
+Ottaviani by Facio, who wrote about 1456. In a room lighted by a
+single lamp, a group of nude females issued from the bath, an aged
+beldame, their attendant, bathed in perspiration, their thirsty dog
+lapping water. A mirror accurately gave back the scene, reflecting
+the profile of the one whose figure was turned from the spectator.
+Without, was elaborate and far-spreading scenery, with men, horses,
+castles, hamlets, groves, plains, and mountains, dexterously
+graduating away as the evening shadows fell. Keeping in view the
+state of art at that time, this painting, of which all further trace
+mysteriously vanishes, must have exercised an important influence.
+The borrowed illumination, the mirror reflections, the nude forms,
+the heated atmosphere detected by its physical effects on animal
+life, the minutely pencilled landscape, the delicately receding
+perspective, were all more or less innovations in Italy, apart from
+the colour and surface produced by the new process.
+
+[Footnote 200: _Sketches of the History of Christian Art_, Letter
+VIII., especially part II., §§ 1, 2, 4, and part III., § 6.]
+
+Among the followers of Van Eyck who first made their way to the
+Mediterranean shores was JOSSE or JUSTUS OF GHENT, who, under the
+signature of Justus de Alemania, appears to have executed an
+Annunciation in fresco, at the convent of Sta. Maria di Castello
+at Genoa in 1451.[*201] Admiration for Van Eyck's bath scene may
+probably have obtained for him an invitation to Urbino, where,
+however, he does not seem to have shared the ducal patronage, but
+was employed by the fraternity of Corpus Christi to paint for them
+an altar-piece, which, after nine years of labour, was completed in
+1474, and is still preserved in the church of Sta. Agata.[*202] It
+was executed in oil, about ten feet square without the now missing
+predella, and seems to have cost 500 florins, besides materials.
+Its subject was appropriately the Institution of the Eucharist, in
+contradistinction from the Last Supper, and it is treated after
+the manner of the Romish mass,--Christ distributes the sacramental
+wafer to his Apostles kneeling round a table, over whom hover two
+white-draped angels of the Van Eyck type. Four personages stand
+apart, spectators of the sacred mystery, and these, by the legitimate
+rules of sacred art, might be portraits. Among them may be easily
+recognised the Duke; and a turbaned figure is said by Baldi to be the
+ambassador from Usum-cassan, King of Persia, while visiting the court
+in 1470-1, on a mission to unite the Italian princes in a league
+against the Turk,--a fact garbled by Michiels, whose commendations
+of the picture are greater than its distance above the eye allows me
+to confirm or challenge, as, without scaffolding or a very strong
+glass, all detailed criticism must be in a great measure conjectural.
+Neither have I discovered that influence upon art at Urbino which he
+and Passavant impute to this Fleming, whose only other known work in
+Umbria was a now lost church standard.
+
+[Footnote *201: But Justus de Alemania, who painted at Genoa, and
+Justus of Ghent, are different persons.]
+
+[Footnote *202: Now in the Pinacoteca.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Art has in many instances been able largely to compensate the
+liberality of its early patrons. Besides preserving to after times
+the person of those
+
+ "Whose barks have left no traces on the tide,"
+
+it has frequently transmitted to us the form and comeliness of
+men whose characters, actions, or talents have left an impress
+on their age. Although the pencil and the chisel were at first
+rarely dedicated to portraiture, a mode of representation arose in
+Italy during the fifteenth century which supplied this want with
+singular success. Reviving classical taste found few more attractive
+relics than the coins and medals of Greece and her colonies; but
+their imitators, struck with the inferiority of those under the
+Roman empire, adopted, and even surpassed, the bold style and
+high relief of the former. When almost every principality in the
+Peninsula possessed a mint, and die-cutting was a usual branch of
+the goldsmith's craft, there were great facilities for the new
+art. The circulation of precious metals being very limited, trade
+was then conducted chiefly by barter, or by the transmission of
+coin in sealed bags, stamped with the value they contained, whilst
+small transactions were made almost solely in copper money.[203]
+Heroic medals, which soon became the established meed of egotism
+and incense of flattery, were at first cast,--and, when machinery
+became more perfect, were struck,--in an alloy of copper, under the
+name of bronze. Those of the fifteenth century were of great size,
+varying from one to four and a half inches in diameter; many bear
+the names of well-known sculptors and painters as their artists,
+and exhibit a grandeur of conception unequalled in other numismatic
+productions.[*204] About three hundred and seventy-five such medals
+have been published in the Trésor de Numismatique et de Glyptique,
+and although the _procédé Collas_ there adopted in general fails
+to preserve the sharpness and finish given to the originals by
+careful retouching, no work of art is so delightful a companion
+to Italian mediæval history. Zannetti's elaborate collections on
+Italian coinages, and the fifth volume of Cicognara's great work upon
+sculpture, may also be consulted with pleasure and advantage.
+
+[Footnote 203: The coinage of Duke Federigo consisted of Bolognini
+and Piccioli. The former were small thin silver pieces, weighing
+19-1/2 grains, of which 3-1/2 were copper alloy, and forty of them
+made a florin. The florin, a nominal coin, thus contained 634-34/59
+grains of pure silver, and 146-1/2 grains of copper; and supposing
+pure silver worth, as now, 5s. 6d. an ounce, it would be worth 7s.
+3-1/4d. sterling, making a bolognini 7-1/3 farthings. The piccioli
+(3-3/5 to a farthing) were about the size of bolognini (52 or 56 to
+the ounce); but were of copper alloyed with about three per cent. of
+silver. All this Duke's coinage seems to have been minted at Gubbio,
+and it is described at great length by Reposati, in his _Zecca di
+Gubbio_. See p. 41 above, and Author's Preface.]
+
+[Footnote *204: See on this subject the most excellent book by
+G.F. HILL, _Pisanello_ (London, 1905); a good bibliography
+is there given.]
+
+The only medallist of Urbino now known was called Clemente, and,
+besides the portrait by him to be immediately noticed (No. I.), he is
+said to have ornamented the great hall of the palace with six round
+bas-reliefs of Duke Federigo's exploits. Seven medals of that prince
+have come to my knowledge, all of extreme rarity: the first five are
+described and engraved in the _Zecca di Gubbio_; the first, second,
+and fourth in the Trésor de Numismatique; the sixth is probably
+unnoticed elsewhere. The heads of all are in profile.
+
+No. I. A medallion of 3-5/8 inches diameter. The Duke's bust is in
+armour, on which are chased a Lapitha reducing a Centaur, and other
+emblematic devices; his cap, called by the French a _mortier_, is
+of the usual cinque-cento form, exactly resembling a round Highland
+bonnet. The legend is a Latin couplet, signifying,
+
+ "HE COMES, ANOTHER CÆSAR AND ANOTHER ROMAN SCIPIO,
+ WHETHER HE GIVES TO THE NATIONS PEACE OR FIERCE WARS."
+
+The reverse is redundant in allegory. In base, the eagle of Jove
+supports with extended wings a stage whereon are three devices,--the
+globe of command, with on one side a cuirass, buckler, and sword,
+and on the other a clothes-brush[205] and olive-branch; overhead are
+the planetary signs of Jupiter between Mars and Venus. On the vacant
+spaces are the names of the hero, "FEDERIGO THE INVINCIBLE, COUNT
+OF URBINO, A.D. MCCCCLXVIII.," and of the artist, "THE WORK
+OF CLEMENTE OF URBINO." The surrounding astrological legend runs
+thus:--
+
+ "THE FIERCE MARS AND VENUS, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE MIGHTY THUNDERER,
+ UNITE TO GIVE YOU KINGDOMS, AND INFLUENCE YOUR DESTINY."
+
+[Footnote 205: Riposati mistakes this for a metal weight. The French
+work does not venture on any conjecture as to the object represented.]
+
+The date indicates this medal to have commemorated his campaign
+in Romagna against Colleone, in 1467, and notwithstanding the
+questionable taste of crowding in so many symbolical appendages, its
+merit is ranked high by Cicognara (see his eighty-sixth plate).
+
+No. II. A medal 1-6/8 inches across, which was probably cast at
+Naples in 1474, by order of Ferdinand, in honour of Federigo's visit
+and installation as a knight of the Ermine. Being no doubt prepared
+before his arrival, the likeness is not striking. Round the bust is
+"FEDERICO COUNT OF MONTEFELTRO, URBINO, AND DURANTE"; on the
+reverse, over a collared ermine, "ROYAL CAPTAIN-GENERAL. THE WORK
+OF PAULO DI RAGUSA."
+
+No. III. A similar but smaller medal, executed after he had been
+elevated to the dukedom. His head is bald, and the legend is
+"FEDERIGO THE MONTEFELTRIAN, URBINO'S DUKE;" over the ermine, "NEVER,"
+the motto of the Order.
+
+No. IV. A medal 3-3/8 inches across, commemorating his dignities
+of Duke and Gonfaloniere of the Church. Round his bust in armour,
+with the mortier cap, we read, "OF THE DIVINE FEDERIGO DUKE OF
+URBINO, COUNT OF MONTEFELTRO AND DURANTE, ROYAL CAPTAIN-GENERAL,
+AND UNCONQUERED GONFALONIERE OF THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH." On the
+reverse he is represented in a cuirass, mail-coat, jack-boots, and
+the mortier cap, mounted on a heavy war-horse in housings of mail.
+He moves forward, stretching forth his truncheon in the attitude of
+anxious command, a two-handed sword on his side. Legend, "THE
+WORK OF SPERANDEI," who was a native of Mantua, greatly
+patronised by the sovereigns of Ferrara.
+
+No. V. is a magnificent production, and of peculiarly English
+interest. On a medal 4-3/4 inches across, clasped round by the badge
+and gothic motto of the Garter, is a noble bust of Federigo in
+armour, his massive bald head uncovered. The reverse has five winged
+loves supporting an ample basin, from whence issue two grape-laden
+cornucopiæ; between them the crowned eagle of Montefeltro sits on
+a globe of command, gazing sunward, and supporting the armorial
+shield of that house, with the papal arms in pale as borne by the
+Gonfaloniere: the contracted inscription "DUKE FE." appears
+on the ground. Riposati conjectures that in this device may be
+preserved the design of a fountain for serving wine to the populace
+during the festivities on his investiture with the English order;
+at all events, this piece, in size and style, perhaps the grandest
+medallion of the age, bears interesting testimony to the honour in
+which that decoration was held.
+
+No. VI. Among the Vatican Urbino MSS. (No. 1418) is a case containing
+two impressions, stamped on leather, of another medallion, which we
+have nowhere else met with. It is 3-1/2 inches in diameter, and round
+the head is "FEDERIGO DUKE OF URBINO, COUNT OF MONTEFELTRO, ROYAL
+CAPTAIN-GENERAL AND GONFALONIERE OF THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH."
+The reverse gives us a mounted knight cap-a-pie, who tramples down
+an armed soldier, while charging others who fly; in the distance
+are seen cities, and a martial host. Legend, "MARS GIVES HIM A
+WORSTED FOE, VICTORY SECURES HIM FAME. MCCCCLXXVIII. THE WORK OF GIAN
+FRANCESCO, OF PARMA." This alludes to his successes against the
+Florentines when general of Sixtus IV.
+
+No. VII. A medal of Federigo by Francesco di Giorgio, has neither
+been described nor preserved, unless it may have been No. V. above.
+
+We have no medal of Duke Guidobaldo I.; but two have come down to us,
+representing his consort and her favourite Emilia Pia, so similar in
+character as to indicate probably the same artist and period, which
+Riposati presumes to have been in the Duchess's widowhood.
+
+I. Elisabetta's bust on a medallion 3-1/2 inches in diameter; her
+hair braided under her cap, and gathered behind into a long pendant
+tail or fillet plaited with ribbon; her forehead, neck, and
+shoulders ornamented with chains; legend, "ELISABET GONZAGA, THE
+FELTRIAN, DUCHESS OF URBINO": which we give. The mystic science
+of emblematic devices was often used by medallists without proper
+discrimination; and Riposati avows himself unable to interpret its
+allegorical reverse: the French editor describes it as a nearly nude
+female reclining on the ground, her head supported against a wicket,
+grasping in both hands a fillet from which a wig flies away, with the
+motto, "THIS TELL TO FUGITIVE FORTUNE"; he interprets her
+attitude as contemptuous towards a passing opportunity, in allusion
+to her recent widowhood spurning fresh ties.
+
+II. The medal of Emilia was evidently a posthumous memorial; we
+reproduce it also. It is 3-1/4 inches broad, the bust in the costume
+of the Duchess, and is inscribed "EMILIA PIA THE FELTRIAN":
+on the reverse, a tapered pyramid crowned by a cinerary urn, with
+"TO HER CHASTE ASHES." The whole is studiously classical,
+and pagan in feeling. Her name Pio, turned into the adjective _pia_,
+becomes a complimentary epithet.
+
+In order to dismiss this branch of our subject, we may here mention,
+that, although a few smaller medals were struck for the second
+dynasty of Urbino, none of them are worthy of special notice; indeed,
+this art was entirely degenerate after 1500.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK FIFTH
+
+OF THE DELLA ROVERE FAMILY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+ Birth and elevation of Sixtus IV.--Genealogy of the
+ Della Rovere family--Nepotism of that pontiff--His
+ improvements in Rome--His patronage of letters and
+ arts--His brother Giovanni becomes Lord of Sinigaglia
+ and Prefect of Rome--His beneficent sway--He pillages a
+ papal envoy--Remarkable story of Zizim or Gem--Portrait of
+ Giovanni--The early character and difficulties of Julius
+ II.--Estimate of his pontificate.
+
+
+On the 21st of July, 1414, in the village of Celle, upon the Ligurian
+coast, near Savona, there was born to Leonardo della Rovere and
+Luchina Muglione, a male child, who, fifty-seven years thereafter,
+was called to fill the chair of St. Peter, from whence he showered
+upon his numerous relations temporal and ecclesiastical dignities.
+That Pontiff was Sixtus IV.; of these relatives many have already
+found a place in our pages; and from their stock sprang the second
+ducal dynasty of Urbino.
+
+Upon the origin of this family a mystery has been thrown, by writers
+devoted to adulation rather than to truth. There was established
+near Turin a race of della Rovere, lords of Vinovo, whose nobility
+is traced from the eighth century, and from whom it was the pride of
+Sixtus to claim a descent, which his flatterers readily humoured,
+and which the annalists of Urbino adopted as an article of their
+political creed. Posterity has repudiated the allegation, for "in
+Italy, at least, it is vain for heraldry to tell a tale that history
+will not substantiate."[206] The seigneurs of Vinovo were not,
+however, loath to admit a blood connection with two Popes, who, in
+return for such aggregation to the old stock, conferred cardinals'
+hats upon their cousins of Piedmont. Although the tombstone of
+Leonardo was said to exhibit the Vinovo bearings, with a suitable
+difference, his humble birth is universally admitted. The burgess
+of Savona plied a fisher's trade, and even his son is supposed to
+have followed in boyhood the same apostolical calling; an occupation
+singular rather than inappropriate, for one destined to wear "the
+fisher's ring," and to wield the authority of him who was divinely
+called to be a netter of men. The superstition or policy of Sixtus
+stamped with unmerited importance certain quasi-supernatural
+incidents attending his birth. Whilst pregnant, his mother dreamt
+that a boy was born to her, whom two Franciscan friars forthwith clad
+in the tunic, cowl, and cord of their order. The name Francesco was
+accordingly bestowed on the child, whose gestures seemed to confirm
+its sacred vocation, the first motions of its little hands being
+those of benediction. Whilst undergoing the usual ablutions, the
+infant appeared faint and dying, whereupon its mother vowed that, if
+preserved to her, it should wear the Franciscan dress for the next
+six months. The removal of this habit having on two occasions been
+followed by dangerous illness, the boy's destination to a monastic
+life was confirmed, and his training conducted accordingly.[*207]
+
+[Footnote 206: MARIOTTI'S _Italy_.]
+
+[Footnote *207: For birth of Sixtus IV., cf. CREIGHTON, _op.
+cit._, vol. IV., p. 65, and authorities there quoted. "His father was
+a poor peasant in a little village near Savona, and at the age of
+nine Francesco was handed over to the Franciscans to be educated. He
+acted for a time as tutor with the family of Rovere, in Piedmont, and
+from them he took the name by which he was afterwards known."]
+
+After rapid progress in classical and dialectic studies, he went
+to the university of Bologna, and in his twentieth year maintained
+various public disputations before a general chapter of his order
+at Genoa, with erudition and success which astonished his audience,
+and gained him the marked commendation of his superiors. He then
+graduated in philosophy and theology at Pavia, and in his public
+displays distinguished himself by a simple and perspicuous style
+of argument comparatively exempt from the jingle of words that
+usually characterised these exercises. His celebrity extending in
+all directions, he was engaged by the authorities of many large
+towns to deliver lectures, which were attended by the most learned
+ecclesiastics, his preaching being not less acceptable to the
+people of all ranks. His friendship and counsel were sought by the
+distinguished men of his time, including Cardinal Bessarion; and
+he employed his pen in various religious controversies, especially
+in one, carried by other disputants to blows, between two branches
+of Franciscans, the Minims and Predicant Friars, as to "whether
+the blood of Christ shed in his passion partook of his divinity."
+Having attained the rank of General, he proved most zealous in
+the inspection and reform of the convents under his jurisdiction,
+personally visiting them in all quarters. At length, in 1467, he was
+made Cardinal by Paul II., whom he was chosen to succeed on the 9th
+of August, 1471.
+
+We have had occasion, in a previous portion of this work, to notice
+the policy of Sixtus as it affected the duchy of Urbino, and it
+forms no part of our plan to enter further into the events of his
+pontificate. Neither need we detail those in that of his nephew
+Julius II., except in so far as they fall to be narrated in our
+Third and Sixth Books. Our present purpose is to offer a condensed
+view of the della Rovere family, preceding its establishment in the
+sovereignty of Urbino, and to enliven what would otherwise be a dry
+genealogical sketch, by a few passing observations on the character
+of its two Pontiffs, and on the influence of their reigns.
+
+The children of Ludovico Leonardo della Rovere by Luchina Stella
+Muglione were these:--
+
+1. FRANCESCO, afterwards Sixtus IV.
+
+2. RAFFAELE, whose line will presently occupy our attention.
+
+3. A sister, whose husband Giovanni Basso and children were adopted
+into the family of della Rovere and bore that name. They were:--
+
+ 1. GIROLAMO of Recanate, made Cardinal of S.
+ Chrisogono in 1477, and died in 1507.
+
+ 2. ANTONIO, who married in 1479 Caterina Marciana,
+ niece of Ferdinand of Naples, and died soon after.
+
+ 3. GUGLIELMO, who died in 1482.
+
+ 4. FRANCESCO, Prior of Pisa.
+
+ 5. BARTOLOMEO.[208]
+
+4. IOLANDA, who married Girolamo Riario, and, dying in 1471,
+left:--
+
+ 1. CARDINAL PIETRO RIARIO, the favourite of his
+ Uncle Sixtus IV., who died in 1474.
+
+ 2. GIROLAMO, Lord of Forlì, and, in right of his
+ wife, Caterina Sforza, sovereign of Imola, whose name is
+ familiar to those who have followed our narrative, and
+ who was assassinated in 1488. Among their children were
+ Ottaviano, dispossessed of his states by Cesare Borgia
+ in 1500; Orazio, Bishop of Lucca; Galeazzo; and Cesare,
+ Patriarch of Constantinople. Their line still subsists
+ in the Riario Sforza of Naples, one of whom was in 1846
+ Cardinal Camerlingo at Rome.
+
+ 3. OTTAVIANO, Bishop of Viterbo.
+
+ 4. A daughter, married to one Sansonio, whose son Raffaele,
+ made Cardinal of S. Giorgio in 1477, has been mentioned as
+ an accomplice in the Pazzi conspiracy.
+
+[Footnote 208: Most of these were buried in the church of Sta. Maria
+del Popolo, at Rome, where their funeral inscriptions may be found.]
+
+RAFFAELE DELLA ROVERE, younger brother of Sixtus, had, by
+Teodora Manerola--
+
+1. BARTOLOMEO, Bishop of Ferrara and Patriarch of Antioch.
+
+2. GIULIANO, who became Pope Julius II., and whose natural children
+were--
+
+ 1. RAFFAELE, who married Niccolosa Fogliano of
+ Fermo, and was murdered in 1502.
+
+ 2. FELICE, famed for her beauty and talents, who
+ married Gian-Giordano Orsini, not Marc Antonio Colonna, as
+ stated by Roscoe.
+
+3. LEONARDO, created Prefect of Rome in 1472. He died 1475,
+leaving no issue by Giovanna, natural daughter of Ferdinand King of
+Naples. According to Giannone, she was Catarina, daughter of the
+Prince of Rossano, by Dionora, sister of Ferdinand, and she brought
+him the duchy of Sora, which descended to his heirs.
+
+4. GIOVANNI, Duke of Sora, Prefect of Rome, and Seigneur of
+Sinigaglia, to whom we shall return.
+
+5. LUCHINA, whose children were adopted as of the della
+Rovere name. By her first husband Gabriele Gara, a gentleman of
+Savona, she had--
+
+ 1. RAFFAELE.
+
+ 2. SISTO, Cardinal of S. Pietro in Vinculis, who
+ died in 1517, aged forty-four. His death is said to have
+ been occasioned by terror for the menaces of Leo X., who
+ suspected him of aiding his cousin the Duke of Urbino
+ in recovering his state, by advancing money out of vast
+ benefices, estimated at 30,000 to 40,000 ducats a year.
+ De Grasses describes his frame as exhausted by shameless
+ debaucheries, and adds, that he could neither read nor
+ write. The latter assertion is so incredible as to throw
+ doubt upon the former; yet such an accusation in the diary
+ of a papal master of ceremonies seems to infer that similar
+ immoralities were then scarcely regarded as scandalous in
+ the sacred college. The taint left by Alexander VI. had not
+ yet been effaced by blood and tears in the sack of Rome.
+
+ 3. SISTA, whose first husband, Geraud d'Ancezun,
+ died in 1503, after which she married Galeazzo, son of
+ Count Girolamo Riario.
+
+ By her second husband, Gian-Francesco Franciotti Lucca,
+ a merchant in Rome, who was her junior by eleven years,
+ Luchina had--
+
+ 4. GALEOTTO, Cardinal of S. Pietro in Vinculis,
+ and Archbishop of Benevento, who died in 1508, aged
+ twenty-eight. In 1505 he was appointed to the Cancelleria,
+ and his public revenues, amounting to 40,000 ducats a year,
+ were liberally administered in the patronage of letters.
+
+ 5. NICOLÒ, who left a son Giulio.
+
+ 6. LUCREZIA, wife of Marc Antonio Colonna, who
+ fell at the siege of Milan, in 1522.[209]
+
+[Footnote 209: Cristoforo and Domenico della Rovere, brothers, and
+successively cardinals of San Vitale, were of the Vinovo family.
+The former has a tomb in the Church del Popolo, the latter was
+distinguished for his intelligent patronage of art. I have failed
+to affiliate Clemente, Bishop of Mende, surnamed _il Grasso_, made
+cardinal 1503, and died next year; and Stefano, who was nephew of
+Julius II., and had a son, Gian Francesco, Archbishop of Turin, who
+died in 1517.]
+
+GIOVANNI DELLA ROVERE, Prefect of Rome and Seigneur of
+Sinigaglia, died in 1501, having married in 1474 Giovanna di
+Montefeltro, who, dying in 1514, had issue--
+
+1. FEDERIGO, who died young.
+
+2. FRANCESCO MARIA, who, as Duke of Urbino, will occupy attention in
+our next Book.
+
+3. MARIA, married in 1497 to Venanzio Varana, Lord of Camerino, who
+was slain in 1503, with three of his sons, by order of Cesare Borgia.
+Another son, Sigismondo, shared the campaigns of his maternal uncle
+the Duke of Urbino, and failing to recover his patrimonial state from
+the usurpation of his uncle Giulio Cesare Varana, was assassinated
+at his instigation in 1522: his wife was Ottavia, daughter of Giulio
+Colonna. A scandalous intrigue of Maria in her widowhood will be
+mentioned in the life of her brother,[210] but it did not prevent her
+finding a second husband in Galeazzo, son of Girolamo Riario, Lord of
+Forlì.
+
+4. COSTANZA, who died unmarried at Rome in November, 1507.
+
+5. DEODATA, a nun of Sta. Chiara at Urbino.
+
+[Footnote 210: See below, ch. xxxii.]
+
+On the accession of Sixtus, the papal treasury was supposed to be
+full of money and jewels, which it had been the passion of Paul
+II. to accumulate. Yet he declared that but 5000 crowns were found
+in bullion, and the few precious stones that were forthcoming
+appeared not to have been paid for. Notwithstanding this seeming
+disappointment, which was very generally discredited, and the outlay
+of 20,000 crowns for the funeral of Paul, and for his own coronation,
+he discharged the debts of several antecedent pontiffs, and
+particularly those due by Paul for St. Mark's palace. But these heavy
+expenses, with the alleged simony attending his election, and the
+enormous sums lavished by his nephews, gave colour to an allegation
+that he had seized and misapplied large hoardings of his predecessor.
+The favour bestowed by him upon his nephews was excessive, even in
+days when nepotism was at its height, and his fondness for the two
+Riarii originated suspicions casting a dark shadow upon his moral
+character; while gossip, with its usual inconsistency, lent currency
+to the surmise that they owed to him their paternity as well as
+the advancement of their fortunes.[211] One of his early acts was
+to confer upon Pietro, the elder of them, and upon Giuliano della
+Rovere, cardinal's hats on the same day. These cousins were, however,
+of very opposite habits, and so long as Pietro lived, Giuliano's
+influence with his uncle was small. The former, known as Cardinal of
+S. Sisto,
+
+ "Whom the wild wave of pleasure ever drove
+ Before the sprightly tempest, tossing light,"
+
+was magnificent beyond example, lavish in his tastes for silver and
+gold stuffs, splendid dresses, spirited horses. He was surrounded
+by troops of retainers, and filled his house with rising poets and
+celebrated painters. He was munificent to the learned, generous to
+the poor, and frequently celebrated public banquets and games at
+prodigious expense. Though he lived but two years and a half after
+his elevation to the purple, he had in that brief space completed a
+rarely equalled career of civil and ecclesiastical preferment, of
+public extravagance, and personal debauchery. Taddeo Manfredi, Lord
+of Imola, having been expelled by domestic intrigues, was bribed by
+the Cardinal with 40,000 crowns to assign that fief to his brother
+Girolamo Riario, an arrangement sanctioned willingly by Sixtus,
+reluctantly by the consistory. After making a progress to Lombardy
+and Venice as papal legate, with a pomp unequalled even in an age
+of splendour, Pietro returned to Rome, and died in January 1474, of
+fever aggravated by previous excesses. Panvinio says he seemed born
+to waste money, and estimates his expenditure whilst cardinal at the
+enormous sum of 270,000 golden scudi.[212]
+
+[Footnote 211: Muratori has not scrupled to adopt this opinion, for
+which I can discover no adequate ground, and which is inconsistent
+with the accepted genealogy of the Riarii.]
+
+[Footnote 212: The sumptuous and lavish festivities of the age, and
+the extent to which art was combined with classical associations in
+public displays, may be estimated from Corio's elaborate description
+of the reception at Rome, in 1473, of Duchess Leonora of Ferrara,
+with her suite, including 60,000 horses. *Cf. _Annalisti di Tisi_,
+quoted by CORVISIERI, q.v. in _Archivio Romano_, vol. I.;
+_Il Trionfo Romano di Eleanora d'Aragona_. CREIGHTON, _op.
+cit._, vol. IV., pp. 75-77, gives a splendid sketch of his life.]
+
+The wars into which the Pontiff recklessly plunged, from rage
+against the Medici and anxiety to consolidate a sovereignty for
+Count Girolamo, occasioned vast expense, and the deficiency of his
+exchequer led him to adopt expedients of an eventually dangerous
+tendency. Panvinio asserts for him a disreputable priority in the
+creation of places and offices, in order to raise a revenue by their
+sale. The simony thus systematised tended at once to taint the
+morals and degrade the reputation of the Roman court. Under Borgia's
+pontificate we have seen it carried to a frightful height, and
+attended by scandals the most heinous; in that of Leo X. it became a
+mainspring of the Reformation.
+
+Yet it was not by wars alone that the papal treasury was embarrassed,
+nor were the bounties of Sixtus limited to claims of nepotism, for
+he reaped from many the praises due to a liberality large rather
+than discriminating. The whirlwind of Turkish invasion had lately
+swept over the ruins of the Eastern Empire, and for the Christian
+princes who fled before it, abandoning their states to seek a
+precarious hospitality, Rome formed the natural refuge. Thither
+came the expelled despots of Albania and the Morea, the crownless
+queens of Cyprus and Bosnia, all of whom received from the Pontiff
+a welcome and honourable entertainment due to their misfortunes and
+to their virtual martyrdom. To such European princes as visited
+the Eternal City, in performance of their religious duties, he
+accorded a splendid reception. But there were other outlays still
+more creditable to him, as adorning the city and ameliorating the
+condition of its inhabitants. He was the first pope who earnestly
+set about rescuing from degradation the monuments of ancient Rome,
+and improving the modern city. Among numerous public buildings
+erected, restored, or decorated by him were the Ponte Sisto, the
+great hospital of Santo Spirito, the old Vatican Library, the
+aqueduct of Trevi, the churches of La Pace, il Popolo, S. Vitale, S.
+Sisto, S. Pietro in Vinculis, and many others. To the Riarii, by his
+encouragement, we owe the Cancelleria Palace and the adjoining church
+of S. Lorenzo in Damaso. The restoration of that of the SS. Apostoli,
+begun on a grand scale by his nephew Pietro, was interrupted by the
+early death of that dissolute minion, whose tomb remains in the
+choir, finely conceived and beautifully executed. Nor was public
+convenience overlooked amid such magnificent creations. As Augustus
+was said to have replaced his capital of brick with one of marble,
+it became proverbial that Sixtus rebuilt in brick what he found of
+mud. He paved the streets, re-opened the sewers, conveyed the _aqua
+vergine_ to the heart of the city. By proclaiming the jubilee at the
+end of twenty-five years, instead of each half-century, he doubled
+the influx of pilgrim revenues; and, warned by the catastrophe of
+its preceding celebration, when crowds had been trodden down on the
+Ponte S. Angelo, he provided for the devout multitude a new access
+to S. Peter's by the bridge which bears his name. His beneficial
+undertakings, however, extended far beyond the Eternal City: he
+cleared out the choked harbour of Ostia, thoroughly repaired the
+crumbling church of St. Francis at Assisi,[*213] and began, in
+honour of the Santa Casa at Loreto, that gorgeous fane which was
+unworthily finished by the next Pontiff of his name. Neither was
+he indifferent to the social disorganisation of his metropolis. He
+curbed its lawless state by a rigorous police. Public begging was
+strictly suppressed; and all who could not prove some legitimate
+means of livelihood were banished. Malefactors of every sort, after
+summary conviction, were whipped through the streets, and consigned
+to the galleys or the gallows. Daily executions took place for a
+time, and though the measures adopted were both sanguinary and
+oppressive, order and security were in a great degree restored to the
+thoroughfares.
+
+[Footnote *213: Cf. FRATINI, _St. della Basilica e del
+Convento di S. Francesco in Assisi_ (Prato, 1882), p. 260 _et seq._]
+
+There is reason to fear that the stern discipline, whereby he
+vindicated public manners, was not applied to his personal habits.
+Yet the character given of him by Infessura, whereon depends most
+of the scandal by which his memory has been blackened, appears so
+grossly exaggerated as to defeat its own end, and to establish a
+charge of prejudice, if not of malevolence, against its author. To
+transcribe it would be to stain our pages; but its purport is summed
+up in some ribald Latin verses, borrowed, probably, from Pasquin,
+which impute to the Pope every imaginable iniquity and disgraceful
+indulgence, and congratulate Nero in being at length exceeded in
+crime.[*214]
+
+[Footnote *214: "Sixtus," says CREIGHTON, "changed the
+course of life in Rome because his own recklessness was heedless
+of decorum. Hitherto the Roman court had worn a semblance of
+ecclesiastical gravity.... Rome became more famous for pleasure than
+for piety.... The Rovere stock was hard to civilise.... Hitherto the
+Papacy had on the whole maintained a moral standard; for some time to
+come it tended to sink even below the ordinary level. The loss that
+was thus inflicted upon Europe was incalculable" (_op. cit._, vol.
+IV., p. 132-3).]
+
+Although the name of Sixtus, as a friend of letters and arts,
+has been dimmed by the more glorious ones of Nicolas V. and Leo
+X., which at no long intervals preceded and followed him, the
+memorials remaining of his judicious patronage are interesting and
+important. Innocent III., in building the Hospital of S. Spirito, had
+embellished it with six frescoes illustrative of its destination.
+To these Sixtus added twenty-seven others, forming a cycle of
+the personal and public incidents of his life, from his mother's
+miraculous vision, to his anticipated introduction into Paradise by
+St. Paul, in recompense of his piety. These paintings are no longer
+visible; nor do we know from whose pencils the vast series emanated,
+but in the Sistine Chapel, which perpetuates his name, and was his
+most important artistic undertaking, his choice was unexceptionable.
+Apart from the celebrity conferred upon it by the subsequent impress
+of Buonarroti's stupendous inventions, the series wherein the lives
+of our Saviour and of Moses are contrasted constitutes a chapter of
+scarcely equalled importance in the progress of Christian painting.
+Who can view the mighty themes of that oratory,--the types and
+antitypes of scriptural history on its walls, the creations of
+Omnipotence on its roof, the final Judgment over its altar,--without
+gratitude to the della Rovere pontiffs, by whom these triumphs were
+commissioned, and for the most part carried out? This may, indeed,
+be called the foundation of the Roman pictorial school. Giotto, Fra
+Angelico, Gentile da Fabriano, and Masaccio had, indeed, visited
+the metropolis of Christendom, but no pontiff before Sixtus had
+summoned hither, and at once employed, all the most distinguished
+artists of Central Italy. The glorious band, though headed by
+Perugino,[*215] consisted of Florentines,--Signorelli, Botticelli,
+Rosselli, della Gatta, and Ghirlandaio; but these soon returned to
+the art-loving and art-inspiring Arno, leaving on the plain of the
+Tiber few other works, and a most transient influence, in exchange
+for the classical ideas which they had imbibed in "august, imperial
+Rome," and which quickly supplanted the sacred traditions of their
+native school. Although Pinturicchio was not associated in their
+labours upon the Sistine, he was busy upon other not less important
+mural decorations, which still adorn the churches of Aracoeli, Sta.
+Croce in Gerusalemme, and S. Onofrio. But Sta. Maria del Popolo was
+especially the scene of his triumphs, under the auspices of various
+Cardinals della Rovere, and other members of the consistory, who were
+instigated by example of his Holiness to such laudable employment of
+their exorbitant incomes.
+
+[Footnote *215: Pinturicchio was also among them; neither can
+Signorelli be called a Florentine. Dennistoun is (_infra_) mistaken
+in thinking that Pinturicchio did not work in the Sixtine Chapel. The
+Baptism of Christ and the Journey of Moses are both from his hand.]
+
+Panvinio speaks of this Pope's solicitude to gather from all Europe
+additions to the library founded by Nicolas V., and attest his having
+first put it upon a satisfactory footing, by appointing qualified
+persons to superintend it, and by assigning it an adequate endowment.
+Though the rooms in which he placed books have been devoted to other
+purposes, ever since Sixtus V. removed the augmented collection to
+its present site, a most interesting memorial of the Pontiff's family
+and court remains, and has till lately adorned its original locality.
+It is a fresco, now transported to the Vatican Picture-gallery,
+wherein Sixtus sits in a noble hall of imposing architecture, with
+his librarian Bartolomeo Sacchi, surnamed Platina, kneeling at his
+feet, and pointing to an inscription, which enumerates in rough
+Latin verses, those ameliorations for which Rome was indebted to his
+Holiness. In attendance stand his two favourite cardinal nephews;
+Pietro, with features expressive of unrefined sensualism, wearing the
+russet habit of the mendicant fraternity, from whose discipline he
+emerged to lavish ill-gotten gold with rarely equalled prodigality;
+whilst in the cold and unimpassioned countenance of Giuliano, we
+vainly seek for those massive features, and that angry scowl, which
+the pencil of Raffaele subsequently immortalised. The group is
+completed by the two younger nephews, Girolamo, Lord of Forlì, gawky
+and common-place in figure, with the Prefect Giovanni, of blunt and
+burly aspect. It would be difficult satisfactorily to render so large
+a group in these pages, but we give an unedited and speaking likeness
+of the Pontiff from a miniature of the same size prefixed to the MS.
+of Platina's _Lives of the Popes_, dedicated to him and now in the
+Vatican Library.
+
+Besides the claims of this fresco upon our notice, from representing
+the important members of the della Rovere family, it would be still
+more interesting to us, were it, as formerly supposed, from the
+pencil of Pietro della Francesca, court-painter of Urbino. It is now,
+however, ascribed, almost beyond question, to a pupil of his, sung by
+Giovanni Sanzi, as
+
+ "Melozzo, dear to me,
+ Who to perspective farther limits gave."
+
+His accurate study of geometrical principles taught him the most
+difficult art of foreshortening, which he particularly adapted
+to ceilings and vaulted roofs with a magical effect heretofore
+unattempted. Applying a like treatment to the human form, he
+succeeded in giving to the features a relief not inferior to that
+attained by the plastic manner of Squarcione and his followers,
+but infinitely excelling them in natural and noble character; and
+thus, for the first time since the revival, as in the picture just
+described, he gave to simple portraiture the stamp of historical
+delineation. Melozzo, by birth a Forlian, had probably attracted the
+notice of Girolamo Riario, on taking possession of his new state,
+and the patronage bestowed upon him by the Count and his brother the
+Cardinal, reflects credit upon their discrimination. In 1473, he was
+employed by the latter to paint, in the apsis of SS. Apostoli at
+Rome, our Lord's Ascension in presence of the apostles, one of the
+grandest works of the time, miserably sacrificed by the destructive
+alterations of last century. Some much over-daubed fragments of this
+wonderful composition are built into the great stair at the Quirinal
+Palace, and single heads are preserved in the sacristy of St. Peter's.
+
+The favour of this Pontiff, whom the prejudiced Infessura has
+libelled as "the enemy of literary and reputable men," included
+merit from every quarter. Baccio Pintelli, of Florence, was his chief
+architect; Antonio Venezianello was conjoined by him with the Umbrian
+della Francesca and Signorelli to decorate the sacristy at Loreto;
+he pensioned Andrea d'Assisi, when early blindness had clouded those
+great gifts ascribed to him by Vasari; the Tuscan Verrocchio, who had
+come to Rome as a goldsmith, became, by his encouragement, a sculptor
+of eminence, and the inventor of that charming style which da Vinci
+brought to perfection in Lombard painting.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Deferring our notice of Giuliano, the favourite nephew of Sixtus
+IV., we shall now mention his younger brother GIOVANNI,
+immediate ancestor of the della Rovere Dukes of Urbino. He was born
+in 1458, but we have no information as to his life before his uncle's
+elevation. The ancient and honourable dignity of Prefect of the
+favoured [_alma_] city of Rome was held by the Colonna, from the time
+of Martin V., until the death of Antonio, Prince of Salerno, in 1472.
+His son, Pier-Antonio, had been named to that office in reversion by
+Pius II., but, upon the ground of nonage, Sixtus set aside his claim
+and appointed his own nephew Leonardo della Rovere. He, too, having
+died in 1475, the Pontiff conferred the prefecture, (with remainder
+to his eldest son), on his next brother, Giovanni, to whom, on the
+12th of the preceding October, he had given an investiture, in full
+consistory, of Sinigaglia, Mondavio, Mondolfo, and Sta. Costanza.
+At the same time, his marriage with Giovanna, second daughter of
+Federigo, the newly-created Duke of Urbino, was celebrated with
+becoming pomp, her dowry being 12,000 ducats; and on the 28th the
+almost childish couple made a festive entry into their tiny state.
+The Duke's presence and influence, though gladly given, were probably
+not required to secure them a rapturous welcome, for elevation from
+obscure provincialism to petty independence was ever a welcome boon
+to an Italian community. To signalise and commemorate the auspicious
+event, a young oak tree was planted in the piazza, with the motto in
+Latin, "Long may it last," and was inaugurated amid boundless and
+universal joy. A tournament was next day celebrated, succeeded by a
+ball, in which the sovereigns and their new subjects freely mingled.
+
+From the narrative of Fra Graziano[216] we learn the immense benefit
+which the new order of things brought to that hitherto obscure town.
+Though boasting a certain importance under imperial Rome, it had
+become so decayed as hardly to afford stabling for twenty horses.
+The Prefect lost not a moment in meeting the exigencies of his
+position; and though but a boy in years, proved himself possessed
+of matured wisdom. Summoning from all quarters the best architects
+and engineers, he opened new streets, and paved them; built palaces,
+churches, convents, and a large hospital; constructed a harbour,
+erected a citadel, and fortified his capital. But his most happy
+expedient was the encouragement of an annual fair, which, gradually
+extending in importance, rendered Sinigaglia a mart of commerce, and
+continues to this day the most important in Italy.[*217] Nor were
+his exertions confined within the city. Mondaino and other places of
+minor note shared these improvements; and he brought from Lombardy
+and Romagna a population of skilful agriculturists, to clear and
+cultivate the forest lands which spread far around, until his state
+became a fertile and corn-exporting district.
+
+[Footnote 216: Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1023.]
+
+[Footnote *217: Cf. L. SIENA, _Storia di Sinigaglia_
+(Sinigaglia, 1764), p. 277 _et seq._; ANSELMI e
+MANCINI, _Bibliografia Sinigagliese_ (Sinigaglia, 1905);
+and MARCUCCI, _Francesco Maria I. della Rovere_, Parte I.
+(1490-1527) (Sinigaglia, 1903).]
+
+The moral welfare of his people was meanwhile not overlooked; and
+the strict propriety which he exerted himself to maintain, was
+enforced by example as well as by precept. In his own practice,
+and in the circle of his sanctimonious court, the decencies of
+life were enforced with an almost monastic discipline, strangely
+at variance with the usages of his age, and the temperament of his
+near relations. Fra Graziano sums up his character as moderate in
+his tastes, prudent in his counsels, mild, liberal, and just in
+his administration, devoutly religious in his observances. His
+consort possessed virtues, graces, and accomplishments worthy of her
+husband's merits and her own beauty.
+
+The Prefect does not, however, seem to have been able in person to
+superintend the beneficent administration which he had the good sense
+to institute, for the Pontiff's doating nepotism required much of
+his presence after the loss of Pietro Riario. The youthful couple
+accordingly spent several years at the Vatican; and on their return
+home, in 1479, Giovanni was presented by the city of Sinigaglia with
+twelve silver cups weighing eighteen pounds. In 1482, they were
+again sent for by Sixtus, who gave his nephew a palace on the Lago
+di Vico. Even after his uncle's death, the Prefect enjoyed a large
+share of papal favour, having from Innocent VIII., the baton as
+captain-general of the Church. But, on the accession of Alexander
+VI., the star of the della Rovere waned. In Cardinal Giuliano his
+Holiness saw a powerful and talented rival; in the Prefect an
+obstacle to his ambitious views for his bastard progeny. The former
+prudently retired to France; the latter lived quietly in his vicariat.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+In 1494, the Lord of Sinigaglia signalised himself by a feat worthy
+the freebooting practice of his times. Zizim, or Gem, son of Mahomet
+II., had right by his father's will to half the Turkish empire, but
+was expelled by his brother Bajazet, in 1482.[*218] Having fled
+to Rhodes, and placed himself under the protection of the Grand
+Master, Bajazet offered the latter a pension of 40,000 (or as some
+say 450,000) golden ducats, on condition of his being retained in
+safe custody. From Rhodes he was removed to France, and, in 1489,
+was brought to Rome, where, though received with much distinction by
+Innocent VIII., he found himself virtually a prisoner, or hostage.
+Bajazet, after failure of an attempt to have him assassinated, agreed
+to pay that Pontiff and his successor, the same yearly subsidy of
+40,000 ducats for his custody and entertainment, besides supplying
+the Holy See with various important Christian relics from Palestine.
+In 1494, the Sultan's usual annual pension having been remitted to
+Rome through one Giorgio Bucciardo, accompanied by costly presents
+for Alexander VI., the envoy, on leaving Ancona, where he had
+disembarked, was set upon and plundered by Giovanni della Rovere.
+After appropriating most of the treasure, to extinguish alleged
+arrears of pay from the Holy See to himself and his troops, the
+Prefect sanctified the deed by dedicating the residue to pious works,
+employing the rich oriental stuffs for church ornaments. Soon after,
+there were circulated in Rome, certified copies of a correspondence
+between Alexander and the Sultan, with the oral instructions of his
+Holiness, which Bucciardo had been induced to divulge, and which
+throws a curious colour on this chapter of diplomacy.[219]
+
+[Footnote *218: The best contemporary account of Djem is that of
+GUGLIELMO CAOURSIN, _Obsidimis Rhodii Urbis Descriptio_
+(Ulm, 1496). Cf. BURCHARD (ed. Thuasne), I., p. 528.
+The amount seems to have been 45,000 ducats. See especially
+HEIDENHEIMER, _Korrespondenz Bajazet II.'s mit Alexander
+VI._, in _Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte_, vol. V., p. 511 _et
+seq._ As usual, Creighton's account, _op. cit._, vol. IV., is
+most excellent, written with the pen of a statesman. Heidenheimer
+maintains the authenticity of the letters, and Creighton agrees
+with him. "If the letters were forged, the forgery was the work of
+Giovanni della Rovere," but there is no good ground for questioning
+their genuineness.]
+
+[Footnote 219: These papers have been printed in Bossi's Italian
+translation of ROSCOE'S _Leo X._, vol. IV., p. 220; but our
+extracts were made from a MS. in Vat. Ottobon, Lib. No. 2206, f. 17.]
+
+The envoy, on being accredited to the Sultan, had to state to his
+Highness, that the King of France was advancing upon Rome and
+Naples, in order to dispossess Alfonso, the Pope's vassal and ally,
+and to carry off Gem, with the project of providing him with a fleet,
+and supporting him in an invasion of Turkey. That as his Holiness had
+incurred great expenses in military preparations against a danger
+thus affecting the Sultan as well as himself, he prayed from him an
+advance of the 40,000 ducats due in November, to be remitted by the
+bearer. And he was further to induce his Highness to adopt every
+means likely to alienate his Venetian allies from French interests in
+the approaching struggle, and to attach them to the party of Naples.
+
+The Sultan's answer is contained in a letter addressed to the
+Pontiff, wherein this passage occurs:--"For these reasons, we began,
+with Giorgio Bucciardo, to consider that for your Potency's peace,
+convenience, and honour, and for my satisfaction, it would be well
+you should make the said Gem, my brother, die, who is deserving
+of death, and detained in your hands; which would be most useful
+to himself and your Potency, most conducive to tranquillity, and
+further, very agreeable to myself! And if your Mightiness is content
+to oblige me in this matter, as in your discretion we trust you will
+do, it is desirable, for maintenance of your own authority, and for
+our full satisfaction, that your Mightiness will, in the manner
+that seems best to you, have the said Gem removed from the straits
+of this world, transferring his soul to another life, where it will
+enjoy more quiet. And if your Potency will do this, and will send us
+his body to any place on this side of our channel, we, the foresaid
+Sultan Bajazet Chan, promise to pay 300,000 ducats at any place your
+Mightiness may stipulate, that your Potency may therewith buy some
+sovereignties for your sons." To this cold-blooded offer are added
+many general professions of eternal amity towards his Holiness, and
+promises that his subjects will everywhere forbear from aggression
+upon Christians; and after stating that he had in the envoy's
+presence taken his oath for the performance of all these obligations,
+he concludes thus:--"And further I, the aforesaid Sultan Bajazet
+Chan, swear by the true God, who created the heaven, the earth, and
+all things therein, in whom we believe, and whom we adore, that I
+shall make performance of every thing contained above, and shall
+never in any respect countermine or oppose your Mightiness. From
+our palace at Constantinople, the 15th of September, in the year of
+Christ's advent, 1494."
+
+Although discredit was thrown upon these documents by the Roman
+court, and the whole affair was alleged to be a device of Cardinals
+della Rovere and Gurk, to screen the Prefect at the Pontiff's
+expense,[220] it appears clear that a bribe was offered by Bajazet
+for the destruction of his brother, who did not long survive this
+incident. Alexander accepted 20,000 ducats from Charles VIII. to put
+Gem into his hands during six months, as a tool for his ambitious
+design upon the East; and in the treaty between his Holiness and
+the French monarch, dated 15th January, 1495, there is a special
+article that the former should consign "the Turk" to his Majesty
+as a hostage, to be kept in the castle of Terracina, or elsewhere,
+in the ecclesiastical territories, from whence Charles came under
+a promise not to remove him "unless in case of need, in order to
+prevent an invasion of the other Turks, or to make war upon them."
+He also bound himself to defend the Pope from any descent of the
+Infidel upon the Adriatic coast, and, on quitting Italy, to restore
+Gem to his custody, his Holiness meanwhile continuing to draw the
+Sultan's pension, and for due observance of these conditions, Charles
+bound himself in a penalty of 800,000 ducats. By another article he
+undertook to arbitrate in the complaint brought against the Prefect,
+in the affair of Bucciardo and the captured subsidy. It is further
+stipulated that the Cardinal della Rovere should be restored to
+favour, and replaced as legate at Avignon; and that, on termination
+of the Neapolitan enterprise, Ostia should be again surrendered into
+his hands.[221]
+
+[Footnote 220: _Lettere de' Principi_, II., 4.]
+
+[Footnote 221: _Molini Documenti di Storia Italiana_, I., 23.]
+
+This oriental Prince's sudden demise, which soon followed, was
+attributed to various causes, but a general belief imputed it to
+poison, in implement of the Pope's engagement to Bajazet. Zizim
+is represented as far superior to his countrymen in mind and
+attainments; and we shall by and by find him honoured as a Maecenas
+of literature. A very different impression is, however, left by the
+amusing, but obviously caricatured, description of him transmitted
+from Rome in 1489, by Andrea Mantegna, the painter, to his patron
+the Marquis of Mantua:[222]--"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 am painting,[223] 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; for
+which reason they don't raise the cowl to him either.[224] 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 any thing,
+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 trowsers
+that he is lost in them, and astonishes all beholders. Once I have
+well seen him, I shall forward your Excellency a sketch of him, which
+I should send you with this, but that I have not yet fairly got near
+him; for when he gives now one sort of look and then another, in the
+true inamorato style, I cannot impress his features on my memory.
+Altogether he has a fearful face, especially when Bacchus has been
+with him. I shall no longer tire your Excellency with this familiar
+joking style; to whom I again and again commend myself, and pray your
+pardon if too much at home." Homely it is in good earnest, being
+written in the Lombardo-Venetian dialect, some passages of which
+baffle translation.[225]
+
+[Footnote 222: _Lettere Pittoriche_, VIII., p. 23.]
+
+[Footnote 223: In the Belvidere, where his frescoes have
+unfortunately perished.]
+
+[Footnote 224: Panvinio tells us that, being received in full
+consistory on his arrival in Rome, he refused to kiss the Pope's toe,
+but only his knee.]
+
+[Footnote 225: The reverse of this caricatured portrait may be
+found in a curious account of this unfortunate prince's romantic
+adventures, given by the Turkish historian, Saadeddin-effendi,
+and printed by Masse in his _Histoire du Pape Alexander VI._, pp.
+382-408.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+It is, however, time to return from the digression into which this
+singular and romantic history of the Turkish Prince has tempted us.
+Alexander, greatly exasperated by the insults put upon his envoy,
+and by the loss of a most opportune remittance, threatened the
+Prefect with deprivation of his state; but finding his people, and
+the neighbouring communities prepared to stand by him, deferred his
+vengeance. Notwithstanding a reference of the whole affair to the
+French monarch, by the treaty of 1495, nearly six years elapsed ere
+Giovanni della Rovere was formally absolved from the daring exploit.
+He was not spared to witness the revival and aggrandisement of
+his family's fortunes by his elder brother's election to the papal
+throne. On the 6th of November, 1501, death found him already attired
+in a winding-sheet appropriate to the devotional habits of the age,
+the cowl formerly worn by the beatified Fra Giacomo della Marca.
+
+Two miles west from Sinigaglia, on a rising ground which overlooks
+the city, commanding the fertile vale of the Misa, from its Apennine
+rampart to the bright waves of the blue Adriatic, there stands a
+convent of Zoccolantine Franciscans. It was founded by the piety
+of the Prefect and his consort; it was the chosen retreat of their
+devotional hours, and was selected by them as the spot for their
+last repose. There he was laid, agreeably to his dying wish, in
+the Franciscan habit; and a plain marble slab in the pavement
+commemorates his titles, and her worth, "in prosperity and adversity
+comparable, nay preferable, to the best and noblest of her sex."
+There, too, was composed by Father di Francia, guardian of the
+convent, that brief record of the merits of his sovereign and patron
+from which the preceding sketch has in part been compiled. The
+original MS. has disappeared in the general havoc of ecclesiastical
+treasures; but in the adjoining church there has been marvellously
+preserved from the sacrilegious rapine of French invaders, from the
+selfish gripe of unscrupulous collectors, and from the merciless
+ignorance of modern restorers, an interesting memorial of the
+persons, piety, and artistic tastes of this princely pair. Into a
+small picture of the Madonna and Child are introduced, on either
+side, portraits of Giovanni della Rovere and his wife, their arms
+devoutly crossed, their dress displaying no royal gauds except her
+simple string of pearls, and a large crystal bead suspended from his
+neck by a double gold chain. Their regular and unimpassioned features
+are, probably, somewhat idealised by the pencil of one more happy,
+as well as more habituated, to embody inspirations of religious
+mysticism, than to portray the indexes of human passion. Nothing is
+known of the artist, but he must have been among the foremost in the
+Umbrian school.
+
+By his will, the Prefect left his only son under the joint
+guardianship of the Venetian senate, his widow, his brother the
+Cardinal, and the gallant Andrea Doria, whose faithful services
+we have formerly mentioned. To his consort he bequeathed 20,000
+ducats, and 7000 to each of his daughters. On the 18th of November,
+Francesco Maria rode through Sinigaglia, to receive the allegiance
+of his subjects; but being only eleven years of age, his mother
+continued to govern for his behoof, whilst his education was chiefly
+conducted at the court of her brother, the Duke of Urbino. For a
+time she was spared the fate of the Romagnese princes; and it was
+not until Guidobaldo's second flight that the arms of Borgia reached
+her frontier. Aware how deeply her personal safety was perilled by
+the approach of so sanguinary a foe, her friend Doria, who commanded
+the garrison, sent her off disguised in male apparel; and, after
+a fatiguing flight through mountain-paths, she reached Florence,
+accompanied only by one confidential servant and a female attendant.
+The defence of her citadel against an overwhelming force being
+utterly vain, Doria retired just before the massacre of his allies by
+Cesare Borgia, which we have recounted in our nineteenth chapter of
+this work. There, too, we have narrated the young Prefect's escape
+to France, where he remained under his uncle's auspices, until the
+latter was called to assume the triple tiara. Giovanna lived until
+1514, and passed from worldly trials just before adverse fortune had
+again exiled her son from his rightful states. Ere we proceed to
+consider his eventful life, we shall close this chapter with a few
+brief notices of his uncle Giuliano, the greatest of the della Rovere
+race.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+An account of JULIUS II. should be, in a great degree, a
+history of Italy during the crisis of its fate; but as we have in
+other portions of this work to glance at those events of his life
+and pontificate most connected with the politics of Urbino, and with
+the succession of his nephew to that duchy, we shall here, as in the
+case of his uncle Sixtus, limit ourselves to a few notices of his
+character and personal history, including his exertions in behalf of
+art.
+
+Giuliano della Rovere[*226] was in most respects the reverse of
+Pietro Riario, his cousin and rival in the affections of Sixtus IV.
+Moderate in his tastes and habits, his attendants were chosen for
+their orderly lives; his equipages were as scanty as the exigencies
+of rank would permit; his table was economical as his apparel,
+unless when called upon to show fitting hospitality to persons of
+distinction. Among the virtues with which he adorned the dignity
+of cardinal, Panvinio enumerates the modesty of his demeanour, the
+gravity of his address, the elegance of his winning manners. The
+less partial Volterrano characterises him as somewhat severe in
+disposition, and of a genius ordinary as his learning. Dignities were
+conferred upon him in rapid succession by his uncle, including the
+sees of Albano, Sabina, Ostia, Velletri, and Avignon, with the more
+important offices of Grand Penitentiary and Legate of Picene and
+Avignon. The latter appointment occasioned his prolonged residence
+out of Italy during the reign of Innocent VIII., and afforded him a
+convenient escape from the snares of his inveterate enemy Alexander
+VI. Their mutual disgusts, arising from opposite characters and rival
+interests, were, according to Infessura, brought to a climax by the
+Cardinal's adherence to Neapolitan interests, in December, 1492, on
+the question of Leonora Queen of Hungary's divorce. He then retired
+to his citadel-see at Ostia, where, at the abbey of Grotta Ferrata,
+his moats and battlements remain, witnesses to his warlike spirit,
+as well as to the perils of those troubled times. But, considering
+himself even there insecure, he ere long withdrew to Naples, whence,
+after narrowly escaping seizure by the Pope's emissaries, he again
+reached Ostia in an open boat. On the approach of an army under
+Nicolò Count of Pittigliano, he fled thence to France, leaving the
+garrison in charge of the Prefect, who soon capitulated, on condition
+that neither he nor his brother should incur ecclesiastical censures.
+Grotto Ferrata was about the same time seized and delivered over to
+Fabrizio Colonna, on payment of 10,000 ducats.
+
+[Footnote *226: For authorities for Pope Julius II., cf.
+CREIGHTON, vol. V., pp. 305-6, where an excellent _résumé_
+is given.]
+
+The outrages which the Cardinal had thus received at the hands of
+the Borgian Pontiff, in unworthy vengeance for his honest opposition
+to the nepotism and other scandals which then disgraced the Vatican,
+galled his pride, tending to rouse that fierce spirit which, although
+alien to the character ascribed to his earlier years, became the
+bane of his pontificate. This was, indeed, the turning point of
+his life, and it developed a policy utterly at variance with his
+ultimate views. Having attended Charles in his march across the Alps,
+his ardent temperament often aided to sustain that weak monarch's
+wavering resolutions. Had he then considered more his country's
+interests, and less his private wrongs, the storm might yet have been
+averted, and Italy might have been spared, for a time, from those
+ultramontane armaments which he now conducted into her bosom, but
+which it was the aim of his after-life to eject. The French King,
+having achieved his rapid acquisition of Naples, instigated the
+Colonna to seize upon Ostia, and, as he passed northward, restored
+it to its cardinal-bishop, who there once more sought security
+from the Pope. But Giuliano found in his stronghold no adequate
+protection against so bitter and unscrupulous a foe. Alexander, on
+the retirement of the French army, entered into an alliance with the
+reinstated King of Naples, and in 1497 employed Gonsalvo di Cordova
+to reduce Ostia, whose garrison had embarrassed the navigation of the
+Tiber, and intercepted supplies from his capital. Eschewing the risks
+of an unavailing resistance, the Cardinal once more escaped by sea,
+and rejoined Charles at Lyons, whilst the Great Captain was rewarded
+for his easy conquest with the Golden Rose.
+
+Cardinal della Rovere, having in 1597 been declared enemy of the Holy
+See, and deprived of his benefices by the Pontiff, against the will
+of the consistory, withdrew for security to his native shores, and
+awaited at Savona the conclusion of what was to many of his order
+a reign of terror. At the moment of Cesare Borgia's invasion of
+Urbino, he narrowly escaped the fate destined for his brother-in-law
+Guidobaldo, and his nephew, the young Prefect. On pretence of a
+complimentary mission to Louis XII., the papal fleet had sailed
+towards Provence, with orders to visit Savona, where, if the Cardinal
+did not voluntarily pay his respects to the envoys, he was to be
+inveigled on board, and carried off. But warned by past experience
+against civilities emanating from such a quarter, he escaped the
+danger by cautiously evading the perilous invitation.
+
+The sudden and unanimous election of Giuliano to succeed Pius
+III.--which we have elsewhere narrated--may well be deemed
+marvellous, considering the various interests that distracted the
+conclave, and the influence still ostensibly possessed in it by
+Valentino, the arch-foe of the Rovere race. There could be no more
+convincing proof that all parties were tired of the recent system,
+nor of their resolution to put an end to similar enormities. His
+morals, though hitherto far from immaculate, were pure in comparison
+with those which prevailed around him; above all, his lapses were
+neither matter of bravado, nor of open scandal.[227] His errors were
+of a loftier range, and if more directly perilous to the public,
+they belonged to a nobler category, and sprang from generous and
+praiseworthy impulses, and tended to public objects and the elevation
+of the papacy. Ascending a throne shaken by complicated convulsions,
+succeeding to a treasury drained for selfish ends, and to an
+authority waning under long-established abuses, it was his bounden
+duty to beware _ne aliquid detrimenti respublica capiat_. But, not
+content with resisting such further "detriment to the commonwealth,"
+and with recovering the ground recently lost, his conscience, more
+perhaps than his ambition, urged him to new triumphs. He was a great
+pontiff after the mediæval estimate of the papacy. Little occupying
+himself with the bulwarks of a faith which he presumed impregnable,
+or the dogmas of a church still paramount over Christendom, he
+considered the temporal sovereignty and aggrandisement of the Keys to
+be his special vocation. Like the early Guelphs, he regarded Italy
+as St. Peter's patrimony, to be vindicated from all intruders: to
+establish her nationality, and extirpate the barbarian invaders,
+were merely steps to that end. Italian unity, though not as yet
+proposed for political aspirations or utopian dreams, was the result
+towards which this policy would probably have led both Julius and
+his successor, had the former been longer spared, and had the narrow
+views with which the latter pursued it not involved him in continual
+difficulties, and accelerated the decline of papal ascendancy.
+
+[Footnote 227: He had certainly two natural children, and Bernardo
+Capello alludes to the inroads upon his constitution, occasioned
+by gout and _morbus Gallicus_ (Ranke, App., sect. i., No. 6); the
+latter term seems, however, to have been often in that age completely
+misapplied.]
+
+But no personal ambition ever dictated the schemes of Julius, nor
+did a thought for the nations whose destinies he hazarded ever cross
+his mind. In the spirit of a crusader he marched against Perugia and
+Bologna; he personally superintended the siege of Mirandula; and
+when he donned the casque and cuirass, it was because they were to
+him more familiar than the wiles of diplomacy. A stranger to those
+dilatory tactics which we shall find marring the reputation of his
+nephew, the Duke of Urbino, success crowned his aggressive measures
+and impetuous movements, when greater circumspection might have
+been attended with less advantageous results; and it was his good
+fortune not to outlive those reverses which his precipitation almost
+necessarily incurred. He was, in truth, gifted with qualities and
+talents befitting the camp rather than the consistory, and Francis I.
+pronounced him a better general of division than a pope. Had he been
+bred a condottiere, the political aspect of Italy might have been
+convulsed by him, and the papacy might have suffered still more from
+his sword than it did from his policy. Yet if his militant tastes
+occasioned greater scandal than the less blustering turbulence of
+Alexander and Leo, and have proved equally detrimental to popery,
+they are hallowed in the eyes of its champions in consideration
+of his purer motives. By them accordingly he is upheld as one of
+its pillars, while by most historians he has been mentioned as a
+favourable exception to the prevailing bad faith of his times. Yet,
+though greedy of conquest, he was far from indifferent to those
+internal reforms requisite for the stability of his government.
+According to Capello, the Venetian envoy, he possessed great
+practical sagacity, and was led by no one, though willing to hear
+all opinions. His judicious measures added two-thirds to the revenue
+of the Holy See, chiefly by correcting the depreciated currency in
+which it was paid. In personal expenses he was penuriously sparing,
+contracting with his house-steward, to whom he allowed but 1500
+ducats for the monthly bills of the palace.[228]
+
+[Footnote 228: Ranke, Appendix, sect. i. No. 6.]
+
+But this picture has its reverse. In the two following chapters
+of these memoirs we shall find the head of the universal Church
+harassing his flock by perpetual warfare--the high-priest of the
+Christian hierarchy seemingly indifferent to the purity of Catholic
+rites, and utterly oblivious of peace and charity.
+
+By lovers of art the memory of Julius II. will ever be embalmed
+among the foremost of its princely patrons, and his appreciation
+of literature may be learned from his remark, that letters are
+silver to the people, gold to the nobles, diamonds to princes. We
+have elsewhere to speak of his vast undertakings in architecture,
+sculpture, and painting, which earned from Vasari the reputation
+of a spirited pontiff, bent upon leaving memorials of a zealous
+and liberal encouragement of art. His lavish outlay on St. Peter's
+strikingly contrasts with his habitual economy. To meet it he
+authorised a general collection, towards which the Franciscans
+gathered 27,000 ducats, and in 1507 he proclaimed a sale of jubilee
+indulgences. This device laid all Christendom under contribution, and
+proved so productive that he and Leo were tempted almost annually
+to repeat it, little aware what weapons they were thus forging for
+future schismatics. The example of his uncle Sixtus, in summoning for
+the decoration of his capital whatever talent merited such patronage,
+was followed up by him with the energy belonging to his nature.
+Besides commencing the metropolitan fane, the immense _cortile_,
+corridors, and _loggie_ of the Vatican, and the unequalled frescoes
+of the _stanze_, he was truly the founder of a museum of ancient art.
+He rescued the Laocoon and rewarded its discoverer; the Apollo and
+the Torso took their epithet of Belvidere from the pavilion in which
+he placed them.
+
+Rome owes to him, among other improvements, one of its longest and
+finest streets, bearing his name, where he began a series of palaces
+for public offices and the courts of justice, unfortunately never
+completed. The churches which he re-founded or decorated include
+S. Pietro in Montorio, Sta. Agnese, SS. Apostoli, and the Madonna
+del Popolo. In the last of these are the beautiful windows which
+he brought two famous glass-painters from Marseilles to execute;
+and beneath them those purest specimens of the revival, in which he
+invited Sansovino's exquisite chisel to commemorate his talented
+rival Ascanio Sforza, and his cousin the Cardinal of Recanati. For
+objects so laudable the moment was propitious, and fortune seconded
+his efforts; but it was more than chance which enabled him to select
+at once the greatest painter, the most gifted sculptor, and the first
+architect whom the modern world has seen,--to give simultaneous
+employment worthy of their genius to Raffaele, Michael Angelo, and
+Bramante.
+
+His successor has found among ourselves a biographer[*229] who
+brought the enthusiasm of a eulogist to grace the more solid
+qualifications of a historian, whose eloquence has thrown around
+the era of Leo a brilliancy leaving in comparative obscurity the
+pontificate of Julius, whence many of its rays were virtually
+borrowed. But the progress of our narrative will lead us to introduce
+some less flattered sketches of the Medicean pontiff. In stimulating
+the search for choice fragments of antique sculpture, the son of
+Lorenzo de' Medici but followed the course which his father had
+indicated, and which Julius had zealously pursued. St. Peter's,
+perverted under him into a crowning abuse destined to wean men from
+their old faith, had been founded by his predecessor as the mighty
+temple of a church, Catholic in fact as well as in name. Michael
+Angelo, summoned by Julius to decorate his capital with the grandest
+of his efforts in architecture, sculpture, and painting, was banished
+by his successor to waste his energies in engineering the marble
+quarries of Pietra Santa. Raphael was diverted by Leo from that cycle
+of religious frescoes which the genius of Julius had commissioned,
+in order to distract his powers upon multifarious, less important,
+and less congenial occupations.
+
+[Footnote *229: WILLIAM ROSCOE, _Life of Leo X._, 4 vols.
+(3rd ed.), 1847.]
+
+Nor need we fear a comparison between these pontiffs on more
+important points of their respective policy. The wars of Julius were
+undertaken for the aggrandisement of the papacy, and his nephew was
+used as an instrument to that end. Those of Leo were waged for the
+interests of his family at the expense of the Holy See. The former is
+reported to have left five millions of golden ducats in the treasury;
+the latter unquestionably burdened it with heavy debts. The measures
+of Julius may have encouraged divisive courses and a schismatic
+council; but those of Leo matured the Reformation, and permitted a
+small cloud, which he might have dispersed while forming upon the
+horizon, to spread unheeded over the heavens, until Central Europe
+was withdrawn from the light and influence of the Roman church.
+
+In fine, during the pontificates of Sixtus and of Julius more was
+done for the encouragement of literature and arts, for the temporal
+extension of the papacy, and for the embellishment of its metropolis,
+than has ever been effected in any similar period. The combined
+reigns of the two Medicean popes have left no equal memorials. It
+cannot be doubted that the patronage bestowed by his ancestors on
+men of science and letters was liberally continued by Leo; yet it is
+as much to the zeal of partial historians, as to his own policy of
+success, that he stands indebted for the halo of glory which marks
+his as a golden age. In many instances he but followed out the aims
+of Julius, reaping their undivided glory; in others he fell sadly
+short of his predecessor in energy and comprehensive views. The bad
+seed which he freely scattered ripened into irreparable mischiefs
+under his vacillating nephew, and the sack of Rome, which we shall by
+and by describe, was their crowning calamity. After that event the
+proud city was once again left desolate and impoverished, the prey
+of barbarian spoilers; its population thinned, its court outraged,
+its glories gone. When the judgment of posterity has passed into a
+proverb it is too late to question its equity, or to appeal from its
+fiat, and the name of Leo the Tenth will thus remain identified with
+his age as the star whence its lustre was derived, although Italy was
+then brightened by not a few orbs of scarcely inferior brilliancy or
+less genial influence.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK SIXTH
+
+ OF FRANCESCO MARIA DELLA ROVERE
+ FOURTH DUKE OF URBINO
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+ Youth of Duke Francesco Maria I.--The League of
+ Cambray--His marriage--His first military service--The
+ Cardinal of Pavia's treachery--Julius II. takes the field.
+
+
+To the family della Rovere, whom we have traced in the preceding
+chapter, an heir was born on the 25th of March, 1490. His father,
+the Lord Prefect, acknowledged his arrival to be a divine blessing,
+and, as then usual, testified gratitude by the selection of his
+baptismal names. St. Francis was the established tutelary saint of
+the family, under whose guidance Sixtus IV. believed himself to have
+obtained the tiara, and to whom his brother the Prefect addressed his
+orisons for a male child. It came into the world on the fête of the
+Annunciation, and was immediately christened Francesco Maria,[*230]
+in honour of the saint and of the Madonna. In this, his only male
+offspring, centred the hopes and interests of the Lord of Sinigaglia;
+and after his death, in 1501, the boy was carried to the court of
+Urbino, where his progress was watched with almost paternal anxiety
+by Duke Guidobaldo. His mother occasionally visited there after her
+widowhood, although from motives of perhaps misplaced delicacy,
+she resided chiefly on her husband's fiefs of Sora and Arci in the
+Neapolitan territory.
+
+[Footnote *230: See MARCUCCI: _Francesco Maria I. della
+Rovere_ (Sinigaglia, 1903).]
+
+The first care of his uncle Guidobaldo was to obtain for him a
+renewal of the prefecture of Rome, which his father had held; and as
+that appointment was in the hands of Alexander VI., an enemy of the
+della Rovere, the Duke of Urbino had recourse to the influence of
+Louis XII. with the Pontiff. This application was warmly seconded in
+the same quarter by the Cardinal of S. Pietro in Vinculis, paternal
+uncle of Francesco Maria, and an adherent of the French interests.
+The readiness wherewith his Holiness accorded this dignity, and even
+held out hopes of marrying his niece, Angela Borgia, to the young
+Prefect, induced his uncles to hint at their project of adopting him
+as heir to the dukedom, a step which required the papal sanction. But
+they were met by temporising answers, and found, ere long, that the
+apparent frankness of Alexander was but a cover to that deep-laid
+plot of destruction, involving both Guidobaldo and his nephew, which
+we have already developed.
+
+Meanwhile, Francesco Maria's education advanced in letters and arms,
+with every aid which books, talented preceptors, and distinguished
+society could afford. His earliest instructor had been Antonio
+Crastini of Sassoferrato, a man of excellent judgment, and well
+skilled in theology and philosophy, to whom his father had entrusted
+the command of Sinigaglia, and whose services were eventually
+rewarded by Julius II. with the sees of Cagli and Montefeltro.
+Ludovico Odasio still resided at the court of his former pupil
+Duke Guidobaldo, who placed under his superintendence his youthful
+relation. The lad, though small in stature for his years, was
+remarkable for strength and activity, as well as for an active
+temperament and lively talents. He was liberal, and even careless,
+of money; but all his pleasure was in the military art, all his
+ambition centred in martial glory, for Nicolò of Fossombrone,
+and another famous astrologer, had predicted from his horoscope
+high deeds of arms. After passing hours in the study of history
+and classical literature, and of those sciences wherein princes
+then sought pre-eminence, he found relaxation in horsemanship and
+martial exercises, under the eye of such honoured veterans of Duke
+Federigo as still wore their well-won laurels in the palace of
+his son. Thus was his youthful mind moulded to the noblest forms of
+chivalry, without those idle appendages which the affectation of
+other times has exaggerated into caricature.
+
+[Illustration: _Alinari_
+
+FRANCESCO MARIA I DELLA ROVERE
+
+_After the picture by Titian in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence_
+
+_(From the Ducal Collection)_]
+
+The whirlwind that broke in upon this calm, and sent the Lords of
+Urbino and Sinigaglia into houseless exile, has been described in
+the eighteenth chapter of these memoirs. Francesco Maria, after
+accompanying his uncle's midnight flight as far as Sta. Agata,
+reached Bologna through mountain paths; and, having by great prudence
+escaped the attempts of Giovanni Bentivoglio to apprehend him, in
+compliance with Valentino's orders, he made his way by Genoa to
+Savona, where his uncle, the Cardinal della Rovere, resided. But
+the latter, not satisfied of his security, and anxious to place him
+where he would have better means of improvement, sent him to his see
+of Avignon, and thence recommended him to Louis XII., who received
+him with high favour. In the court then established at Lyons he
+resumed his education, especially in those military and personal
+accomplishments for which it was distinguished, and quickly acquired
+great proficiency in the French language. There he attached himself
+much to the youthful Gaston de Foix, acting as his page of honour,
+and gained some notice from the King, who bore testimony to his
+precocious attainments in chivalry, by bestowing upon him the order
+of St. Michael ere he had completed his thirteenth year.
+
+The events already recorded in connection with the death of Alexander
+VI., restored Francesco Maria to his rights unquestioned; but his
+first care was to obey a summons of his cardinal uncle, who had been
+elected to the tiara. Travelling from France with his cousin-german
+Galeotto Franciotti, whom Julius had named to the hat just vacated by
+himself, he reached Rome amid public rejoicings on the 2nd of March,
+1504. He immediately received the command of a hundred men-at-arms,
+and steps were promptly taken for his public recognition as
+heir-apparent of Urbino. Accompanying Guidobaldo into the Marca, he
+was welcomed at Sinigaglia, on the 17th of June, by the unanimous
+voice of his people. On the 18th of September he was invested with
+the dukedom of Urbino in reversion, when he received the homage of
+his future subjects with a ceremonial which we have described at p.
+37, and which was attended by delegates from all parts of the state,
+to adhibit the consent of their constituents. As a finishing stroke
+to these measures for consolidating the della Rovere sovereignty, a
+marriage was about the same time contracted between the Prefect and
+Leonora Gonzaga, daughter of Francesco Marquis of Mantua. To this
+arrangement, which turned out in all respects fortunate, the wishes
+of her aunt, the Duchess Elisabetta of Urbino,[*231] were mainly
+conducive; and preliminaries were negotiated by Count Castiglione,
+whose high favour with both contracting parties, as well as his
+diplomatic address, well qualified him for the mission. It was
+announced in January, 1505, but the ceremony was postponed for
+four years, on account of their youth. To the charms of the bride,
+Castiglione bears this tribute: "If ever there were united wisdom,
+grace, beauty, genius, courtesy, gentleness, and refined manners,
+it was in her person, where these combined qualities form a chain
+adorning her every movement."
+
+[Footnote *231: She was betrothed in the same month in which her
+father died. The marriage had long been desired by Elisabetta.
+Giustiniani mentions a report of it in his Despatches (_Dispacci_,
+vol. II., p. 359) even in 1503. Mrs. ADY (_Isabella d'Este_,
+vol. I., p. 267) says the Marquis of Mantua desired it "as a means of
+obtaining the Cardinalate which he had been striving to obtain for
+his brother during the last fifteen years."]
+
+[Illustration: _Anderson_
+
+VENETIAN WEDDING-DRESS IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY
+
+_After the picture called "La Flora" by Titian in the Uffizi Gallery,
+Florence_]
+
+But although too young for matrimony, the Prefettino was allowed to
+flesh his maiden sword under his future father-in-law's command, in
+the expedition undertaken by Julius against the lords of Perugia and
+Bologna. In a military view the campaign was totally uninteresting;
+but in some skirmishes before Castel S. Pietro, Francesco Maria
+gained his general's approbation, and thus favourably entered upon
+the career wherein he was destined to high distinction. The greater
+part of his time was spent at Urbino, acquainting himself with the
+people over whom he was to reign, and with the duties that awaited
+him. Its limited court was rich in merit, and beneath an exterior
+of elegance and high polish, learning and accomplishments of every
+sort were cultivated and honoured to a degree elsewhere unknown.
+The laxity of morals which, notwithstanding the example of both
+sovereigns, accompanied that refinement, may be estimated from an
+anecdote sadly instancing the failing in Francesco Maria's character,
+which proved the bane of his whole life. We shall narrate it in the
+words of an anonymous diary, already largely drawn upon for the reign
+of Guidobaldo I.[232] "The Duke, [Guidobaldo] having brought up about
+his person one Giovanni Andrea, a bravo of Verona, he made him his
+favourite, and conferred upon him the order of the Golden Spur, as
+well as the fief of Sasso-Corbaro, and some mills on the Foglia. He
+was extremely handsome and generally liked; and it happened that
+Madama Maria, daughter of the late Prefect Giovanna of Sinigaglia,
+and widow of Venanzio of Camerino, who had been slain by Cesare
+Borgia, was residing in Urbino with her son. Being still young, she
+fell in love with this Giovanni Andrea, and was reported to have
+borne him a son. Whereupon her brother, the Prefect, sent for him one
+Saturday evening, and in the ducal chamber beset him with his people,
+and assassinated him with twenty-four blows. At the same moment,
+one of his attendants went out and slew a servant of Madama Maria,
+who was said to have delivered their messages. On the following
+evening, being Sunday, the body was carried to the cathedral with
+distinguished honours, accompanied by all the gentlemen of the ducal
+household, and by a concourse of the citizens, for he was generally
+lamented by persons of every rank, and no one had died for a length
+of time more regretted. And this occurred on the 6th of October,
+1507."
+
+[Footnote 232: Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 904, f. 89.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+We have elsewhere endeavoured to sketch the brilliant society in
+which the Prefect's youthful mind was developed; in due time we shall
+find several of its prominent members crossing him in the tangled
+weft of human destiny, as friends or foes, according to their several
+interests. We have also noticed the affectionate duty he continued to
+interchange with the Duke and Duchess, and the circumstances in which
+he succeeded to their state. Guidobaldo closed his life of suffering
+on the 11th of April, 1508, and on the 14th Francesco Maria, after
+high mass in the cathedral, produced the will naming him heir of the
+duchy and dignities.[*233] The gonfaloniere of Urbino then presented
+to him the city keys in a great silver basin, and also its standard,
+accompanied with a complimentary address. He next was arrayed in the
+ducal mantle of white satin doubled with gold brocade, and a cap
+faced with ermine, over which was placed the coronet; then mounting a
+superb charger richly housed, he was escorted through the principal
+streets by an enthusiastic multitude shouting "ROVERE and
+FELTRO, DUKE and PREFECT!" in whose joyous hurrahs it would have been
+difficult to identify the disconsolate populace who not many hours
+before had raised their coronach over Guidobaldo's mortal remains. On
+returning, his horse was seized as their perquisite, and his mantle
+torn into shreds, which were scrambled for as relics to be treasured
+in memory of the day.
+
+[Footnote *233: Cf. LUZIO E RENIER, _Mantova ed Urbino_
+(Torino, 1893), p. 182.]
+
+This spontaneous loyalty, and their satisfaction at the maintenance
+of their national independence, did not, however, prevent the
+citizens from recollecting their interests. On the new Duke's first
+appearance at Urbino the authorities had gathered round his horse to
+kiss his hands and knees, and to beseech attention to their wishes.
+Pleading recent fatigues, he declined entering then upon business,
+and the gonfaloniere, readily accepting the excuse, summoned a sort
+of parliament of the principal inhabitants to decide what favours
+and privileges should be asked as a preliminary to their homage.
+Estimating this movement at its actual value, rather than by its
+bearing upon any theories of self-government, Baldi has entered into
+no details of these demands: their object may, however, be guessed
+at from the municipal concessions made by Francesco Maria on the
+31st of May, whereby precedence was granted to the gonfaloniere over
+the podestà; and the salaries of the city physician, lawyer, and
+schoolmaster were undertaken by the sovereign, who also consented to
+a modification of the imposts on agricultural produce.[*234]
+
+[Footnote *234: The document is printed by LUZZATTO, _Comune
+e principato in Urbino nei secc. xv. e xvi._, in _Le Marche_ (1905),
+An. v., p. 196 _et seq._]
+
+Although the popularity both of the extinguished dynasty and of the
+youth who was destined to replace it, together with an absence of
+all conflicting claims, rendered the succession safe and certain,
+every measure which prudence could suggest had been taken by the
+Pope to secure its being peacefully effected. A few excitable
+spirits having assumed arms, in apprehension of some revolutionary
+movement, a proclamation was issued on the morning subsequent to
+the Duke's decease, commanding all to lay them down. On the 17th a
+papal brief was addressed to the people, condoling with them on their
+bereavement, and applauding their dutiful and orderly reception of
+Francesco Maria. An envoy, deputed by the community to present their
+answer, returned on the 30th, delighted with the gracious reception
+he had met with, and with the Pontiff's flattering assurances. The
+ceremony of swearing allegiance was out of delicacy postponed until
+the 3rd of May, the day subsequent to his respected predecessor's
+funeral. Summonses for both solemnities were issued to the various
+communities in the following terms:--
+
+ "Right well-beloved,
+
+ "On the second of the ensuing month will be celebrated the
+ obsequies of the illustrious Lord Duke, our father of happy
+ memory, for which it behoves you to send here in good time
+ as many as possible of your well-qualified fellow-citizens,
+ suitably dressed for the occasion. And to such of them
+ as you shall please to choose, you shall give a special
+ mandate for adhibiting the oath of fidelity to us in name
+ of your community, taking care that it be in regular form
+ as a public instrument. From Urbino, this 25th of April,
+ 1508.
+
+ "FRANCISCUS MARIA DUX URBINI, ALMÆ URBIS
+ PRÆFECTUS."
+
+The deputations willingly rendered the required homage, for they
+considered this perpetuation of their independence as a boon doubly
+grateful in the person of a sovereign representing their old and
+loved dynasty, whose opening character promised no unworthy successor
+to his esteemed uncle and father. During some days the Duke attended
+to various demands and representations of the commissioners, and, by
+well-timed favours to their different cities, quickly established
+himself in the good graces of his new subjects. The Duchess Regent
+proved a kind and prudent counsellor until he came of age, and long
+continued her assistance in his affairs of state, residing at his
+court while he had a home to share with her. The great discretion
+and good feeling he now manifested towards her, and the scrupulous
+anxiety he testified to retain around him all Guidobaldo's tried
+friends and servants, quickly ripened the popularity which his
+fortunate position had sown, and which eventually enabled him
+to recover and maintain his sovereignty in circumstances nearly
+desperate.
+
+[Illustration: _Anderson_
+
+DETAIL OF THE URBINO VENUS
+
+_Supposed portrait of Duchess Leonora, from the picture by Titian in
+the Uffizi Gallery, Florence_]
+
+The restless spirit of Julius fretted against the resistance still
+offered by the Venetians to his incorporating with the papal states
+those places in Romagna which they had seized, upon the fall of
+Valentino, nor would he accept the compromise which they proposed,
+of surrendering Rimini, on receiving from him a formal investiture
+of Faenza. They were also suspected of irritating by their intrigues
+the feverish state of that district, and of undermining the
+preponderating influence which it was his policy there to establish.
+On pretext of crowning Maximilian, whose title to the imperial
+dignity had not been completed by that formality, the Pontiff invited
+him to march into Italy, and support his views. The Emperor, in
+accepting the proposal, demanded free passage through the Venetian
+territories, with a threat of forcing his way, if obstructed.
+Assured of support from their ally of France, the Signory offered
+compliance, on condition of his going unarmed: but, spurning such
+terms, he, in February, moved with an army upon the valley of Trent.
+He was, however, effectually held in check by the Venetian generals,
+Nicolò da Petigliano and Bartolomeo d'Alviano; whilst Louis, besides
+sending Gian Giacomo Trivulzio to their support, instigated the Duke
+of Gueldres to carry fire and sword into Lower Germany. Maximilian,
+finding his hands full, made a hasty truce with the Venetians in
+May, and turned to punish Gueldres. The Venetian and French armies
+being thereupon disbanded, the moment seemed to Julius favourable
+for renewing his designs upon Romagna, and in the following November
+he sent the Cardinal of Sta. Croce to take part in negotiations,
+which had been opened at Cambray, for reconciliation of the Emperor
+and the French monarch. Maximilian readily lent himself to any
+measures calculated to efface his recent disgrace in the Alpine
+valleys, and to recover some places in Friuli which had remained
+in the enemy's hands; Louis was induced to accede, in order to
+wrest from Venice such portions of the old Visconti duchy as owned
+her sway; and Ferdinand joined the coalition in hopes of regaining
+several Neapolitan sea-ports, over which the Lion of St. Mark still
+waved in security of certain advances by the Republic for the wars
+of Lower Italy. Out of these elements there was concluded, on the
+10th of December, a famous treaty, which denounced the Venetians as
+ambitious perturbators of Italy and all Christian lands, and declared
+war against them as the common enemies of the allies, who pledged
+themselves to take the field before April, for recovery of Ravenna,
+Cervia, Rimini, and Faenza to the Holy See, and of the territories
+respectively claimed by the other contracting powers in Austria,
+Lombardy, and Calabria. A subsidiary article took Francesco Maria
+under their special protection, and guaranteed his states; whilst
+by another the Duke of Ferrara was left free to become a party, on
+payment to the Emperor of a sum of money in dispute between them.
+Such was the notable League of Cambray, misnamed holy, on the vague
+pretext that the maritime Republic, by retaining Ravenna and Cervia,
+impeded the pacification of Christendom, and a general armament
+against the Turks. Not only was it an innovation upon the established
+custom of pitting the German and French interests against each
+other, and settling their differences on the blood-stained plains
+of Lombardy, but, as the first great coalition of European powers
+for one common political object, it may be regarded as founding the
+modern system of diplomacy.
+
+Yet, though this formidable confederation was the child of his
+own brain, matured by the address of his legate, Julius shrank
+before the Promethean monster, and paused ere he animated it by his
+ratification. Well might it startle him to find that his labours
+for the ulterior emancipation of Italy from foreign yoke were
+about to divide one of her finest states among her most formidable
+ultramontane foes. Had Duke Guidobaldo been spared a little longer,
+his cool head and pacific disposition, as well as his friendship for
+the Signory and his influence with the Pope, might have counteracted
+the unnatural combination; but the die was cast, and the Pontiff had
+only to await the course of events for an opportunity of undoing his
+present work.[*235]
+
+[Footnote *235: The league of Cambrai is one of the great crimes of
+history. The man who devised it and urged it upon Europe was the
+head of European Christianity, Pope Julius II. Beside this, the
+sensualities and murders of the Borgia go for nothing. His policy,
+created by hate, succeeded in so far as it established the States of
+the Church and murdered Italy. Yet looking back now, we may judge
+of the price that has been required of the Church for that treason.
+Beggared of her possessions, at the mercy of the new Italian kingdom,
+he who sits in the seat of Julius is a prisoner in the Vatican--the
+prisoner of history.]
+
+Unable to hold a military command, which would have better suited
+his talents and tastes than the duties of Christ's vicegerent upon
+earth, Julius gratified his family predilections by appointing his
+nephew Francesco Maria to be captain-general of the ecclesiastical
+troops. His investiture took place in the church of S. Petronio, at
+Bologna, on the 4th of October, 1508, when he received the pontifical
+baton from the Cardinal of Pavia, a prelate whose destiny we shall
+find, ere long, fatally bound up in his own. But the time for active
+service not being yet arrived, he contented himself with a review
+of the forces thus placed under his charge. Being considered equal
+to such a command, it is not surprising he should think it time to
+celebrate his long-projected nuptials.[*236] On the 5th of November,
+Julius wrote to the Duchess Elisabetta, to send a _lettiga_ or
+litter, with three horses, in order to bring his bride on a visit to
+Urbino, where the ceremony took place on Christmas Eve, 1508.[*237]
+The letters, addressed to Federigo Fregoso by Bembo, who arrived on
+the 19th, unveil some proofs of the bridegroom's felicity which it
+were more decorous to pass over; but its revelations throw light
+upon the contrasted feelings of the still mourning court. "Our
+reception was truly chilling: no joy or hilarity in the palace; even
+in the city its wonted aspect; our happy youth himself quite frigid;
+but there is hope that he will become more ardent...." Writing a
+week after the marriage, he says that as soon as it was over, the
+Duke manifested the most unbounded affection, which became daily
+more passionate; and declares that he had never met with a more
+comely, merry, or sweet girl, who, to a most amiable disposition,
+added a surprisingly precocious judgment, which gained for her
+general admiration.[238] This event was hailed at Urbino with great
+public rejoicings and sumptuous fêtes, and the triumphal arches,
+theatres, and other architectural and pictorial works required for
+the occasion, were executed under the direction of Timoteo Vite and
+Girolamo Genga. In 1843 I saw, in the hands of Padre Cellani, at
+the Augustine convent in Pesaro, an interesting memorial of this
+marriage. It is a small MS. psalter, with a frontispiece illuminated
+in the manner of the Veronese limners, representing Nathan rebuking
+David, whose crown and sceptre are fallen to the ground--a singular
+theme for a bridal present, which, from the legend "LIONOR GOZAGA
+URBINI DUCISSA," with the impaled arms of the two families,
+it may have been. The Lady Leonora was about his own age, and,
+although neither her beauty nor accomplishments have met with the
+same celebration as those of her aunt the Duchess Elisabetta, we
+shall have ample opportunity of observing in her character much
+energy and good sense, with undeviating affection to her husband;
+whilst the pencil of Titian has preserved to us a person which in a
+sovereign must have been lauded as handsome.
+
+[Footnote *236: On the 25th of August, Francesco Maria had paid a
+visit to Mantua to see his betrothed. "Come," said Leonora's uncle
+to him, "and when you have seen Madonna Leonora and the Marchese's
+horses you will have seen the two finest things in the world."
+Francesco Maria spent two days there travelling incognito with but
+four persons. Cf. JULIA CARTWRIGHT, _op. cit._, vol. I., p.
+310. An amusing letter from Federico Cattaneo to Isabella d'Este, who
+was absent, describes the meeting of Francesco Maria and his future
+bride. Leonora was fourteen, and they were married at Christmas.]
+
+[Footnote *237: Cf. LUZIO E RENIER, _op. cit._; p. 195, for
+the entry of the Duchess into Urbino.]
+
+[Footnote 238: It is difficult to reconcile with these details of an
+eye-witness the statement of Leoni, followed by Riposati and others,
+that the marriage was privately performed at Mantua in February,
+1509. In May of that year the Duke was unanimously chosen a Knight
+of the Garter at a chapter of that order, but for reasons which it
+is now too late to investigate, the nomination was not confirmed by
+Henry VIII. At next election he had but one vote out of ten, and his
+name does not again occur in the record preserved by Anstis.]
+
+[Illustration: _Franz Hanfstaengl_
+
+THE GIRL IN THE FUR-CLOAK
+
+_Possibly a portrait of Duchess Leonora of Urbino. After the picture
+by Titian in the Imperial Gallery, Vienna_]
+
+From his honeymoon happiness the boy-bridegroom was speedily summoned
+to the field. After issuing a preparatory apostolic admonition to
+the Signory, on the 27th of April, 1509, Julius ordered his nephew
+to assume offensive operations against Romagna, supported by the
+Baglioni, Vitelli, and other vassals of the Church. The Duke was
+already on foot, and after some skirmishes before Rimini, he attacked
+Brisghella on the 4th of May; the place speedily surrendering, he
+occupied himself in saving its inhabitants, so far as possible,
+from the miseries of a sack, which Muratori denounces as worthy of
+the Turks, and which Roscoe unwarrantably imputes to him as an act
+of wanton cruelty. Following up this success, he, with youthful
+enthusiasm, adopted various expedients for harassing the enemy, but
+obtained still more credit for the judgment displayed in a singular
+dilemma, which might have disconcerted a more experienced commander.
+
+There existed between some bands of Spanish and Italian soldiery
+in his camp, various heart-burnings ready to kindle at a spark.
+Ramocciotto, an Italian captain, having been sent upon secret duty,
+as evening approached his men were seized with a vague impression
+that he had met with foul play from the Spaniards. Just then, during
+a wrangle among some camp-followers about a baggage-mule, one of them
+called out in stentorian voice, "_Taglia! taglia!_" meaning that
+the packing-cords should be cut. These words, which rang through
+the stilly air, were mistaken for "_Italia! Italia!_" and were
+caught up by the feverish followers of Ramocciotto as a watchword,
+which they loudly echoed, and rushed to arms. Their cry and action
+were repeated by most of the troops, who had just finished their
+evening meal, and in a moment the camp was a scene of inexplicable
+confusion, the fury of some and the consternation of others combining
+to produce a general panic. Francesco Maria and his officers were
+taken by surprise, but with great presence of mind he ordered an
+advance upon Faenza as the readiest means of restoring order. The
+gloom of twilight now settled down upon the camp, augmenting the
+embarrassment, and ere the troops evacuated it, a good many Spaniards
+had been cut down in the _mêlée_. Military discipline at length
+prevailed, and the Duke, finding the town on its guard, returned to
+quarters. Ramocciotto's reappearance appeased the originators of the
+tumult, but it was not till next day that a stern inquiry detected
+its casual origin. Thus did the promptitude and prudence of the
+juvenile general save his character from compromise, and his little
+army from disaster.[239]
+
+[Footnote 239: Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 489. This is but a fragment of the
+life of Francesco Maria by Urbano Urbani, who was his secretary at
+this time. Our account of the League of Cambray has been taken from
+it, collated with many published authorities. Urbani's full work,
+which I have not discovered, has been largely drawn upon by Leoni,
+Baldi, and other biographers.]
+
+The ecclesiastical army consisted of eight thousand infantry and
+one thousand six hundred horse, a force by no means adequate for
+the service it was called upon to perform. The Pontiff, with fatal
+partiality, had entrusted the entire control of the commissariat and
+stores for the campaign to the Cardinal of Pavia, of whom the remark
+passed into a proverb, that whoever would make up a jerkin of every
+colour should employ the words and actions of the Legate of Bologna.
+Francesco Alidosio was second son of the Lord of Castel del Rio, an
+inconsiderable mountain fief adjoining the state of Imola, which
+latter, after being long held in sovereignty by his family, had been
+bought or wrested from his grandfather by Sixtus IV. and the Sforza.
+Having been educated for the Church, he attached himself on the death
+of that Pontiff to Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, whose entire
+favour and confidence he won, not only by long personal service,
+but by firmly withstanding various offers made him by the Borgia to
+dispose of his master by poison. As soon as his patron was placed
+in the chair of St. Peter, his services were rewarded by a scarlet
+hat, followed by the see of Pavia, the rich office of Datario, and
+other valuable preferments. But his character had been regarded as so
+questionable, in the scandalous pontificate of Alexander, that many
+objections were raised in the consistory to his promotion, and even
+the silver-tongued Jovius attributes his rapid advancement to the
+advantages of a fine person and an unscrupulous pliancy of principle.
+The influence he had obtained over the open-hearted Julius was
+maintained by his facility in accommodating himself to the outbreaks
+of his patron's impetuous temper; and it entirely blinded the Pope to
+the danger of reposing implicit confidence in such a counsellor. But
+the Cardinal, not satisfied to share these favours with another, did
+all in his power to obtain an undivided mastery over his affections,
+and especially to supplant his nephew in his regards. The means which
+he adopted to effect this were, as we shall soon see, to thwart all
+the Duke's plans, and throw upon him the blame of their failure. But
+the mainspring of his hopes and intrigues was the restoration of
+Imola to himself or his brother; and as the policy of Julius rendered
+him deaf to such a request, even from a favourite, the latter
+scrupled not to purchase his object from the French, by betraying to
+them those interests with which as legate of Bologna he was entrusted.
+
+Francesco Maria accordingly found his movements hampered at every
+turn by the scarcity of supplies, and, in answer to unceasing
+remonstrances, had from the Legate abundance of fair words and
+sounding promises leading to no result whatever. This was the more
+provoking, as sound policy required a speedy conclusion to operations
+carried on in a province that, though in hostile hands for the time,
+was eventually destined to remain under the papal sway, towards which
+it was therefore of importance to conciliate the population, rather
+than to oppress them by military exactions. Notwithstanding these
+difficulties, the Duke reduced the castles of Granaruolo and Roscio,
+Faenza surrendered, and the siege of Ravenna seemed approaching a
+favourable conclusion, when the Venetians, panic-stricken by the
+French successes in Lombardy, and especially by the rout they had
+sustained on the 14th of May, at Vaila in the Ghiaradadda, sued for
+peace. They hoped, by offering to the Pope, the Emperor, and the
+Spaniard, all the places occupied on their respective territories,
+to conciliate these powers, and so be enabled to maintain themselves
+against French aggression. Their envoy addressed himself to arrange
+with the Legate a suspension of arms, whilst he should forward to the
+Pope a formal renunciation of the disputed towns in Romagna; but the
+wily Cardinal, who, whether from inherent dishonesty, or with some
+selfish end in view, seems to have acted with invariable bad faith,
+urged him to resign these places directly into his own hands, and,
+when the agent persisted in adhering to his instructions, he was
+thrown into irons and threatened with a halter. Nor was this the only
+manifest instance of the Legate's treachery; for besides thwarting
+the Duke on every occasion, and keeping him in the dark as to most
+important arrangements, he sent some of his own adherents to attack
+and pillage the garrison of Faenza, as it quitted the city upon a
+capitulation accorded by himself. Francesco Maria, disgusted with
+his duplicity, of his own authority liberated the envoy, and so was
+brought into angry collision with the Cardinal, thus aggravating a
+quarrel ere long to end in blood.
+
+[Illustration: _Brogi_
+
+DUCHESS OF URBINO, EITHER ELEONORA OR GIULIA VARANA
+
+_After the picture by Titian in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence_]
+
+The difficulties of the youthful commander were increased by the
+inopportune arrival of four thousand Swiss mercenaries, who, finding
+matters in train for a pacification which would dash their hopes of
+booty, could scarcely be restrained from an immediate assault upon
+Ravenna. Their ruffianly intentions being insidiously encouraged by
+the Legate, it was only by great prudence and decision that the Duke
+prevented them from sacking that city, when evacuated on honourable
+terms by the Venetian authorities. This conciliatory policy was
+rewarded by a speedy surrender of Cervia, followed on the 11th of
+June by that of Rimini, the last of the towns claimed by Julius,
+upon which Francesco Maria lost no time in disbanding his army and
+returning home. As soon as he was gone, the Cardinal, steady only to
+his duplicity, imprisoned the Venetian officers who had imprudently
+lingered within his reach. Although this campaign lasted but six
+weeks, and produced no considerable engagement, it afforded to the
+young Duke an insight into mankind, as well as a lesson in military
+affairs, which enabled him to pass at once from boyhood to the
+experience, as well as the reputation, of an able commander.
+
+As soon as Francesco Maria was liberated from camp duties, he sent
+to Mantua for his bride, and at his uncle's desire carried her to
+visit Rome. The Roman citizens, ever devoted to festivity, received
+him with distinction, due not less to his personal merit than to
+his high rank and near relationship to the Pope. Among the pageants
+exhibited in honour of his marriage were tilting in the Piazza
+Navona, and a masque celebrating his successes in Romagna, after the
+manner of those triumphs which that capital used to witness some
+fifteen centuries before. He carried Giuliano de' Medici with him to
+the papal court, and effected his reconciliation with Julius, who,
+suspecting him of some intrigues at Bologna, had given orders for his
+imprisonment; thus swelling that debt of the Medici to his family,
+which Leo X. subsequently and most ungratefully expunged.
+
+The Duke also used his influence for removal of the interdict from
+Venice, the tried ally of his house; and this the Pontiff more
+readily granted, having now gained all he hoped from the compact of
+Cambray, and being ready for any new coalition that might tend either
+to aggrandise the Holy See or to liberate Italy from foreign yoke.
+He therefore cared not for the remonstrances of his late coadjutors
+against his abrupt secession from their common policy; and, aware
+how little signified Maximilian's languid operations, he only sought
+an apology for putting himself in direct opposition to the French,
+whose successes in Lombardy were assuming a serious aspect. This was
+soon afforded by the hollow counsels of the Cardinal of Pavia, whom
+he had despatched to the camp of Louis on pretence of congratulating
+him upon his victory at Vaila, but in fact to watch his intentions.
+In this monarch the Legate found one as ambitious as his master, and
+not more scrupulous than himself; he therefore with characteristic
+treason encouraged the projects he had shrewdly penetrated,
+stipulating in return for the sovereignty of Imola, as soon as
+Louis should, by his secret aid, add Bologna and Romagna to his
+Milanese possessions. As an underplot in this drama of ingratitude
+and treachery, the Cardinal of Rouen proposed that Julius should be
+deposed by a general council, with a view to securing for himself the
+tiara. Such at least were the ends which the French King soon after
+openly pursued; and those historians who seek to establish a case
+against the Cardinal of Pavia, explanatory of his subsequent conduct,
+charge him with thus early selling himself to Louis, and betraying
+his partial and confiding patron the Pope.
+
+The Legate, therefore, on his return to Rome, warmly seconded the
+Pontiff's views. A rupture with France was the preliminary move in
+the game he had arranged with Louis, and his zeal in promoting it
+seemed the surest disguise of his ulterior designs. Florence and
+Ferrara were bound to the French interests, while Venice was their
+determined foe; so it only remained for the Pope to join stakes with
+the Signory, and the party was made up. His intrigues to secure the
+support of Spain, Austria, and England, and to retain the Swiss in
+his service, do not require our particular notice.
+
+Unwarned by recent events in Romagna, and blinded by affection for
+his nephew, and for the Cardinal of Pavia, to the character of the
+latter, and to the insuperable antipathy which had grown up between
+them, the Pope, unfortunately, again delegated to them the joint
+conduct of the war. The first advance was made against Ferrara,
+with the view, doubtless, of restoring the Polesine to Venice, and
+extending the temporal sway of the Keys to the banks of the Po.
+Francesco Maria, who, after wintering in Rome, had returned home
+with his Duchess in May, entered the Ferrarese ere July was over,
+at the head of six thousand infantry, and one thousand five hundred
+horse, and quickly became master of a great part of that duchy. But
+this army was unequal to operations against the city of Ferrara,
+strong in its surrounding marshes; and an expected contingent of
+ten thousand Swiss were intercepted by Chaumont, the French general
+(called Ciamonte by Guicciardini,) and sent back to their mountains
+by the combined means of force and gold. The naval armament against
+Genoa, then in the hands of Louis, proving also a failure, and the
+Cardinal Legate conducting his department as unsatisfactorily as
+before, the Duke of Urbino heard with joy that the Pontiff was on
+his way to the scene of operations. On the 15th of September he
+passed through Pesaro, leaving the Apostolic benediction, and various
+indulgences, in acknowledgment of his enthusiastic reception. When
+he reached Bologna, he found Modena, which had lately surrendered to
+his army, threatened by Chaumont in person, and a strong feeling
+abroad among the ecclesiastical officers, that they had been deluded
+by the Legate, who prevented them from clenching their success by the
+capture of Reggio, and had wiled them to a fruitless demonstration
+before Ferrara, thereby not only wasting precious time, but exposing
+the army to great hazard, and leaving Modena and Bologna uncovered.
+The Pope immediately directed his nephew to send the Cardinal, under
+arrest, to Bologna, which he did, with every mark of consideration;
+but the extraordinary influence which that sneaking spirit exercised
+over the frank and open-hearted Julius, diverted his suspicions, and
+was rewarded with new favours.
+
+The unpromising aspect of his affairs, which brought the Pontiff in
+person to Bologna, did not improve. Disappointed of the assistance
+he looked for from Switzerland and Naples, feebly supported by his
+allies of Venice and Mantua, his troops were reduced to a defensive
+position, fatal to the prestige which had attended their first
+successes. Encouraged by this state of matters, and by the approach
+of Chaumont's powerful army, the friends of the exiled Bentivoglii
+began to agitate for their restoration to the sovereignty of Bologna.
+Nor were these the worst mortifications awaiting the proud spirit
+of Julius. The clergy of France had met at Lyons, and decided upon
+convoking a general council at Pisa, to sit in judgment upon his
+conduct, a movement already openly supported by Louis, the Emperor,
+and Florence, and by five members of the Sacred College. These
+anxieties fretted his fractious temperament into an illness, so
+serious at his advanced age, as to threaten a fatal termination;
+and in the prospect of thus losing the mainspring of the war, his
+confederates were little inclined to compromise themselves by fresh
+exertions. His courtiers, too, alarmed at the prospect of clinging to
+a falling cause, beset him with persuasions to obtain a truce on any
+terms. But they mistook the character with whom they had to deal.
+In deference to their representations, he opened a negotiation with
+the French general, wherein, far from assuming a suppliant air, he
+prescribed as a preliminary stipulation, the sacrifice of the Duke of
+Ferrara to his vengeance, as a rebellious vassal. Thus passing
+
+ "Out of the speech of peace that bears such grace
+ Into the harsh and boisterous tongue of war,"
+
+he sent a summary threat to his Venetian allies, and to the Marquis
+of Mantua, that unless their promised contingents instantly marched
+to his support, he would arrange matters with the French King for
+their extermination.
+
+The moral influence of this indomitable courage retrieved his
+affairs. The Venetian, Mantuan, and Neapolitan succours successfully
+and quickly arrived; many small free companies flocked to his
+standard; and the Bolognese factions postponed their movement till a
+fitter moment. Breaking off all negotiations, he thundered censures
+against Chaumont and the Duke of Ferrara, and ordered his now ample
+army to assume offensive operations. His physical energy was at the
+same time restored, and the threatened eclipse proved but a passing
+cloud, from which his indomitable genius burst forth with renewed
+brilliancy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+ The Duke routed at Bologna from the Cardinal of Pavia's
+ treason, whom he assassinates--He is prosecuted, but
+ finally absolved and reconciled to the Pope--He reduces
+ Bologna--Is invested with Pesaro--Death of Julius II.
+
+
+In December the Duke of Urbino returned the challenge to a general
+engagement, which Chaumont had boastfully given him a few months
+before, and, after carrying some places of minor importance, encamped
+before Mirandola. To the surprise and no small scandal of all, the
+Pontiff, scarcely recovered from a dangerous malady, and braving
+the unusual rigours of the season, repaired to head-quarters. In
+reply to representations of his advisers against a step hazardous
+to his health, and unusual, if not unbecoming, in the head of the
+Christian Church, he urged the necessity of vigorously, and at any
+personal risks, meeting the disgraceful and schismatic proposal for
+a council at Pisa,[*240] by proving himself both able and willing to
+perform the duties of his high office, in wielding its temporal and
+spiritual arms against all enemies and perturbators of the Church,
+as well as in maintaining its doctrines, and supporting its friends.
+This ill-judged decision is said to have been strongly prompted by
+his evil genius the Cardinal of Pavia, who, speculating upon the
+chance of its cutting short his master's life, made sure of, at all
+events, turning to the advantage of his French friends the command
+at Bologna, which upon the Pope's departure would once more devolve
+upon him as legate. Guicciardini further charges him with promoting
+the bootless demonstration against Mirandola, in order to divert the
+army from Ferrara, whose inadequate defences might have rendered it
+an easy as well as important conquest. In the first days of the year,
+Julius reached the camp, attended by three cardinals, and took up
+his quarters in a cottage exposed to the fire of the walls. It is
+stated in an old chronicle, that a cannon ball having fallen close
+to his pavilion, the enraged Pontiff ordered it to be sent to Loreto
+as an _ex voto_ offering, and threatened to deliver over the place
+to a sack. Severe cold and deep snow in nowise daunted him, and his
+presence alarming the garrison, whilst the besiegers were stimulated
+to exertion by his persuasions, the town was soon reduced, but, by
+extraordinary exertions on the part of Francesco Maria, was saved
+from pillage.[*241] Its garrison had been commanded by a natural
+daughter of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio,[*242] who, on being rudely asked
+by the Legate, in presence of Julius, if she were the woman who would
+hold the place against the Pontiff, replied, "Against you I could
+easily have defended it, but not against him."
+
+[Footnote *240: Little is known of the steps which led to the Council
+of Pisa. See some interesting letters printed in CREIGHTON,
+_op. cit._, vol. V., p. 329 _et seq._]
+
+[Footnote *241: Cf. SANUTO, _Diario_, vol. XI., p. 721 _et
+seq._ It was the Pope who threatened pillage. CREIGHTON,
+_op. cit._, vol. V., p. 143.]
+
+[Footnote *242: She was the widow of the Count Ludovico of Mirandola.]
+
+Julius, satisfied with this success, retired to Ravenna: whilst his
+nephew, who about this time was warned by the Doge of Venice of a
+plan concerted by the Cardinal of Rouen for poisoning him, led the
+army towards Ferrara. As the best means of relieving that town,
+and perhaps in concert with the treacherous Legate, Trivulzio, who
+since Chaumont's death, commanded the French troops, amounting to
+fifteen thousand lances, and seven thousand infantry, now marched
+upon Bologna, avoiding a battle, which the Duke of Urbino would
+gladly have hazarded. The latter, however, by forced marches arrived
+there before him, and encamped at Casalecchio, three miles south
+of the city. The French army was by this time at Ponte Laino, about
+five miles north-west from the gate; and the Duke lost no time in
+advising the Legate of the position of affairs, offering to throw two
+or three thousand men and some artillery into Bologna. After losing
+much valuable time in consultation with some of the citizens, the
+Cardinal declined these as unnecessary. This answer appears to have
+converted into certainty the suspicions which Francesco Maria had
+long entertained of his coadjutor's good faith. He knew the garrison,
+consisting of about twelve hundred troops, to be utterly inadequate
+to resist the French; he was also aware that the exiled Bentivoglii,
+then hovering about at the head of a strong band of adherents, were
+eagerly looked for by their numerous partisans within the walls, to
+whom the Cardinal had rendered his ecclesiastical authority doubly
+odious, by a series of oppressive measures totally inconsistent with
+its usual mild sway, and intended, no doubt, to promote his own
+treasonable ends, by alienating the inhabitants from the established
+order of things. Strongly impressed with the urgency of the crisis,
+the young Duke persisted in his intention of reinforcing the
+garrison, but some older officers, persuaded by renewed assurances
+from the Cardinal, overruled him in council, and their march was
+postponed until morning,--a delay fatal to the cause, and pregnant
+with complicated evils.
+
+So little was the Duke of Urbino satisfied with this resolution,
+that he posted videttes under the walls, and spent the night in
+reconnoitring with his staff. Midnight had just passed when a
+confused murmur from the city attracted his attention. The word
+_Chiesa!_ or church, seeming to prevail amid the din, he had hope
+that the Legate's authority was maintained; but presently the
+watchword being heard more distinctly, it proved to be _Sega!
+Sega!_ signifying "The saw! the saw!" a badge and war-cry of the
+Bentivoglii. After some time lost in painful suspense, it was
+ascertained from the sentinels that the French and the Bentivoglii
+were masters of the place. Aware of his critical situation, but
+retaining his presence of mind, Francesco Maria gave instant orders
+for a retreat, fixing a point of rendezvous five miles on the road
+towards Romagna. Thither he marched his cavalry in perfect order,
+by the level country, and was followed by the Venetian and other
+infantry along the high ground. The latter, being set upon at once
+by the enemy and the country people, fell into confusion, and, but
+for the Duke's strenuous persuasions, and a successful charge which
+he made with his cavalry upon their assailants, their officers
+would have given way to a general panic, and the army must have
+been annihilated. The coolness of their juvenile commander so far
+reassured them that the retiring army encamped on the morrow between
+Forlì and Cesena, without much further loss than their artillery
+and baggage.[243] The vast quantity of booty obtained for this
+misconducted affair the nick-name of "donkey-day."
+
+[Footnote 243: So say the Urbino writers. Guicciardini characterises
+the escape of the army as a panic-rout, in which the whole
+camp-equipage and colours, including the ducal standard, fell into
+the enemy's hands. Sanuto says that 200 men-at-arms were slain.]
+
+Bologna was lost on the night of the 21st of May, and, beyond all
+question, it fell from the Legate's fool-hardiness or treason. The
+catastrophe which followed it called forth a bitterness of feeling
+fatal to impartial judgment, and the historians whom we have chiefly
+followed were friendly to the Duke of Urbino, and consequently
+prejudiced against the Cardinal.[244] Yet, after full allowance
+for this circumstance, there seems no reasonable doubt that the
+latter secretly favoured the French interests, and neutralised those
+measures by which Francesco Maria would have saved the city. He
+placed the gates in charge of noted partisans of the exiled family,
+by whom they were opened after nightfall to receive the Bentivoglii,
+followed by the main body of the French army. It was even alleged
+that he had previously sent away his most valuable effects; at all
+events, he wanted courage to share the success which had crowned
+his treason, and, in real or pretended panic, escaped upon a mule,
+disguised in a lay habit, and attended by only two followers. Nothing
+could palliate his flight without an attempt to warn the Duke of his
+danger, or to concert measures for the preservation of his army; and
+his whole behaviour lays him open to the suspicion of an intention
+to sacrifice both. Against such a combination of untoward events
+the friends of the Church could not struggle, and the mass of the
+Bolognese, smarting under recent oppression, welcomed their former
+rulers with joy, and vented their insensate fury in smashing the
+bronze statue of the Pope, which Michael Angelo had executed in the
+short period of fifteen months, and which was afterwards cast into a
+cannon bearing the Pontiff's name.
+
+[Footnote 244: Not only Leoni and Reposati, but the MSS. in the
+Urbino library, which refer to these transactions, must be so
+regarded. We have compared all of these, especially Baldi's life of
+this Duke, and the defence of him against Guicciardini, which he
+left prepared for the press in No. 906 of the Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 924
+contains the pleading of the younger Beroaldo in favour of the Duke,
+when charged with the Cardinal of Pavia's murder. No. 1023, art. v.,
+and No. 819, fol. 335, the former by Monsignor Paolo Maria Bishop of
+Cagli, the latter anonymous, have supplied us with some new facts.
+Guicciardini, admitting in other passages the Legate's bad faith and
+his antipathy to Francesco Maria, blames his deficiency of courage or
+judgment in the Bologna affair, and lashes the aggravated vices of
+his character. Roscoe has not here exercised his usual acumen.]
+
+From Castel del Rio, a petty fief which his family had retained
+after losing the seigneury of Imola, the Cardinal on the 22nd sent
+courier after courier to Julius at Ravenna, preoccupying his ears
+with representations against his nephew, upon whose cowardice he cast
+the whole blame of the recent disaster. The latter, having sought
+an audience of the Pope, found him alike prepossessed against him,
+and deaf to his self-justifications; indeed, his attempts to unmask
+the traitor were denounced as suggestions of envy and malice, and
+he was superseded in his command. A temper less forbearing might
+well be incensed by this climax of injury, at the hands of one whose
+bad faith and malignity had long rankled in his fiery bosom. To
+see his uncle at once sacrificed and cajoled, to be himself made
+the scapegoat, while the true criminal was trusted and honoured,
+were trials beyond endurance, even apart from the taunt by which
+they were aggravated. As he quitted the presence-chamber, towering
+with just indignation, and accompanied by two officers and as many
+orderlies, he unluckily met the Legate on his mule, attended by a
+hundred light-horse. Regardless of his escort, the Duke rushed upon
+him and plunged a poignard into his entrails, which passed through to
+his saddle.[*245] The blow was repeated by the officers, his guard
+attempting neither redress nor vengeance, and in a few minutes the
+Cardinal had gone to his dread account, exclaiming repeatedly in
+Latin, "From crime comes mischief." This deplorable event happened
+on the 24th of May.[246] Its details are variously stated, and one
+account says that the rencontre occurred ere the Duke had seen
+his Holiness, while the Legate was returning from an audience; on
+the whole, we have preferred that of Giraldi, whose uncle was an
+eye-witness.
+
+[Footnote *245: The account of Paris de Granis (given by
+CREIGHTON, _op. cit._, vol. V., pp. 305-19) somewhat differs
+from that given here.]
+
+[Footnote 246: Several letters, quoted by Sanuto, MS. Diary, XII.,
+158-161, say the 23rd, being Saturday; but Saturday fell on the 24th.
+See Filippo Giraldi, Vat. Ottob. MSS. No. 3153, f. 90.]
+
+Francesco Maria was quickly aware of the horror of this outrage,
+and immediately after arranging matters in the camp, retired to his
+state, to repent, it is hoped, as well as to abide its results.[247]
+The sacrilegious nature of the offence might indeed be palliated
+in the letter, by the lay dress which the Cardinal chanced to wear,
+but his episcopal dignity and holy character as vicegerent of the
+papal authority were notorious, and the blind partiality of Julius
+seemed to have increased as his misconduct became more palpable. The
+situation of that old man was indeed calculated to bend even his
+stern nature. He had committed an enterprise of doubtful policy, and
+against which a large portion of the Church was openly declared,
+to his most trusted friend and to his favourite nephew. The design
+had utterly miscarried; Bologna, acquired by him so happily, was
+lost; a victorious enemy was within a few leagues of him; and his
+friend had been murdered by his nephew, after mutual recriminations
+of treachery. The attendant cardinals and prelates, jealous of a
+more favoured brother, exulted in the deed while condemning its
+manner; but their master is described by Paris de Grassis as giving
+way to the most exaggerated demonstrations of excessive grief,
+renouncing food and shutting himself out from converse. After hastily
+authorising negotiations with Trivulzio, he set out for his capital
+in a litter. At Rimini he was startled by a formal citation to appear
+before the Council of Pisa, and passed through Pesaro on the 11th of
+June. But on reaching Rome his spirit had rallied. On the 18th of
+July he summoned a general council at the Lateran, and declared that
+of Pisa schismatic and null; he thundered excommunications against
+Louis, the Florentines, and all its adherents; he deprived the
+cardinals who attended it; and declared war anew against France, as
+an enemy of the Church and of Italy. About the same time he suspended
+his nephew from all his dignities, and summoned him to answer at
+Rome for the assassination of the Cardinal of Pavia.
+
+[Footnote 247: We obtain a curious glimpse of his home-circle at
+this critical moment from the correspondence of Bembo, who, having
+just quitted Urbino on his way to Venice, wrote thus to Fregoso from
+Cesena, where he was waiting a passage by sea. "But what, I say,
+are you and your ladies, and the Duke, and the rest of you grandees
+about? What is my Ippolita doing? Is she entangled in the toils of
+Secundio or Trivulzio? Oh dull and drivelling me, who, abandoning
+my loves to the rapine and plunder of men of war, am here sitting
+on a sandy shore more pluckless and besotted than the very shells!
+Many salutations in my name to both their Highnesses, and to Emilia,
+and the lively Margherita, and to Ippolita of many admirers, and to
+my rival Alessandro Trivulzio." This badinage was surely ill-timed,
+within a month of the defeat of Francesco Maria and the Cardinal's
+assassination.]
+
+The accounts we have of the proceedings against the Duke of Urbino
+upon this charge are somewhat contradictory. Baldi says that his
+impetuous temper, ill-brooking the severity of one whom he was
+conscious of having honestly served, tempted him to throw off his
+uncle and seek an engagement under Louis; and the monitory issued
+against him by Leo X. in 1516 charges him with employing Count
+Castiglione on such a mission: but this foolish idea quickly passing,
+he obeyed the citation. On his arrival, attended by Castiglione, he
+was put under arrest, and obliged to give bail in 100,000 scudi to
+await the sentence of a commission of enquiry, consisting of six
+cardinals, one of whom was Giovanni de' Medici, afterwards Leo X.
+The process was long and complicated, for the Duke had many proofs,
+oral and documentary, to adduce of the Legate's secret intelligence
+with the French and the Bentivoglii. The pleading in his defence,
+by Filippo Beroaldo the younger, has already been referred to as in
+the Vatican library, and is a very remarkable declamation. Instead
+of urging the hot blood of one-and-twenty in extenuation of a
+sudden outbreak of fury under strong provocation, it justifies the
+assassination as merited by the Cardinal's notorious and nefarious
+treasons. Representing his life and morals in the darkest colours,
+it brands his boyhood as base; his puberty as passed in flagitious
+intercourse with bawds and gamblers; his youth as debauched by
+bribery, peculation and sacrilege; his mature age as degraded by
+the sacrifice of friends, the plunder of provinces, the open sale
+of sacred offices. It charges him with having had the throats cut
+of four eminent citizens of Bologna, against whom no accusation was
+brought, and leaving their bodies in the piazza; and further alleges
+that, having heard of the beautiful daughter-in-law of one of these
+victims, he sent for her to his presence, when his attendants,
+alarmed by fearful cries, broke open the doors and discovered him
+in the act of violating her person. After narrating his manifold
+treacheries towards the Pontiff and the Duke, the advocate, far from
+palliating the homicide, boasts of it as a public service, and,
+declaring that Francesco Maria was an instrument in the Almighty's
+hand for the great and benevolent purpose of ridding mankind of
+such a monster, only laments, for the public weal, that the holy
+inspiration which dictated it had not been sooner vouchsafed to this
+"liberator of the commonwealth." Lowering his tone, however, towards
+the close of this inflated oration, he appeals to the judges to spare
+a hero whose promise of future usefulness was precious to Italy,
+and in whose acquittal many princely personages were interested.
+The fierce philippic of Beroaldo was reproduced under a poetic garb
+in the satirical ode of Giovio, which Roscoe has printed. Neither
+authority can be deemed unprejudiced, but public feeling seems to
+have confirmed these invectives, and even Guicciardini attempts not
+to answer for the Cardinal's good faith.
+
+Whilst this investigation was experiencing the law's delay, Julius
+was attacked by a quartan ague of a dangerous character. With wonted
+wilfulness, he refused all proper nourishment, eating only fruit,
+until his constitution was nearly exhausted. A fainting fit having
+occasioned rumours of his death, tumults arose, but were vigorously
+suppressed by the Duke of Urbino, who by a happy device got the
+Cardinal of S. Giorgio to carry him the viaticum. The apparition by
+his bedside of the person supposed likely to succeed him at once
+recalled his energies, and induced him to adopt the most likely means
+of disappointing such expectations. He therefore no longer hesitated
+to eat an egg, into which two yolks had been introduced by the Duke's
+order, that he might take twice as much sustenance as he was aware
+of; and from that hour his strength rallied. A deep-rooted affection
+for his nephew, rekindled by this double service, prompted him to a
+reconciliation, and in his first burst of gratitude he granted him
+absolution for his crime, and sent him home with a donative of 12,000
+scudi. But as his Holiness had been induced to this reconciliation
+by personal favour, and perhaps by at length perceiving the Legate's
+faithlessness, Francesco Maria declined availing himself of such an
+acquittal; and the process for murder, resumed at its own instance,
+hung over him until, on the 9th of December, a consistorial bull
+issued, fully absolving him of the charge.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+But to return to the seat of war, whence this untoward incident
+had removed the Duke of Urbino at a moment of peculiar interest.
+The King of Spain having contributed a powerful contingent, the
+new armament against Louis was placed under command of Raimondo
+di Cardona, viceroy of Naples, with the Cardinal de' Medici as
+legate. The Venetians, as before, were parties to this league, as
+well as Henry VIII.; Florence, still in the hands of its republican
+faction, and the now restored Bentivoglii, supported the French;
+whilst Maximilian, though its nominal adherent, was as usual equally
+inefficient in war or peace. Romagna again became the destined scene
+of the new struggle, and there, as in Lombardy, its chances proved
+adverse to Louis. The Duke of Urbino, apparently from an unworthy
+jealousy, refused to act under the Viceroy's command, but he gave
+free passage to the army on its route through his state, supplying it
+with provisions, and permitting his troops to march under its banner.
+He even repaired to Fossombrone, to testify respect and hospitality
+to the general, but, suddenly taking alarm, and suspecting sinister
+intentions, he withdrew to Urbino in a somewhat ungracious manner.
+Light may be thrown upon these eccentric movements from the
+correspondence of Castiglione, by which it would seem that Julius,
+relapsing into suspicion, had about this time spoken of his nephew
+as a traitor, who deserved to be quartered for maintaining, through
+Count Baldassare, a secret understanding with France and Ferrara;
+indeed, that he even diminished his company by sixty men-at-arms,
+and threatened to place the Duc de Termes over his head. It is not
+unlikely that, disgusted by this new insult, he may have intrigued
+with the French party in a moment of weakness. At all events,
+so deeply was the Pope mortified, that, in an access of renewed
+irritation, he declared him rebel, and absolved his subjects from
+their allegiance. Francesco Maria was consequently absent from the
+bloody field of Ravenna, where his early friend the chivalrous Gaston
+de Foix met a heroic but premature death. The French army which he
+commanded paid dearly, by his loss and that of their best troops,
+for a nominal victory which eventually proved a ruinous reverse. It
+was gained by the Duke of Ferrara's well-timed charge, and of forty
+thousand left dead in the field, above half had fought under the
+lilies of France. Indeed, but for the Viceroy's disgraceful flight,
+in a panic by some attributed to his suspicion of the Duke of Urbino,
+it might have been considered a drawn battle. So great was his terror
+that he passed through Pesaro with but two attendants, leaving his
+Spaniards to regain the Neapolitan frontier as they might.
+
+This remarkable engagement took place on Easter Day, the 11th of
+April, but four days after the Pontiff had issued the bull against
+his nephew.[*248] Notwithstanding this fresh provocation, the latter
+afforded every support to Cardona's troops, who,
+
+ "Masterless, without a banner fled";
+
+and, after placing his family out of harm's way, in S. Leo, hastened
+to Rome to console the Pope. But his Holiness was in no melting or
+wavering mood. With the brief remark, "At all events, I have united
+our enemies," he quickly repaired the recent breach by recalling
+the bull against Francesco Maria, and presented him with the baton
+of command. The Duke, remedying past misunderstandings by new
+exertions, hurried to Romagna to rally the broken battalions of the
+league, and to raise fresh levies. Ere the French could recover
+from the paralysing effects of their dearly bought success, he had
+regained that country, and, on the 21st of June, took possession
+of Bologna without a blow. Following up his advantage, he mastered
+with equal ease Modena, Parma, and Piacenza; but Reggio offered a
+resistance worthy of the heroic ages. It was held for the Duke of
+Ferrara by Count Alessandro Ferrofino, who, having detected some of
+his soldiers attempting to spike the guns, set them astride upon a
+mortar, and blew them into the air, assuring the bystanders that
+he most willingly would serve his Holiness in the same way. When
+ecclesiastical censures were thundered against the garrison, he
+made its chaplain return a pop-gun excommunication of the Pontiff.
+After two months had passed in this bootless struggle, Alfonso sent
+his countersign to the commandant as an authority to surrender;
+but, aware that his master was then at Rome, in the Pope's power,
+the Count returned it, vowing that he would not yield till hunger
+had driven him to eat off his right hand; adding, however, that, if
+his Highness had a fancy to give away the fortress, he was ready to
+consign it, with all its contents, by inventory, to whoever might
+be commissioned to relieve him of the command. This proposal was
+complied with, and the indomitable captain marched out his little
+garrison, with a safe conduct from the Pope whom he had defied.[249]
+
+[Footnote *248: The battle of Ravenna is fully described by
+GUICCIARDINI, _Opere Inedite_ (Firenze, 1857), vol. VI., p.
+36 _et seq._, in letters from his father and brother. The French had
+everything in their hands, the route was complete. They should have
+pressed on to Rome and Naples, and have reduced the Pope to terms and
+annihilated the Spanish power in Italy. But Gaston was in his grave.
+Cf. CREIGHTON, _op. cit._, vol. V., p. 168.]
+
+[Footnote 249: Giraldi Dialogo, Vat. Ottob. MSS. No. 3153.]
+
+The Emperor, ever ready to abandon a falling cause, withdrew his
+contingent from the French service, and acknowledged the authority
+of the Lateran council, which had been opened on the 3rd of May. The
+Duke of Ferrara, too, thought it full time to make his peace with the
+Pope; while Louis, thus abandoned, could no longer maintain a footing
+in Italy, where but a few strongholds remained in his possession; and
+Milan was restored to Maximiliano Sforza, son of Ludovico il Moro.
+The overtures of Alfonso were, however, unavailing, being met in no
+generous spirit by his ecclesiastical overlord. On proceeding to Rome
+to plead his own cause, he was called upon to surrender his fief to
+the Holy See, and was treated as a prisoner. By the energetic aid
+of the Colonna chiefs, he escaped to his impenetrable swamps, and
+hastened to accredit Ariosto as his minister to appease the Pontiff,
+a mission which totally failed, the poet's silver tongue having
+barely obtained grace for himself as envoy of a rebel. Francesco
+Maria marched, by order of Julius, towards the Polesine, but malaria
+prevailing there after recent inundations, fever ravaged his army,
+and their leader averted the fate of his grandfather in these fens,
+by a timely retreat to his mountain air. We are gravely told by
+Giraldi that "the house of Ferrara mysteriously bears the name of
+the Deity" [_Est_], an idea which their repeated escapes by similar
+apparently special interpositions of Providence may have suggested.
+
+It was during the Ferrarese expedition, and avowedly at the Pope's
+urgent desire, that the Medici were re-established at Florence by
+the league. The Duke of Urbino's absence from that enterprise has
+been accounted for by Guicciardini and Giovio, as the result of
+personal feeling against the Cardinal Giovanni, and as contrary
+to his uncle's instructions. This innuendo becomes important from
+being the first symptom of misunderstanding between the dynasties of
+Urbino and Florence, and as apparently the origin of Guicciardini's
+prepossessions against Francesco Maria, which, adopted by subsequent
+writers, especially by Roscoe and Sismondi, have led to very general
+misrepresentations of his after policy and motives. The whole
+intercourse of that Duke with the Medici, down to 1515, affords a
+virtual contradiction of latent enmity at this juncture, and the
+special charge in question is inconsistent with the facts stated by
+Leoni, who avers that, had Francesco Maria not been then engaged in
+operations against Ferrara, he would gladly have accompanied the
+combined forces to Florence, and that he actually connived at their
+carrying with them a portion of his artillery, contrary to private
+instructions from his Holiness, who, when the moment for action
+arrived, is alleged to have favoured the independence of Florence,
+perhaps under some vague apprehension of eventual dangers from
+Medicean ambition.
+
+Italy, now freed from ultramontane oppressors, saw Milan restored
+to its native princes, and Florence again in the hands of her most
+influential family. Thus far had the favourite aims of Julius been
+attained; but, instead of hailing these events as the basis of a
+general pacification befitting his advanced years, he fretted in the
+recollection that Naples yet owned a foreign yoke, and that Louis was
+still intent upon vindicating his title to a Cisalpine dominion. The
+convulsive throes of a stranded leviathan were no unfit parallel to
+the versatile efforts wherein the old man consumed his waning powers.
+But, in the multifarious projects which agitated his yet elastic
+mind, the interests of his again favourite nephew were not forgotten.
+A brief of the 10th of January, 1513, granted to the latter plenary
+remission for all his undutiful errors against the Church, as a
+prelude to new favours, which must now be detailed.[250]
+
+[Footnote 250: The preceding account of the judicial process, and of
+the Duke's conduct in regard to the campaign of Ravenna, has been
+chiefly taken from Baldi, as his narrative is more intelligible
+and consistent with the best historical authorities, than the
+indistinct and garbled statements of Leoni and Riposati, who gloss
+over such facts as they cannot satisfactorily clear up. Guicciardini
+asserts that Francesco Maria set his peasantry upon the troops of
+Cardona as they fled through the duchy from the rout of Ravenna, a
+statement more reconcileable with that author's prejudice than with
+probability. The legal evidence of both the Duke's absolutions will
+be found in No. V. of the Appendix, and Giraldi is our authority for
+some minor details. We have purposely avoided mixing up with this
+personal narrative the more general events of the French war. They
+are succinctly given by Roscoe, _Leo X._, ch. viii. and ix.]
+
+His uncle had entertained a scheme of purchasing for him the vague
+rights over Siena which the Emperors had long, though ineffectually,
+asserted; but a more hopeful expedient for his aggrandisement
+opportunely presented itself. We have, in a former chapter, narrated
+the circumstances under which Alessandro Sforza became invested
+with Pesaro in 1445. His grandson Giovanni, the outraged husband
+of Lucrezia Borgia, died in 1510, leaving, by his second marriage,
+an only son Costanzo, about a year old. Galeazzo, natural brother
+of Giovanni, who was himself of illegitimate birth, governed the
+state, as tutor of this nephew, until the child's death, in August,
+1512, and so entirely acquired the good will of the people, that
+they proclaimed him their seigneur. The odious tyranny exercised by
+all petty princes of Italy is a fertile theme for dreamy poets and
+philosophising liberals; but, whilst the relative oppression was much
+the same under all forms of government in the Peninsula, personal
+safety was perhaps best maintained in those least exposed to internal
+convulsion. From such shocks the minor sovereignties were more exempt
+than the republics, and the residence of a court was beneficial as
+well as flattering to the community; hence the fall of an hereditary
+dynasty was, in almost every instance, lamented by its subjects.
+These are not, indeed, necessarily the best judges of their own
+welfare; yet their deliberate and repeated convictions, when free
+from the influence of demagogues, and tested by impartial history,
+can hardly be remote from truth.
+
+The investiture of Pesaro had legally lapsed by the young Costanzo's
+death, and although, in many instances, the assumption of similar
+rights by illegitimate claimants had been passively permitted by the
+Church, Galeazzo would have gladly shrunk from a contest which the
+avowed policy of the reigning Pope rendered inevitable and hopeless.
+Tempted, however, by the unanimous support of the people, he assumed
+on his own account the authority he till now had held in behalf of
+his nephew. Julius instantly recalled the Duke of Urbino from Lugo,
+to commence operations for the reduction of Pesaro, with Cardinal
+Sigismondo Gonzaga as legate. After a brief resistance, Galeazzo
+surrendered the citadel, on the 30th of October, by a capitulation
+which insured him an annuity of 1000 scudi of gold, and the allodial
+holdings of his family. These he conveyed to the Duke for 20,000
+ducats, including the Villa Imperiale, and on the 9th of November he
+quitted Pesaro, attended by nearly the whole population, who bewailed
+with bitter tears the extinction of a dynasty to whom they were
+fondly attached. The melancholy procession accompanied their lord as
+far as La Cattolica, from whence he retired to Milan, and there met a
+violent death in the following year.
+
+The Cardinal Legate remained at Pesaro to administer the government
+in behalf of the Holy See, and the Duke returned home. Julius had
+already made one exception to his policy of bringing the minor fiefs
+under direct sway of the Church, by renewing the investiture of
+Urbino in favour of his nephew, and the opportunity was too tempting
+for repeating a measure recommended by the ties of natural affection.
+The unmerited suspicions and hasty severity which he had manifested
+towards Francesco Maria seemed to warrant some consideration; there
+was also an arrear of about 10,000 scudi of pay and advances, by
+the late and present Dukes, in the wars of the Church, which her
+exhausted treasury was unable to discharge, but for which it was
+desirable to secure compensation ere the tiara should encircle a less
+friendly brow.[251] Accordingly, one of the Pontiff's latest acts was
+to gain the consent of the consistory of his nephew's investiture in
+Pesaro, to be held in vicariat for the annual payment of a silver
+vase, a pound in weight. The bull to this effect is dated the 16th
+of February, 1513, and on the 21st his busy spirit was at rest.
+Three weeks later, the Duke and Duchess of Urbino took possession of
+Pesaro, and were flatteringly welcomed. Indeed, the people, finding
+the fate of the Sforza sealed, appeared to have looked about for any
+means of emancipation from ecclesiastical rule; and, ere Galeazzo had
+quitted the capital, the council entertained a proposal to petition
+the Sacred College in favour of Francesco Maria as his successor.
+This step, whether suggested by Julius or not, greatly strengthened
+his hands in carrying through the arrangement which he had at heart,
+and it enabled the citizens to receive their new lord with peculiarly
+good grace.
+
+[Footnote 251: Yet Julius was reported to have left in St. Angelo,
+400,000 ducats of gold, besides jewels, and no state debts. Vat. Urb.
+MSS., No. 1023, f. 297.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+ Election of Leo X.--His ambitious projects--Birth of Prince
+ Guidobaldo of Urbino--The Pontiff's designs upon that
+ state, which he gives to his nephew--The Duke retires to
+ Mantua.
+
+
+The Duke's influence, as head of the della Rovere family, was
+paramount in the conclave, composed as it was of relations, friends,
+and creatures of the late Pope in overwhelming majority. The election
+was therefore to a great degree in his hands, and when it fell
+upon the Cardinal de' Medici, he rejoiced in the elevation of a
+personal friend. He and his brother Giuliano, their nephew Lorenzo,
+and their cousin Giulio, afterwards Clement VII., had been welcome
+guests at Urbino, during their family's long exile from Florence.
+Indeed, we have noticed Giuliano as one of the most brilliant
+ornaments of Guidobaldo's court, where he resided so long that the
+apartment devoted to his use still bears his name in the palace. The
+restoration of the Medici to supremacy in their native city had been
+the doing of Julius; the choice of their cardinal as his successor
+was the act of his nephew.[*252] Thus was the bond of friendship
+confirmed by ties of gratitude. But from such fetters princes are
+often prone to assume an exemption, and Francesco Maria was destined
+to experience that they are not more binding upon pontiffs.[253]
+
+[Footnote *252: This is rather vague. We are not told what Francesco
+Maria did that justifies Dennistoun in saying that the election of
+Leo X. was his act. I can find no evidence of Francesco Maria's
+personal influence in the conclave. If the election of Leo was an
+arrangement, it was Cardinal Riario to whom it was due. The charge of
+ingratitude therefore falls to the ground.]
+
+[Footnote 253: To inaugurate the new pontificate, and mark the
+contrast of Alexander and Julius with their successor,--its Maecenas,
+Agostino Chigi, erected a triumphal arch, inscribed,--
+
+ "Olim habuit Cypris sua tempora; tempora Mavors
+ Olim habuit; sua nunc tempora Pallas habet."
+
+ Venus here reigned supreme, by Mars displaced;
+ Our happier age by Pallas' sway is graced.
+
+To this doggerel there quickly appeared the rejoinder,--
+
+ "Mars fuit, est Pallas, Cypria semper ero."
+
+ Once Mars, Minerva now, but Venus still.]
+
+Leo X. has been one of the most fortunate of men. His all but
+sovereign birth was still more distinguished by the merit of his
+family, to which history has done the amplest justice. His natural
+talents and tastes were not only of a high order, but were perfectly
+adapted to the golden age in which he lived, and to the high career
+for which he was destined. His rapid and premature advancement to
+the first dignities of the Church stimulated instead of relaxing his
+mental discipline. He obtained the triple tiara at the unprecedented
+age of thirty-seven, and wore it during the brightest period of the
+papacy. Though cut short in the flower of manhood, he lived long
+enough to link his name with the most splendid era of modern history,
+and although his measures accelerated the crisis of the Reformation,
+he died ere their seed had borne that dreaded fruit. In fine, his
+eventful life has been celebrated by at least one biographer worthy
+of the theme. On the wide field which such a character opens we shall
+have little opportunity to expatiate. Our narrative has to do with
+its darker shadows, and to hold up this Pontiff as the implacable
+foe of a dynasty which had singular claims upon his favour and
+consideration.
+
+[Illustration: _Anderson_
+
+LEO X
+
+_After the picture by Raphael in the Pitti Gallery, Florence_]
+
+The general estimate of Julius and of his successor has been shrewdly
+conceived and tersely expressed by Sismondi. "The projects of the
+former had prospered beyond the ordinary calculations of policy;
+his impetuosity, by surprising his enemies and throwing all their
+plans into confusion, had often availed him more than prudence
+could have done; he had also extended the temporal possessions of
+the Church beyond what any of his predecessors had effected. Yet he
+had caused so many mischiefs, he had occasioned such vast bloodshed,
+he had so swamped Italy with foreign armies, even while he pretended
+to rid her of the barbarians, that his death was hailed as a public
+blessing, and the cardinals responded to the feeling of Rome, Italy,
+and all Christendom in desiring that his successor should in no
+respect resemble him. As he had been old, restless, impatient, and
+passionate, they sought to replace him with one less aged, and whose
+tastes were for literature, pleasure, and epicurean indulgences....
+Leo was quite the opposite of his predecessor; his temperament
+was far less stern, irascible, or unforgiving. Towards intimate
+associates his manners were singularly cheerful and gracious. The
+protection he extended to letters and arts, the favours which he
+lavished upon savants, poets, and artists, drew from all Europe a
+chorus of commendation. But, on the other hand, his character fell
+very short of that of Julius in frankness and elevation; all his
+negotiations were stained by deceit and perfidy. Whilst he talked
+of peace he fanned the flame of war; no pity for the inhabitants of
+Italy, crushed by barbarian hosts, ever influenced his conduct. His
+ambition, nowise inferior to that of his predecessor, was not veiled,
+even to himself, by motives equally respectable. His object was not
+the independence of Italy, nor the aggrandisement of the Church, but
+the advancement of his own family."
+
+The Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, second son of Lorenzo the
+Magnificent, was elected Pope on the 11th of March, 1513, and
+was crowned on the 19th. The Duke of Urbino had repaired to Rome
+to offer his congratulations in person, and attended the solemn
+installation at the Lateran, with twenty-four mounted gentlemen
+and as many footmen; but mingling regard for the dead with respect
+for the living, he and all his suite appeared in black velvet and
+satin, as mourning for his uncle. The device worn on the Pontiff's
+liveries at this pageant, was in harmony with his previous character
+and present professions: under a golden "yoke" was inscribed the
+word _suave_, meaning something more winning than the scriptural
+phrase "easy," from which it was borrowed. When two more years had
+gone by, Francesco Maria was an outlaw, crushed under that gentle
+yoke, and stripped of his all; whilst the Duke of Ferrara, the next
+great feudatory of the Church who followed in the procession, could
+scarcely maintain himself by French aid, until the death of his
+pontifical oppressor enabled him to parody on his medals another
+and more appropriate text, in memory of his escape, "Out of the
+LION'S mouth." At this coronation there was witnessed an
+unwonted spectacle, the fruit of Alexander's aggressions on the
+Campagna barons. The humbled chiefs of Colonna and Orsini walked side
+by side, and their reconciliation was commemorated by a rare medal,
+on which the crowned column of Colonna is fondly hugged by the Orsini
+bear, with the motto, "For their country's safety." Francesco Maria's
+reception was as cordial as distinguished, for the promptings of
+ambition had not yet transformed Leo's naturally bland and gracious
+nature into unrelenting and bitter hate. He was accordingly confirmed
+in his dignities, and retained for a year as Captain-General of the
+Church, with 13,844 ducats of pay, besides 30,000 of allowances for
+his company of two hundred men-at-arms, and a hundred light cavalry;
+nor could words exceed the kindness of the letter in which Bembo
+intimated this to him on behalf of the Pope.[254]
+
+[Footnote 254: Papal brieves of Aug. 4 and April 17, 1513, in
+Archivio Diplomatico at Florence, and Bembo's public despatches, ii.
+No. 8. Roscoe has no authority whatever for representing the Duke as
+at this period the Pope's "formidable rival."]
+
+When the coronation fêtes were over, he returned home to enjoy one of
+those brief intervals of repose which rarely fell to his lot. His
+almost continual absence on military service had indeed been greatly
+felt in his capital, and most of the distinguished men who frequented
+it under Duke Guidobaldo were now dispersed. Some of them, however,
+had continued towards his nephew their friendship and services,
+either under his own banner or in diplomacy. Among these was
+Baldassare Castiglione, to whose good offices the reconciliation of
+Francesco Maria with Julius has been partly attributed. In the affair
+of the Cardinal of Pavia, the Count warmly espoused his part, and
+invented for him, as a deprecatory device, a lion rampant proper on
+a field gules, holding a rapier, and a scroll inscribed, _Non deest
+generoso in pectore virtus_, "Worth is never wanting in a generous
+breast"; but this emblem was seldom used, being odious to the college
+of cardinals, as approving a sacrilegious precedent. Castiglione's
+elegant endowments were especially qualified to gain him the ear of
+a prince whose pride it was to emulate his predecessors, as much
+in the grace of their court as in the fame of their arms; and the
+preference for so small a state shown by him whom monarchs would
+have delighted to honour, was fit subject for gratitude, independent
+of the real services which the Duke derived from the friendship of
+one so well versed in business. It is stated, although on doubtful
+authority, that he went upon a mission from Urbino, to urge on Henry
+VIII. a descent upon Calais,[*255] in the hope of such a diversion
+recalling Louis from Italy. If so, it was probably in arranging the
+treaty of Malines on the 5th of April of this year. In the prospect
+of adding Pesaro to his dominions, Francesco Maria had promised to
+Castiglione a fief in his dependencies, and in September, 1513, a
+charter was granted to him of Novillara, erected into a countship.
+The letter of donation specially mentions the faithful, sincere,
+and acceptable services of Baldassare; his elegance in the Latin
+and Italian languages; his skill in military and civil affairs;
+and confers upon him this favour rather in earnest of future and
+more ample benefits, than as a reward of the fatigues, perils, and
+anxieties which he had already undergone for the Duke.[*256] Of this
+grant he received a willing confirmation from Leo X., to whom, on his
+elevation, he had borne Francesco Maria's first congratulations. The
+brief to this effect dwells on the peculiar satisfaction with which
+the Pope thus testified, from long acquaintance, his high merits, his
+distinguished birth, his literary acquirements, his military fame,
+and his exemplary devotion to the Holy See.
+
+[Footnote *255: Henry landed at Calais August 1st, 1513; it was
+then in English hands, as it remained till Mary Tudor lost it
+in 1558. From Calais Henry advanced to the siege of Terouenne.
+Castiglione was, of course, in London in 1506 to receive the Garter
+for Guidobaldo from Henry VII.; a second journey seems apocryphal.
+On Castiglione at Urbino and elsewhere, cf. LUZIO e RENIER, _Mantova e
+Urbino_ (Torino, 1893), pp. 174, 234, 242 _et seq._]
+
+[Footnote *256: Yet he seems to have suffered in the war. His long
+residence at Urbino may well have been due to the Duchess, who loved
+him sincerely.]
+
+The estate thus associated with Castiglione is generally said to owe
+its name to its "noble air"; and certainly upon the Italian principle
+that a healthful atmosphere must be sought in high places, that of
+Novillara ought to possess unusual virtues. But the learned Olivieri
+has corrected this vulgar error, and has derived its denomination
+from the Latin _nubilare_, which he renders as an open shed for the
+housing of grain,--a grange, as it might be called. He has traced
+it back to the twelfth century, and to the fourteenth ascribes
+an imposing tower of three commodious stories built here by the
+Malatesta. Hither was conducted, on her first arrival, Camilla of
+Aragon, bride of Costanzo Sforza Lord of Pesaro; and its inaccessible
+situation did not prevent a splendid manifestation of the general
+joy, in fêtes and pageants, commemorated in a volume of excessive
+rarity, which seem more proportioned to the affectionate gallantry of
+her husband and subjects, than to the resources of their state, or to
+the conveniences of this palace. Representations of the community
+of Pesaro induced Francesco Maria to obtain from Castiglione a
+restitution to them of this Castle, in 1522, under promise of
+replacing it by an equivalent, which was never redeemed. Years passed
+away, notwithstanding repeated remonstrances on the part of Camillo,
+son of the Count, in which he even induced the Emperor to join. At
+length, in 1573, Guidobaldo II. conferred a tardy compensation, by
+granting to Count Camillo the Castel del Isola del Piano. This Duke
+had previously built an addition to the palace of Novillara, with
+elaborate decorations never completed. At his son's marriage with
+Lucretia d'Este, this fief, then worth 500 scudi a year, was settled
+upon her, but rarely occupied. It subsequently caught the young
+prince Federigo's fancy, who had planned for its beautiful gardens
+and frescoes, when untimely death cut short his schemes, and brought
+the nationality of Urbino and Pesaro to a close.
+
+In the present day Novillara consists of about a hundred houses,
+huddled together, threaded by narrow alleys, and walled in by
+terraces. It overlooks Pesaro and Fano, the valleys of the Isauro
+and Metauro, with the hilly land which separates them. Northward the
+eye rests on Monte Bartolo, but southward it roams as far as Loreto,
+and in clear weather the Dalmatian coast may be discerned. The tower
+of the Malatesta, which formed a landmark to the whole surrounding
+country, fell in 1723, and the dilapidated fabric of the della Rovere
+now harbours a few squalid families, adding another to the melancholy
+wrecks of departed grandeur too frequent in this fair land. Yet
+Novillara will pass down the stream of Italian literary history as
+the title of its courtly lord, and its magnificent panorama may well
+repay the traveller who has leisure and strength to scramble to its
+summit.
+
+The early policy of Leo was entirely pacific. The leading aim of his
+diplomacy was to soothe those irritations which his predecessors had
+fomented throughout Europe, and to heal the wounds thence resulting
+to Italy. His only aggressive measures during 1513 had been directed
+against the French, with the patriotic view of thwarting renewed
+attempts upon the Peninsula, in which they were seconded by Spain
+and Venice. In this object he was successful, but as the various
+and complicated transactions by which it was effected are foreign
+to our immediate purpose, we refer the reader for details to the
+tenth, twelfth, and thirteenth chapters of Roscoe's delightful work,
+although naturally representing them in the lights more favourable to
+the Pontiff's motives than we are prepared fully to approve. Power
+is, however, a dangerous draught, often exciting the thirst it seeks
+to slake. Before the Keys had been many months in Leo's possession,
+the establishment of his own family in the two fairest sovereignties
+of Italy became the object for which he was to
+
+ "Cry havock, and let slip the dogs of war."
+
+Anticipating changes which might occur upon the death of Ferdinand
+II. of Spain, he conceived hopes of throwing off foreign domination
+in Naples, and providing for it a king of Italian birth, in his own
+brother Giuliano the Magnificent. With this ulterior advancement
+in fancied perspective, he removed him from the management of
+affairs at Florence, and substituted his nephew Lorenzo, intending
+ere long to assert for the latter a titular as well as a virtual
+sovereignty, and to extend his sway over all Tuscany, Urbino, and
+Ferrara. These ambitious and revolutionary projects required powerful
+aid, which could be most readily secured by finding a sharer in the
+adventure. Such a one readily occurred in Louis XII., whose consent
+to copartnery could scarcely be doubted, when his long-cherished
+acquisition of the Milanese was offered as his share of its gains.
+It was no serious objection to this scheme that it inferred a total
+subversion of Leo's anti-gallican policy; and, intent only upon his
+new views, he secretly negotiated with the French King to bring once
+more into Lombardy those troops which, but the year before, he had
+been the chief means of ignominiously chasing beyond the Alps. Should
+this move place the great powers in general collision, there was all
+the fairer chance for papal ambition in the scramble; and it mattered
+little that Italy should again be laid in ashes, and saturated with
+blood, so that the Medici became arbiters of her destiny.
+
+With a view to these arrangements, Giuliano was betrothed in the
+following year to Filiberta of Savoy, maternal aunt of Francis, heir
+to the French crown. But a fatality seems to have attended most
+papal diplomacy: based upon nepotism or personal ambition, it was
+generally thwarted by its own fickleness or imbecility. Doubtful of
+the success of his scheme upon the crown of Naples (which Louis was
+little disposed to gratify, although prepared to concede to Giuliano
+the principality of Tarento), or impatient perhaps of waiting for
+its becoming vacant, the Pontiff turned his views upon Parma and
+Piacenza, as a convenient interim state for his brother, to be
+aggrandised by the purchase of Modena from the Emperor for 40,000
+golden ducats. But here he was met by a difficulty of his own recent
+creation, for the establishment of Louis at Milan must have proved
+dangerous to the proposed principality of Giuliano; so, once more
+shuffling the cards, he prepared some new combinations for preventing
+the French expedition into Italy. One of these was an intrigue to
+detach the Venetian republic from the party of Louis, for which
+purpose he sent thither his adroit secretary Bembo, whose memorial
+to the senate has been printed by Roscoe. This attempt, however,
+entirely failed, and the King's death, on the 1st of January, alone
+prevented the detection of his faithless ally.[257]
+
+[Footnote 257: One of the shrewd agents of the maritime republic
+supplied a key to the policy of Leo, by observing that it consisted
+in immediately opening a secret understanding with the avowed enemy
+of whatever prince he leagued with. His intrigues in behalf of his
+brother and nephew are illustrated by some documents in the _Archivio
+Storico Italiano_, Appendix I., 306.]
+
+In returning from Venice, Bembo paid one more visit to the Feltrian
+court, now at Pesaro, rejoicing in the recent birth of an heir to
+the Dukedom. There he found many changes. The gay and accomplished
+circle, in whose lighter or more pedantic pastimes he had borne a
+willing part, was scattered, many of its members like himself to hold
+appointments of trust and dignity. But it was a sincere satisfaction
+to him again to meet the Duchess Elisabetta, now recovered from the
+deep despondency he has so touchingly described, and enjoying the
+society of her accomplished niece and successor, as well as of her
+former mistress of the revels, the merry Emilia Pia. In company
+of these ladies, the diplomatist forgot during a brief interval
+the cares of state, and lingered for two days on the excuse of
+indisposition, until he thought it necessary to explain his delay
+in a letter to Cardinal Bibbiena of the 1st of January, 1515.[258]
+The fatigues of riding post a hundred and forty miles from Chioggia
+in two days and a half required this repose, and induced him to
+continue his journey in less hot haste. Yet Bembo, with all his
+accomplishments, was but a sunshine courtier, as we shall see some
+fifteen months later.
+
+[Footnote 258: See below, p. 368.]
+
+It would seem that, at the time of Giuliano's marriage, the idea
+of providing for him large additions in Romagna to his Lombard
+principality was the leading motive of his brother's policy,
+and that the Dukes of Urbino and Ferrara were already viewed as
+stepping-stones to his exaltation. The command of the pontifical
+troops was accordingly bestowed upon him as Gonfaloniere, on the
+24th of June, 1515, at once an injustice and an insult to Francesco
+Maria, in whose hands its baton remained unsullied.[*259] The fair
+professions with which the Duke was superseded were vague and
+unsatisfactory, and he received warning from various quarters of
+the sinister designs whereof he was the destined victim. These,
+however, being as yet immature, the Pontiff maintained professions
+of unwavering favour, and, in a brief dated on the 16th of August,
+he assures the Duke that he will readily regard certain services as
+entitled to the largest and most liberal remuneration in his power.
+
+[Footnote *259: However, Francesco's record was not a very brilliant
+one. He failed to take Mirandola without Julius II., and the affair
+of Ravenna would, one might think, have ruined any soldier.]
+
+Yet Giuliano must be acquitted of the ingratitude and perfidy
+shown to his former friend by the Pope and his nephew Lorenzo. The
+hospitalities of Duke Guidobaldo had in his case fallen upon no
+arid soil. His fondest recollections of lettered intercourse and
+of youthful love were centred in Urbino. He remembered that it was
+Francesco Maria who, six years before, had interposed to screen him
+from the jealousies of the late Pontiff, and who had warmly urged the
+restoration of his family in Florence. He therefore firmly refused
+to acquiesce in any projects which would aggrandise himself at the
+Duke's cost; and, in token of good will, while on his way to France,
+made a detour to visit him at Gubbio, where he thus addressed him:
+"I have heard, my Lord, that it has been represented to you how the
+Pope has a mind to take your state from you, in order to give it me;
+but this is not true, for, on account of the kindness, favour, and
+benefits I ever have received from your Excellency and your house,
+I should never consent to it, however much desired by his Holiness,
+lest other princes of your rank should resolve, in consequence, never
+again to give such refuge at their courts as was granted to me and
+mine. Be assured, therefore, that, whilst I live, you not only will
+receive no molestation on my account, but will be ever regarded by
+me as an elder brother."[260] Upon these assurances, Francesco Maria
+not only suspended the defences of his duchy, which he had begun
+to put in order, but accepted an engagement for himself, with two
+hundred men-at-arms and a hundred light horse, under Giuliano, the
+pontifical captain-general. To secure himself, however, against all
+contingencies, he applied to the Pontiff for leave to bring into the
+field a thousand infantry, in addition to his usual following. The
+scruples of Giuliano did not in any way soften his brother, whose
+intrigues against Urbino are prominent in the curious despatch of his
+secretary Bibbiena, which Roscoe has printed under date the 16th of
+February.
+
+[Footnote 260: Dialogo Giraldi, Vat. Ottob. MSS. No. 3153.]
+
+Louis XII. died on the 1st of January, 1515, and was succeeded by
+his second and third cousin, Francis I. This event changed not the
+projects of Leo in behalf of his brother, whose marriage to the
+Princess of Savoy was solemnised in February, and who was received
+by the French monarch with kindness and distinction. To render his
+position fully worthy of the match, the Pope invested him with Parma,
+Piacenza, and Modena, yielding a revenue approaching to 48,000
+ducats. He likewise settled a large pension upon the princess, and
+provided for the pair a magnificent palace in Rome, to which they
+were welcomed with a pomp unusual even in these days of pageantry.
+
+Leo's position with reference to Francis I. was in many respects
+embarrassing, and the defence of his policy, elaborately undertaken
+by Roscoe, has established the writer's bias rather than the
+Pontiff's rectitude. That monarch was steadily pursuing those
+schemes upon the Milanese which Leo had the year before suggested
+to his predecessor; and the amicable relations established with
+the Medici by Giuliano's marriage gave him additional reason to
+rely upon the Pontiff's support in the struggle which must follow
+his descent upon Italy. But to restrain the French beyond their
+Alpine barrier was the favourite, as well as the natural policy of
+his Holiness, and it was that which tended most to the security of
+his brother's newly-acquired Lombard sovereignty. He therefore,
+in July, after some months of anxious vacillation, avowed his
+adherence to the league of the Emperor with the Kings of England
+and of Spain, to which Florence, Milan, and the Swiss were parties.
+Yet he was far from hearty in the cause, and, during the brief
+campaign which succeeded the arrival of a French army in Lombardy,
+the ecclesiastical contingent limited their efforts to watching the
+safety of Parma and Piacenza. Nor did the other allies show much
+more zeal, excepting the Swiss, whose impetuous valour brought on
+the pitched battle of Marignano on the 13th of September, and lost
+them the prestige which had stamped their infantry as invincible. The
+costly victory there gained by the French was speedily followed by a
+surrender of his claims upon Milan by Duke Maximiliano Sforza, who
+was content to enjoy for the remainder of his life a home and pension
+provided by his conqueror.[*261]
+
+[Footnote *261: The defeat of the Swiss at Marignano opened the way
+for the long fight between Francis I. and Charles V. It decided many
+things--the future of monarchy in Europe, for instance, as well as
+the fate of the republican army "so long invincible in Italy." Cf.
+CREIGHTON, _op. cit._, vol. V., p. 243. "What will become
+of us," said Leo to Giorgi, the Venetian Ambassador, who brought him
+the news of the defeat--"and of you?" "We will put ourselves in the
+hands of the Most Christian King," he added, "and will implore his
+mercy." Cf. the _Relazioni Venete_, 2nd series, vol. III., p. 44,
+quoted by Creighton, who, as always, takes the view of a statesman,
+and not merely that of a scholar. Sforza surrendered Milan on October
+4th. The Pope signed terms with Francis October 13th, 1515. The Pope
+was then in Viterbo, which he left for Bologna in November, coming to
+Florence on the last day of that month. In December he was back in
+Bologna to meet Francis. He returned to Florence and left for Rome on
+February 19th, 1516.]
+
+The principal object of Francis being thus effected, he was not
+indisposed to reconciliation with the Holy See, for which Leo had
+sedulously retained an opening by keeping Ludovico Canossa throughout
+the contest as an accredited agent at the French head-quarters. But
+the Pontiff met the usual reward of trimmers. The tardy accommodation
+offered by his envoy came too late to save Parma and Piacenza, for
+which alone he had become a party to the war. The French monarch
+would not hear of renouncing what he insisted were intrinsic
+portions of the Milanese, but offered to meet with the Pontiff and
+arrange in person a lasting amity, Bologna being named for the
+interview. Upon the diplomatic arrangements which there occupied
+these potentates in the end of the year we need not touch, further
+than to notice that the intercession of Francis in favour of the
+Duke of Urbino, which the latter had hastened, after the battle of
+Marignano, to bespeak by means of a special envoy, proved quite
+ineffectual. It obviously was dictated less by any interest in the
+Duke's welfare than by the wish to thwart a favourite project of his
+fickle ally, and it at once was met by reference to an article which
+the Pope had adroitly inserted in the treaty, that Francis should in
+no way interfere for the protection of any undutiful vassal of the
+Holy See. From Bologna Leo proceeded to Florence, where he remained
+most of the winter, maturing his schemes for the ruin of Francesco
+Maria.
+
+The death of Ferdinand of Spain in January, 1516, soon reawoke the
+ambitious hopes of Francis, by reminding him of his predecessor's
+dormant claims upon the Neapolitan crown. But a new combination of
+circumstances gave another turn to his thoughts. The efforts of the
+Venetians to recover Verona and Brescia from Maximilian brought the
+latter into Lombardy at the head of fifteen thousand Swiss troops,
+by whom Lautrec, the French general, was for a time hard pressed,
+and Leo, ever anxious to conciliate a conqueror, hastily sent
+Cardinal Bibbiena with reinforcements to the Emperor's camp. Yet the
+storm, passing off suddenly and harmlessly, left few traces besides
+jealousy, which the prudence of that wily legate scarcely prevented
+from arising in the mind of Francis towards his slippery ally.
+
+These vacillations on the part of Leo have been slightly touched
+upon, in order to clear the ground for displaying his ambitious
+nepotism in its proper field,--the duchy of Urbino. This, his
+prevailing weakness, had met with many disappointments. No opening
+occurred for its exercise in the direction of Naples. Parma and
+Piacenza had passed from his grasp, by reluctant surrender to a
+professing ally. But, worst of all, his favourite brother Giuliano,
+the object in whom centred most of his schemes, had been removed
+by death on the 17th of March, not without surmise of poison from
+the jealousy of his nephew Lorenzo.[*262] Although his great
+popularity favoured the ambitious views which were thrust upon him
+by the Pontiff, his mind lay rather towards elegant pursuits and
+splendid tastes, than to such high aspirations. Indeed, the Venetian
+ambassador, Capello, represents his dying request to Leo as in favour
+of Urbino[*263]; but the Pope waived the discussion of a point upon
+which his resolution was taken. Lorenzo, his successor in the papal
+favour, was a much more willing, though less conciliatory, instrument
+of his Holiness's designs.
+
+[Footnote *262: Giuliano had certainly been ailing for months. His
+death did not seem to have been unexpected.]
+
+[Footnote *263: So does Giorgi. Cf. _Relazioni Venete_, 2nd series,
+vol. II., p. 51.]
+
+Lorenzo de' Medici was eldest son of Pietro, the first-born of
+Lorenzo the Magnificent.[*264] He was born on the 13th of September,
+1492, and his youth was passed amid many trials. His father, after
+ten years of exile from Florence, had been drowned in the Garigliano,
+in 1504, and, four years thereafter, his sister Clarissa's marriage
+with Filippo Strozzi involved him in a second banishment. He was of
+good person and gallant presence, endowed with a stirring spirit,
+but destitute of generous or heroic qualities. Giorgi, another
+Venetian envoy, even considered him scarcely inferior in cunning and
+capacity to the redoubted Valentino. The government of Florence was
+committed to him by Leo, on his uncle Giuliano being called to a
+higher destiny, and feeling his advancement restrained by the prior
+claims, as well as by the moderation of the latter, he is believed to
+have removed him by poison; at all events he was immediately named to
+succeed him as gonfaloniere of the Church.
+
+[Footnote *264: Cf. VERDI: _Gli ultimi anni di Lorenzo de'
+Medici duca d'Urbino, 1515-1519_ (Pietrogrande, 1905).]
+
+This renewed outrage upon Francesco Maria's military rank,[*265]
+and the death of the only individual of the Medici upon whom he had
+any reliance, warned him of the approaching crisis in his fate. The
+influence of Alfonsina degli Orsini in favour of her son Lorenzo
+stimulated the Pontiff's projects, unwarned by a prediction of
+Giuliano that, by following the courses of the Borgia, he would
+probably suffer their fate. The immediate pretext, adopted for
+outpouring the accumulated vials of papal wrath, was the Duke's
+declining to march his troops into Lombardy under Lorenzo as
+gonfaloniere, in consequence, as Giraldi informs us, of information
+that his death was resolved upon should he trust his person within
+his rival's power. Accordingly, Leo was no sooner returned to Rome,
+than, affecting to consider this refusal, as the act of overt
+rebellion by a subject against his sovereign, he issued a severe
+monitory against his feudatory, summoning him thither to answer
+various vague or irrelevant charges, one of these being the Cardinal
+of Pavia's slaughter, of which he had already received no
+
+ "Ragged and forestalled remission,"
+
+on a report subscribed by Leo himself. Various diplomatic
+functionaries at the papal court vainly interceded that he should
+appear by attorney, instead of surrendering in person; and he
+meanwhile garrisoned Urbino, Pesaro, and S. Leo. The Duchess Dowager,
+whose arms had frequently received and fondled the infant Lorenzo,
+while her husband's court sheltered the elder members of his house,
+hastened to Rome as a mediatrix; but it was with difficulty she
+made her way to the Pope's presence, and she obtained no mercy for
+her nephew, nor protection for her own alimentary provisions out
+of the duchy, his Holiness refusing to listen to any propositions
+until the Duke had obeyed the monitory by appearing at Rome before
+the 2nd of April. In consequence of his failure to do so, a bull of
+excommunication went forth on the 27th, depriving him of his state,
+and all dignities held of the Holy See, and absolving his subjects
+from allegiance, on pain of ecclesiastical censures. By a gratuitous
+exercise of malevolence, the papal influence was employed with the
+King of Spain for confiscation of Sora, and his other patrimonial
+holdings in Naples, thus visiting him with instant beggary. On the
+18th of August, his dukedom and ecclesiastical baton were conferred
+upon the unworthy Lorenzo, who, in the following month, was also
+invested with the prefecture of Rome.
+
+[Footnote *265: I do not see how this was an outrage. Francesco had
+been already dismissed: see _supra_ 360. Besides, he had certainly
+made overtures to the French. Cf. GUICCIARDINI, _Storia
+d'Italia_, vol. XII.]
+
+[Illustration: _Alinari_
+
+LORENZO DI PIERO DE' MEDICI, DUKE OF URBINO
+
+_After the picture by Bronzino in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence_]
+
+The value of political gratitude is strikingly illustrated in the
+fact, that these outrageous measures were adopted, in a consistory
+composed for the most part of creatures of the della Rovere family,
+with the single dissentient voice of Cardinal Grimani, of Venice,
+Bishop of Urbino, whose independence earned him an exile from Rome.
+Nor was this the only painful lesson of the worth of courtier
+fidelity now taught to that illustrious house. Even the civilities
+of Bembo to the Duchess Dowager sank to a low grade, as he thus
+acknowledges in a letter to Bibbiena of the 19th of April:--"The Lady
+Duchess of Urbino, whom I visited yesterday (a duty which I, however,
+very rarely perform), commends herself to you, as does also the Lady
+Emilia. On these dames the Signor Unico [Accolti] dances attendance.
+He is more than ever in the heat of his old passion, which he
+declares now numbers five lustres and a half; and he has better
+hopes than heretofore of at length obtaining the consummation of his
+desires, having been asked by the Lady Duchess to _improvisare_, by
+which means he trusts to move that stony heart to tears--at the
+least. He is to rehearse in two or three days, and as soon as he
+does so, I shall report to you: would that you could be here, as he
+is sure to do it right well." It can scarcely be doubted that this
+innuendo was meant to apply to the more exalted of these ladies.
+Whether as a caustic sneer, or a current scandal, it comes ill from
+such a quarter, and only adds a new proof of the poet's inordinate
+conceit. Nor did it go unpunished, for we find such vain effrontery
+thus lashed by Gandolfo Porrino, a contemporary satirist:--
+
+ "In such affairs the palm he gives to one beyond all gold,
+ Urbino's Duchess dowager, your cousin scarce yet old.
+ Long at that court Lord Unico had paragoned her face,
+ With words and pen, in wondrous phrase, to angels' matchless grace.
+ Till, gazing on those saint-like eyes, while tears bedimmed his own,
+ The secret of his passion thus he breathed to her alone:
+ 'All goddess fair! my love for thee all other loves exceeds,
+ No Launcelot, no errant knight, its lightning course outspeeds!
+ Prithee with me participate the boon that cannot cloy,
+ And share in mutual confidence a bliss without alloy.'
+ Unlike those artful hypocrites who evil speeches spurn,
+ But wink at acts, the prudent dame thus answer did return:
+ 'Remember that we hapless wives must each their lord obey,
+ Tyrant or kind, his dread behests we never may gainsay;
+ Mine is the Duke, to whom your wish propose, should he assent,
+ As well I wot, right readily your whim shall I content.'
+ Confounded by her sarcasm the carpet-knight was left
+ Poor victim of his vanity, of self-respect bereft."
+
+The now inevitable war was opened by a simultaneous movement upon the
+duchy from three several quarters. Renzo, that is, Lorenzo da Ceri,
+accompanied by Lorenzo de' Medici and a powerful army, advanced from
+Romagna; Vitello Vitelli marched upon Massa Trabaria; and, on the
+12th of May, Gianpaolo Baglioni seized on Gubbio.[*266] The force
+thus poured upon the state amounted to seventeen thousand foot,
+above a thousand men-at-arms, and near two thousand light horse.
+That which Francesco Maria could bring into the field numbered about
+nine thousand men, and being averse to entail upon his subjects the
+miseries of an unavailing struggle, he authorised their surrender,
+excepting the citadels of Pesaro, Urbino, S. Leo, and Maiuolo, which
+he garrisoned for resistance. His attempts to obtain the mediation
+or support of foreign powers entirely failed. Their sympathy and
+condolence were freely doled out to him, but none gave hope of
+efficient aid, except Maximilian, whose promises, on this as on all
+other occasions, proved quite worthless. It only remained to bow, as
+his uncle Guidobaldo had done, before the storm, and await happier
+times. On the 31st he sent off from Pesaro his consort, in an ailing
+state, his infant son, and the dowager Duchess to their relations at
+Mantua, with such valuables as they could transport in six or eight
+vessels, and, speedily following them, he embarked at midnight and
+reached that city in disguise.
+
+[Footnote *266: Cf. PELLEGRINI, _Gubbio sotto i conti e
+Duchi d'Urbino_, in _Boll. per l'Umbria_, vol. XI., p. 221. Gianpaolo
+Baglioni da Perugia entered the Eugubine territory with 100 knights,
+500 horse, and 3000 foot. The Duke wrote that he could not defend
+Gubbio. On the 31st May the Consiglio was called together, and it
+decided: "redire ad Romanam ecclesiam et sub regimine s. D.N."]
+
+Pesaro, after an eight days' siege, capitulated on honourable terms,
+in breach of which Tranquillo Giraldi, the commandant, was hanged
+upon a vague accusation of bad faith. Urbino having, by order of its
+sovereign, been surrendered without a blow on the 30th of May,[*267]
+the community, on the 16th of June, sent deputies to kiss the Pope's
+feet on taking possession of the state, in hopes of obtaining
+relaxation of the interdict; but his Holiness raised it only for
+such as adhered to the existing order of things. He committed the
+government of the town to its new bishop, Giulio Vitelli, who
+intrigued at all hands to induce the magistracy to follow the example
+set them in other places, of petitioning his Holiness to give them
+an independent sovereign, in order that the exaltation of his nephew
+to the dukedom might seem a popular measure. On the 16th of June
+the interdict was removed from all the duchy except S. Leo, which
+alone held out; but, faithful to the proverb of hating him whom he
+had injured, the Pontiff was deaf to all entreaties for restoration
+to church privileges of his victim, who consequently remained in
+hiding at Goito near Mantua, apart from his family, that he might
+not involve them in excommunication, and giving out that he had fled
+across the Alps, in order to baffle those who sought his life.
+
+[Footnote *267: ZACCAGNINI has published an unknown poem
+on this taking of Urbino. See _Un poemetto sconosciuto sulla presa
+d'Urbino del 1516_, in _Le Marche_ (1906), An. VI., p. 145.]
+
+The example of Guidobaldo kept alive his hopes of regaining his
+sovereignty, as that Duke had done, by means of S. Leo. But ere he
+could organise measures for a descent, he had the grief of learning
+its fall. As there is always something of romantic adventure in
+the surprise of a place impregnable by ordinary expedients, we may
+dwell for a moment on the third and last successful leaguer of this
+fortress. The garrison consisted of a hundred and twenty men, one
+tenth of whom had fallen in its defence. After three months spent in
+hopeless assaults, a Florentine carpenter, named Antonio, observing
+from the opposite heights the absence of sentinels over one of the
+most precipitous parts of the rock, attempted to make his way up the
+face of it, sometimes aided by plants and bushes in the clefts, but
+generally driving iron spikes into their crevices, and fastening
+ropes, ladders, or beams, as he advanced. After four nights of this
+perilous toil he reached the wall, which he found, as expected,
+without defenders. Having reported the way accessible, a number of
+light infantry were entrusted to his guidance, whom he ordered to
+strip their headgear and shoes, and to strap upon their backs their
+shields, swords, and hatchets. On the 30th of September, under cover
+of a wet and foggy night, he conducted these safely to the summit,
+accompanied by a drummer and four pair of colours. At daybreak,
+an alarm was given from the watch-tower of an assault upon the
+gate, towards which the besiegers had sent a party; and, whilst the
+defenders hurried in that direction, Antonio, with some fifty men,
+cleared the walls, displayed their colours, and beat to arms. Ere the
+garrison had recovered their presence of mind, the gate was opened by
+the escalading party to their comrades, and the place was carried.
+The citadel was held for twenty-five days longer by a handful
+of desperate men, but they at length surrendered to one Antonio
+Riccasoli of Florence, who placed upon the castle a vainglorious
+inscription, claiming for himself the genius of another Dedalus. The
+fortress had been commanded by Sigismondo Varana, Count of Camerino,
+the Duke's young nephew, assisted by an experienced captain of the
+Ubaldini; and the good treatment experienced by the garrison gave
+rise to a suspicion of treachery on their part, Sigismondo alone
+being sent to Volterra as prisoner of war. Much of the Duke's
+treasure was taken, and the loss of S. Leo proved a serious blow to
+his interests.[268]
+
+[Footnote 268: Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 906, 907, 928; Vat. Ottob. MSS. No.
+3153.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+ The Duke returns to his state--His struggle with the
+ usurper--His victory at Montebartolo.
+
+
+Meanwhile the fatal wars originating in the League of Cambray were
+finally concluded, by a treaty offensive and defensive, between the
+young monarchs of France and Spain, guaranteeing their respective
+Italian possessions, which was signed at Nogon on the 13th of August,
+and was followed by that of London on the 29th of October, to which
+the Pope, the Emperor, Charles V., and Henry VIII., were parties.
+A general pacification having been thus obtained, Francesco Maria
+was further than ever from assistance in recovering his rights,
+yet the moment seemed not unfavourable for a single-handed attempt
+at asserting them. The numerous condottieri of all nations, thus
+thrown loose without prospect of new occupation, offered him their
+services on very easy terms, preferring employment on the credit
+of eventual pay, with the chance of interim pillage, to a life of
+listless beggary. The French and Venetians secretly favoured any
+adventure which should rid their territories of such odious inmates,
+and the Duke found no great difficulty in mustering, by the beginning
+of the year, three thousand eight hundred infantry and six hundred
+light horse. He placed the latter under his wife's cousin, Federigo
+Gonzaga, Marquis of Bozzolo, a young man who singularly mingled
+the staid wisdom of a veteran commander with the jovial manners of
+a free companion, and was thus equally the confidential adviser
+of his general, and the idol of his men. He had also become a
+personal enemy of Lorenzo, from having been deprived by him of the
+command committed to him by Giuliano de' Medici. This motley army
+was composed of tried soldiers, but was deficient in the material
+for a sustained campaign, notwithstanding the Duke's great exertions
+and sacrifices, by borrowing money at all hands, and by selling his
+wife's valuables, to provide for it the most necessary munitions.
+Before taking the field, he, on the 17th of January, addressed to
+the Sacred College, and publicly placarded, this earnest protest and
+vindication of his measures, which, although prolix, is an important
+manifesto.
+
+ "Most reverend and respected Lords: I have ever flattered
+ myself that the long persecutions, which exposed me to so
+ many perils, have not lost me your Reverences' favour,
+ nor rendered you personally hostile to me; indeed, I
+ feel assured that you have always looked upon me with
+ compassion, and pitied my misfortunes. Nor did I enjoy,
+ amid such adversities, any consolation more efficacious
+ than my conviction that your Sacred College considers me in
+ nowise worthy of such persecutions. But, as I always have
+ been, am, and shall through life continue, your most humble
+ and obedient servant, I hold myself bound to account to
+ you for every action, and to defend myself from whatever
+ imputations my enemies may have made to your very reverend
+ Lordships, in whom repose all my hopes of protection.
+
+ "I presume that you have heard of my new enterprise against
+ my own state, dictated, not by any desire to disturb,
+ embarrass, or molest the interests of the Church, but
+ rather by a wish to commit my life upon the hazard of the
+ war, trusting that God will so direct its issue as that
+ my innocence, so known to his divine providence, may be
+ equally manifested to all the world. And in this assurance
+ I proceed, not rashly or presumptuously, but aware that
+ neither my resources, which are at present next to nothing,
+ nor those of the most potent monarch, would suffice to
+ resist the might of his Holiness, supported as he is by
+ all the sovereigns and powers of Christendom; relying,
+ moreover, on Almighty God, the King of kings, who can, and,
+ as I hope, will, aid and defend me in this calamity, since
+ He, to whom the hearts of men are open, knows that I have
+ no other expedient left for my peace or life itself. After
+ having betaken myself to the illustrious Lord Marquis, my
+ father-in-law, at Mantua, and placed myself in a sort of
+ voluntary imprisonment; after having lost my fortresses,
+ and nearly all my worldly possessions; and having even
+ made up my mind to promise his Holiness not to make any
+ attempt upon my state, or disturb his nephew, to whom he
+ had given it,--my sole wish being to live; still, so far
+ from obtaining a relaxation of the censures, other and
+ harsher interdicts were constantly issued against me, with
+ positive injunctions to my distinguished father-in-law not
+ to harbour me in his territory. Nay, I daily discover plots
+ against my life by poison or the dagger; which, however, I
+ attribute not to my Lord his Holiness, convinced that his
+ clemency and goodness are irreconcilable with so ardent a
+ thirst for my blood, and such perfidious ingratitude for
+ the numberless benefits which, setting aside more remote
+ recollections, he and all his house received from myself,
+ when in straits similar to what I now endure, but rather to
+ my enemies, who, in effecting my ruin, bring infamy upon
+ his Holiness, and think thus to force me to flee for my
+ life into Turkey.
+
+ "Compelled, then, by these considerations, I have set
+ forward towards my own home, in the belief that, even
+ should my death ensue, infamy never can; and in the
+ conviction that, if it was right for his Holiness, whilst
+ living as a cardinal in honour and dignity, to occasion
+ the cruel sack of Prato, in order to regain those rights
+ of citizenship from which he had been outlawed, it will be
+ far more justifiable in me, an outlaw, not from one city,
+ but from all Christendom, and deprived, not merely of my
+ temporal dignities, but almost of the means of subsistence,
+ the sacraments of the Church, and the intercourse of
+ mankind, by a persecution which directs at once temporal
+ and spiritual weapons against my station, life, and
+ soul;--it will, I say, be justifiable for me to attempt
+ my restoration to the state, of which, in the opinion of
+ my own people, and of all men except his Holiness, I am
+ the legitimate sovereign. I therefore supplicate your
+ most reverend Lordships, by the pity due to such as have
+ blamelessly fallen into misfortune, that you will deign to
+ afford me protection, falling upon some means or expedient
+ for mitigating the Pontiff's feelings; seeing I cannot but
+ think that your influence, his own natural goodness, and my
+ innocence must break down that obduracy which the unjust
+ lips and guileful tongues of my adversaries have raised
+ towards me in the mind of his Holiness; for, to regain
+ his favour, there is no submission or endurable penance
+ that I would refuse. And, should I not be deemed worthy of
+ such compassion, you, my very reverend Lords, may at least
+ condescend in silence to favour my cause with your best
+ wishes and thoughts, and efficiently to recommend me to
+ the unfailing bounty and justice of God. If my success be
+ as signal as I hope, I shall stand indebted to your most
+ reverend Lordships, believing that the Almighty has heard
+ your reasonable desires, and extended his protection to me
+ through your merits. Or, on the other hand, should my puny
+ force not be overborne by the weight of the papal power,
+ backed by spiritual weapons, it will be a palpable miracle,
+ and proof sufficient that my innocence, though on earth
+ condemned by men, will be cleared in Heaven by a higher
+ and more equitable Judge. And so, ever kissing humbly your
+ Reverences' hands, I commend myself to your favour. From
+ Sermene, the 17th of January, 1517."
+
+The narrative of Giraldi[269] is a safe authority as to many details
+of this enterprise, his uncle Benedetto having been an officer much
+in the Duke's confidence. We, therefore, venture to extract the
+harangue which he puts into the mouth of Francesco Maria, before
+marching from Sermene, not, of course, as his verbatim address to his
+followers, but as containing the understanding on both sides of their
+respective obligations.
+
+[Footnote 269: Vat. Ottob. MSS. No. 3153, f. 115.]
+
+ "'Soldiers and Comrades, I have assembled you here, in
+ order that you may fully learn my mind and intentions, and
+ that I may know yours. I therefore acquaint you that I have
+ arranged with your leaders, who have promised, and bound
+ themselves by articles, to accompany me into my state of
+ Urbino, and to re-establish me in my home, and to maintain
+ me there during life, indifferent to pay or remuneration
+ beyond such as I may be able to give,--I confiding to them
+ my state and person, in reliance upon your good faith. I
+ now wish to know if you are all agreed to follow me in this
+ enterprise; and, should this be your pleasure, I desire
+ from you an oath never to abandon me on any contingency
+ that may occur, and that, in case of being forced to
+ quit me by the pressure of events without completing our
+ undertaking, you will oblige yourselves to return to this
+ place as a rendezvous, and, further, that you shall not
+ desert me for any offers or bribes of the enemy. Avowing to
+ you at the same time that, at this moment, I have not above
+ a ducat a-piece to give you, I nevertheless feel confident
+ our gains will be great, unless fortune be more than
+ adverse; and I promise that all the booty will be yours,
+ and that I shall be your comrade, never sparing my life
+ while it lasts. If you accept these my terms, you must all
+ swear to observe them; otherwise I shall not move from this
+ territory of my brother-in-law.' Whereupon they all, with
+ extended hands, took an oath never to abandon him during
+ life; and so they set forth in the name of God, on the 17th
+ of January, led by Federigo di Bozzolo."
+
+The Pontiff was taken at unawares, for, believing his enemy utterly
+crushed, he made light of such warnings as had reached him of a
+contemplated movement against the duchy; but now that the expedition
+was matured, he knew well the slight hold which the usurper had upon
+the affections of his nominal subjects. Nor was he more at ease as to
+the inclinations of his new allies in Lombardy, whose stipendiaries
+had thus suddenly turned their arms against him. His anxiety was in
+no way diminished by the representations of his confidential friend
+Bibbiena, who, actuated perhaps by some lurking kindness for the
+house of Urbino, urged him to abandon the Borgian policy he had in
+hand, until such persuasions were silenced by the threatened poignard
+of Lorenzo. Ere effectual precautions could be adopted in Romagna,
+Francesco Maria had rallied round him eight thousand infantry and
+fifteen hundred horse, most of them veterans, and with these he
+marched about the middle of January. Passing Rimini, where his
+rival lay "sorely perplexed and bewildered" (to use the phrase of
+Minio, the Venetian envoy), he advanced under every discouragement
+of an inclement season, his men wading through snow to the middle,
+and swimming frequent-swollen torrents. From the secrecy of his
+preparations and the poverty of his resources, his commissariat was
+altogether inadequate; but, on reaching his frontier, the refusal of
+Gradara to submit afforded his men an excuse for compensating their
+privations by its sack.
+
+His subjects had been prepared by emissaries for a general revolt.
+On the 1st of February, Count Carlo Gabrielli raised the cry of
+"Feltro! Feltro!" at Gubbio, and it was enthusiastically responded
+to through the smaller towns. On the 5th, the Duke was within a few
+miles of Urbino, then held by Bishop Vitelli, with a garrison of
+two thousand men, who, distrusting the inhabitants, summoned their
+militia to muster at S. Bernardino, and closed the gates as soon as
+the city had thus been cleared of its able-bodied men, refusing to
+readmit them on pain of instant death. The excluded citizens vented
+their indignation at this trick, in threats and abuse of the garrison
+from under the very walls, which at length provoked a sortie of
+four hundred infantry in order to disperse them. At this juncture,
+a squadron of one hundred cavalry, sent on by Francesco Maria under
+Benedetto Giraldi of Mondolfo, for the purpose of supporting the
+expected rising in his favour, arrived three miles below Urbino, and,
+whilst breathing their horses, heard that the enemy were abroad.
+Benedetto immediately left his little force in charge of his brother
+Annibale, and rode on with but five officers to reconnoitre. The
+adventure which followed, equally worthy of a bold knight-errant and
+a Christian soldier, must be told as in the Dialogue of his nephew
+Tranquillo. "Coming suddenly upon the detachment, about half a mile
+from the town, Benedetto exclaimed, 'Look there! as these are the
+first of our master's foes we have fallen in with, it would surely be
+a shame to let them get back to the city without a taste of us: I am
+therefore resolved to make a dash at them, and if you will follow me,
+by God's grace we shall have the first victory.' This said, he rushed
+into the midst of them, with vizor up and lance in rest, overthrowing
+many by the shock. His weapon having broken, he performed prodigies
+with his sword, and, aided by his followers, who had not shrunk
+from his summons, the enemy's leaders were slain, and their whole
+battalion dispersed in panic through the fields, where most of them
+were put to death by the excluded townsfolk, who had mustered at
+the first alarm. I, too, came up with our squadron, in time to cut
+off a good many of them; but I had little cause to congratulate
+myself upon that success, for, passing near my brother [Benedetto],
+he said to me, 'Annibale, I am killed.' Whereupon, looking towards
+him, I observed a cut in his face, and told him to fear nothing, as
+face wounds were not mortal; but he replied, 'It's worse than that,
+for I am run through the body by a pike.' At these words my heart
+seemed riven asunder; yet, in order not to alarm him, I desired him
+to cheer up, and commend himself to God Almighty, and to the most
+glorious Mother of the Saviour, and to vow his armour and horse to
+Loreto, adding that I too would offer a housing worth twenty-five
+ducats. 'I am content,' answered he, 'to give this horse, a gallant
+Turkish charger bestowed upon me by the Marquis of Mantua, along
+with these arms; but I have only one favour to ask of the Saviour
+of mankind, which is, that he will permit me to live long enough to
+confess myself.' As he said this an Observantine friar, who had on
+former occasions confessed him, came up, and, after thanking God
+for having heard his prayer, he summoned the monk, and returning
+to Cavallino confessed himself. There being no surgeon at hand, a
+gentleman of Mantua named Stigino cleansed the wound by suction, and
+ascertained that the bowels were not pierced, which afforded me much
+hope. I sent for many surgeons. The first that arrived was Maccione
+of Fossombrone, who dressed the wound with charmed bandages, a thing
+that much displeased my brother; and for conscience-sake he refused
+to be doctored in that way, until persuaded by a friar, who assured
+him there was no sin, seeing that there had been no diabolical
+incantation used; and, being told of numerous miracles effected by
+these cloths, he submitted to them, and ere long was restored to
+health."
+
+The sally-party from the garrison having been repulsed by Giraldi's
+squadron, aided by a considerable force from Gubbio, Fossombrone,
+and Sinigaglia, which just then most opportunely appeared, they
+found little safety by returning to quarters. The citizens still
+within the walls rushed to arms, even the women and children showered
+missiles on the retreating soldiery, and the Bishop, dispirited by
+the disaster, capitulated next day. But being seized with a panic,
+his garrison withdrew ere their safe-conduct was signed, and were
+beset by the infuriated troops and inhabitants, who attacked them on
+every side with arms, bludgeons, and stones, slaying or capturing
+them to a man. The Duke thus entered his capital, and was welcomed
+with demonstrations of joy, only equalled by those which, fourteen
+years before, had hailed his uncle's return in similar circumstances.
+
+As it was no easy task to restrain an army so composed from reaping
+the spoils of victory in a way opposite to wishes and the interests
+of Francesco Maria, he lost no time in employing them against Fano,
+a town which, not belonging to his state, might with less scruple
+be abandoned to plunder. The assault, however, miscarried through
+Maldonato, a Spanish captain, whose treasonable correspondence with
+Rome began already to be intercepted, and was ere long exposed.
+After this check, the troops were dispersed among the villages,
+until the inclement weather should pass; their head-quarters were at
+Montebaroccio, a very strong position midway between the upper part
+of the duchy, which acknowledged its legitimate sovereign, and the
+cities of Pesaro, Fano, and Sinigaglia, which were garrisoned by the
+ecclesiastical troops.
+
+Meanwhile the Pope, trusting to time more than the sword for ridding
+him of an enemy destitute of all resources, had directed his nephew
+to leave them an open field, until his preparations for their
+destruction should be complete. He hastily called upon the Emperor
+and the Kings of France and Spain for assistance, whilst Lorenzo was
+mustering the ecclesiastical and Florentine militia, under Guido
+Rangone of Modena, Renzo da Ceri, and Vitello Vitelli. No expense
+was spared from the papal treasury to raise an overwhelming force,
+and Lorenzo borrowed 50,000 golden florins from his fellow-citizens.
+Charles contributed four hundred Neapolitan lances, and Francis
+promised three hundred more, on condition of the surrender by Leo
+of Modena to his ally the Duke of Ferrara. By these means was
+levied an army of fifteen to eighteen thousand infantry, a thousand
+men-at-arms, and at least as many light cavalry, with fourteen pieces
+of artillery.
+
+The Lord of Urbino appears to have looked without reason for
+reinforcements from Venice,[*270] but Minio mentions that his army
+now consisted of twelve thousand foot, and that he had received a
+money subsidy from an unknown quarter, probably his father-in-law,
+the Marquis of Mantua. Yet his position was in all respects critical.
+In an enterprise depending on prompt success, each hour lost was the
+enemy's gain. His present life of bootless and bootyless inaction
+disgusted his Spaniards, who not only murmured, but, unmindful of
+their vow of service, began to desert to the ecclesiastical camp,
+attracted by superior pay. Worst of all, the enthusiasm that had
+enabled Guidobaldo to win back his state for a brief interval,
+now languished in the cause of his nephew, whose coup-de-main
+had failed, and whose resources were inadequate to a prolonged
+struggle, the burden whereof must fall upon his loyal subjects. In
+these circumstances, he resorted to an expedient which relieved the
+dull incidents of a petty campaign by one of a novel and romantic
+character. Hoping to bring the war to a speedy issue, he sent Suares
+de Lione, a Spanish officer, and his own Secretary, Orazio Florido,
+with the following instructions, and message to his adversary:--
+
+ "As it is creditable to a prince warring for any cause,
+ to endeavour that his object should be effected with the
+ least bloodshed and injury to the country, especially
+ if it be his intention to become its sovereign, and as
+ I conceive that the Lord Lorenzo must share in this
+ sentiment, I have devised an expedient most convenient
+ to both of us. For if he desire the acquisition of this
+ state as ardently as appears from the late and present
+ campaign, he will be delighted to satisfy that longing
+ promptly, and without further burden to its inhabitants, by
+ putting to the test his own bravery and that of his troops.
+ I therefore empower you, Captain Suares and Orazio, to
+ challenge him forthwith to combat in any place he likes;
+ four thousand men against four thousand, or three, two, or
+ one thousand, or five hundred, or one hundred, or twenty,
+ or four, or any smaller number he may choose, provided he
+ and I are included,--all to be on foot, with the usual arms
+ of infantry; or lastly, if he will fight me alone with the
+ readiest arms, so much the better, that thus, by the death
+ or imprisonment of one of us, the victor may obtain the
+ most satisfactory solution of his wishes, and relieve the
+ lingering suspense of not a few.
+
+ "Relying on the courage of his Lordship, and many about
+ him of not less honourable pretensions, that these so
+ reasonable proposals will be received with pleasure, I
+ shall await your return, promptly to prepare for whatever
+ alternative he may accede to. I limit the answer to three
+ days; adding that, if he prefer fighting in considerable
+ numbers, he may do so with three hundred picked men of the
+ light cavalry, armed with lance, sword poignard, and mace.
+ Or, if none of the aforesaid conditions please him, which
+ I cannot believe possible, remember to offer that, if he
+ will engage with these three hundred light horse, and all
+ my infantry, he may have the advantage of five hundred or
+ a thousand foot beyond what I can bring into the field,
+ equally armed. And the present memorandum you will deliver
+ into his Lordship's hands."[271]
+
+[Footnote *270: It was against Venice that Leo had first, in March,
+1517, tried to get help.]
+
+[Footnote 271: Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1023, f. 141. It has been printed
+by Leone, p. 222.]
+
+This step, natural to a gallant soldier of almost desperate fortunes,
+with neither means nor inducement for a prolonged struggle, could
+have no recommendation for his opponent, now at the head of an
+overwhelming force, backed by the papal treasury and the united
+arms of most European powers. Lorenzo felt nettled at a proposal
+which it would have been folly to accept, but which could scarcely
+be declined without incurring a slur; and, after answering that he
+could entertain no such cartel until his challenger had evacuated
+those places which he had forcibly seized, his temper showed itself
+by arresting its bearers, notwithstanding their safe-conduct.
+The Spaniard was speedily released; but the secretary was sent
+to Volterra or Rome, to be disposed of by the Pope, where, with
+revolting treachery and meanness, he was subjected to imprisonment
+and torture, in the hope of drawing from him the secrets of his
+master, whose vigorous resistance Leo strongly suspected to be backed
+by the French monarch.
+
+The war was now carried on by manoeuvres and skirmishes, which have
+no interest beyond the light they throw on the spirit of this unequal
+contest. Among the reinforcements that flocked to the papal standard
+was an undisciplined band which crossed the Apennines from Tuscany,
+carrying fire and sword through the highlands of Montefeltro. The
+Duke was unable to leave the low country exposed by marching in
+person to the relief of his faithful mountaineers, but sent into
+these defiles a squadron of light horse, who, falling upon the rabble
+at unawares, amply avenged their excesses. On the 25th of March, the
+inhabitants of Montebaroccio, having voluntarily admitted a body
+of papal troops, were visited by severe retribution as a warning
+to others; the place was sacked and burned by the Spaniards, seven
+hundred men and fifty old women being put to the sword,--a repulsive
+comment upon the Duke's boast, that though the walls of his towns
+were held for others, the hearts they contained were all his own.
+These partial successes turned the tide of feeling somewhat more
+favourably for the della Rovere cause, and we learn from the Minio
+despatches, that the war, unpopular at Rome from the first, now
+occasioned great anxiety to the government, from the difficulty in
+raising funds to continue it. The Pope retired frequently to his
+villa at La Magliana, less from the love of field sports, than to
+indulge his chagrin.[*272] Such were his straits for money, that he
+deposited jewels in pawn with the Cardinal Riario, for a loan of 7000
+ducats. This sum, with 5000 more, having been despatched to Pesaro
+in a convoy of waggons, was captured by the Duke, and along with it
+were found certain letters, written in name of his Holiness, advising
+Lorenzo, in the event of any suspicion attaching to the Gascons in
+his service, either to ship them at once for Lombardy, or to have
+them summarily massacred. These missives, having been circulated
+in the ecclesiastical camp, occasioned a prodigious ferment, and
+it was with the utmost difficulty that Lorenzo, by denying their
+authenticity, induced the French troops to remain under his command,
+until an opportunity offered of conciliating them by the plunder of
+Sta. Costanza.
+
+[Footnote *272: "Gli pareva gran vergogna della Chiesa che ad un
+duchetto basti l'animo di fare questa novità; e il papa tremeva, ed
+era quasi fuor di sè." Cf. GIORGI, _Relazioni Venete_, 2nd
+series, vol. III., p. 47.]
+
+After many complicated movements in the lower valley of the Metauro,
+attended with no decided advantage, and important only as having
+enabled the youthful Giovanni de' Medici to flesh that sword which
+soon after won him the laurels of a bright but brief career, the
+papal army sat down before Mondolfo. The resistance of that small
+town was encouraged by the state of the besiegers, and embittered by
+their savage reputation. The Minio despatches of this date represent
+them as suffering from a scarcity of provisions and a dearth of bread
+and wine, adding that "the captured castles envy the dead, by reason
+of the cruelties practised on the survivors." Its garrison consisted
+of two hundred Spaniards and three hundred militia, so determinedly
+supported by the inhabitants, that breaches opened during the day
+were made up before morning, mines were met by counter-excavations,
+and subterranean galleries were often scenes of death-struggles.
+Provoked by this obstinacy, Lorenzo swore never to raise the siege
+until he had razed the place to its foundations, put the males to the
+sword, and handed over the women to the Devil's service. But in the
+end of March, a few days after he had uttered this savage bravado,
+his own career was arrested. Whilst, with more bravery than prudence,
+he served a battery in the dress of a common soldier, a Spaniard, to
+whom his person was known, marked him from the walls, and shot him as
+he leaned upon a cannon to take aim. The ball took effect above the
+left ear; and the wound extended down his neck to the shoulder.[273]
+He was removed to Ancona, and for above a week continued in extreme
+danger, refusing to be trepanned; but by the end of the month his
+convalescence was complete.
+
+[Footnote 273: This account is adopted by Leone, p. 230, by Sismondi,
+and by Centenelle, Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 907. Baldi (Vat. Urb. MSS.
+No. 906) and Guicciardini say that Lorenzo, having undergone much
+personal fatigue at the battery, was walking away to repose himself
+in a sheltered spot, when a bullet from the walls hit him on the
+head, grazing his skull to the nape of the neck.]
+
+The Pontiff "evinced extreme grief" at so untoward an accession to
+the mishaps of this ill-advised and unlucky campaign. It had hitherto
+been conducted by Renzo da Ceri and Vitellozzo Vitelli, who were
+supposed to thwart the usurper from an apprehension that he might
+become another Cesare Borgia. The Cardinal de' Medici, however,
+attributed these successive miscarriages to the incapacity of Renzi,
+and seriously complained to the Venetian envoy that, in consequence
+of his reputation in the Signory's service, "we engaged him for this
+undertaking, and don't perceive that he has effected anything. While
+he commanded a small infantry force, he appeared never to be idle for
+a day, yet, since he has been at the head of an entire army, he has
+contrived to demean himself very ill, and to show that he is not a
+man of great exploits." It will be curious to find this very officer
+afterwards employed by the Cardinal when Pope, and fully bearing out
+the mean opinion here expressed of him, when his present impugner had
+the folly to instruct him with the defence of Rome itself.
+
+Neither the dissatisfaction of his subjects nor the coldness of his
+allies inclined Leo to abandon an enterprise which exhausted his
+resources and bathed Italy in civil blood. Thundering forth a new
+and more severe excommunication against Francesco Maria and his
+abettors, he, on the 30th of March, despatched a cardinal legate to
+the camp, under whose command things went from bad to worse. The
+defence of Mondolfo was protracted with extraordinary resolution.
+Even after a large space of wall had been thrown down by two mines,
+the besiegers were kept at bay during ten hours of hard fighting,
+whilst the women supplied missiles and coppers of boiling water, and
+the priests, waving aloft their crucifixes, mingled absolution of
+the dying with prayers for the survivors. This vain struggle against
+fearful odds ended in an ill-observed capitulation, in defiance
+of which the town was sacked and set on fire. Two incidents may
+illustrate the undisciplined state of the troops. Before entering
+the place, two Spanish and a Ferrarese soldier agreed to share
+equally their respective booty. Whilst the Italian fought, his
+comrades were plundering, and eventually refused to divide the spoil
+according to stipulation, an evasion in which they were backed by
+their countrymen. The Ferrarese, with permission of his officers,
+challenged his faithless partners, and a ring, or rather square,
+having been cleared, by tying together eight pikes, he sprang into
+it, armed but with sword and half-shield, offering to fight them
+both at once, a proposal which they prudently evaded by surrendering
+a just portion of their plunder. After the town had capitulated, "a
+wrangle arose between an Italian and a German about a flagon of wine,
+the former raising the shout of 'Italy! Italy!' the latter responding
+'Germany! Germany!' Whereupon the infantry came to blows, and many
+were killed on either side; and when, at the peril of his life, the
+right reverend Cardinal had well nigh quelled the fray, an Italian
+struck a German captain on the head with his musket and killed
+him. This made the fight rage fiercer than ever, and the Spaniards
+having sided with the Germans, the Italians were routed, and all
+their quarters pillaged, including those of Signor Troilo Savello.
+The army remains divided and dispersed; most of the Italians are
+departed, whilst the infantry have betaken themselves towards Fano,
+and continue thus separated." It is curious to detect in these and
+similar incidents[274] an undercurrent of national feeling, during
+that dreary age when the Peninsula was torn into sections by communal
+policy and dynastic ambition. Had that cry of _Italia! Italia!_ been
+then raised by her leading spirits, with earnest good faith, apart
+from individual ends, how different had been her after fate and
+present attitude!
+
+[Footnote 274: See above, p. 325.]
+
+The legate, who thus, with difficulty and personal danger, averted
+a general massacre, was the Cardinal Bibbiena, not de' Medici, as
+accidentally misstated by Roscoe. After long employing his diplomatic
+talents against his former friend, the Lord of Urbino, he now
+compassed his final ruin by exertions of the camp, for which he was
+less qualified. The mutinous _mêlée_ which he had witnessed prepared
+him for the discovery, that moneys raised by extraordinary exertions
+were ill-spent upon an army "thrice as numerous on pay-day as in
+action." It was, therefore, to the commissariat and finance that
+his chief attention was given; but, warned by the recent explosion
+of national antipathies, he separated the quarrelsome soldiery in
+various cantonments around Pesaro. The Italians garrisoned the
+city and Rimini, the Spaniards were encamped on the adjoining
+Monte Bartolo, the Germans lay on the middle of that hill around
+the Imperiale palace, the Corsi (Dalmatians) occupied the foot of
+it, and the Gascons bivouacked on the adjacent plain. The last of
+these were in very bad repute at Rome; and finding themselves kept
+for several weeks in that exposed situation, many deserted to the
+della Rovere camp at Ginestreto, near Montebaroccio. After letting
+slip an apparently favourable opportunity for striking a blow at
+these disorganised troops, Francesco Maria subsequently did so by a
+surprise, which we shall narrate in his own words, addressed next
+morning to the Duchess.
+
+ "To the most illustrious Lady, my Consort, my lady Eleonora
+ di Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, &c.
+
+ "Most illustrious Lady, my Consort,
+
+ "Since the enemy took the field I have often wished to come
+ to action, and have used my ingenuity for this object,
+ little heeding their superiority to my brave band, both
+ in men-at-arms and in infantry, but all to no purpose.
+ At length, finding that his Reverence the Legate, Renzo
+ di Ceri, Vitelli, and their other principal leaders had
+ retired into Pesaro, with a host of men-at-arms, whilst
+ about three thousand foot, with the light horse and
+ the Gascon wings, lay on the road to Fano, the Spanish
+ lansquenets and the Corsi, to the number of at least six
+ thousand, being quartered in the Imperiale, there seemed a
+ chance of having at them. Accordingly, at half-past eleven
+ o'clock last night, on ascertaining their position, and the
+ most effective mode of attacking it, I advanced at the head
+ of my infantry and a detachment of cavalry. After passing
+ the Foglia, I sent the latter to a certain spot in the
+ plain, and, leading the rest by the hill-side to the summit
+ of the Imperiale, I charged the enemy about two hours after
+ daybreak, and, by God's grace and the gallantry of my men,
+ routed them ere they could form, killing, and taking many.
+ So sudden and vigorous was our onset over the rocks on the
+ seashore, that they were unable to gain their houses; and,
+ as we drove them with great loss over the hill, they were
+ intercepted below by my cavalry, so that between the two
+ few escaped. Some of the officers made their way into the
+ church of S. Bartolo, and into the palace of the Imperiale,
+ where they attempted to fortify themselves, but with a few
+ of my people I soon captured them all. We followed the
+ fugitives with great slaughter to the very gates of Pesaro,
+ the garrison of which, at least five thousand strong, would
+ neither support nor admit them, whilst the Gascons, though
+ witnessing the rout and drawn up in battle array, equally
+ withheld succour. Thus, without loss, we remained masters
+ of their camp, their colours, many prisoners, and all their
+ officers but two who were killed; and I, having taken up my
+ quarters here, hasten to inform your Excellency of these
+ particulars.
+
+ "But I must not omit to tell your Ladyship how, three days
+ since, as Signor Troilo Savello, on his march from Rome
+ with fifteen hundred foot and some horse, was avoiding the
+ outpost at Sassoferrato, and attacking my castle of Sta.
+ Abonda, he was routed and rifled by a couple of hundred
+ infantry and a few cavalry from my garrison at Pergola, and
+ scarcely escaped being himself taken. In Montefeltro, too,
+ several incursions of the Florentines have been repulsed;
+ and between Massa and Lamole seven hundred of them, who had
+ taken post on a hill and in a very strong pass, were well
+ beaten and driven out of it by a hundred of my people.
+
+ "I wished to give your Ladyship all these particulars,
+ that you may share with me the encouragement they afford
+ us. The favour which God has this morning vouchsafed us,
+ and for which our gratitude is due, gives me hope that
+ the justice of my cause will be daily advanced by new
+ successes; and so to your Ladyship do I commend myself:
+ from my joyous camp near Genestreto, 6 May, 1517.
+
+ "_Consors_, FRANCISCUS MARIA DUX URBINI, &c. _ac
+ Alme Urbis Prefectus._"[275]
+
+[Footnote 275: Vat. Urb. MSS., No. 1023, art. vi.]
+
+To this spirited despatch little remains to be added. The assailants
+ascended from the Rimini side, leaving below a strong body of horse
+to cut off the fugitives. The troops being discouraged by the absence
+of Maldonato's Spaniards, who had straggled behind, and by the late
+hour at which, owing to blunders of their guides, they reached the
+mountain, the Duke encouraged them with assurances that the chances
+of success were greatest after daybreak, as the sentinels would
+be less on the alert; and for an omen of victory, and a badge to
+distinguish them from the enemy, he desired them to twine oak twigs,
+emblematic of his name, round their headgear. He led their file in
+person; and after a complete victory was left with eight hundred
+prisoners on his hands, besides the entire camp equipage and much
+booty. Next day the Gascons, who had not shared in the rout, came
+over in a body to Francesco Maria, headed by Monsieur d'Ambras, who
+returned to the court of Francis I., after publicly declaring that
+he would no longer permit his men to be sacrificed by officers that
+could neither protect them nor annoy their enemy, but would leave
+them under a prince whose tactics and discipline were a pattern even
+to his foes. This secession did not, however, prevent his master
+bolstering up the papal policy by loans of 100,000 livres Tournois
+to Lorenzo, and half that sum to the Pontiff, a course condemned by
+Sismondi in his French history.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+ Continuation of the ruinous contest--The Duke finally
+ abandons it--Death of Lorenzo de' Medici--Charles V.
+ elected Emperor.
+
+
+About this time a serious conspiracy against Leo was discovered. The
+prime mover in it was Alfonso Petrucci, Cardinal of Siena, whose
+property having been confiscated, and his family ruined by the
+Pontiff, he burned for revenge, and induced one Battista, a famous
+surgeon of Vercelli, along with the Pope's valet, to enter into his
+views. Leo being ill of fistula, it was arranged that Battista,
+who had procured recommendations as a skilful operator, should
+introduce poison into the dressings. The plot was revealed in time,
+and the Pontiff used every art, with promises of reconciliation and
+renewed favour, to entice the principal culprit to Rome. Having
+with difficulty effected this, he imprisoned him, along with his
+brother-cardinals Raffaello Riario and Bandinello Bishop of Sauli,
+along with the captain of the Sienese troops. Cardinal Alfonso was
+secretly put to death; the surgeon and the valet were publicly hanged
+and quartered; Sauli, condemned to perpetual imprisonment, was
+liberated but to die; while Riario, after purchasing at a high rate
+restoration to his escheated dignities, spent the brief remainder
+of his life in voluntary exile. Cardinals Soderini and Adriano of
+Corneto (the latter of whom held the sees of Hereford and Bath, and
+was papal collector in England), having confessed in open consistory
+their privacy to the plot, escaped from Rome. The former was saved
+by chancing to ride out to the chase on a mule, instead of going as
+usual in his litter, which followed at some distance, and was seized
+by the guard in consequence of his scarlet robe being left in it,
+whilst the culprit, in a simple chaplain's dress, fled to the Colonna
+strongholds. A mystery which hung over the fate of Adriano has been
+partially cleared up by my friend Mr. Rawdon Brown from the Sanuto
+Diaries, wherein it appears that he safely reached Venice through
+Calabria, and that the occasion of his unaccountable disappearance
+was a journey to the conclave on Leo's death, not his flight from
+Rome in the present year, as stated by Guicciardini, Valeriano, and
+Roscoe.[276]
+
+[Footnote 276: Vat. Urb. MSS., No. 907, f. 28, 30. The Minio
+despatches are full of details of this conspiracy unknown to Roscoe.]
+
+Thus baffled in the field, and betrayed in the consistory, Leo found
+a great effort necessary. On the 20th of June he wrote a letter to
+Henry VIII., which has been published by Rymer, representing, in
+vague generalities, and abusive terms, the outrages committed against
+the dignity and temporal dominion of the Church by relentless robbers
+and adversaries, and enjoining him to contribute assistance, in the
+way to be orally explained by the bearer, a predicant friar named
+Nicholas.[277] He also made renewed instances with his other allies
+for more efficient aid against his contumacious vassal in Umbria, and
+sent to levy six thousand Swiss. In order to raise money for these
+new expenses, he, on the 26th of June, created thirty-one cardinals,
+thus at once filling his treasury with the price of their hats, and
+surrounding himself by chosen adherents. Nor did he omit still more
+profligate expedients. He had repeatedly profited by Maldonato's
+perfidy in the Urbino war, and now offered him 10,000 ducats, with
+the dignity of cardinal to his son, if he would deliver up Francesco
+Maria alive or dead.[278]
+
+[Footnote 277: Rymer, vol. IV., p. 135. On the 21st of December
+Lorenzo de' Medici had written to thank the King of England for his
+good wishes conveyed through the Bishop of Worcester, then resident
+at Rome. See a curious letter of the following June, from Wolsey to
+the usurping Duke, Appendix VI.]
+
+[Footnote 278: Centenelle, Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 907.]
+
+After the affair at Imperiale, the Papal troops keeping close in
+their garrisons, Francesco Maria had recourse to a partisan warfare
+of sallies and surprises, which greatly harassed them, but did
+not give sufficient employment to his own somewhat unmanageable
+levies. He had now ascertained from intercepted letters the full
+extent of Maldonato's treason; but, ere he ventured upon making an
+example, he thought it well to put his troops into good humour by
+a foraging expedition, which should also free his own state from
+their burdensome presence. Gian Paolo Baglioni, Lord of Perugia,
+had, during the whole campaign, been in the field against the Duke
+with three thousand men, and his relation and rival Carlo, exiled by
+his intrigues from that city, besought Francesco Maria's aid for his
+re-establishment. No proposal could have been more opportune, and the
+Duke drew all his forces towards the vale of Tiber.
+
+But his army, disorganised by the intrigues of Maldonato and one
+Suares (not the bearer of his cartel), broke out into tumult at
+Cantiano, clamouring for pay or pillage, and both of these officers,
+heading the mutiny, insulted and threatened their general. In this
+predicament, his adherents quickly collected from the neighbouring
+villages some money, church plate, and other valuables, which brought
+the refractory troops into better humour; and the opportune news of
+considerable booty having been obtained beyond the frontier, by the
+advanced guard of Gascons, induced them to move upon the Pianello di
+Perugia. The Spanish troops whom the Duke had brought from Lombardy
+consisted of two battalions, that of San Marco under Maldonato, and
+that of Verona under Alverado. The disaffection was confined to a
+portion of the former, and had for some time been detected through
+intercepted correspondence of their officers. On the march through
+the Apennines, Francesco Maria gradually prepared their comrades of
+Verona for the vengeance he had in store for the traitors. When all
+was ready, he halted on a small plain, and, whilst the surrounding
+defiles were being occupied by his staunchest adherents, he formed
+the Spaniards into a square, with their officers in the middle, whom
+he thus addressed: "Gentlemen and Captains! You are aware how I
+entered this country under your protection, and how, in committing
+myself into your hands, on your promise never in life or in death to
+abandon me, I relied upon your long-established reputation that you
+never had betrayed any of your leaders. I now, however, find that
+some among you seek miserably to sell me, and so for ever stain your
+honourable name; and this I presently shall prove, if you think fit,
+with the double object of saving myself from assassination and you
+from disgrace, but on condition that you shall at once take such
+steps as you deem best adapted to rescue me from pressing peril,
+and yourselves from lasting contumely." This harangue, falling upon
+well tutored ears, was answered by shouts of "Death to the traitors!
+reveal them at once!" Proofs were then read that Maldonato had
+engaged to slaughter the Duke and Federigo del Bozzolo, for the
+bribe of a life-pension to himself of 600 ducats, an episcopal see
+to his son, and double pay during the whole campaign to his troops.
+There is said to be a standard of honour among thieves; that of the
+Spaniards was piqued by this melodramatic impeachment of their truth,
+and the opportune discovery of further treasonable documents in the
+baggage of Maldonato's mistress exasperated them to fury. That craven
+captain threw himself at the feet of Francesco Maria, whom he had
+recently insulted, and prayed for mercy; but the latter withdrew
+from the square, saying that he left the affair to the soldiery. A
+cry then arose, "Let the faithful officers come out!" They did so,
+leaving eight whose names had been denounced, and who were instantly
+massacred by the troops. Thus was the army saved from destruction by
+the coolness and decision of its leader, and the companies of San
+Marco and Verona, purged from the imputation of perfidy, were from
+that day embodied in a single battalion.
+
+Having so happily scotched the vipers that endangered his safety, the
+Duke of Urbino made his descent upon Perugia. After a short siege,
+during which he extended his forays as far as Spoleto and Orvieto,
+spreading alarm to the gates of Rome, that city capitulated on the
+26th of May, receiving Carlo Baglioni as its master, and paying a
+ransom of 10,000 scudi, which Vermiglioli, the biographer of Gian
+Paolo, alleges the latter, with the bad faith usual in that age,
+to have shared, although the money had been raised from his own
+adherents. The same authority now estimates the Duke's army at twelve
+thousand men, with which it was his intention to make a diversion
+into the Florentine territory. But hearing that the Legate had taken
+the field, he hurried back across the Apennines, though too late
+to save Fossombrone and La Pergola. His wish of engaging the enemy
+having been foiled by their retreat into Pesaro, he had recourse to
+his former tactics of removing the seat of war from his own state,
+and turned his arms against the more wealthy towns of the Marca. Many
+of these, including Fabriano, Ancona, and Recanati, compounded for
+exemption from military violence, by paying seven or eight thousand
+ducats each. Corinaldo was saved by a well-timed sally, but Jesi,
+contrary to the wish of Francesco Maria, was sacked by his Spaniards,
+to whom his orderly and methodical way of laying the country under
+contributions, and pillaging only the refractory, was far from
+acceptable.
+
+The lesson he had given to these free lances appears for a time
+to have borne fruit, and the following report by Minio, of a
+conversation with the Pontiff, affords honourable testimony to their
+steadiness, whilst it exhibits very graphically the character of the
+contest at this juncture. "I afterwards inquired of his Holiness if
+he had any news? He told me Francesco Maria was encamped under a
+castle named Corinaldo, situated in the Marca, and that infantry had
+been detached from his Holiness's army for its defence, so he hoped
+not to be disappointed; a trust wherein I think the Pontiff will
+be deceived, as he was regarding the other places. I said to him,
+'It is a good sign, his inability to make any further progress, and
+merely laying siege to a few inconsiderable castles;' and to this
+his Holiness rejoined, 'He does it to raise money, as he did by the
+other places.' He then told me that Don Ugo de Moncada had been with
+the Spaniards, but was unable to make any settlement; adding, with an
+air of surprise, 'I was willing to give them three arrears of pay,
+yet they did not choose to come away, but despatched a friar to say
+that should I undertake an expedition against the infidels, they are
+willing to accept this offer, and serve.' I answered, that if so,
+they were willing to fight against the infidels on the same terms
+for which they now served Francesco Maria against the Holy See! The
+Pope evinced little hope of an agreement with these Spaniards. On my
+observing, 'The Viceroy [Don Ugo] has quitted Naples, we know not
+wherefore, unless it be to come to your Holiness's assistance,' he
+replied, 'They do say they are coming to aid me;' and then continued,
+with a smile on his lips, 'See what a mess this is! The French
+suspect these Spaniards of playing them some trick, and the Spaniards
+fear lest the French, through Francesco Maria, should attack them in
+the kingdom of Naples.' In order to elicit something more, I said
+that I deemed it mere suspicion on either side; and he replied, 'It
+is so.' I next asked how his Holiness stood with the Swiss? and he
+answered, 'We shall have the Grisons, but the Cantons have not yet
+decided, though they were to do so in a diet; at all events, I shall
+have some, and I have sent them the pensions they required of me.'"
+On the 14th of July, two days after this despatch, Minio reports that
+Don Ugo had been dismissed by the Spanish troops, drawn up in three
+fine battalions, with the following reply: "That they did not intend
+to desert Francesco Maria, unless war were waged [by him] against
+their most Catholic King, or some attempt made to occupy the kingdom
+of Naples, or unless his Holiness shall commence hostilities against
+his most Christian Majesty; in any other event they meant to keep
+their faith to Francesco Maria, and would in no respect fail him."
+
+From various passages in the same envoy's despatches, it is clear
+that these jealousies, though here ridiculed by Leo, were shared by
+himself in a high degree: his own policy being generally hollow and
+Machiavellian, he looked for no longer measure of good faith from
+his allies. Ever since interest had been made at Bologna by Francis
+I. in behalf of the Duke of Urbino, the Pontiff regarded him as at
+heart adverse to all nepotic schemes upon that principality; and, at
+this particular juncture, suspicion was strengthened by a variety
+of circumstances, singly of little moment. Among these, were the
+retention by his Holiness of Modena and Reggio; the apparent slight
+of passing, in the late wholesale distribution of cardinal's hats,
+over Ludovico Canossa, who, while legate in France, had gained the
+King's affections, more perhaps than was approved at the Vatican;
+the dilatory advance of those French lances long since promised
+to Lorenzo de' Medici; but most of all the adherence to the della
+Rovere banner of the Gascons, who owed at least a nominal allegiance
+to the French crown. Influenced by these doubts, and the apparently
+interminable expenses of this miserable and mismanaged contest, the
+Pope so far lost heart, about the end of July, as to hint at an
+accommodation.
+
+The Duke of Urbino's next move was to repeat at Fermo his Perugian
+policy of restoring an exiled faction, by expelling Ludovico
+Freducci, then head of the government, who after a gallant struggle
+suffered a complete rout, with the loss of six hundred slain. The
+Duke then directed his march upon Ascoli, but was recalled by
+learning the approach of two thousand Swiss to reinforce the papal
+troops. Hurrying to intercept them, he by forced marches suddenly
+appeared near Rimini, where he found that, simultaneously with their
+arrival, M. de l'Escu had at length brought up his three hundred
+French gens-d'-arms, with instructions from Francis to arrange,
+if possible, some issue to this unhappy war. Nor was the Legate
+disinclined to the proposal, for the Pontiff had been playing a
+ruinous game, which disgusted his allies, alienated his subjects, and
+drained his treasury.
+
+An interview was, therefore, held at the monastery of La Colonella,
+between the Duke, Cardinal Bibbiena, and the French captain. A
+guarantee of 10,000 ducats of income in any residence he should
+select was offered to Francesco Maria, if he would resign his state.
+But he declared himself ready to die rather than so to sell it
+and his honour, avowing, however, that if the Pope were resolved
+to deprive him of his sovereignty on account of the Cardinal's
+slaughter, he would abdicate in favour of his infant son, and carry
+his army to Greece, to fight for the recovery of Constantinople. When
+negotiations had been thus broken off, as described by Giraldi, the
+smooth-tongued churchman, nothing abashed by the contrast of their
+early familiarity with their present circumstances, invited him
+to partake of a splendid collation. This he courteously declined,
+and retired to breakfast with l'Escu, answering the Cardinal's
+remonstrances by a jesting but pungent remark, that "priests kill
+with wine-cups, soldiers with the sword." The Duke making somewhat
+minute inquiries as to the Swiss reinforcements, the Legate
+laughingly asked, "if he destined for them such a supper as he
+provided for the Germans and Spaniards at the Imperiale"; to which
+he rejoined, "And why not, if they are my foes?"[279] Nor was the
+taunt lost upon him. Next night he led his men through the Marecchia,
+and surprised the Swiss levies who were quartered in S. Giuliano,
+a suburb of Rimini beyond that river. Notwithstanding a gallant
+resistance, they were driven into the stream, with severe loss on
+both sides, whilst Francesco Maria, after receiving a ball in his
+cuirass, dexterously withdrew from his perilous position, under cover
+of the smoke raised by a vast funeral pile, on which he left the
+bodies of four hundred slain, amid a mass of combustibles. He now
+resumed his projects of carrying fire and sword into Tuscany, and
+reached the Upper Vale of the Tiber at Borgo S. Sepolcro, but, for
+want of artillery, was unable to do anything against the fortified
+places. The Duke's whole policy in this protracted and inconclusive
+warfare has been severely blamed by Roscoe, and there can be no doubt
+that, in his circumstances, rapid and aggressive tactics were most
+likely to succeed. Had he, by a series of uninterrupted advantages,
+maintained the impression made at his first onset, or had he risked
+all in one engagement when his enemies had been daunted by Lorenzo's
+severe wound, it is clear, from the Minio despatches, that Leo might
+have been frightened into fair terms, at a moment when treason
+was rife even within the Sacred College. The like result would,
+perhaps, have been attained with greater certainty, had he, instead
+of harassing his own territory and La Marca with an exhausting
+civil war, carried his arms at once across the Apennines, and, by
+threatening Siena or Florence, made it a question whether the Medici
+were to lose Tuscany or gain Urbino. But we shall have ample reason,
+in other instances, to perceive that procrastination was more
+natural to him than energy, and, in the present case, delays for a
+time appeared injurious to his enemies rather than to himself. It is,
+however, fair to admit that, whilst his biographers continually claim
+for him anxiety to bring on a decisive action, even the prejudiced
+Guicciardini never accuses him of having evaded one.
+
+[Footnote 279: These anecdotes are preserved by Baldi, to whom, and
+to Minio Centenelle and Giraldi, we owe many new details of this
+campaign. Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 906, 907; Ottob. 3153.]
+
+A general feeling gained ground that this weary and wasteful strife
+was approaching its close. The Duke's mercenaries, seeing no
+prospect of their pay, which was contingent on complete success, and
+dissatisfied with their limited opportunities for pillage, began to
+look out for some more profitable engagement. Their most Christian
+and most Catholic majesties had also combined to bring the struggle
+to a conclusion, by recalling their respective subjects from the
+army of Francesco Maria; nor did the Spaniards think it a disgrace
+to entertain tempting offers for their secession from a cheerless
+enterprise. Three of their captains accordingly went to Rome, on the
+6th of August, apparently with his sanction, and offered for 60,000
+ducats to place the whole state of Urbino in the hands of these two
+monarchs, for their award as to which competitor should be preferred.
+The Pontiff at first made a show of entertaining this proposition, in
+so far at least as regarded the duchy proper; but this was probably
+a pretext for gaining time until the arrival of four thousand
+lansquenets, whom he expected from the Emperor. Accordingly, on the
+14th, in an audience with Minio, he denounced these terms as "the
+most brutal possible, nor could Francesco Maria send to demand of
+me what he does, were he the Grand Turk, and encamped at Tivoli!
+He wants us to give him up the places we hold, namely, Pesaro and
+Sinigaglia: see, by your faith, what notions he has! We really
+desired this agreement, that we might attend to the Turkish affairs,
+but these people are indeed elated and brutal." The like opinion
+prevailed at Rome, and the imperial ambassador deprecated the
+arrangement to his Holiness as disgraceful. It was therefore rejected
+after some delay; nor was it until the papal court had taken new
+alarm, on the Duke's movement into Tuscany, that the Spaniards were
+bought off by the auditor of the treasury, who had been sent for the
+purpose to their camp near Anghiari. He was met by the Duke, with
+his faithful partisan di Bozzolo, and the Spanish captains. After a
+protracted discussion, the former went forth, moved almost to tears,
+exclaiming, "It is impossible for me to accept these terms." In his
+absence it was agreed that the duchy should be given up to Lorenzo,
+and that the Spaniards should accompany Don Ugo de Moncada towards
+Naples, after receiving 50,000 ducats, under an obligation to serve
+in reinstating Lorenzo in Urbino, if called upon to do so.
+
+On hearing these stipulations, Francesco Maria had an altercation
+with the Spanish captains, which ended in his riding over to the
+quarters of his other adherents, who yet remained faithful, and who
+were with difficulty dissuaded from falling upon the renegades. An
+idea now entertained, of making a last stand in the highlands with
+that residue, was soon abandoned, for similar influences were at work
+on them. But, mindful of their solemn obligation not to quit the
+field until victory had crowned their enterprise, they resolved to
+retire with honour intact. The Gascons, accordingly, by the mediation
+of l'Escu and Guise, obtained from the Pontiff not only an exemption
+from their engagement, but such a capitulation for the Duke of
+Urbino as he might, with due regard to his dignity, accept. In order
+to persuade the latter to such a course as circumstances rendered
+necessary, the entreaties of his friends were added to the pressing
+instances of Don Ugo and the French generals. The French and German
+troops, after receiving 25,000 ducats, were to fall back upon Milan,
+leaving him safely at Mantua; but the Italian soldiery appear to
+have shared no part of this golden harvest.
+
+The conditions obtained for Francesco Maria were as follows:
+Plenary absolution for himself, his family, and adherents, from
+ecclesiastical censures; permission to him and them to retire where
+they pleased, and to take any service except against his Holiness;
+leave to remove all his private property in arms, artillery, and
+furniture, especially his MS. library; the enjoyment of their
+usufructuary rights to the dowager and reigning Duchesses; a general
+amnesty and exchange of prisoners, including Sigismondo Varana. This
+convention was accepted by his Holiness on the 16th of September, and
+it fell to Bembo's lot, as papal secretary, to affix his signature
+to what he, perhaps, persuaded himself were favourable terms for his
+former friend and benefactor.
+
+The conduct of the Spaniards was regarded with universal contempt
+and disgust. As they withdrew towards the Neapolitan territory, a
+formidable band four or five thousand strong, the men of Gubbio stood
+on their defence, but those of Fabriano, less alert, were surprised
+and pillaged to the value of 2000 scudi. "But if the wretches sinned
+at Fabriano, they did penance at Ripatrasone; for, in trying to sack
+it also, many of them were slain, and the survivors were taken to
+Gerbe, in Africa, where they nearly all died,--some from drinking too
+much, some from drinking too little. The former by great good luck
+were drowned, and the latter, marching through that country in the
+parching summer heats, with water scarce, and no wine, perished of
+thirst; so that they had better have followed the Duke to marvellous
+enterprises and mighty gains, rather than have left to the world a
+degraded name." There is something quaint in the concentrated rancour
+wherewith Giraldi thus dismisses these selfish adventurers; and not
+less so in the following rustic memorial. Grateful for their escape,
+comparatively scathless, from perils which nearly menaced them, the
+people of Maciola, a village two miles from Urbino, placed in their
+church a votive picture to the Madonna, which is still inscribed with
+these simple verses:--
+
+ "A horrible war [raged] in the state of Urbino,
+ In fifteen hundred and seventeen,
+ [With] many troops brave and chosen
+ Led by the Duke Lorenzino,
+ When Francesco Maria into his duchy
+ Was returned, with capital troops,
+ Spaniards, Mantuans, and other clans,
+ Each one a paladin in arms;
+ Urbino then, and all the district,
+ Being in great peril and dread.
+ Oh, Virgin Mother! ever kind to us,
+ Often did the host approach our walls,
+ And God alone it was who defended them:
+ Therefore has been dedicated to thee this image by thy worshippers
+ Of Maciola, with their grateful vows."
+
+In the war thus concluded, Francesco Maria struggled for eight
+months, single-handed and penniless, against the temporal and
+spiritual influence of the Holy See, backed by all the continental
+powers. Unable to carry his object by a coup-de-main, he was in
+the end vanquished by the superior resources of his oppressor.
+In a parting address to his subjects, he assumed the tone of
+victory, asserting that he withdrew, not under compulsion, but from
+consideration of their interests, which a prolonged struggle must
+have deeply compromised. Thus retiring with honour, he promised to
+return to them with glory, when he could do so without detriment to
+their welfare. He was escorted by l'Escu as far as Cento, whence he
+rejoined his family at Mantua, presenting his consort with sixty-four
+standards, taken during this brief and unequal campaign, wherein his
+talents had been developed, his character strengthened, his fame
+extended.
+
+We have dwelt somewhat minutely--it may be tediously--upon these
+events, for the contest was one of vital moment to Francesco Maria,
+his duchy being at once the theatre of operations and the guerdon
+of victory. Yet this petty war was pregnant with results of wider
+interest; for the enormous drain of money it occasioned so aggravated
+the financial difficulties of the papacy, as to bring to a crisis
+those abuses which finally matured the Reformation. The Minio
+despatches abound in proofs of the desperate state to which the
+treasury was reduced, and of the simoniacal expedients resorted to
+for ready money. One of these may be noted as compromising Bembo,
+who so often re-appears in these pages. He and Sadoleto had, since
+Leo's accession, monopolised his private brieves, which afforded
+them a handsome return, from gratuities and bribes, to the exclusion
+of the other papal secretaries. Now, however, the latter offered to
+their needy master a purse of 25,000 ducats, if admitted to share
+the spoils, which was greedily accepted, without regard to vested
+interests; and his Holiness was delighted to find the purchase-money
+of his ordinary secretaryships thereby raised at once from 6000 to
+7000 ducats each. The imposition of one tenth laid on the clergy,
+avowedly for the proposed Turkish crusade, was absorbed by this
+Urbino campaign, which was thought to have cost the Holy See thirty
+thousand men, and a million of scudi. Even Henry VIII. was applied
+to for a loan of 200,000 ducats, which he characteristically evaded
+by offering 100,000, on condition of levying for himself the clergy
+tenths. But let us take the Pontiff's own statement, volunteered
+to Minio:--"See, by your troth, what a business this is! The war
+costs us 700,000 ducats; and we have been so ill served by these
+ministers, that worse cannot be imagined: this very month we had to
+disburse 120,000. When we commenced the war we had some few funds,
+which we had not chosen to touch, but the Lord God has aided us. We
+should never have thought it possible to raise 100,000 ducats, and
+we have obtained 700,000; see how astonishing this is! Had we deemed
+it possible to obtain 700,000 ducats, we would have undertaken the
+expedition against the Turks single-handed."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+But where was the minion for whom all this crime and misery had
+been perpetrated? From Ancona he paid a brief visit to the Vatican,
+on his way to Florence, where he slowly recovered from his severe
+wound, only to plunge deeper in debaucheries more congenial to his
+degraded character than the privations of military life. He was
+never named during the rest of the contest, but as soon as it was
+over he met his uncle at Viterbo, where, and in the neighbouring
+country, the papal court passed most of October in field sports. His
+hard-won sovereignty seems to have afforded him little satisfaction
+or interest; but in the following year he became an instrument
+for the further promotion of his uncle's ambition. His marriage
+having been negotiated through Cardinal Bibbiena to Madelaine de la
+Tour, daughter of Jean Count of Boulogne and Auvergne, a relation
+of the French monarch, the titular Duke of Urbino proceeded to
+Paris in the spring of 1518, for the double ceremonial of his own
+nuptials, and the Dauphin's baptism, at which he stood sponsor on
+the 25th of April, as proxy for the Pontiff. Both these events
+were celebrated with much festive merriment in the gay capital of
+France, and the young couple were overwhelmed by splendid dowries
+and wedding-gifts by the Pope and the Monarch. But their bridal joy
+was of brief duration. The Duchess died in childbed on the 23rd of
+April following, and was followed to the grave five days after by
+her husband, who expiated with his life the dissolute vices in which
+he had continuously indulged. Their child survived to be a scourge
+of the Huguenots, in the person of Catherine de' Medici, wife of
+Henry II. of France, mother of Francis II., Charles IX., and Henry
+III.,--in the last of whom the line of Valois and the descendants of
+Duke Lorenzo became extinct.
+
+Hearing of Lorenzo's desperate state, the Pope despatched Cardinal
+Giulio de' Medici to maintain at Florence the supremacy of his
+house. The titular dukedom of Urbino passed, in terms of the
+new investiture, to the infant Catherine; but the territory was
+unceremoniously seized by his Holiness, notwithstanding the wish
+of its inhabitants for restoration of their legitimate sovereign.
+Montefeltro, with S. Leo and Maiuolo, was assigned to Florence, in
+security or compensation for 150,000 scudi said to have been advanced
+in the late war, and the remainder of the duchy was annexed to
+the Church. The walls of its capital, whose loyalty to its native
+princes amid all their reverses is finely commemorated in the current
+appellation of _Urbino fidelissimo_, were thrown down, and its
+metropolitan privileges transferred to Gubbio, which had shown itself
+less devoted to the della Rovere interests.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+We may here mention the fate of Gian Paolo Baglioni, known to us,
+in 1502, as one of the confederates of La Magione, who, in the
+quaint words of an unpublished chronicle, escaped the violin-string
+of Michelotto at Sinigaglia "to fall into the pit which he had
+digged." We have more lately seen him, in 1517, buying off Francesco
+Maria from the city of Perugia, with a bribe shared by himself, and
+have at the same time alluded to the broils there raging between
+various members of his family. These it would be beyond our purpose
+to follow; but they were attended by a series of bad faith on his
+part, and of suffering on that of the people, which gained for him
+the merited title of tyrant of Perugia. Less, perhaps, with the
+intention of vindicating the latter, than of liberating himself from
+a talented and unscrupulous vassal, who, long accustomed to rule
+supreme in that city, ill brooked and scarcely yielded that obedience
+to the Holy See which Julius II. had imposed on him in 1506, Leo
+summoned Gian Paolo to Rome in 1520, with amicable professions. There
+he arrived on the 16th of March, and next day sought an audience of
+the Pontiff in S. Angelo, the gates of which were immediately closed
+upon him as a state prisoner. After he had lingered for some months
+in mysterious durance, unconscious of the charge brought against him,
+a plan was formed to liberate him, disguised as a woman who visited
+the castellan; but at that juncture the Pope, who, according to the
+gossip of a contemporary diarist, had dreamt at La Magliana of a
+mouse escaping from a trap, sent a summary order for his execution,
+which took place secretly on the 11th of June.
+
+The singular good fortune which accumulated coronets and crowns
+on the brows of Charles V., until he found himself sovereign by
+inheritance of a large portion of Europe, here demands our notice.
+The Emperor Maximilian had, by Mary, daughter and heiress of Charles
+the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, a son Philip, who predeceased him in
+1506, after marrying Joanna, daughter and heiress of Ferdinand
+and Isabella of Aragon and Castile. Joanna being disqualified
+by mental imbecility, the united crowns of Spain devolved, on
+the death of Ferdinand in 1516, to her son Charles, who already
+held the Netherlands through his grandmother, Mary of Burgundy.
+As representative of the house of Aragon, he was also sovereign
+of Naples and Sicily; but the former crown required the papal
+investiture, which Leo was loath to bestow, partly with a vague
+hope of reserving it for one of his own race, partly from aversion
+to the establishment of a new line of foreign rulers in the Italian
+peninsula. On the death of Maximilian in January 1519, without
+having formerly received the imperial crown, his grandson, Charles,
+stepped into Austria, as his natural heritage, and sought still
+further aggrandisement by offering himself candidate for the throne
+of Germany. Little as the balance of power was then comprehended in
+European policy, this young monarch's rapid acquisitions called forth
+many jealousies. Francis had a double motive for standing forward
+as a competitor for the empire;--the dignity was flattering to his
+gallant character and ambitious views, and he grudged it to a younger
+rival, whose overgrown territory already hemmed him in on every side.
+Leo, at heart disliking them equally, as ultramontane sovereigns
+formidable to Italy, on the ruins of whose freedom were based the
+successes of either, sought to play them off against each other, so
+as to weaken and embarrass both. But in spite of these intrigues,
+Charles was elected emperor on the 28th of June, 1519, when but
+nineteen years of age.
+
+The Pope had covertly supported the claims of Francis, with whom he
+intended some ulterior combination for expelling the Spaniards from
+Lower Italy. But the accession of strength which their sovereign thus
+acquired gave Leo an excuse for changing sides, an evolution grateful
+to his faithless nature. The struggle was once more to be made in
+Lombardy, and, as Charles was bent upon wresting the Milanese from
+his rival, the opportunity seemed tempting of recovering Parma and
+Piacenza for the Church by his means. To men in the Duke of Urbino's
+desperate position, any convulsion would be welcome, as offering the
+chance of better things. The impression left by his biographers, that
+he maintained a cautious neutrality in the contest thus opening,
+is disproved by some documents in the Bibliothèque du Roi, which
+establish him as a retained adherent of the French monarch.[280]
+One of them is an undated draft of articles proposed by him, his
+nephew Sigismondo Varana, Camillo Orsini, the Baglioni, and the
+Petrucci, as conditions of their entering the service of Francis,
+with the usual pay and allowances. They stipulated for his constant
+protection and support in the recovery of their respective states,
+and for the restoration of various allodial fiefs claimed by them
+in Naples, as soon as Francis should, with their aid, regain that
+kingdom. Francesco Maria, finding it necessary to quit the territory
+of his brother-in-law Federigo, now Duke of Mantua, who had been
+named captain-general of the ecclesiastical forces, and to surrender
+the allowance of 3000 scudi, hitherto made by him for the Duchess's
+maintenance, asked a pension of equal amount from his new ally,
+together with 1500 scudi in hand, to meet the expense of removing
+his family to a place of security, probably Goito. He accompanied
+these overtures with a plan for very extended operations upon Central
+Italy, whereby, with the assistance of Venice and Genoa, armaments
+by sea and land were to be directed in overwhelming force, at once
+against Tuscany and the Papal States. The result of this negotiation
+does not appear, but the only one of its provisions which seems to
+have taken effect was the Duke's pension, for which he writes thanks
+to the French Monarch from the camp of Lautrec on the Taro, the 27th
+of September, 1521. Giraldi mentions that he suddenly quitted the
+French service in consequence of a slight from Lautrec at a council
+of war, and he appears then to have retired to Lonno on the Lago
+di Guarda. From that lovely spot he watched the course of events,
+until the wheel of fortune should bring round his turn. The ladies
+of his family meanwhile lived in great seclusion at Mantua, and on
+the 19th of July, 1521, the dowager Duchess writes him, that she
+and his consort frequented the convents, soliciting from the nuns
+their prayers that God would direct his counsels, and vouchsafe
+the fulfilment of his wishes.[281] As the strife approached, these
+distinguished ladies withdrew to Verona. Upon its progress we need
+not dwell. By his oppressive sway Lautrec had rendered the French
+name odious at Milan, and when the confederate army approached its
+walls, bringing with them Francesco Sforza, second son of Ludovico
+il Moro, and brother of Maximiliano their last native sovereign, the
+people hailed them as liberators, and expelled their foreign masters.
+
+[Footnote 280: MOLINI, _Documenti di Storia Italiana_, I.,
+pp. 122, 135.]
+
+[Footnote 281: Oliveriana MSS. No. 375; I., pp. 51, 75.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+ Death of Leo X.--Restoration of Francesco Maria--He
+ enters the Venetian service--Louis XII. invades the
+ Milanese--Death of Bayard--The Duke's honourable reception
+ at Venice--Battle of Pavia.
+
+
+News of the evacuation of Milan by the French reached Leo X. at
+his hunting-seat of La Magliana, five miles down the Tiber from
+Rome. Though not quite well, he hurried to his capital on the
+24th of November, to witness the bonfires and rejoicings at their
+discomfiture, and on the morning of the 1st of December was found
+dead in bed.[*282] The mystery attending this sudden death of one in
+the prime of life has never been cleared up. Suspicions of poison
+were rife at the time, and have not been removed; they point at
+the Duke of Urbino or of Ferrara, whom he had grievously outraged,
+or at Francis I., whom he recently disgusted, as its probable but
+undetected author. In absence of tangible accusation or tittle of
+evidence, it seems needless to repel such a charge from Francesco
+Maria, especially as other accounts impute the Pontiff's dissolution
+to malaria fever, to a severe catarrh,[283] to debauchery, or even
+to excessive exultation at the joyful news. So unexpected was the
+event that there was not time to administer the last sacrament, a
+circumstance which gave occasion to this bitter epigram, in allusion
+to the notorious venality of church privileges during his reign:--
+
+ "Why were not Leo's latest hours consoled
+ By holy rites? such rites he long had sold."[284]
+
+[Footnote *282: He seems to have received the news at La Magliana
+on November 25th. He returned to Rome at once. The illness was not
+considered serious till November 30th. He died on the evening of
+December 1st. Cf. PARIS DE GRASSIS, in ROSCOE, _Leo X._, App.
+CCXII.-IV., and clerk's letters of December 1st and 2nd, in BREWER,
+_Calendar_ (1824-5).]
+
+[Footnote 283: Such is the opinion of a monkish chronicler who wrote
+in 1522. Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 1023, f. 297. Even in 1517 the Venetian
+envoy Giorgi reported him as afflicted by an internal plethoric
+disease, a catarrh, and fistula. Vettori discredits the rumours of
+poison, and Guicciardini says they were hushed up by his cousin the
+Cardinal, lest they should give umbrage to the French monarch, with
+whom it was his interest to stand well at the approaching conclave.
+On the whole, the opinion of most weight is that of the Master of
+ceremonies, who distinctly asserts that poison was detected on a
+_post-mortem_ examination. Roscoe's innuendo inculpating Francesco
+Maria is a glaring proof of his aptitude to do scanty justice to that
+Duke, whose admitted hastiness of temper cannot, in absence of one
+contemporary or serious imputation, be considered any relevant ground
+for suspecting him of slow and stealthy vengeance. Another Venetian
+ambassador mentions, in proof of the utter exhaustion of the papal
+treasury, from the profusion of Leo and the greed of his Florentine
+retainers, that the wax lights used at his funeral had previously
+served for the obsequies of a cardinal.]
+
+[Footnote 284:
+
+ "Sacra sub extrema si forte requiritis hora
+ Cur Leo non potuit sumere? vendiderat."
+
+ _Bibl. Magliabech. MSS._, cl. vii., No. 345.]
+
+Tidings so momentous to Francesco Maria reached him when on a visit
+to the Benedictine monastery at Magusano, on the Lago di Garda. He
+had audience on the same day with Lautrec and Gritti, the French and
+Venetian commanders, who bade him God-speed. Hurrying to his consort
+at Verona, he there spent two days in consulting with such friends
+as were at hand, and despatching courtiers to others, his resolution
+being taken to strike a speedy blow for recovery of his state. The
+impoverished finances of the papacy encouraged the attempt, and he
+was quickly in communication with Malatesta and Orazio Baglioni, who
+had been in like manner despoiled of Perugia. But before assuming
+offensive operations, he commissioned a special envoy to lay before
+the conclave a statement of his grievances, and a justification of
+the measures he was about to pursue.[285] In two days more he reached
+Ferrara, with the Baglioni, at the head of three thousand foot and
+above five hundred horse. On the 16th he was at Lugo, where, and all
+along his route by Cesena, numerous reinforcements poured in. "His
+subjects," to borrow the words of Muratori, "desired and expected
+him with clasped hands, because they loved him beyond measure for
+his gracious government." Anticipating a renewal of his "Saturnian
+reign," they, on his approach, flew to arms, threw the lieutenant of
+Urbino out of the palace window, and welcomed him with the well-known
+cry of "Feltro! Feltro! the Duke! the Duke!"
+
+[Footnote 285: Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 921.]
+
+Pesaro received him on the 22nd, after a slight hesitation as to
+their relations with the Church; but the citadel was held by eighty
+men, there being no artillery at hand to bring against it. In
+absence of cannon-balls, it was carried by paper pellets thrown in
+from cross-bows, on which were written offers of a thousand scudi
+to the castellan, and twenty-five to each soldier. The terms were
+accepted, and the money advanced by Alfonso of Ferrara. On the day of
+the Duke's arrival there, a deputation from Urbino laid its homage
+at his feet, and, being thus secure of his own subjects, he turned
+to succour his friends. Taught by the lesson of three successive
+pontificates, whose policy it had been to crush the feudatories of
+Umbria, he saw the necessity of making common cause with such of
+these as still maintained a precarious independence. He therefore
+undertook the re-establishment of his nephew, Sigismondo Varana,
+and of the Baglioni, ere he devoted himself to the consolidation
+of his own authority. After two days' repose in Pesaro, he marched
+by La Pergola to Fabriano, where, hearing that Sigismondo had been
+cordially received at Camerino, he, on the 28th, turned towards
+Perugia, and, by the 5th of January, had reinstated the Baglioni,
+notwithstanding a spiritless resistance by their uncle Gentile, and
+by the vacillating Vitelli. Contrary to his own judgment,--but, as we
+shall presently see, by a happy chance,--he was induced to accompany
+his Perugian allies with seven thousand men in a foray upon Tuscany,
+for the double purpose of annoying the Medici, by whom Gentile was
+supported, and of re-establishing Pandolfo Petrucci as tyrant of
+Siena.[*286] When, however, he found no responding movement from
+within, and that the army of Giovanni delle Bande Nere was hovering
+in the neighbourhood, he withdrew to Bonconvento, and endeavoured to
+gain credit for his forbearance by despatching to the magistracy of
+that city the following oily missive:--
+
+ "Most illustrious and most excellent Lords, much honoured
+ Fathers:
+
+ "The true, ancient, and cordial friendship which has ever
+ existed between your lofty republic and my most illustrious
+ house, and the recollection I retain how invariably my
+ distinguished predecessors have been united in special
+ good-will with your city of Siena, induce me, being of the
+ same sentiments, to follow in the steps of my said most
+ eminent ancestors, resolving that there shall never be
+ any failure on my part towards your noble commonwealth.
+ And in order that your Excellencies may at present have
+ some proof of this, I have, for the peace and order of
+ your town, adopted the resolution which your envoys will
+ comprehend from the tenor hereof, and which I feel assured
+ cannot be otherwise than welcome and acceptable to you.
+ I therefore pray you not only readily to give the like
+ credence to what these envoys will tell you on my part, as
+ you would to myself, but also to bear in mind the close and
+ affectionate amity wherein I am most ready to persevere,
+ nor on your side restrain or fall short of our wonted and
+ long-established kindliness, increasing, and, if possible,
+ extending it by an ampler interchange of charity; for you
+ will assuredly ever find me prepared and ready to benefit
+ and uphold your republic as much as your Excellencies could
+ ever desire, to whom I offer and commend myself. From
+ Bonconvento, the 15th of January, 1522.
+
+ "FRANCISCUS MARIA DUX URBINI."[287]
+
+[Footnote *286: Fabio, not Pandolfo Petrucci. The latter died at S.
+Quirico, in Osenna, in May, 1512. Borghese Petrucci, his son, soon
+became the "best hated man in Siena." Four years after his father's
+death both he and Fabio were declared rebels. Leo X. put Raffaello
+Petrucci in Borghese's place. Raffaello died in 1522, and then some
+of the _Nove_ brought back Fabio, who had married Caterina de'
+Medici, niece of the Pope. But after a rule of less than two years he
+was again an exile. "Thus," says Ferrari, "the Petrucci returned to
+their primitive obscurity." Cf. LANGTON DOUGLAS, _A History
+of Siena_ (Murray, 1902), p. 212.]
+
+[Footnote 287: From the Italian original in the Archivio Diplomatico
+at Siena.]
+
+In truth, the Duke's own affairs required his full attention, for the
+power of the Medici, though shaken, was still formidable, and its
+natural representative, the Cardinal Giulio, was influential in the
+Sacred College, and almost sovereign at Florence. Francesco Maria
+therefore observed a prudent neutrality, when the Bande Nere advanced
+to support the claims of Gentile Baglioni upon Perugia. These, being
+warned off the ecclesiastical territory by the consistory, turned up
+the valley of the Tiber, and, passing the Apennines, made a descent
+upon Montefeltro, where they plundered until the end of February,--an
+outrage for which the Cardinal was greatly blamed, as a convention
+had already been signed between him and the Duke for their respective
+states of Florence and Urbino. Much light is thrown upon these very
+complicated transactions by a careful examination of Castiglione's
+letters. To his dexterous diplomacy that convention seems to have
+been chiefly owing. He endeavoured to clench the reconciliation by
+an engagement for Francesco Maria in the Florentine service, and a
+marriage between Prince Guidobaldo of Urbino and Caterina de' Medici,
+daughter of Lorenzo, and heiress of his pretensions. The failure of
+this plan, from backwardness on the part of the Cardinal rather than
+of the Duke, was, perhaps, fortunate for the intended bridegroom's
+domestic peace; and the contending claims which it was meant to
+solve never ripened into importance. The condotta had a better issue:
+avowedly for but one year, it seems to have been intended rather to
+neutralise a troublesome foe than with the idea of calling the Duke's
+service into actual requisition. Indeed, although he was nominally
+captain-general, with 9000 ducats of pay, besides 100 broad scudi for
+each of his two hundred men-at-arms in white uniform (three mounted
+soldiers counting as one man-at-arms), this was expressly their
+peace establishment and pay, to be increased in case of war.[288]
+Castiglione's success in these arrangements was facilitated by
+his having confided to Cardinal Giulio a refusal at this time, by
+Francesco Maria, of very flattering proposals from the French court,
+and the same good offices extended to disabusing the Duke in the eyes
+of Emanuel, the imperial ambassador, who, believing him committed to
+Francis, was countermining his interests in the consistory, and with
+the Cardinal.
+
+[Footnote 288: Archivio Diplomatico of Florence, May 25, 1522.]
+
+Whilst immersed in these transactions, the election in which he was
+so deeply interested came suddenly to a conclusion, brought about
+indirectly by his means. The choice of the conclave astonished
+Italy, for it fell upon an ultramontane cardinal, unknowing and
+unknown in Rome. Adrian Florent,[*289] a Fleming of humble birth,
+was a man of mild temper, peaceful habits, and literary tastes. He
+had been preceptor of Charles V., and held the see of Tortosa. This
+selection so curiously illustrates the haphazard results, which
+have not unfrequently baffled both policy and intrigue in papal
+elections, that we may pause for a moment on the circumstances
+alleged by Guicciardini to have brought it about. The Medicean party
+had not strength, at once, to carry their Cardinal, in the face of
+the old members of the College, who were adverse from introducing
+the hereditary principle into their selection, yet hoped in time to
+exhaust the patience or the strength of their seniors. But whilst
+Medici and Petrucci were thus ingeniously devising delays, news
+reached them of the Duke of Urbino's descent upon Tuscany, causing
+them respectively to tremble for their supremacy in Florence and
+Siena, and to question the policy of procrastinating at the Quirinal,
+whilst interests so momentous were elsewhere in peril. In this
+state of matters the Cardinal of Tortosa "was proposed, without any
+intention of choosing him, but that the morning might be wasted;
+whereupon his eminence of San Sisto, in an endless oration, enlarged
+upon his virtues and learning, until some of the members beginning to
+accede, the others successively followed with more impetuosity than
+deliberation, whereby he was unanimously then chosen Pope. The very
+electors could allege no reason why, at a crisis of such convulsions
+and perils for the papacy, they had selected a barbarian pontiff,
+so long absent, and recommended neither by previous deserts, nor by
+intimacy with any of the conclave, to whom he was scarcely known by
+name, having never visited Italy, nor had he any wish or hope to do
+so."[290] The Roman populace resented a choice which they felt as an
+insult, and as the cardinals emerged from durance, they were assailed
+by execrations of the mob.[*291]
+
+[Footnote *289: Adrian Floriszoon, the son of a ship's carpenter
+named Floris. His education was chiefly theological; humanism had not
+penetrated Louvain.]
+
+[Footnote 290: Guicciardini, lib. xiv.]
+
+[Footnote *291: This account of Adrian VI.'s conclave is inaccurate
+and confused. Cf. CREIGHTON, _op. cit._, vol. VI., pp. 216-222. The
+Duke of Urbino seems to have had no influence in the conclave.]
+
+Francesco Maria had every reason to be gratified by an election
+he had most unwittingly influenced, for the exclusion of Cardinal
+Giulio was of vast importance to his interests, which must have
+been seriously compromised by the nomination of a hostile pontiff,
+at a moment when his affairs were in so precarious a juncture. He
+accordingly lost no time in accrediting to Adrian VI. in Spain,
+an envoy who pleaded his cause to such good purpose, that a bull
+was issued on the 18th of May, reinstating him in all his honours,
+including the prefecture of Rome, which, on the death of Lorenzo,
+had been conferred upon Giovanni Maria Varana, uncle of Sigismondo,
+whose state he had usurped under the sanction of Leo. Meanwhile his
+respectful and judicious demeanour had obtained from the Sacred
+College, before the Pope's arrival, an acknowledgment of his rights,
+upon the following conditions, dated at Rome, the 18th of February.
+"The Lord Duke of Urbino promises to accept neither pay, engagement,
+nor rank from any prince or power, and to take service only with the
+Apostolic See, should he be required; but if not called upon by it,
+to attach himself to no party without leave and sanction from the
+Pope, and the Holy See, as represented _ad interim_ by the Sacred
+College. Also, he renews his obligation in future never to oppose
+the papal state; and further, for due observance of these terms, and
+more ample assurance of his Holiness and the Apostolic See, he binds
+himself within one month to deposit his only son as a hostage, in the
+hands of the Marquis of Mantua, captain-general of the ecclesiastical
+troops. On the other hand, the Sacred College undertakes to defend
+and protect the Lord Duke's person, as well as to maintain him in
+peaceful possession of the castles, fortresses, cities, and towns,
+held by him now or before his deprivation; and further, to use
+influence with our Lord the Pope for his reinvestment in the same, on
+the terms of his former tenure."[292]
+
+[Footnote 292: These articles are to be found in the Archivio
+Diplomatico at Florence.]
+
+Nor was it only from the Medicean faction that the Duke's
+tranquillity was threatened. Whilst his fortunes were yet in
+suspense, he was warned by Castiglione, then diplomatic resident
+at Rome for his brother-in-law the Duke of Mantua, that Ascanio
+Colonna was agitating certain vague pretensions on the duchy of
+Urbino, through his mother Agnesina di Montefeltro. The nature of
+these claims, which were from time to time revived, is not very
+intelligible. All authorities make Giovanna, wife of the Prefect,
+older than Agnesina, wife of Fabrizio Colonna, both being daughters
+of Duke Federigo. Thus, even supposing Francesco Maria's title
+irretrievably annulled, by the deprivations he had successively
+sustained from Julius II. and Leo X., if the old investitures did
+confer any rights upon females, his nephew Sigismondo Varana,
+grandson of Giovanna, would have excluded the Colonna. Ascanio's
+intrigues were, however, neutralised by the dexterity of Castiglione,
+and the influence of the Duke of Mantua, until Francesco Maria's
+cordial reconciliation with the Church and the Emperor had rendered
+his position secure.[293] Even the Medici thereupon refused to
+promote the pretender's views, and his only adherent was Gian Maria
+Varana, who, having within a few weeks succeeded in recovering
+possession of Camerino, sought so to occupy the Duke of Urbino as to
+prevent his espousing the cause of Sigismondo, its rightful lord.
+The latter also looked for support to his wife's uncle, Cardinal
+Prospero Colonna, whilst the interests of his competitor were backed
+by Cardinal Innocenzo Cibò, his brother-in-law. But ere these
+respective claims could be tested, they were sadly set at rest by
+the death of "poor dear but ill-starred Sigismondo," as he is called
+by Castiglione, who was set upon and slain on the 24th of June by
+a band of assassins, whilst riding with five attendants near La
+Storta. This foul deed, in accordance with the wild habits of that
+age, and the fratricidal tendencies of the Varana family, was imputed
+to Ascanio Colonna at the instigation of Giovanni Maria, uncle of the
+victim.
+
+[Footnote 293: However these pretensions may have originated, they
+derived a _quasi_ warrant in 1525, from a conditional investiture of
+the duchy for three generations, granted by Clement VII. to Ascanio
+"in case it should happen to lapse to the Holy See," Agnesina being
+there mentioned as eldest sister. Charles V. was vainly solicited by
+Ascanio to render this condition eventual, or by some other means
+to make good his possession, and the claim did not drop until 1530.
+Nor was it the only one vamped up on account of Duke Guidobaldo's
+unfruitful marriage. In 1505 the Prince of Salerno seems to have made
+similar pretensions through his mother, a sister still younger than
+Agnesina; and in order to dispose of these, Julius II. is said to
+have offered him his own daughter Felice, a union which however did
+not take place.]
+
+When reassured of pacific and equitable measures, Francesco Maria
+dissolved a defensive league for mutual maintenance, which he had
+formed on the 4th of March with the Baglioni, Sigismondo, and the
+Orsini, to which the Cardinal de' Medici was a party. The strongholds
+of S. Leo and Maiuolo, however, remained till 1527 in the hands of
+the Florentines, mortgaged for their advances to Leo in the late
+war. During these complex negotiations, an offer from Lautrec of
+service under the lilies of France was declined by the Duke, on a
+plea of reserving himself for the disposal of his ecclesiastical
+overlord. Nor was the opportunity he looked for long delayed.
+Pandolfo Malatesta, on ceding to Venice his pretensions upon Rimini,
+after being expelled therefrom by Duke Valentino, had accepted from
+that republic the castle of Cittadella near Padua, with large pay
+in their service. His son Sigismondo availed himself of the Pope's
+absence, and the unsettled ecclesiastical policy, to surprise Rimini
+and its fortress towards the end of May. The consistory hastily
+mustered all their means to meet the emergency, and called upon the
+Duke of Urbino as their vassal to take the field. His answer was that
+without money he could do nothing. About the beginning of August
+the _rocca_ was retaken by Giovanni Gonzaga for the Church; but the
+place was not finally recovered till Adrian sent thither some Spanish
+troops, when the people at length rose, and drove out the interloper,
+whose cruelties had alienated all his supporters. In this paltry
+fray the Duke appears to have lent some trifling aid, which the
+Pontiff gratefully acknowledged in writing to Leonora on the 24th of
+December. When it was over, he turned to the internal affairs of his
+duchy, disorganised by the long and severe struggle of which it had
+been the scene. In the spring of 1523 he brought home the ladies of
+his family
+
+ "Into their wished haven";
+
+but of their once lively court we have little to record. Much had
+occurred to chasten the naturally staid temperament of Duchess
+Leonora. Retrenchment was imperatively imposed by accumulated
+debts and dilapidated finances: the brilliant assemblage which had
+frequented the saloons of Urbino seventeen years before was thinned
+by death, scattered by dire events, alienated by ingratitude, or
+seduced by newer attractions.
+
+It was at this time that Pesaro seems to have become the permanent
+residence of the ducal establishment, although the original capital
+was frequently visited by its successive princes. Sanuto's Diaries
+afford us glimpses of life at that court, in detailing the journey
+to Rome of four Venetian envoys in March of this year. They arrived
+on Good Friday, half dead of fatigue, fear, and hunger, having
+ridden one hundred and twelve miles in two days, through wretched
+weather and a plague-stricken country. The two Duchesses of Urbino
+immediately sent them a pressing invitation to transfer their
+quarters from the inn to better lodgings. This was about sunset, and
+twilight had scarcely set in when both these ladies arrived in a fine
+gilt coach, lined with white cloth and trimmings of black velvet,
+drawn by four beautiful black and grey horses. They were suffering
+from fever, the younger Duchess having risen from bed expressly to
+visit the envoys, and apologise for a reception which, but for so
+unlooked-for an arrival, would have been more conformable to their
+wishes. Yet the apartment was tapestried from roof to floor, the beds
+with gold brocade coverlets, and the curtains very handsome. Next
+morning, after breakfast, the guests went to the palace to wait upon
+the Duchesses, who met them in the fourth ante-room, whence, after
+sundry ceremonies, they handed the ladies and their attendants into
+the presence-chamber, newly done up with arrases, gilding, and a daïs
+of silk. After conversing in an under-tone for three-quarters of
+an hour, they retired with the like formalities. On Easter Sunday,
+after vespers, they had an audience of leave, when the younger
+Duchess, being very seriously indisposed, received them familiarly
+in a bed-chamber so small that they could not all enter it, renewing
+many excuses for their indifferent entertainment, in consequence of
+the religious observances, and the recent arrival of the household
+at Pesaro. On their return from congratulating the new Pontiff, the
+envoys passed by Gubbio, where the Duchesses again surprised them by
+a visit ere breakfast was over, attended by several lovely maidens.
+
+The engagement which Francesco Maria had accepted, to command the
+Florentine armies for a year, did not call him from this retirement;
+it was important only as indicating an apparent reconciliation
+with the Cardinal de' Medici, to which the latter was induced by
+apprehension that he might have otherwise proved a formidable
+opponent to his interest in a future conclave. After a somewhat
+serious illness, the Duke repaired to Rome, to offer his homage on
+the arrival of Adrian in Italy, and was honourably received and
+formally invested with his restored dignities. He rode there escorted
+by two hundred lances, and was lodged by the Venetian ambassador in
+the palace of S. Marco. His late eventful history rendered him an
+object of general interest, and he was universally admitted to have
+borne his reverses with firmness, his successes with moderation.
+To commemorate these, he adopted this device, invented for him by
+Giovio,--a palm-tree, whose crest was weighed downwards by a block
+of marble, with the motto, "Though depressed, it recoils." This
+emblem of valour and constancy, which adversity could bend but could
+not break, he bore upon his banner and trumpets, and frequently
+introduced it in his coinage.
+
+The repose of Italy was, as usual, of brief duration. Wearied of
+those contests in which the ambition of France had for thirty years
+involved the Peninsula, the leading powers began to regard Francesco
+Sforza's maintenance in the duchy of Milan as their best guarantee
+of peace. This policy was warmly adopted by the Emperor, interested
+alike in the welfare of the Neapolitan territory, and in humbling
+his rival Francis I. The result was a new confederation, to which
+the Pope, the Emperor, Henry VIII., Venice, Milan, and Florence were
+parties, but which brought on a general war, the very evil it was
+intended to avert. Francesco Maria's condotta with the Florentines
+being expired, he was named to succeed Teodoro Trivulzio, whose
+supposed French tendencies occasioned his removal from command of
+the Venetian troops. Those of the Church were committed to the
+Marquis of Mantua, and Prospero Colonna was general-in-chief of the
+League Lautrec and l'Escu[294] having been recalled, the Admiral
+Gouffier de Bonnivet was sent into Lombardy to make good the title
+of his master to the Milanese, whose daring spirit looked not beyond
+the glory of encountering single-handed the armies of Europe. This
+struggle, eventually so ruinous to Italy, so fatal to Rome, had
+scarcely commenced ere Adrian was called from events which he was
+in no respect fitted to direct. He died on the 24th of September,
+1523,[*295] and was succeeded on the 19th of November by the Cardinal
+de' Medici, as Clement VII., whose first act was an adherence to the
+League.
+
+[Footnote 294: Odet de Foix, Seigneur de Lautrec, and the Seigneur de
+l'Escu were both brothers of the chivalrous Gaston de Foix.]
+
+[Footnote *295: He died on the 14th September. For details, cf. Duke
+of Sessa's letters in _Bergenroth_, pp. 597, 599.]
+
+Prospero Colonna did not long survive the Pontiff. From him, perhaps,
+Francesco Maria adopted the over-cautious policy which marked his
+military manoeuvres during the remainder of his life, and which
+contrasts strongly with the dashing valour of his early career. For
+this he has been severely blamed by Sismondi, and we shall see it
+attended with very miserable results. Fortunately for the Duke's
+fame, his reputation in arms had been firmly established before the
+later and more important years of his military prowess arrived. Ere
+the allies had completed their preparations, the French poured into
+Lombardy, carried Lodi, and laid siege to Cremona. The Venetian
+troops occupied the banks of the Oglio, where they were joined by
+the Duke of Urbino, as soon as he had received credentials and
+instructions from the senate; his own stipulated contingent, under
+his lieutenant-general Landriano, having already effected a junction.
+
+Machiavelli, ever prone to cast reflections on mercenary troops, has
+remarked that the Republic lost her superiority from the time that
+she extensively employed them. This, however, is but a partial view
+of the case. By their means, backed by their maritime supremacy,
+and by her matchless diplomatic system, she gradually extended
+her mainland territory, in spite of the unmilitary genius of her
+people, until jealousy combined nearly all Europe against her in
+the League of Cambray. But there was another fault inherent in
+the organisation of her armies. Dark suspicion was the permeating
+principle of her policy. Each branch of the executive jealously
+watched the others. Magistrates distrusted their colleagues; fathers
+set spies upon their sons, husbands upon their wives; governors and
+governed doubted their paid troops, or countermined their selected
+generals. The senate accordingly sent with their stipendiary forces
+commissioners instructed to watch, and empowered to control, the
+leaders--a check necessarily inducing dissension, for, as Macaulay
+has happily remarked, what army commanded by a debating club ever
+escaped discomfiture and disgrace? Under the title of _proveditori_,
+these official spies performed some of the duties belonging to
+commissaries-general; and although this plan for controlling soldiers
+of fortune, who owed little fidelity to the cause, and whose ruling
+principle was usually self-interest, might seem the result of wise
+precaution, it practically occasioned perpetual embarrassments, and
+fomented personal quarrels, paralysing operations in the field. Such
+an _imperium in imperio_ had in this instance its usual results.
+Distracted councils and divided responsibility hampered free action,
+and rendered abortive the best-laid plans.[*296] Throughout the long
+war now opening, the system was pregnant with peculiar mischief, and
+it ought to bear much of the blame of that dilatory inefficiency
+which is charged against Francesco Maria. Thus the Proveditore Emo,
+at the very outset of this campaign, prevented him from crossing the
+Oglio to harass the retreat of Renzo da Ceri, who, after loitering
+away two months before Cremona, was recalled to the siege of Milan.
+The Duke, however, soon after advanced to the Adda, and during the
+rigour of winter occupied his troops in fortifying themselves at
+Martinengo, from whence they were enabled to annoy the enemy by
+continual forays towards Lodi.[297]
+
+[Footnote *296: As usual, Machiavelli is right. If the _proveditori_
+had so bad an influence (and it was doubtless bad) the results should
+have been earlier seen, for it was an old custom with that Republic.
+Francesco Maria, whom Dennistoun rates so highly as a soldier, as we
+have seen, was not more harassed by these spies than his forerunners,
+Carmagnuola Colleoni and Sigismondo Malatesta. The custom rose out
+of the decision to employ no citizen as a captain-general. Nor was
+Venice alone in this practice; Siena and Florence followed it too on
+occasions.]
+
+[Footnote 297: Sismondi's strictures curtly express the judgment
+pronounced upon Francesco Maria by those who follow, without
+examination, the prejudiced narrative of Guicciardini. Yet, as
+they are founded upon admitted defects in his generalship, it may
+be well to lay them before the reader. "He was not deficient in
+military talent, nor probably in personal courage, but, taking
+Prospero Colonna as his prototype, he exaggerated his method. His
+only tactics consisted in the selection and occupation of impregnable
+positions; whatever his numerical superiority, he evaded fighting; no
+circumstance, however urgent, could bring him to a general action;
+and by his obstinacy in refusing to risk anything, he made certain
+of losing all." But in estimating the commander we should not put
+out of view the discouraging nature of the cause, which this author
+elsewhere happily describes as a war without an object. *This applies
+better to the petty wars of Central Italy at this time and in the
+fifteenth century. Waged by paid captains, they may be said to have
+been without an object, or rather with but one object--war itself.
+One and all they ended in nothing, though here and there, as with the
+Sforza, the condottiere managed to establish himself. There was not,
+save in Florence, Milan, and Venice, a sufficiently strong economic
+reason to cause a real war. Such as they were, these wars were due to
+the greed of petty princes, in which the professional armies enjoyed
+themselves (few being killed) in sacking towns and cities whose
+inhabitants, altogether at their mercy, were the only victims. To
+drag out the war and to avoid serious fighting as much as possible
+were naturally the first objects of the average condottiere.]
+
+The command vacated by the death of Prospero Colonna was conferred
+upon Don Carlos de Lanoy, Viceroy of Naples, who arrived at
+head-quarters in the spring, and, upon drawing together the
+confederates from their winter quarters, found himself at the head
+of about twenty thousand foot, and four thousand lances and light
+cavalry. Among their leaders were the Constable de Bourbon, the
+Prince of Orange, and Don Ugo de Moncada, with all of whom we shall
+often meet during the next few years.
+
+In the confederate army there were too many conflicting interests,
+too many rival leaders; but it was the peculiar misfortune of the
+Duke of Urbino to serve a power whose jealousy exceeded all rational
+bounds. It was not without considerable persuasion that he obtained
+of the Signory sanction to cross the Adda, and unite their troops,
+amounting to twelve hundred horse and six thousand foot, with the
+forces of the League. The first combined operation was directed
+against Gherlasco, which Francesco Maria, though in command of the
+rear-guard, was permitted to carry by assault with his own division,
+being greatly aided by using explosive shells. From thence they
+advanced to Vercelli, taking Trumello, Sartirana, and other places
+by the way. This movement was intended at once to cut off supplies
+from the French army posted at Novara, and to intercept a strong
+body of Swiss, for whom they were anxiously waiting. The allies
+having reached Vercelli, it became a race which army should first
+gain the bridge of Romagnano, to the west whereof lay the Swiss
+subsidy. The French had almost passed, when Lanoy fell upon their
+rear, which suffered immensely in men, baggage, and artillery; and
+their commander, Bonnivet, was wounded. The credit of all these
+arrangements is claimed by Leone for the Duke of Urbino, whose
+annoyance may be imagined when he found himself arrested from reaping
+the full benefit of their success, by interference of Pietro da
+Pesaro, the Proveditore. That officer, standing upon the engagement
+of the Venetian contingent to serve only within the confines of the
+Milanese, objected to their passing the Sesia, which here formed
+its limit, and thus nullified the resolution of the confederates
+to follow up their partial victory by such a well-timed attack as
+might drive the enemy across the Alps. The indignant army appealed
+to Francesco Maria to break through this official obstruction, but
+the commissioner was right to the letter, and the stern Signory
+sanctioned no latitude of construction on the part of its servants.
+The Duke, however, gained his consent by private remonstrances, at
+once temperate and energetic, but especially by threatening to throw
+up his commission from the senate, and as a free captain to pass with
+his own company into the allies' service, leaving the Proveditore,
+with a disorganised contingent, to bear the whole responsibility of
+losing so admirable an opportunity of cutting short a struggle, which
+it was in every view the interest of his republic to close.[298]
+
+[Footnote 298: The details given by Paruta appear to bear out
+this statement of the Duke's policy, but establish that, in the
+eyes of his employers, his prudence and caution availed more than
+dashing gallantry, an admission important in estimating his conduct
+throughout the campaign of Lombardy, and throwing light upon the
+hesitation which marked his subsequent career. Indeed, according to
+this author, the orders of the Signory were to avoid fighting as much
+as possible.]
+
+The conduct of the French troops devolved, in consequence of the
+Admiral's wound, upon Piere de Terrail, Chevalier de Bayard, who was
+not long spared in a command which the blunders of his predecessor
+had rendered hopeless. On the 30th of April, whilst drawing off
+the rear-guard under the enemy's fire, a shot fractured his spine.
+Refusing to be carried from the spot, he had himself supported
+against a tree, with his face to the foe, and continued to give his
+orders with composure: at length, feeling the hand of death upon him,
+he confessed himself to his faithful squire, kissing the hand-guard
+of his sword as a substitute for the cross. The imperialists
+remaining masters of the field, he was approached by the Constable
+Bourbon, to whose words of sympathy and regret he sternly replied,
+"Grieve not for me, but for yourself, fighting against your king and
+country." His fall was reported to Charles V. by the imperial envoy,
+Adrian de Croy, in these touching terms:--"Sire, although the said
+M. Bayard was in the service of your enemy, his death is certainly a
+pity; for he was a gentle knight beloved of all, whose life had been
+as well spent as ever was that of any of his condition, as, indeed,
+he fully testified at its close, which was the most beautiful I
+ever heard tell of." Thus fell, in his forty-ninth year, the flower
+of French chivalry, "the fearless and irreproachable knight." His
+army evacuated Italy before the end of May, and the Duke of Urbino
+being entrusted with the recovery of Lodi, found it defended by
+his relation and attached comrade-in-arms, Count Francesco del
+Bozzolo, who, perceiving his position hopeless, soon capitulated upon
+honourable terms.
+
+After the ample details we had given of the comparatively unimportant
+Urbino war, our rapid glance at the events in Upper Italy, from
+1521 to 1526, may seem superficial. But as these Lombard campaigns,
+although momentous to Europe, told very slightly upon the general
+policy of the Peninsula, and as Francesco Maria bore no prominent
+part in their varying results, we must be content to pass over them
+thus cursorily, rather than to carry the reader too far from the more
+especial object of these volumes. We may, however, pause for a moment
+upon the reception accorded to the Duke at Venice, when summoned
+thither to receive public thanks for his services, graphic details of
+which are supplied by the unedited Diaries of Sanuto.
+
+After he had, in compliance with orders from the Signory, disbanded
+their infantry, and disposed of their cavalry in the mainland
+garrisons, he proceeded to the maritime capital. At Padua, the
+rectors had been premonished to pay him every attention; at the mouth
+of the Brenta, and on the outskirts of the city, he was met by two
+deputations, each consisting of thirty young men of distinction, and
+was addressed in a Latin oration, "which he did not understand." He
+was then escorted to the Rialto; and, after being welcomed by the
+Doge, and all the foreign ambassadors, except the French, he was led
+on board the Bucentaur, an honour paid only to highest rank or rarest
+merit; and thus, amid a flotilla of state galleys and gondolas,
+crowded with a lively population in gala attire, their princely guest
+was conducted along the grand canal, its palaces glittering with
+brocades and arrases, its windows radiant with sparkling eyes and
+rich carnations, such as Titian and Pordenone loved to commemorate in
+glowing tints. The Duke wore a suit of black velvet, with frock and
+cap of scarlet, and was housed in an apartment prepared at the Casa
+di San Marco, near San Giorgio Maggiore, with fifty ducats a day for
+his expenses.
+
+This festive welcome took place on the 25th of June. Next day
+being Sunday, the Duke presented himself at the Collegio, dressed
+in black damask over a white doublet, with a rose-coloured cap; a
+small person, of indifferent presence [_poca presentia_]. He was
+received outside of the audience-hall by the Doge and Signory;
+when admitted, he spoke in a few words, and with low voice, of his
+constant readiness to serve their state with life and limb. To
+which the Doge replied, that he had acquitted himself well, but it
+was their trust that he would do still better in future, and that,
+being fully assured of his fidelity, they had selected him for
+captain-general. The privileges of citizenship had been given him
+many years before, in compliment to his uncle Guidobaldo, but the
+general's baton was to be conferred upon him on the 2nd of July. In
+deference, however, to the predictions of an astrologer, he requested
+that his investiture might take place on the 29th of June, being St.
+Peter's day. Accordingly, the magnates and diplomatic functionaries
+of the most luxurious city in Christendom being assembled within
+its picturesque and time-honoured cathedral, Francesco Maria, was
+led in, magnificently arrayed in gold lama and damask, amid the din
+of trumpets and bagpipes. After celebration of high mass, during
+which he was seated on the Doge's left, the insignia, consisting of
+a silver baton, and crimson standard with the lion in gold, were
+blessed at the high altar, and consigned to his hands by the Doge, as
+badges of authority, which he then swore to employ for the glory of
+God, and for maintenance and defence of the Republic. This solemnity
+was hailed by the spectators' shouts, the clang of bells, the crash
+of martial music, the roar of artillery, and, as the Duke was
+conducted to his gondola by a long procession of military and civil
+dignitaries, the gorgeous piazza and gay canals displayed a splendour
+unwonted even in Venice.
+
+Unfavourable rumours of the Duchess's health rendered him impatient
+to be done with these honours, and were probably the true reason
+for his desiring that the installation might be accelerated. But
+the fashionable club or company della Calza so urged his remaining
+for their festival, which had been fixed for the 3rd in compliment
+to him, that he could not well refuse a short delay in order to be
+present.[299] The sports were enacted on that usual scene of Venetian
+magnificence, the grand canal, decked out in many-tinted draperies,
+and thronged by gay parties. The club, with the Duke of Urbino and
+other honoured guests, were conveyed in two large flat barges,
+lashed together and beautifully curtained, wherein assembled the most
+distinguished youths of both sexes, who revelled in music and dancing
+as they glided along the glassy surface. At length they stopped at
+the massive, but now crumbling, Foscari palace, to witness a race of
+four-oared gondolas, and concluded the entertainment with a supper
+on the Rialto. Next day their sports were renewed, with addition of
+a déjeuner, where fancy confections were presented to the principal
+guests--a triumphal chariot to Francesco Maria, an eagle to the
+imperial ambassador, and so forth.
+
+[Footnote 299: See vol. I., p. 68, for a notice of this association,
+so often mentioned in Venetian history.]
+
+On the 5th of July, after ten days spent in these monotonous
+gaieties, the Duke returned to Pesaro in his twelve-oared barge; but
+his repose there was brief, for the second act soon opened of that
+bloody drama wherein the ambition of Charles and Francis involved
+Italy. An incursion of imperialists into Provence under the renegade
+Bourbon had shifted the scene to France; but the French monarch,
+by a sudden movement across the Alps, transferred it once more
+into Lombardy, and took possession of Milan. The Signory hastily
+summoned their general from his duchy, to guard their frontier. The
+established order of Italian policy, however, rendering it probable
+that new and contradictory combinations would speedily arise, his
+instructions were to act upon the defensive; and a like temporising
+spirit prevailed in the councils of his Holiness, who secretly lent
+an ear to proposals of Francis for a combined effort to shake off
+the Spanish domination in Naples. The Duke's undecided tactics, so
+condemned by Sismondi, were therefore in accordance with orders,
+which the ever-present Proveditore took care were complied with. He
+thus had no share in the great battle of Pavia, which crushed the
+chivalry of France, accelerated the climax of Italian subjugation,
+and rendered Spanish influence fatally paramount in Southern Europe.
+It was fought on the 25th of February, 1525, and left Francis
+prisoner in his rival's hands. Francesco Maria thereafter retired to
+Casali, suffering from a combined attack of gout and tertian fever,
+in which he was attended by his Duchess, who had hastened to see
+him.[*300]
+
+[Footnote *300: The battle was fought on the 24th February.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+ New league against Charles V.--The Duke's campaign in
+ Lombardy--His quarrels with Guicciardini--Rome pillaged by
+ the Colonna--The Constable Bourbon advances into Central
+ Italy--The Duke quells an insurrection at Florence.
+
+
+The papal policy since the accession of Julius had been directed
+to two leading objects. The first was to prevent any ultramontane
+power from attaining a decided preponderance in Europe; the second,
+to recover Italy from the barbarians, and restore its Neapolitan
+and Milanese states to native dynasties.[*301] The only effective
+check upon the unprecedented dominion of the Emperor having been
+annihilated by the overthrow and imprisonment of his sole rival, it
+became necessary for the Pontiff, in conformity with the former of
+these purposes, to support the cause of France. The other object
+was more than ever important, now that Milan was virtually at the
+conqueror's mercy; and a proposition for confirming the sovereignty
+of Sforza in that duchy, and placing the Marquis of Pescara on the
+throne of Naples, appeared to His Holiness happily to meet the
+exigencies of the case. Clement, possessing neither the discernment
+of Julius nor the finesse of Leo, saw no difficulty in effecting this
+convenient scheme, by simply uniting the independent states in a
+conspiracy to expel Charles beyond the Alps. But he reckoned without
+his host. The Marquis of Pescara, who was high in the imperial
+service, betrayed the plot in time to frustrate its execution. His
+death occurred soon after, from wounds received at Pavia, or possibly
+from poison, and the year was spent in intrigues and counterplots,
+which concern our present subject only as giving occasion to this
+letter, addressed by Francesco Maria to Cardinal Wolsey:--
+
+ "Most illustrious and most worshipful Lord,
+
+ "Having learned that his serene Majesty [Henry VIII.] has
+ named me his adherent in the league lately made with his
+ most Christian Majesty, it becomes a duty, which I by these
+ letters discharge, to tender my respects, and humbly to
+ kiss his hand, having no other proof at present to offer
+ of the extreme obligation which, in addition to numberless
+ others, I owe to his Majesty, for this affectionate and
+ honourable recollection of me. And knowing the love which
+ your most illustrious and reverend Lordship has ever
+ exhibited towards my house, and especially for myself, I am
+ satisfied (as, indeed, I have heard from the reverend Lord
+ Protonotary Casale) that you have always borne in mind the
+ services towards that crown of my most famous progenitors
+ and myself. Whence, in addition to the boundless obligation
+ I lie under to his most serene Majesty for naming me his
+ adherent, I hold myself therein indebted to your most
+ reverend and illustrious Lordship, considering it in a
+ great measure owing to you. I have therefore written these
+ presents, not as mere thanks, for I would not so commence
+ what I cannot complete by words alone, but that you may
+ know the great obligation I feel and have expressed, and
+ how intensely I desire an opportunity of effectively
+ demonstrating my natural and deserved anxiety to do you
+ service; the which will be clearly made patent to your most
+ reverend and illustrious Lordship, so often as I have it
+ in my power to act upon my intentions. And, recommending
+ myself to your good favour, I pray that you still keep
+ in mind my services to his majesty. From Verona the 14th
+ February, 1526.
+
+ "_Servitor_,
+
+ "EL DUCA D'URBINO."[302]
+
+[Footnote *301: So far as Julius is concerned, his one object was the
+absolute temporal dominion of the Church in Italy. He made the coming
+of an ultramontane power into Italy a certainty. His successors
+struggled in vain to save themselves and incidentally Italy from the
+consequence of his crime. But the policy of the Papacy was wise, if
+selfish. The only road to Italian unity lay through predominance of
+one power--Venice or Milan, for instance, or the Church herself. The
+popes successfully prevented this unity for more than a thousand
+years, really in self-defence--the defence of their temporal power
+at any rate; their international claims were destroyed by an eager
+and passionate nationalism. We have seen in our day how Piedmont
+united Italy, first destroying the Papacy, which remains merely as a
+spiritual power that seems in Italy to be slowly passing away.]
+
+[Footnote 302: Brit. Mus. Cotton. MSS. Vit. B. VIII., f. 16, b. In f.
+49, of B.V. there is a mutilated letter of compliment from the Duke
+to Henry VIII., in Latin, dated at Urbino 19 March, 1522.]
+
+At length, in May 1526, a new confederacy was announced, in which
+the Pope, Francis I. (who had regained his liberty in March), Henry
+VIII., Venice, and Florence, were marshalled against Charles V.,
+nominally to wrest from him the Milanese, which remained in his hands
+after the battle of Pavia. The citadel of Milan, however, was still
+held by Francesco Sforza; and the Duke of Urbino, by the senate's
+orders, led the Venetian troops from Verona to his relief, but under
+protest that he considered them unequal to the service. On his march,
+he received offers from an adherent of the Sforza to admit him into
+Lodi, and immediately detaching Malatesta Baglione to avail himself
+of the proposal, hastened onwards with the army to his support. The
+attempt was completely successful, and after a gallant resistance
+the imperialists evacuated the place on the 24th of June. This
+acquisition was of the utmost importance to the allies. It secured
+them command of the Adda, and gave them a strong position in the
+enemy's country, from whence they could operate with equal facility
+against Milan, Cremona, or Pavia.
+
+The army of the League which now mustered at Lodi is estimated by
+Guicciardini and Muratori at sixteen thousand foot and four thousand
+horse. The Duke of Urbino was commander-in-chief of the Venetians;
+Count Guido Rangone held the same rank in the ecclesiastical forces,
+which included, however, the papal and Florentine contingents, led by
+their respective captains-general, Giovanni de' Medici and Vitello
+Vitelli. The embarrassment occasioned by so many commanders, under no
+common head, was especially felt by Francesco Maria, who, although
+admitted by Guicciardini to have been pre-eminent in rank, authority,
+and reputation, as well as actually leader of the combined army,
+was controlled by Pesaro, the Venetian Proveditore, and thwarted
+by the Pope's anomalous appointment of that historian himself as
+lieutenant-general, with ample indeed almost absolute powers in the
+army and throughout the states of the Church.
+
+Francesco Guicciardini was a Florentine gentleman, born in 1482, and
+educated for the law, who, profiting by the partiality of Leo X. for
+his fellow-citizens, had held several important civil appointments,
+and had been successively named governor of Modena, Reggio, and
+Parma, to which Clement added, in 1523, a jurisdiction over all
+pontifical Romagna. He was gifted with considerable talents and
+great command of language, but these promotions had rendered him
+vain and overbearing. The accounts given us by the Urbino writers,
+of one whom they had good reason to regard with prejudice, should
+be received with caution; yet some anecdotes have come down which
+confirm the allegation of Leoni, that his dogmatical pretensions
+were neither authorised by etiquette, nor supported by his judgment
+or military experience.[303] No defect of character was less likely
+to meet with toleration from the blunt and hasty Francesco Maria,
+and in consequence of their being opposed to each other at the
+council-board, alike in momentous and trifling matters, scenes of
+insult and violence ripened aversion into rancour. In this contest
+the Florentine had the worst, but he amply availed himself of his
+pen as a means of vengeance; and in his History, which has become
+a standard authority, he studiously and throughout misrepresented
+the Duke of Urbino. Lipsius, while bearing strong testimony to
+his general truth and impartiality, admits that he on no occasion
+concealed his detestation of that prince. Later writers, especially
+Sismondi, have adopted his strictures with little modification,
+and an ingenious defence of the Duke, prepared by Baldi after his
+death, having never seen the light, the portraits of him hitherto
+passing current in history are exaggerations of a malevolent pencil.
+Yet it appears beyond question that an over-dilatory and cautious
+system increased upon Francesco Maria, and, in conjunction with
+other circumstances, greatly hampered his tactics and impaired their
+success, during his service under the lion of St. Mark.
+
+[Footnote 303: Leonardi's recollections of Francesco Maria, Vat. Urb.
+MSS., No. 1023, f. 85, and Baldi's defence of him from Guicciardini's
+charges, _Ibid._, No. 906, f. 214.]
+
+The allied forces very considerably outnumbered those of Charles,
+who were scattered among several garrisons and detached positions.
+The moment, therefore, seemed propitious for following up their
+recent success, and effecting the main object of the campaign by a
+decided blow against Milan. That capital was occupied by about nine
+thousand imperialist troops, who blockaded Sforza in the citadel,
+and who, in letters casually intercepted, represented the citizens,
+though disarmed by their conquerors, as mature for a rising. A prompt
+movement for the relief of the hard-pressed fortress was therefore
+urged by Guicciardini, and seconded by the Proveditore, whose ear
+he had gained. The reasons by which Francesco Maria combated this
+proposal savoured unquestionably, even by Leoni's admission, rather
+of hollow excuses than of sound judgment, for whilst he awaited the
+Swiss auxiliaries, he allowed reinforcements to reach the imperial
+garrison.
+
+Some light is, however, thrown upon this seeming inconsistency by an
+argument in his Discorsi Militari, wherein the Duke illustrates, from
+this very passage in his life, two axioms he broadly lays down,--that
+to rely mainly for the success of a war upon the support of a people,
+however gallant, is a great risk, if not inevitable ruin; and that no
+popular rising ever succeeded of itself, or without an overpowering
+force to second it. Considering that his uncle and himself had
+thrice regained their state by a popular emeute, this doctrine may
+seem ungracious from his mouth. Without, however, entering upon a
+question which the recent experience of Europe has greatly affected,
+or examining instances adduced by the Duke in support of his views,
+it seems likely that his reasoning was adopted to cloak some unavowed
+motive. Perhaps the alternative suggestion which he offered may
+afford some clue to the truth, keeping in view the relationship and
+confidential intercourse which had ever been maintained between the
+princes of Urbino and Ottaviano Fregoso. His proposition was that,
+instead of opposing their new and ill-disciplined levies to the
+veteran and lately victorious occupants of Milan, the allies should
+draw off towards Genoa, and there restore the supremacy of the
+Fregosi, thus giving time for the arrival of Swiss subsidies, and
+enabling them perhaps to intercept the reinforcements which Bourbon
+was bringing by sea from Spain. The motive alleged by Sismondi for
+this policy rests upon the broader ground of the Duke's desire to
+humble Clement, in revenge for all he had suffered, rather from the
+Pontiff's family than from himself; and it must be admitted that
+much of his conduct during this lamentable and inglorious war, until
+it ended in the sack of Rome, could scarcely have been different if
+actuated by that ungenerous calculation. Yet in the instance now
+under our consideration, it is but fair to notice Leoni's assertion,
+that his opinions were supported by Giovanni de' Medici _delle Bande
+Nere_, whilst those of Guicciardini, obtaining the suffrages of the
+other leaders, carried the day.
+
+With such diversity of opinion prevailing among commanders of
+nearly equal authority, it is not surprising that the advance upon
+Milan should have been most sluggish. After spending nine days in
+marching about twenty miles, the army, on the 6th of July, drew
+round that city, which the enemy, notwithstanding Bourbon's arrival
+the preceding night with the Spanish succours, are supposed by
+Sismondi to have been on the point of evacuating. The artillery
+having next morning begun to play upon the walls, a sally was made,
+and the allied troops, finding themselves under fire, behaved most
+scandalously, so that, had not Francesco Maria with the cavalry
+promptly supported the panic-stricken infantry of his own and the
+papal brigades, they must have suffered a total rout. Alarmed at
+these symptoms of unsteadiness, and unseconded by the expected
+insurrection within, the Venetian Proveditore and Guicciardini
+insisted upon a general retreat, as the only means by which their
+forces could escape destruction. In despair, they besought the Duke
+to take the retiring army under his command, a charge which he did
+not accept without taunting them on a result that so fully bore out
+his predictions, and proved their rashness in exposing an unorganised
+host of raw Italians to fight the veterans of Germany and Spain.
+But the moment was too critical for recrimination. Two hours before
+dawn the camp was silently raised, and the army withdrew in good
+order about twelve miles to Marignano. Their rear was effectually
+guarded by Giovanni de' Medici against any sally of the imperialists,
+but no less than four thousand of the foot were missing, having
+ignominiously deserted their colours.
+
+Such is the account of Leoni and Baldi. Guicciardini, on the other
+hand, takes to himself credit for using every argument with the Duke
+against a retreat, which he designates as uncalled for and infamous.
+Upon his despatches were, no doubt, formed the opinions expressed in
+the following letter of the Bishop of Worcester to Cardinal Wolsey:--
+
+ "Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord," &c.
+
+ "I have hitherto daily informed you of what was going
+ on, by longer or shorter letters, as time permitted. At
+ present nothing new has transpired, except that, on the
+ night of the 7th inst., the Duke of Urbino, captain-general
+ of the ecclesiastical and Venetian forces, after most
+ strenuous and gallant operations against the enemy, from
+ which a successful issue was expected, suddenly changing
+ his intention, notwithstanding numerous protests, drew off
+ his army to Marignano, a town ten miles from Milan. Which,
+ though the Duke, as usual, entangles it with numerous
+ reasons, has exposed him to no slight disparagement from
+ the public. I have only further humbly to commend myself to
+ your most illustrious Lordship. From Rome, 11th July, 1526.
+
+ "Your most illustrious and reverend Lordship's
+ _Humillimum manicipium_,
+
+ "HI[~C]. EP[~S]. WIGORNIEÑ."[304]
+
+[Footnote 304: Brit. Mus. Cotton. MSS., Vit. B. VIII., f. 93 b. In
+this volume are many despatches regarding the Lombard campaign, and
+the assault on Rome in 1526.]
+
+The prejudices of Guicciardini are admitted by the Venetian Paruta,
+who tells us that the Signory were satisfied with their general's
+explanations, but cautioned him for the future, to communicate his
+views more frankly to the papal commissioner. It is a passage of
+history hard to clear up, and in every view redounding little to the
+credit of its actors, whether we most blame the Duke's policy or the
+unsteadiness of his troops. Exposures so disgraceful well merited
+the sneer, that the swords in that army had no edge; and Sismondi
+admits that its spiritless conduct goes far to justify its leader's
+dispiriting tactics.[*305]
+
+[Footnote *305: See Guicciardini's despairing letters to Giberti,
+_Opere Inedite_ (1857-67, Firenze), vol. IV., pp. 73-146. Francesco
+Maria was to blame; he lost time in crossing the Adda, from
+whatever cause; he delayed again while the generals of the Emperor
+strengthened their lines round Milan--even when the allies arrived
+and their army numbered 20,000 against the 11,000 of the besiegers.
+He waited the arrival of the Swiss, he said, and went off meanwhile
+at the heels of the Venetian Proveditore to besiege Cremona. The
+Rocca of Milan fell on July 24th.]
+
+On the 22nd of July, the confederates, having been joined by five
+thousand Swiss levies, again approached the city, and were met by
+about three hundred women and children, whom Sforza had dismissed
+as embarrassing his defence. Shamed by their representations, the
+leaders, in a council of war, decided upon a new attempt to relieve
+the citadel, which, however, Giovanni de' Medici, after inspecting
+the works of the besiegers, opposed as too perilous. Whilst they
+lost time in these discussions, Sforza was fairly starved out, and
+surrendered the fortress on the 24th. Leoni and Baldi agree in
+charging these dilatory and unsatisfactory proceedings upon the other
+generals, and the total inefficiency of the army, rather than upon
+Francesco Maria's tactics. They may be considered as biased, but the
+following anecdotes will show how far the Florentine historian had
+reason to be impartial.
+
+At one of the war councils held in the Certosa of Pavia, Guicciardini
+having cast some doubt upon an opinion expressed by the Duke, was
+thus answered: "Your business is to confer with pedants." These
+rude words were accompanied by a knock-down blow on the face,
+followed by an order to get up and begone! Leonardi, who preserves
+this incident, adds, "Such pugilistic sport was habitual to my Lord
+Duke; and it was well for those who could command their temper in
+reasoning with him, as he was ever ready to strike any one who
+argued against his views with disrespect." The historian's original
+prepossession against Francesco Maria, is ascribed by Baldi to a
+vain ambition of precedence. While lieutenant-general of the papal
+forces he displayed it towards Guido Rangone, his superior officer,
+and insisted on taking rank at the council-board of the Marquis of
+Saluzzo, when he arrived in command of the French contingents. These
+absurd pretensions were at first treated with indifference, but
+finally brought him into a wrangle with the Duke, over whom he also
+claimed a similar right, from the fact of being in the papal service,
+waiving it only out of consideration for his sovereign rank. In
+that instance, also, he is said to have been struck by the choleric
+prince; at all events he was expelled from the council-chamber, and
+a strong representation of his misconduct was made to the Pope, who
+consequently cancelled his anomalous commission, and appointed him
+governor of Modena.
+
+Sismondi, embodying Guicciardini's one-sided narrative,[*306] has
+thrown upon Francesco Maria the entire odium of the ludicrously slow
+movements of the army, averaging about four miles on each alternate
+day, and of their double miscarriage before Milan. The fatal tendency
+of such measures, however they might have originated, admits of no
+question, and the responsibility of their failure must fall upon the
+most influential leader. It is always difficult in a heterogeneous
+confederacy to maintain that unity of purpose which may compensate
+for diversity of interests, and which can only be insured by prompt
+action and brilliant success. But the sentiment "that reputation was
+neither to be gained by risks nor lost by delays," which Bernardo
+Tasso puts into the Duke's mouth, in describing a council of war
+whereat he assisted,[307] not only advocates quite a different
+policy, but too well confirms the charge brought against him as one
+of those
+
+ "Generals who will not conquer when they may."
+
+[Footnote *306: See his despairing letters cited above, p. 441, note
+*1. He was a true patriot and thought for Italy. The Duke's dilatory
+and inconclusive actions while Italy was slowly dying, and might have
+been saved, as he thought, disgusted and enraged him.]
+
+[Footnote 307: _Lettere_, I., p. 28, edit. 1733.]
+
+When, however, he perceived victory to be hopeless, in an army
+distracted by the jealousies of rival leaders, he had proposed
+the nomination of a commander-in-chief, avowing himself ready to
+accord him implicit obedience. In this he was again thwarted by
+Guicciardini, who represented his suggestion to the allied powers
+as dictated by personal ambition of the post. The plan fell to the
+ground, and its author, fretted by the difficulties of his position,
+was attacked by severe illness. Of this the Proveditore availed
+himself to lead Malatesta Baglione, with three thousand troops, to
+Cremona. Like Milan, it was occupied by an imperialist brigade, who
+besieged in the citadel a handful of Sforza's adherents. The Duke's
+warnings as to its military difficulties having been received with
+indifference, this enterprise was on the point of miscarriage, on
+learning which he rose from a sick bed, and hurried with fresh forces
+to the scene of action. His presence infused new energy into the
+operations, and on the 23rd of September the town was evacuated by
+the imperialists upon capitulation.
+
+This success was scarcely within his grasp when a courier arrived
+from Rome, with tidings which gave a new aspect to affairs. Clement,
+who had succeeded to the turbulence of his predecessors, without the
+energy of Julius, or the address of Leo, made himself a dangerous
+domestic foe in the Colonna,--broken, but not crushed by the rancour
+of Alexander VI. Cardinal Pompeo Colonna, a man indifferent to
+religion, whose unbounded ambition aimed directly at the tiara,
+and whose brows better became a condottiere's casque than a mitre,
+forgetting his duty as one of the Sacred College, entered into
+treasonable correspondence with the imperialist leaders; and his
+brother Marcello, having been driven from his fiefs by the Pope,
+threw himself at the feet of Charles V., offering to support his
+views upon Italy if reponed by his assistance. They also used their
+influence at Venice in preventing his Holiness from raising a loan
+to recruit his crippled resources, and, in concert with Don Ugo
+Moncada, commander of the Neapolitan army, strove to alienate him
+from the League. Don Ugo, a Spaniard by birth, was the worthy pupil
+of Cesare Borgia, without his reputation for success. In every
+important engagement his sword had been tarnished by defeat; his
+character and personal adventures combined each brutal attribute
+of a condottiere, with scarcely a redeeming trait of honour. The
+plan of these confederates was by a coup-de-main to dictate terms
+to the Pontiff; or, failing success in this, to give occupation at
+home for the contingent he then maintained with the allied army
+of Lombardy. Accordingly, the Colonna troops, who had assumed a
+threatening attitude in the Campagna, were suddenly withdrawn beyond
+the frontier; and a son of Prospero Colonna hastened to the capital
+to throw himself at Clement's feet, assuring him of the pacific
+disposition of his house, and that their levies were destined for
+the imperial service at Naples. The Pope, being deceived into a
+belief so conformable to his wishes, turned a deaf ear to the warning
+of more clear-sighted men, and, disappointed of his loan, thought
+only of reducing a war establishment he could no longer pay. But
+so soon as his soldiery were dismissed, the Colonna recalled their
+army of two thousand men, which, led by Pompeo with equal celerity
+and success, reached the Lateran gate ere treachery was suspected.
+Resistance being hopeless, they, on the 20th of September, marched
+through the city into the Trastevere, where they were welcomed to
+refreshments provided by the Cardinal's order. Thence they passed
+into the Borgo S. Spirito, where are situated the Vatican, St.
+Peter's, and the castle of St. Angelo, and within three hours had
+pillaged that rich quarter, sparing neither the palace nor the
+metropolitan church. The Pope, who had at first resolved to await
+death in his pontifical chair, scarcely escaped with a few valuables
+into the fortress, which, from unpardonable negligence, was entirely
+unprovisioned. To arrest these horrors, the Pontiff next day made a
+hasty four-months' truce, stipulating for the immediate evacuation of
+Rome, as the condition on which he should recall Guicciardini with
+the ecclesiastical troops from Upper Italy; three days, however,
+elapsed ere the troops withdrew, laden with a booty estimated at
+300,000 ducats.[308]
+
+[Footnote 308: This treaty is printed by Molini, in the _Documenti di
+Storia Italiana_, I., 229. At p. 204 of the same volume is a despatch
+throwing valuable light on the tangled diplomacy of these times. The
+details of this event are often mixed up with those of the far more
+atrocious sack of Rome perpetrated by Bourbon a few months later; the
+best account of it is by Negri, an eye-witness, in the _Lettere de'
+Principi_.]
+
+Upon the capitulation of Cremona, Francesco Maria stole a few days
+for the society of his Duchess, and the affairs of his state, but was
+speedily recalled to his post by the unsatisfactory aspect of matters
+in Lombardy. The papal troops had been withdrawn; the garrison
+of Cremona, whose services the Venetians would not retain at his
+suggestion, had entered into new engagements with the enemy; fourteen
+thousand _lanznechts_, alias _lansquenet_ infantry, under Georg v.
+Fründesberg, were marching from Germany by the Val di Sabbia to
+support the imperial cause. His first care was to check the pillage
+of Cremona, a service which the citizens acknowledged by presenting
+to him a golden vase weighing twenty pounds, and beautifully chased
+with appropriate devices. He found the Marquis of Saluzzo arrived
+with about five thousand levies from France, and that the _bande
+nere_, amounting to almost as many, had been engaged by that power,
+on Guicciardini's departure, whose absence proved a vast relief
+to him. The army is now estimated at twenty-five thousand men by
+Sismondi, who, echoing the charges of that writer, severely blames
+the Duke for not supporting the naval attack made by the French upon
+Genoa, a scheme for which we have seen him contending at an earlier
+period. But a passage in his own _Discorsi Militari_ expressly states
+the Venetian force at four thousand infantry and five thousand
+cavalry, to keep in check both Fründesberg's lansquenets and ten
+thousand men at Milan; and it explains his tactics to consist in
+making Cremona the centre of a line of defence, embracing Bergamo on
+the right, and Genoa on the left, which, being vastly too extended
+for his force, necessitated his keeping his men together, in order
+to move upon any exposed point. Accordingly, considering it most
+incumbent to intercept the battalions of Fründesberg, he, after
+throwing garrisons into some important places on his right flank,
+pushed towards Mantua with about ten thousand men. Although sadly
+impeded by dreadful weather, and by difficulties of transport, the
+Proveditore having secured all the cattle to carry his own baggage
+to Venice, he came up with the enemy at Borgoforte, on the Po, and,
+interrupting their passage, drove their main body down the course of
+that river. Deep snow and mud embarrassing his evolutions, he could
+only hang upon their rear as far as the Mincio, where they were
+met by a reinforcement with artillery from Ferrara. Thereupon the
+Duke recalled his skirmishers, and left the Germans to pass the Po
+unobstructed, on the 30th of November.
+
+In this affair fell Giovanni de' Medici, whose birth we have formerly
+noticed.[309] His name is consecrated to military renown by a halo
+which his lion-heart well merited, and which has gained no additional
+brilliancy from the attempts of some writers to elevate his fame at
+Francesco Maria's expense. In this unworthy effort--as on too many
+like occasions--Guicciardini has been followed by the historian of
+the Italian republics. The charges of misconduct adduced against
+the Duke of Urbino, in his movement against Fründesberg, are by no
+means borne out by the more detailed accounts supplied by Leoni
+and Baldi. He seems to have done everything that the state of the
+elements would allow; and even accused himself of occasioning the
+death of his faithful captain Benedetto Giraldi of Mondolfo, by
+answering his plea, that his charger was completely knocked up, with
+the sarcasm,--"What! you to whom I give a hundred scudi of yearly
+pay, have not a fresh pair of horses at such a moment!" Stung by this
+reproach, the gallant officer urged his steed to new efforts, and
+shared the fate of Giovanni de' Medici. The brigade of the latter,
+out of respect for their leader, assumed those mourning scarfs which
+procured them the name _delle bande nere_; and most of them soon
+after passed to Rome in the papal service.
+
+[Footnote 309: See above, p. 385.]
+
+The German lansquenets, whom Fründesberg had brought into Italy,
+were in fact a free company, levied by himself on a mere plundering
+adventure, without the pretext of pay. Alarmed at a reinforcement
+of so obnoxious a character, the confederates bethought themselves
+of renewed efforts. But disgusted with a drawling campaign, wherein
+no party had exhibited either good heart or doughty deeds, they had
+recourse to diplomacy, which, ever fluctuating between an inactive
+war and a solid peace, failed to create any general interest.
+The truce with Moncada being expired they had no difficulty in
+enrolling the unstable Pontiff once more on their side; but intent
+on his private quarrel with the Colonna, and burning to avenge the
+outrage lately received at their hands, he gave no co-operation
+to the League. His tortuous and feeble policy preferred rousing,
+by small intrigues, the old Angevine party at Naples against the
+imperial government, and sought the more sympathetic attractions
+of a petty strife with his refractory vassals. Having engaged the
+_bande nere_, he let them loose to carry fire and sword into the
+Colonna holdings, depriving, at the same time, Cardinal Pompeo of
+his hat, and thundering excommunication against his whole race.
+As the spring advanced, he extended this inglorious warfare, with
+"a worse than Turkish" virulence, into the Neapolitan territory.
+Meanwhile, the Viceroy Lanoy, after narrowly escaping the fleet of
+Andrea Doria, landed ten thousand fresh troops at Gaeta, and advanced
+upon Rome, supported by Moncada and the Colonna. But the vengeance
+of God against the Holy City was reserved for other hands. After a
+slight check from the _bande nere_, at Frosinone, the Viceroy most
+opportunely received letters from his master, disavowing the Colonna,
+and breathing affectionate duty to the Pontiff. He thereupon made
+overtures of reconciliation, and after various demurs, prompted
+by the Pontiff's vacillating hopes and fears, but which, in the
+exhausted state of his treasury, appear the dictates of insanity,
+an eight months' truce was signed on the 15th of March, between the
+Pope and the Emperor. It provided for a mutual restitution of all
+conquests in Lower Italy, a restoration of the Colonna to their
+estates and honours, and a payment by his Holiness of 60,000 ducats
+towards the costs of the war. Should the French and Venetians accept
+of this truce, the lansquenets were to be withdrawn from Italy; at
+all events they and the Constable Bourbon's army were forthwith to
+quit the ecclesiastical and Florentine territories. Whilst intimating
+this arrangement to the Duke of Urbino, by a brief of the 16th of
+March, Clement represents it as dictated by stern necessity, the
+whole weight of the war having fallen upon himself, and as the sole
+means of saving his own existence, and preserving "all Italy from
+destruction."
+
+Whilst these events were in progress in Lower Italy, the negotiations
+for a general peace had produced no fruits, conducted, as they were,
+with little good faith or honesty of purpose. The only one really
+interested in prolonging the struggle was Francis I., whose children
+were still in his rival's hands. The Italian states, weary of a
+bootless contest, and disgusted by the feeble egotism of Clement,
+fell into inertness akin, perhaps, to the fascination under which the
+feathered tribes are said to become victims of their reptile-foe.
+
+That foe was Charles Duke of Bourbon, son of Gilbert Count de
+Montpensier, who died at Pozzuoli, in 1495, by Chiara Gonzaga,
+sister of Elisabetta Duchess of Urbino. He was next heir to the
+crown of France, after Francis Duke of Angoulême, who succeeded to
+it as Francis I., and Charles Duke d'Alençon, whose blood had been
+attainted for treason. Louis XII., having removed this attainder,
+and restored the d'Alençon branch to their rights, incurred the deep
+displeasure of Bourbon, who was, however, pacified by receiving, at
+the age of twenty-six, the office of grand constable,--the highest
+dignity of the realm. He greatly distinguished himself in Francis's
+early Italian campaigns, but was recalled from the command at Milan
+in 1516, in consequence of his overbearing conduct and ambitious
+views. By Anna, sister of Charles VIII., whom he married in spite
+of a hideously deformed person, he had the dukedom of Bourbon,
+with an immense fortune; but his extravagant prodigality plunged
+him into great embarrassments, and a suit brought after his wife's
+death by the mother of Francis I.--whose love he was alleged to
+have slighted--threatened him with utter ruin, by evicting him
+from his wife's estates. In these circumstances, his jealous and
+fiery temper was ready to seize upon any pretext for entering into
+treasonable correspondence with the Emperor and King of England;
+and, on a promise of the crown of Provence, he undertook to head an
+insurrection in France as soon as Francis should cross the Alps. That
+monarch having discovered the plot, at once sought the Constable in
+one of his own castles, and frankly told him what he had learned.
+The hypocrite had recourse to abject asseverations of innocence and
+fidelity, and was ordered to attend his sovereign into Italy; but,
+perceiving that his protestations had not removed suspicion, he fled
+in disguise to the territory of Charles, and was declared rebel. His
+perfidy and rancour now knew no bounds; he was ever after prominent
+and indefatigable in the wars against his country, and mainly
+instigated the descent upon Provence in 1524. He next entertained
+a hope of the dukedom of Milan, by Clement's sanction; but he had
+played away his honour in a losing game: despised by himself and
+his employers, the prestige of success passed from his arms. Yet
+his peculiar talent for courting popularity ensured him the zealous
+support of his troops, who knew also that a bankrupt in character
+and purse was the best leader for men intent upon pillage. To the
+single merit of a winning manner, he united many odious qualities.
+His unmeasured ambition was restrained by no principle, either
+as to its objects, or the means of attaining them. His pride was
+vain-glory, venting itself in capricious and ill-directed schemes,
+and stimulating into fury a wayward and sanguinary temper, which,
+when exasperated by exile and outlawry, became ungovernable.
+
+During the war of Lombardy, the imperial generals were in a great
+measure left to their own resources, both as to its conduct and its
+supplies. Bourbon had for about a year maintained his army in Milan
+without pay, by merciless plunder of the townspeople, upon whom
+insult and outrage were unsparingly heaped. But their patience and
+their means were nearly exhausted, and the difficulty of recruiting
+his commissariat was greatly aggravated by judicious dispositions of
+the allied army, directed by the Duke of Urbino. A forward movement
+was therefore resolved upon, and as occupation and pillage were the
+only chances of keeping together such disorganised troops, he led
+them in search of both. Indifferent whether the spoils of Florence or
+Romagna should prove the more convenient prey, he effected a junction
+with Fründesberg's new levies, whose circumstances and objects
+exactly corresponded with those of his own forces, and on the 30th of
+January their united divisions passed the Po.
+
+Our authorities are in many respects contradictory regarding these
+operations, and especially as to the part which Francesco Maria took
+in them. He seems to have been laid up at Parma, with an attack of
+gout and fever, from the 3rd to the 14th of January, and to have
+spent most of the next two months with his Duchess at Gazzuolo in the
+Mantuese, for recovery of his health. It is insinuated by Sismondi
+that this was but an excuse for abandoning the field, at a moment
+when it would have been scarcely possible to pursue the policy, which
+that author ascribes to him, of never risking in a general action the
+prestige of invincibility. On the other hand, Leoni asserts that, at
+a council of war held in Parma on the 11th of February, plans for
+the campaign were proposed in writing by the different confederate
+leaders, when that sent by the Duke was treacherously suppressed
+by Guicciardini. Judging from the results of the campaign, there
+can be no doubt that the imperialists ought to have been attacked
+at this juncture; and if a general onset had been ordered on the
+13th of March, when they broke out into open mutiny, Bourbon being
+obliged to fly for his life, or, a few days after, when Fründesberg,
+a monster of sacrilege and blasphemy, according to the Italian
+historians, died of apoplexy, they would in all probability have
+been totally exterminated. But they were the reserved instrument of
+divine judgments; and it signifies little now to speculate whether
+the immediate motives which paralysed the League were the Duke's
+ill-timed caution, his anticipation that the starving band would ere
+long of itself dissolve, or his personal enmity to the Pope. It is,
+however, important to keep in view the cold and selfish character of
+Venetian policy, and the hampering influence which their system of
+_proveditori_ necessarily had upon the measures of their generals.
+
+When Francesco Maria returned to the camp, the imperialists, who had
+passed the Trebbia on the 20th of February, were slowly advancing
+through the ecclesiastical state of Modena upon Bologna. His tactic
+was to place them between two hostile armies; so the Marquis of
+Saluzzo, with the French, ecclesiastical, and Swiss troops, preceded
+them, leaving garrisons in the principal places, the Duke following
+with the Venetians, some thirty miles in their rear. Against this
+plan, which Guicciardini designates a strange proceeding, and
+which even Baldi most justly criticises, the other leaders vainly
+protested, alleging, among other reasons, that whilst the army
+in advance must be speedily weakened by detaching garrisons, the
+Venetians would probably hang back when their own frontier was freed
+from danger. News of the truce between the Pope and the Viceroy now
+arrived, and the Duke, disgusted at this new proof of Clement's
+fickleness, and indifference to his allies' interests, withdrew
+his army across the Po. But the courier who brought the treaty to
+Bourbon at Ponte-Reno, with an order to obey its provisions, was
+nearly cut to pieces by his troops, infuriated at this interference
+with their hopes of booty, and the Constable refused to abide by
+it. The fresh jealousy of their unstable ally, thus suggested to
+the Venetians, afforded their leader a new apology for not exposing
+their troops in a general action for the preservation of Bologna.
+But when Bourbon had passed by that city towards Romagna and Urbino,
+somewhat more spirit was infused into his movements, as the danger
+seemed to approach his own frontier. He immediately sent forward
+two thousand men to protect the duchy, and desired his family to
+be removed for safety to Venice. On the 5th of March he had struck
+his camp at Casal-Maggiore, and proceeded in pursuit of the enemy.
+On that day they passed under Imola, which, with the other cities,
+was garrisoned by detachments of Saluzzo, in accordance with tactics
+already explained. Bourbon now scoured the plains of Romagna in
+search of plunder, skirmishing occasionally with the French division.
+When at Meldola on the 14th he bethought him of a descent upon Siena,
+whose old Ghibelline and anti-Florentine preferences promised him a
+welcome. He, therefore, penetrated the Apennines by forced marches
+up the passes of the Bidente, and on the 18th reached S. Pietro in
+Bagno, burning and pillaging as he went.
+
+When the Constable's refusal to accept the treaty was known at Rome,
+Clement, more perplexed than ever, besought Lanoy to hurry on and
+induce him to a halt, or at all events to withdraw the Spaniards and
+men-at-arms from his command. To this the Viceroy with much apparent
+zeal consented; but doubts have been thrown on his sincerity, for
+both he and Moncada, whilst professing cordial co-operation with the
+Pope, are suspected of having secretly stimulated Bourbon's advance
+upon Rome, as the only means of appeasing the troops, trusting that
+the grandeur of the enterprise would, in their master's eyes, readily
+excuse its criminality. It seems doubtful whether Lanoy actually met
+the Constable; and his mission was understood to have exposed him
+to great personal risk from the lawless and ungovernable troops. He
+at all events conveyed to Bourbon a proposition for the immediate
+payment to his army of 80,000 ducats, with 60,000 more during May,
+on condition of their retreat within five days; these sums to be
+advanced by Florence, on the Viceroy's guarantee for repayment of
+one-half by the Emperor. The direct object of this proposal was to
+divert the impending storm from Tuscany; and it was fully sanctioned
+by Clement, true to the policy of Medicean pontiffs, who ever
+regarded Florence as their patrimony, Rome as their life-interest. In
+the negotiations to which it gave rise there was a double difficulty.
+Whilst the demands of a mutinous and starving army were paramount to
+all other considerations, each party of the confederates struggled to
+throw upon another the burden of meeting them. The same selfishness
+sought individual security against the future movements of the
+general foe, by turning him upon some friendly frontier. The wealthy
+Florentines lavished their gold to send him back upon Upper Italy,
+which the timely distribution of a few thousand men in the Apennine
+gorges might have prevented him from ever quitting. The game of the
+Proveditore Pisani was to leave no obstacle in the way of his advance
+in any direction save that of the Venetian terra-firma domain, and
+to detain the Duke of Urbino with his army of observation as long as
+possible near that frontier. The French strove at all hazards to keep
+him clear of their Lombard conquests. The Pontiff, little dreaming
+of an attack upon his capital, was distracted between the care of
+Romagna and Tuscany, whilst his fickle imbecility deprived him of all
+sympathy at his allies' hands; indeed, in this conflict of interests,
+his pusillanimous tergiversations rendered him the weaker vessel,
+and he consequently became the chief sufferer. Nor did the Duke of
+Urbino escape suspicions of bad faith, for he is accused of a secret
+understanding not to impede Bourbon's descent upon Tuscany, which
+would naturally liberate his own duchy from danger. Guicciardini,
+indeed, not only considers revenge for former injuries of the Medici
+as the key to Francesco Maria's dilatory and inefficient proceedings
+against the imperialists, but regards his conduct as justified by the
+provocations received. These sentiments were at all events cherished
+by the soldiery of Urbino, who wrote "FOR VENGEANCE" upon
+the houses which they fired on their march through the Florentine
+territory. Nor were these provocations light, for the grudge which
+Leo had bequeathed was aggravated by a continued retention of the
+fortresses in Montefeltro, and still more by an investiture of the
+entire duchy, granted in 1525 by Clement, in total defiance of
+the della Rovere rights, to Ascanio Colonna, whose claims we have
+already considered.[310] This grant, though virtually annulled by the
+same Pope's subsequent confirmation of the reinvestiture given to
+Francesco Maria by Adrian VI., gave rise to renewed anxieties on his
+part about two years later, and it was not until 1530 that we shall
+see them finally extinguished by the Duke's generous hospitality to
+his rival.
+
+[Footnote 310: Above, p. 420.]
+
+On the 22nd of April the Constable, finding the mountain peasantry
+exasperated to a dangerous pitch by the merciless rigours of his
+lawless soldiery, and his own sanguinary nature being goaded by their
+ribald taunts, cut short these miserable intrigues by advancing into
+Tuscany.[*311] The confederate leaders, having at length decided
+on saving Florence, united their divisions, and on the 25th passed
+the Apennines near the present Bologna road. The Duke now received
+an offer of his fortresses of S. Leo and Maiuolo, which still
+remained pledged to that commonwealth. This he answered by general
+professions, and next day, sending on the army to Incisa to intercept
+the approach of Bourbon, he proceeded with a band of faithful
+followers to the Tuscan capital. The republican faction, calculating
+upon his support, flew to arms and seized the Palazzo Vecchio, while
+once more the unpopular sway of the Medici trembled in the balance.
+But the Duke, with a nobility of purpose that goes far to absolve
+him from suspicion as to his good faith with the Pope throughout
+this campaign, rejected the temptation of avenging his many wrongs,
+and, by extraordinary personal exertions, succeeded in quelling the
+insurrection, and maintaining the established government. Thus, for
+the first time, the city saw its Palazzo taken without a revolution
+following. In gratitude for this service his fortresses were
+immediately given up to Francesco Maria, who in due time received
+also the thanks of his Holiness. The act for their restitution was
+signed on the 1st of May, and on the 14th S. Leo was surrendered to
+his lieutenant Orazio Florido.
+
+[Footnote *311: He halted at S. Giovanni in Val d'Arno, where, though
+he ought never to have been allowed to come so far, he might have
+been easily crushed in that narrow pass. But if the Duke of Urbino
+showed now a certain activity, it was not of the sort to crush this
+adventure. Bourbon wheeled into the Via Francigena and marched down
+to Rome and death. "To Rome! to Rome!" were his dying words.]
+
+Bourbon's head-quarters were meanwhile at Montevarchi, near
+Arezzo, where, seeing his approach to Florence foiled, and the
+dissatisfaction of his followers on the increase, he decided upon
+making a dash at Rome; his only alternative being to lead them to
+pillage, or perish at their hands. As a blind to the Pope, he sent
+forward a courier to demand free passage to Naples; and, after
+receiving some supplies from Siena, he abandoned his artillery and
+heavy baggage in order to lighten his march. He began it on the 26th,
+and, notwithstanding incessant rains and an entirely disorganised
+commissariat, he passed without halt or question by Acquapendente and
+Viterbo to Rome.[312]
+
+[Footnote 312: Many facts regarding the war in Lombardy and the march
+to Rome are given by Baldi (Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 906) with a minuteness
+and impartiality not found in other writers. The feeble views of
+Clement are illustrated by his brieves to the Duke of Urbino, noticed
+in I. of the Appendix to our next volume.]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDICES
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX I
+
+(Pages 33, 34)
+
+PORTRAITS OF CESARE BORGIA
+
+
+The same extremes of reprobation and flattery which alternate
+in notices of the Duke Valentino puzzle us as to his personal
+appearance. Giovio, the ardent collector of historical portraits,
+while describing those which he had brought together, thus comments
+upon that of Borgia:--"He is said to come of a plague-stricken stock
+and of corrupted blood; for a livid rush overspread his face, which
+was full of pimples shedding matter. His eyes, too, were deeply
+sunk, and their fierce snake-like glance seemed to flash fire, so
+that even his friends and comrades could not bear to look upon them;
+yet, while flirting with the ladies, he had a wonderful knack of
+playing the agreeable." The pen which inscribed these sentences was
+evidently charged with even more than its wonted gall; but, after
+every allowance, they cannot well be reconciled with a report of the
+Venetian envoy Capello, dated in 1500, and bearing that "the Pope
+loves and greatly fears his son the Duke, who is aged twenty-seven
+years; his head is most beautiful; he is tall and well made, and
+handsomer than King Ferdinand."
+
+Nor can we attain to any more satisfactory conclusion from such
+pictures as are alleged to transmit his features. We have no key to
+identify as his any of the heads introduced by Pinturicchio into
+those fine but little noticed frescoes commissioned by Alexander
+VI. for the Torre di Borgia, now a wing of the Vatican Library. The
+exquisite medallists of Romagna do not appear to have exercised their
+skill upon his bust. Of easel portraits I am aware of six, which I
+mention for the curious in such matters, although not prepared to
+consider any of them genuine.
+
+1. The elegant effeminate-looking Spaniard in the Borghese Gallery,
+attributed to Raffaele, is now admitted to be a misnomer both of
+subject and artist.
+
+2. A mean head, in the manner of Federigo Zuccaro, was purchased
+a few years ago at Rome by my late friend Monsignor Laureani,
+librarian of the Vatican, as that of Valentino, and passed from
+him, in 1844, to my friend the Cavaliere Campana. Its sinister and
+spiteful expression is not unworthy of such a monster; and allowing
+an artist's licence in disguising a complexion which no one would
+willingly represent, it might tally with Giovio's too graphic
+details. The figure is, however, short, while Capello describes
+Cesare as tall.
+
+3. A letter from Giuseppe Vallardi to Count Cesare di Castelbarco
+Visconti was privately printed at Milan in 1843, in which he claims
+to have discovered in the Count's palace a portrait of Borgia by
+Raffaele, the original chalk study of which belonged to himself. From
+the mass of verbiage usual in similar Italian effusions of "municipal
+fanaticism," there may be extracted an allegation that the picture
+had been painted from that earlier drawing about 1508, and a bold
+inference is hazarded from their style that both were the handiwork
+of Sanzio. The lithograph, however, would entitle us to ascribe them
+rather to the Milanese school, and such is admitted to be the opinion
+of various connoisseurs. No fact is adduced to authenticate the head,
+or to show that Raffaele ever saw Valentino; indeed, the name seems
+to libel a countenance so gentle, refined, and unimpassioned.
+
+4. Vallardi mentions in the same letter another Borgian head, by
+Giorgione, as in the Lochis Gallery at Bergamo, of which I cannot
+speak, not having seen it.
+
+5. A handsome over-dressed youth was engraved for Gordon's _Life of
+Alexander VI._, in 1729, from a picture said to belong to D. Giuseppe
+Valetta of Naples, which I entirely failed in tracing while in Italy.
+Neither have I discovered any authority for supposing that soulless
+epicurean to be Cesare Borgia.
+
+Finally, we may include Fuseli's notice of a picture by Titian,
+no longer, however, in the Borghese collection, representing a
+conference between the Usurper of Romagna and Machiavelli. A finer
+subject for the pencil of that intellectual limner could hardly be
+found, but Valentino's prodigality was apparently never lavished on
+art.[313] In his eleventh lecture, Fuseli also mentions a portrait of
+Cesare by Giorgione, as hanging for study in the Royal Academy.
+
+[Footnote 313: In Leonardo da Vinci he saw only a military engineer.
+His commission, desiring that great genius to survey and report
+upon all his fortresses, in the summer of 1502, is quoted in
+BROWN'S _Life of Leonardo_, p. 118, and accordingly Urbino
+was visited by him on the 30th of July.]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX II
+
+(Page 34)
+
+DUKE GUIDOBALDO I. OF URBINO A KNIGHT OF THE GARTER
+
+
+The loss of all early records of the Order, in consequence of their
+having long been entrusted to the private and insecure custody of
+its successive officers, has already placed us at disadvantage in
+noticing the admission of Duke Federigo, but from various sources
+we are enabled to glean much more satisfactory notices as to the
+election and installation of his son to this honourable knighthood.
+The chapter at which he was chosen is not preserved by Anstis, but
+its date is known from the following letter, the original of which,
+in Latin, I had the good fortune to discover in the Oliveriana
+Library at Pesaro.[314]
+
+[Footnote 314: MSS. No. 374, vol. I., p. 55.]
+
+ "Henry, by the grace of God, King of England and France,
+ Lord of Ireland, to the most illustrious and potent
+ Prince the Lord Guido Ubaldo, Duke of Urbino, our most
+ dear friend, health and augmented prosperity. We wrote
+ lately to inform your Highness that we had resolved upon
+ forthwith summoning a chapter of our military Order of the
+ Garter, for the purpose of creating your Sublimity a knight
+ thereof, and by the same letters gave you tidings of such
+ creation. We have now to signify how, in fulfilment of that
+ our promise, we have made your Highness a Knight of that
+ Order; and this we have done most cordially, not only on
+ account of our old necessity, which formerly occurred to
+ us with your father the illustrious Duke of happy memory,
+ but also in consideration of your singular merit and
+ virtues. Indeed we are assured that henceforward your
+ Highness will ever be regarded as our most attached cousin
+ and intimate friend, which you will more fully learn from
+ our distinguished cousin the Lord Talbot, a knight of that
+ Order, as also from the Reverend [Richard Bere] Lord Abbot
+ of Glastonbury, and the Venerable Sir Robert Shirbourn,
+ Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, our counsellors and
+ ambassadors, whom we have sent to offer our catholic and
+ filial obedience to our supreme Lord [Julius II.]. To these
+ our envoys we have committed all the knightly insignia
+ of the Garter, to be made over to your Highness, and our
+ anxious desire is that you will accept them in the same
+ spirit of cordial affection in which they are sent. We pray
+ you further to receive these our ambassadors as accredited
+ in our behalf, and that you will please to aid them with
+ your favour and counsels, which will be to us peculiarly
+ agreeable. Finally, as the Venerable Mr. Robert Shirbourn,
+ one of these our envoys, is by our command to remain for
+ some time as our minister at the Roman Court to transact
+ certain affairs of ours with our Lord his Holiness, we
+ therefore beseech your Sublimity that you will vouchsafe
+ to assist him, as our agent, with your gracious influence,
+ which has great and just weight with our Holy Father, and
+ that you will extend to him such favours as he may request;
+ by all which you will do us a singular pleasure. Further,
+ if it be in our power any way to oblige you, freely make
+ use of us and ours. From our palace near Westminster, the
+ 20th of February, 1503-4.[315]
+
+ "HENRICUS REX."
+
+[Footnote 315: It is pleasant to find the arts from time to time
+becoming handmaids of history as well as of religion; and the
+friendly feeling for England then cherished at Urbino is curiously
+illustrated by a bequest of Bishop Arrivabene, who, in 1504, left 400
+golden scudi to be expended in decorating a chapel, dedicated to St.
+Martin and St. Thomas of Canterbury: the Duchess Elisabetta was one
+of the trustees, and the fresco ordered by them from Girolamo Genga
+included a representation of the English saint, and a portrait of
+Duke Guidobaldo.]
+
+The instructions to these ambassadors, dated the 20th of February,
+and printed by Anstis, run thus:--
+
+"And after due recommendacions, and presentaciones of the Kinge's
+lettres [to Duke Guidobaldo], firste the saide Abbot of Glastonburye
+shall make a brefe oracion, wherein he shall not onlye touche the
+laudes of the noble Order of the Garter, and of the Kinges Highnes
+as sovereigne of the same, but also declare the great vertues and
+notable deades of the saide Duke, and how his progenitors and
+auncestors have been accepted thereunto, and to theyr greate honor
+have used the same, with the desyrous mynde that the sayde Duke is to
+be honored therwithal; for the which consideracions and causes the
+Kinge's Highness, by the assent of the Companions of that Order, have
+been the rather moved and induced to name and elect him thereunto,
+trustinge verelie that, his greate noblenesse with other of his
+valiant actes and singuler vertues consydered, he shall not onlye
+greatlye honor the saide Order, but also take greate honor by the
+same. Shewinge fynallye that the Kinge's Highnes, for the singular
+zeale, love, and affection which his Grace beareth unto hym, hath
+sent hym them ornaments belonginge to the sayd Order, and with as
+good and hartye mynde wylleth hyme to be honored therewith as anye
+other prince lyvinge, desyring him therefore thankfullye to accept
+the same, and to use and weare it in a memoriall of his Grace, and of
+the saide notable and auncyant Order.
+
+"And, after the proposition so sayde, they shall present theyr
+commyssyon unto the sayde Duke, and cause the same openlye to be
+read, and so followinge, the Abbot of Glastonburye shall in good
+and reverent manner requyre him to make his corporall othe for the
+inviolable observaunce of the same, lyke as, bye the tenure of the
+saide estatuts, every Knight of that Order is bownde to do, in form
+followinge:--
+
+"Ego Guido Ubaldus, Dei Gratia Dux Urbinatis, honorificentissimi
+atque approbatissimi Ordinis Garterii Miles et Confrater electus,
+juro ad hæc sancta Dei evangelia per me corporaliter tacta, quod
+omnia et singula statuta leges et ordinationes ipsius dignissimi
+Ordinis bene sincere et inviolabiliter observabo. Ita me Deus
+adjuvet, et hæc sancta Dei evangelia!
+
+"Which othe geven, Sir Gybert Talbot shall deliver the Garter to hym,
+and cause the same in good and honorable manner to be put about his
+legge, the saide Abbott of Glastonburye sayinge audablye thes wordes
+followinge:--
+
+"Ad laudem et honorem summi atque omnipotentis Dei, intemeratæ
+Virginis et Matris suæ Mariæ, ac gloriosissimi martiris Georgii,
+hujus Ordinis Patroni, circumcingo tibiam tuam hoc Garterio, ut
+possis in isto bello firmiter stare et fortiter vincere, in signum
+Ordinis et augmentum tui honoris.
+
+"Which thinge so don, the saide Sir Gylbert shall deliver unto the
+saide Duke the gowne of purple couler, and cause hym to apparrell
+hymself with the same, the saide Abbot of Glastonburye sayinge thes
+wordes followinge, at the doinge on of the same:--
+
+"Accipe vestem hanc purpuream, quâ semper munitus non verearis pro
+fide Christi, libertate ecclesiæ et oppressorum tuitione fortiter
+dimicare, et sanguinem effundere, in signum Ordinis et augmentum tui
+honoris.
+
+"And then followinge, the sayd Sir Gilbert shall cause the sayde
+Duke to do upon hym the mantle of blew velvett, garnyshed with the
+scute and crosse of Saint George, and the said Abbot of Glastonburye
+sayinge thes wordes:--
+
+"Accipe clamidem coelestis coloris clypeo crucis Christi
+insignitam, cujus virtute atque vigore semper protectus, hostes
+superare, et pro clarissimis tuis meritis gaudia tandem coelestia
+promereri valeas, in signum Ordinis et augmentum tui honoris.
+
+"And when the saide Duke shall be so apperrylled with the ornaments
+aforesaide, the saide Sir Gylbert shall put the image of Seinte
+George abowt his necke, the saide Abbott saying thes wordes:--
+
+"Imaginem gloriosissimi martiris Georgii, hujus Ordinis patroni, in
+collo tuo deferes, cujus fultus presidio hujus mundi prospera et
+adversa sic pertranseas, ut hostibus corporis et animi devictis,
+non modo temporalis militiæ gloriam, sed perennis victoriæ palmam
+accipere valeas, in signum Ordinis et augmentum tui honoris."
+
+Hollinshed, following Hall, informs us that "Sir Gilbert Talbot,
+Knight, Richard Bere, Abbot of Glastonburie, and Doctor Robert
+Sherborne, Deane of St. Paules, were sent as ambassadors from the
+King to Rome, to declare to Pius the third of that name, newlie
+elected pope in place of Alexander the Sixt, deceased, what joy and
+gladnesse had entered the King's heart for his preferment. But he
+taried not the comming of those ambassadors, for within a moneth
+after that he was installed, he rendered his debt to nature, and so
+had short pleasure of his promotion.... The King caused Guidebald,
+Duke of Urbine, to be elected Knight of the Order of the Garter, in
+like manner as his father Duke Frederike had been before him, which
+was chosen and admitted into the Order by King Edward the Fourth. Sir
+Gilbert Talbot, and the other two ambassadors, being appointed to
+keepe on their journey unto Pope Julius the Second, elected after the
+death of the said Pius the Third, bare the habit, and collar also,
+unto the said Duke Guidebald."[316] It must, however, be observed
+that letters of safe conduct for these ambassadors are stated to have
+been issued under the Privy Seal on the 22nd of February, 1504, as if
+but then beginning their journey. This mission was in accordance with
+the statutes of the Order, which provided that, within four months
+of the election, special messengers should be despatched to invest
+each foreign knight with the insignia, and that, within eight months
+after the investiture, he should send a proctor to England to receive
+installation in his name.
+
+[Footnote 316: Hall quaintly says that the King intended "to stop two
+gappes with one bushe."]
+
+We learn from Burchard that the three envoys reached Rome the 12th
+of May, 1504. They were met by Sylvester Gigli, Bishop of Worcester,
+Anglican resident at the papal court, and had a splendid reception.
+On the 20th they had an audience, when, the minister of Louis XII.
+having protested against Henry taking the style of France, they
+were admitted as the ambassadors of England only. No details have
+reached us of the investiture. The authority to which we naturally
+turn for the circumstances attending this interesting episode of our
+narrative is Polydoro di Vergilio, a native of Urbino, and historian
+of England; but a fact, which to the writer ought to have been of
+peculiar importance, is passed over without details. As, however,
+the supposed autograph copy of his History varies considerably from
+printed editions, we shall here quote from it the entire passage,
+proving the incorrect manner in which this work is given to the
+public.
+
+"Alexandro Sexto mortuo, creatus est Pontifex Franciscus, Senensis
+antistes, qui Pii fuit Secundi ex sorore nepos, voluitque et ipse
+Pius Tertius in memoria avunculi vocari. Hic amicissimus erat regis
+Henrici [VII.], qui, ut primus omnium Christianorum principum bono
+patri de adepto pontificatu congratularetur, confestim Gilbertum
+Talbott equitem, Ricardum Beer Abbatem Glasconiensem, et Robertum
+Scherburn decanum divi Pauli Londinensis oratores designavit ad ipsum
+pontificatum. Sed Pius non expectavit gratulationem, qui obiit sexto
+et vigesimo die quam sedere coeperat. Creatur in ejus locum Julianus,
+Cardinalis Sti. Petri ad Vincula, patria Ligur, dictusque est Julius
+Secundus. Huic postea illi tres regis oratores congratulatum inerunt,
+quos Hadrianus Castellensis episcopus Herefordensis, quem paulo
+ante Alexander Cardinalem fecerat, Romæ hospitio excepit. Hunc rex
+Henricus sub idem tempus ab Herefordensi sede ad Bathoniensem ac
+Wellensem transferri curavit. At Hadrianus, ut præter sua quotidiana
+obsequia, quæ tam regi quam Anglis omnibus libens præstabat, aliquo
+diuturniori memoriæ monumento relinqueret, apud omnes testatum se
+memorem fuisse acceptorum beneficiorum ab Henrico, atque nomen
+Anglicum amasse, donavit regi palatium magnificum quod ipse Romæ
+in Vaticano ædificaverat, ornavitque regis insignibus, ut in
+ea luce hominum aliquod egregium opus nomini Anglico dedicatum
+conspiceretur.[317] Item, iidem oratores detulerunt habitum Garterii
+ordinis Guidoni Duci Urbini, principi seculo nostro Latinæ Linguæ
+simul ac Græcæ ac militaris disciplinæ peritissimo, quem Rex paulo
+ante in Collegium ipsius Ordinis asciverat. Dux postea destinavit
+in Angliam Baldasarem Castilliorum, natione Mantuanum, equitem tam
+doctrinâ quam bellicâ virtute præstantem, ut suo nomine ejus Ordinis
+cerimonias exequeret. Fuit Baldaser ab Henrico perbenigne exceptus,
+atque comiter habitus; qui, finitis ceremoniis, non indonatus,
+postmodum ad suum Decem redivit."[318]
+
+[Footnote 317: The palace thus gifted to Henry is believed to have
+been that in Borgo, called Palazzo Giraud, in which many of our
+countrymen have of late received the splendid hospitalities of Prince
+Torlonia.]
+
+[Footnote 318: Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 498, f. 273. For Polydoro di
+Vergilio, see above, pp. 115-18.]
+
+There is thus no authority for a statement in the printed version of
+this History, adopted by Hall, Baldi, and others, that the decoration
+was conferred in consequence of Guidobaldo's own wish to belong to
+an Order, of whose illustration he had become cognisant from its
+having been borne by his father. Perhaps the requests which conclude
+the letter of Henry VII. may give the most satisfactory key to the
+royal policy. Informed, as he no doubt was, of the state of affairs
+at the Papal court, he must have been aware that to conciliate the
+Duke was the wisest course for those who had favours to gain from the
+Pontiff. Be this as it may, the Garter was received by Guidobaldo at
+Rome in June, as became so singular an honour, and was proudly worn
+next St. George's day in compliance with the rules of the Order.
+Having resolved suitably so to acknowledge the dignity by a special
+envoy to London, he selected as his proctor Castiglione, the choicest
+spirit of his elegant court. The first we hear of this intention is
+from the Count's letter of 2nd March, 1505, confidently informing
+his mother that he would probably be sent to represent his master
+at his installation in England. The plan, however, remained long in
+abeyance. Castiglione spent the autumn at the baths of S. Casciano in
+Tuscany, for an old injury or wound in his foot, and, in the end of
+the year, went on a mission to Ferrara.[319] At length he set out,
+on the 24th of July, 1506, accompanied by Francesco di Battista di
+Ricece, and Giulio da Cagli, with their respective suites. Among the
+presents he was charged to deliver to the King were some falcons,
+three of the finest racers of the Urbino breed, and a precious
+little picture, by Raffaele, of St. George as patron of the English
+Order, which we have already mentioned at p. 233. He was at Lyons in
+September, and this notice of his arrival at Dover is preserved by
+Anstis:--
+
+"The 20th of Octobre, the twenty-second year of our soverain lord,
+King Henry VII., there landed at Dover a noble ambassadeur, sent
+from the Duc of Urbin, called Sir Balthasar de Castilione, whiche
+came to be installed in his lorde's name; whiche Duc had receyved
+before by the Abbot of Glastonbury and Sir Gilbert Talbott, being the
+King's commissionaris, the Garetier, &c., to the Ordre apperteyning.
+And, to mete with the said ambassadeur, was sent Sir Thomas Brandon,
+havyng a goodly companye with hym of his owne servants, all verely
+well horsed, unto the see-seyde; whiche, after they met togedre,
+kept contynnually compagnie with hym, and, when they approched nere
+to Deptford, ther met with the forsaid ambassadeur by the King's
+commandement, the Lord Thomas Dokara, lord of St. John's, and Thomas
+Writhesley, alias Gartier princypall king of Armes. Whiche lord of
+St. John's had in his compaignie thirty of his servaunts, all in
+a lyvery new, well horsed, every [one] of his gentlemen beryng a
+javelayn in his hand, and every yeman havying his bowe and a sheffe
+of arrowes, and soe convoyed hym to his lodging, and on the morrow
+unto London. And by the waye ther met with the said ambassadeur
+dyvers Italyens, as the Pope's Vicecollector, Paulus de Gygeles
+[Giliis], with dyvers [others]; and soe convoyed hym to the Pope's
+Vicecollector's hows, wher he was lodged."
+
+[Footnote 319: I can find nothing in support of Roscoe's assertion
+that he was wounded while aiding Guidobaldo to recover his duchy, and
+the whole facts seem to contradict it. _Leo X._, ch. vii., § 7, note.
+That usually accurate writer has fallen into the mistake of ascribing
+to the Count's _sister_ his interment and monumental inscription in
+the church of the Minims, near Mantua, while the epitaph which he has
+printed, bears that Aloysia Gonzaga placed it over a worthy _son_,
+whom she unwillingly survived. Several dates in our text are supplied
+from Vat. Urb. MSS. No. 904, p. 43.]
+
+Two days after Castiglione reached London he was sent for by the
+King, whose marked favour, whilst he stated the objects of his
+mission in an eloquent Latin address, is recorded in his own letters.
+The installation took place on the 10th of November, upon the
+following commission, printed by Ashmole:--
+
+"Henry, by the grace of God, &c. Forasmuch as we understand that
+the right noble prince Gwe de Ubaldis, Duke of Urbin, who was
+heretofore elected to be one of the companions of the said noble
+Order, cannot conveniently repair into this our realm, personally to
+be installed in the collegiate church of that Order, and to perform
+other ceremonies whereunto by the statutes of the said Order he is
+bound, but for that intent and purpose hath sent a right honourable
+personage, Balthasar de Castilione, Knight, sufficiently authorised
+as his proctor, to be installed in his name, and to perform all other
+things for him, to the statutes and ordinances of the said Order
+requisite and appertaining. We, therefore, in consideration of the
+premises, will, and by these presents, give unto you licence, full
+power, and authority, not only to accept and admit the said Balthasar
+as proctor for the same Duke, and to receive his oath and instal him
+in the lieu and place and for the said Duke, but also farther, to do
+therein as to the statutes and laudable usages of the said Order it
+appertaineth; and this our writing shall be to you and every of you
+sufficient discharge in that behalf. Given under the seale of our
+said noble Order of the Garter, at our mannor of Grenewiche, the 7th
+day of November, the twenty-second year of our reign."
+
+After the ceremonial was concluded, the Count visited the other
+knights in the name of his master. This installation by proxy has
+given rise to a confusion that he was himself honoured with the
+Garter, which Roscoe first exposed. It is probable, however, that
+he was knighted by Henry, a dignity he had vainly looked for at the
+hand of Julius II. before his departure; at all events he received
+from him, besides gifts of horses and dogs, a gold chain or collar
+of SS links, from which depended two portcullises and a golden rose
+with its centre of silver. This chain, long peculiar to English chief
+justices, is traced by Dugdale from the initials of Saint Simplicius,
+a primitive Christian judge and martyr; and the badge was adopted
+by that monarch as heir of the Plantagenets through both rival
+roses. The decoration, mistaken by Marliani for the collar of the
+Garter, was destined by the Count as an heirloom, and it accordingly
+surrounded his armorial coat in that dedication copy of his letter
+to Henry, narrating the life of Guidobaldo, which he described by
+Anstis. On the 9th of February, 1507, he was at Milan on his return
+to Urbino, where he arrived about the end of the month, charged with
+affectionate letters and messages from Henry, and with rich presents.
+His conversation, of all that he had seen in a country so imperfectly
+known, was greatly relished by the Duke, and his anecdotes of its
+court, its wealth, and its wonders long continued to enliven the
+palace-circle of Montefeltro.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX III
+
+(Page 138)
+
+GIOVANNI SANZI'S MS. CHRONICLE OF FEDERIGO DUKE OF URBINO
+
+
+Considering the importance of Sanzi's Rhyming Chronicle of Duke
+Federigo to the literary history of Urbino, and the almost total
+neglect in which it has hitherto lain, we shall here describe with
+some minuteness the only copy of it known to exist. It is a large
+and thick folio volume, No. 1305 of the Ottoboniana MSS. in the
+Vatican Library, written on paper in a firm Italian hand of the
+fifteenth century, expressly for the Duke Guidobaldo I., to whom it
+is dedicated. Some passages have been interpolated on the margin, and
+others are altered by pasting a new version over the cancelled lines,
+in a character slightly different from that of the text, of which,
+being probably autograph, a fac-simile is given on the following
+page.[320]
+
+[Footnote 320: This marginal interpolation, occurring in the
+dedication, runs thus:--"Pregandoti humilmente ryguardi ly gloriosi
+fatti del tuo famoso padre, e non la basseza del myo style [not
+"srypt," as Passavant reads it], ornato solo da me dy quella sincer
+fede che deue vn fydeli servo al suo signore."]
+
+The general title, supplied in a much later hand, runs
+thus:--"Historia della Guerra d'Italia nel tempo de' PP. Pio e Paolo
+II., del 1478, in versi di Gio[~v]. Sati al Duca di Urbino"; but the
+Chronicle itself is thus headed, "Principio del opera composta da
+Giohanni Santi, pictore, nelaquale se contiene la vita e gesti de lo
+illustrissimo et invictissimo Principe Federico Feretrano, Duca di
+Urbino." A prose dedication occupies four pages, and is followed by a
+prologue of nine chapters in verse; the poem itself is divided into a
+hundred and four chapters, arranged in twenty-three books, the whole
+work consisting of about twenty-four thousand lines.[321] It may be
+not uninteresting to print the contents of these chapters, supplying
+the omitted titles of the two first.
+
+[Footnote 321: Several errors in the numeration, both of the folios
+and chapters, might readily deceive a superficial observer, and have
+misled even Passavant.]
+
+[Illustration: [Transcriber's Note: handwritten text; see footnote
+320 above]]
+
+ LIBRO PRIMO.
+
+ CAP. I. [Of the race of Montefeltro preceding Duke
+ Federico, and of his birth and betrothal.]
+
+ CAP. II. [Of the boyish embassies of Count
+ Federico; of his education and marriage.]
+
+ CAP. III. Nel quale se tracta de la prima militia
+ sua cum Nicolo Picinino.
+
+ CAP. IV. Nel quale si tratta la rocta di Monte
+ Locho.
+
+ CAP. V. De la predicta rocta di Monte Locho.
+
+
+ LIBRO SECONDO.
+
+ CAP. VI. Nel quale se tratta el rincondurse del C.
+ Federico cum Nicolo Piccino e el guerre de la Marca.
+
+ CAP. VII. Nel quale se tratta la morte del Duca
+ Oddantonio el diventare el Conte Signore de Urbino.
+
+ CAP. VIII. Nel quale poi uarie cose, se tratta le
+ rebillione de la Marca contra el Conte Francesco Sforza.
+
+ CAP. IX. Nel quale se tratta l'aspera guerra per
+ Papa Eugenio al Conte Federico.
+
+ CAP. X. De varie cose e del tradimento de
+ Fossambrone contra del Conte Federico.
+
+ CAP. XI. De la rotta del Signore Sigismondo ha
+ Fossambrone.
+
+
+ LIBRO TERZO.
+
+ CAP. XII. Nel quale se contiene la guerra de
+ Toscana per il Re Alfonso contra Fiorentini, et la condutta
+ del Conte Federico cum loro.
+
+ CAP. XIII. Nel quale se tratta de lo assedio di
+ Pionbino per el Re Alfonso.
+
+ CAP. XIV. De la morte del Duca Phillippo, et
+ diverse guerre de Lombardia.
+
+
+ LIBRO QUARTO.
+
+ CAP. XV. Nel quale se contiene la condutta del
+ Conte cum el Re Alfonso, et la guerra di Toscana al tempo
+ di Ferrante Duca de Calabria.
+
+ CAP. XVI. De uarie cose de Lombardia, et la lega
+ quasi de tutta Italia, e l'andata del Conte a Napoli.
+
+ CAP. XVII. Parlamento insieme del S. Sigismondo et
+ de Conte a Ferrara, per el mezo del Duca Borso.
+
+ CAP. XVIII. Resposta del Conte al S. Sigismondo
+ nel predicto parlamento.
+
+
+ LIBRO QUINTO.
+
+ CAP. XIX. Nel quale se contiene la guerra fra el
+ S. Sigismondo el Conte de Urbino, et la uenuta del Conte
+ Jacomo Piccinino contra del S. Sigismondo.
+
+ CAP. XX. De la preditta guerra.
+
+
+ LIBRO SESTO.
+
+ CAP. XXI. Nel quale se contiene el principio et
+ uarie guerre del Reame di Napoli al tempo del Duca Giohanni
+ contra de el Re Ferrante.
+
+ CAP. XXII. Del andata del Conte Jacomo nel Reame
+ contra de el Re Ferrante.
+
+ CAP. XXIII. De la rotta del Re a Sarno, et el
+ correre scontro de dui Braceschi cum dui Feltreschi.
+
+ CAP. XXIV. Del fatto e l'arme de Santo Fabiano.
+
+ CAP. XXV. Del preditto fatto d'arme de Santo
+ Fabiano.
+
+ CAP. XXVI. Del predicto fatto d'arme.
+
+
+ LIBRO SETTIMO.
+
+ CAP. XXVII. Nel quale se contiene uarie e diuerse
+ ribellione de cipta e castelli de la predicta guerra del
+ Reame.
+
+ CAP. XXVIII. De la correria del Aquila a la citta,
+ et la expugnatione de Albi.
+
+
+ LIBRO OTTAVO.
+
+ CAP. XXIX. Nel quale se contiene le predicte
+ guerre del Reame, et molti expugnatione de castelli, et
+ lo assedio famossissimo de Casteluccio, et la uenuta del
+ Signori chi erano in Abruzo per la sua liberatione.
+
+ CAP. XXX. De la oratione fatta a li militi del
+ Conte, et la expugnatione di Castellucio.
+
+ CAP. XXXI. Dele preditte guerre del Reame e dela
+ rotta del S. Napolione inela la Marca.
+
+
+ LIBRO NONO.
+
+ CAP. XXXII. Nel quale se contiene la rotta che
+ dette el Conte al S. Sigismondo ha Senegaglia.
+
+ CAP. XXXIII. Del preditto fatto d'arme.
+
+ CAP. XXXIV. De la preditta guerra contra el S.
+ Sigismondo, et lo aquisto de diverse sue terre.
+
+ CAP. XXXV. De la preditta guerra contra el S.
+ Sigismondo, et la industriosa expugnatione de la Rocha de
+ Veruchio, et la assedio di Fano.
+
+ CAP. XXXVI. Del medesimo assedio di Fano, et la
+ uictoria di quello.
+
+
+ LIBRO DECIMO.
+
+ CAP. XXXVII. Nel quale se contiene l'ultima ruina
+ del S. Sigismondo, landata del Papa Pio in Ancona et la sua
+ morte, la creatione de Paulo II., la ruina del stato de
+ Deifobo da l'Auguilara, et la guerra de Cesena, da poi la
+ morte del S Malatesta.
+
+ CAP. XXXVIII. De la uictoria de Cesena la morte
+ del Duca Francesco [Sforza] et l'andata del Conte ha Milano.
+
+
+ LIBRO UNDECIMO.
+
+ CAP. XXXIX. Nel quale se contiene la nouita de
+ Fiorenza nel sesanta sei, et la guerra de Romagna per
+ Bartholomeo da Bergamo.
+
+ CAP. XL. De la preditta guerra de Romagna.
+
+ CAP. XLI. Oratione del Conte a li suoi militi
+ nante el fatto d'arme de la Mulinella.
+
+ CAP. XLII. Del bellissimo fatto d'arme fra
+ Bartholomeo, el Conte a la Mulinella.
+
+ CAP. XLIII. Del preditto fatto d'arme de la
+ Mulinella.
+
+ CAP. XLIV. De la preditta guerra, e 'l sachegiare
+ el Conte alle del Amone.
+
+
+ LIBRO DUODECIMO.
+
+ CAP. XLV. Nel quale se contiene la guerra et lo
+ assedio de Arimino per Papa Paulo.
+
+ CAP. XLVI. Del preditto assedio de Arimino, et una
+ proua mirabile del S. Roberto.
+
+ CAP. XLVII. De la preditta guerra, e una alto
+ pensiero del Conte per la liberatione de Arimino.[322]
+
+ [Footnote 322: This chapter being numbered XLVI. by mistake
+ in the original, the subsequent numbers here given are
+ always in advance by _one_ until Cap. LXXIII.]
+
+ CAP. XLVIII. De la preditta guerra, e locutione
+ del Conte ali militi nante el fatto, d'arme da Ceresuolo.
+
+ CAP. XLIX. De la uenuta de le gente de la Chiesa a
+ trouare el Conte.
+
+ CAP. L. Del bellissimo fatto d'arme da Cerisuolo.
+
+ CAP. LI. Del preditto fatto d'arme de Cerisuolo.
+
+ CAP. LII. Dela rotta dele gente de la Chiesa a
+ Cerisuolo.
+
+ CAP. LIII. Del fine de la guerra di Arimino.
+
+
+ LIBRO DECIMO TERZO.
+
+ CAP. LIV. Nel quale se tratta la rebellione de
+ Volterra contra Fiorentini, et l'andata del Conte per
+ campegiarla.
+
+ CAP. LV. Del campegiare de Volterra.
+
+ CAP. LVI. Del sacho de Volterra.
+
+ CAP. LVII. Dela tornata del Conte a casa, et dela
+ morte dela excellentissima donna sua, Madonna Baptista
+ Sforza.
+
+
+ LIBRO DECIMO QUARTO.
+
+ CAP. LVIII. Nel quale se contiene le fabriche et
+ magni hedificii che fea murare el Conte, et inparte la sua
+ uita altempo di pace.
+
+ CAP. LIX. Delo istudio del Conte, et dela venuta
+ del Cardinale de Samsixto ad Ogobio.
+
+
+ LIBRO DECIMO QUINTO.
+
+ CAP. LX. In questo se contiene l'andata del Conte
+ ha Napoli, et molti honori et dignita quale habbe in quella
+ andata.
+
+ CAP. LXI. Et quale tratta como el Conte fu fatto
+ Duca de Urbino, et delo assedio dela cipta de Castello.
+
+ CAP. LXII. De varie turbulentie, et precipue de
+ Romagna.
+
+
+ LIBRO DECIMO SESTO.
+
+ CAP. XLIII. Nel quale se contiene la venuta delo
+ Re Ferrante a Roma, l'andata del Duca, et la dignita de la
+ Galatera.
+
+ CAP. LXIV. Como el Duca receue la Galatea, et de
+ la morte del Duca Galeazo Duca de Milano.
+
+ CAP. LXV. Del luoco, et como, el di che fu morto
+ el preditto Duca Galeazo Maria.
+
+ CAP. LXVI. Discurso de la dubia uita de Signori et
+ de grani ciptadini.
+
+
+ LIBRO DECIMO SETTIMO.
+
+ CAP. LXVII. Nel quale se contiene la tornata del
+ Conte Carlo [Braccio] a Montone, le nouita de Penisia per
+ la sua uenuta, et landata che lui fea contra Senesi.
+
+ CAP. LXVIII. Del andare el Conte a campo a
+ Montone, et la expugnatione de esso Montone.
+
+
+ LIBRO DECIMO OCTAVO.
+
+ CAP. LXIX. Nel qual se contiene como el Signor
+ Carlo Manfredi fu chaciato de Faenza da el fratello
+ chiamato el Signor Galeotto; la mossa che fece el Conte in
+ suo favore, et como nel tornare adrieto essendo a Sanmarino
+ se ruppe uno piede.
+
+ CAP. LXX. Del modo et conmo el Duca se ruppe
+ el piede, et de la grauissima sua egritudine et de la
+ conjuratione contra li Medici in Fiorenza.
+
+ CAP. LXXI. De lo insulto contra de Laurentio de
+ Medici, et de la morte del suo fratello Giuliano.
+
+ CAP. LXXII. De la destrutione de la casa de
+ Pazzi, et del principio de la guerra de Toscano nel
+ MCCCLXXVIII.
+
+
+ LIBRO DECIMO NONO.
+
+ CAP. LXXIII.[323] Nel quale se tratta el primo
+ anno dela guerra di Toscana.
+
+ [Footnote 323: This chapter, being omitted in the original
+ numeration, the subsequent five numbers are in advance by
+ _two_.]
+
+ CAP. LXXIV. Dela unione che fece insieme el Duca
+ Alfonso Duca di Calabria, el Duca de Urbino.
+
+ CAP. LXXV. Delo assedio del Monte Samsavino, et
+ dele dificulta che il Duca ui sostinne.
+
+ CAP. LXXVI. Oratione lunga del Duca ali militi al
+ Monte Samsavino.
+
+ CAP. LXXVII. Dela preditta oratione.
+
+ CAP. LXXVIII. Del astutia che uso el Duca per
+ hauere la triegua al Monte Samsavino.
+
+ CAP. LXXIX. Dela proposta del Duca dela triegua
+ ali Signori del Campo, et dela expugnatione del Monte.[324]
+
+ [Footnote 324: This chapter being omitted in the original
+ numeration, the subsequent numbers are in advance by
+ _three_ until No. XCVII.]
+
+
+ LIBRO VIGESIMO.
+
+ CAP. LXXX. Nel quale se contiene el secondo anno
+ dela guerra de Toscana.
+
+ CAP. LXXXI. De diuersi danni de Perusini, et dela
+ morte del Conte Carlo, e altre cose.
+
+ CAP. LXXXII. Dela ruina de Casole, luoco de
+ Senesi, et dela uitoria del Signor Roberto ala Magione.
+
+ CAP. LXXXIII. De molti danni de Perusini per
+ el Signor Roberto, et l'aquisto per el Duca del Monte
+ Inperiale.
+
+ CAP. LXXXIV. De liberarse li Perusini dali danni
+ de Signor Roberto et delo assedio di Colle.
+
+ CAP. LXXXV. Del predicto assedio di Colle.
+
+ CAP. LXXXVI. Dela battaglia prima data ha Colle.
+
+ CAP. LXXXVII. De poi piu baptaglie data ha Colle,
+ et la uictoria hauta di lui.
+
+ CAP. LXXXVIII. De l'andata di Lorenzo di Medici a
+ Napoli, et la pace cum Fiorentini del Papa et del Re.
+
+
+ LIBRO VIGESIMO PRIMO.
+
+ CAP. LXXXIX. Dela stantia del Duca a Viterbo, et
+ dela dignita del Capello et dela Spada.
+
+ CAP. XC. Delo aquisto de Furli per et Conte
+ Geronimo Riario, et prima del andata del Duca.
+
+ CAP. XCI. Dela uictoria di Furli, et la
+ possessione de esso per el preditto Conte, et la uenuta de
+ Turchi a Otranto.
+
+ CAP. XCII. De la guerra de Turchi in Puglia.
+
+
+ LIBRO VIGESIMO SECONDO.
+
+ CAP. XCIII. Nel quale se contiene la guerra de
+ Ferrara per li Venetiani contra del Duca Ercule di Este,
+ et prima dela practica de essa guerra, l'andata del Conte
+ Geronimo a Vinesa.
+
+ CAP. XCIV. Dela preditta guerra de Ferara, et
+ landata del Signor Roberto da Santo Seuerino a Vinesa.
+
+ CAP. XCV. Dela partita del Duca da Urbino per
+ andare a Milano, e una disputa dela pictura.
+
+ CAP. XCVI. Dela ditta guerra de Ferrara, et dello
+ assedio de Figaruolo.
+
+ CAP. XCVII.[325] Del preditto assedio de
+ Figaruolo, le turbulentie de Roma, l'andata del Signor
+ Roberto Malatesta.
+
+ [Footnote 325: This number being repeated by mistake in the
+ original, the subsequent numbers are in advance by _two_.]
+
+ CAP. XCVIII. Del ditto assedio de Figaruolo, e
+ de la morte de Messer Pier deli Ubaldini al bastione dala
+ Punta.
+
+ CAP. XCIX. Dela aspre battaglie quale deva el
+ Signor Roberto da Santo Seuerino a Figaruolo.
+
+ CAP. C. Como el Signor Roberto da poi molte
+ baptaglie vinse Figaruolo.
+
+
+ LIBRO VIGESIMO TERZO.
+
+ CAP. CI. Nel quale se contiene el ponte che fece
+ el Signore Roberto per passare el Po, la rotta del Duca di
+ Callabria a Campomorto.
+
+ CAP. CII. Como se parti da Castello le gente
+ Feltresche, et andaro a Furli.
+
+ CAP. CIII. Dela egritudine del Duca, et la uenuta
+ sua in Ferrara.
+
+ CAP. CIV. Dela morte del Duca, et del Signore
+ Roberto Malatesta.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX IV
+
+(Page 138)
+
+EPITAPH OF GIOVANNI DELLA ROVERE
+
+
+The inscription upon the humble headstone of the sovereigns of
+Sinigaglia in the nave of Sta. Maria delle Grazie, runs thus:--
+
+ D.O.M.
+
+ JOHANNES DE RUVERE,
+
+ Senogalliæ vetustissimæ civitatis
+ Dominus, Almæ urbis Prefectus,
+ Sori Arcanæque Dux, exercituum Sixti
+ Quarti, Innocentii Octavi, summus Imperator,
+ Maximorum Pontificium Sixti nepos,
+ Julii Secundi frater, cum uxore suâ
+ Joannâ Monfeltriâ, Federici Urbini
+ Ducis filiâ, præstantioribus
+ Et nobilioribus feminis, adversis
+ Secundisque rebus, conferendâ et
+ Preferendâ, magnum hoc templum
+ Affundamentis erexit; et multis
+ Egregiis tam bello quam pace actis,
+ Procaci abreptus morte,
+ Anno Domini MDI.,
+ Ætatisque suæ quadragesimo quarto,
+ Hic tumulatur.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX V
+
+(Page 348)
+
+REMISSION AND REHABILITATION OF DUKE FRANCESCO MARIA I. IN 1511-13.
+
+
+Having no wish to overload these pages with a papal bull, either in
+its barbarous Latinity or in a crabbed translation, we shall content
+ourselves with abbreviating the formal record of the investigation
+and sentence of absolution, dated the 9th of December, 1511, by
+which the Duke of Urbino was acquitted of the slaughter of the
+Cardinal of Pavia. Julius, in that document, sets forth that, after
+reducing Bologna to obedience of the Church, he placed over it
+the Cardinal as legate, who ungratefully betrayed his duty to the
+Pope and the Church by secretly plotting for restoration of the
+Bentivoglii, and for defeat of the army under command of the Duke,
+as well as by withdrawing to Ravenna on pretext of terror, but in
+fact to conceal his treason. That having, by these and many other
+enormities, incurred the guilt of treason and lèse-majesty, he was
+slain by Francesco Maria; and that, on a complaint of this outrage
+being preferred, his Holiness, judging from the first aspect of the
+affair that this crime against the dignity of the purple afforded so
+pernicious an example, and such general horror and scandal abroad, as
+to require an impartial inquiry, had remitted it to six cardinals,
+in order to make sifting inquest into the matter, receiving secret
+oral testimony, without reference to the ties of blood, but with
+ample powers, judicial and extra-judicial, to carry out the process
+to its conclusion, and to pronounce sentence therein. And the
+apostolic procurator-fiscal having appeared to support the charges,
+required the Duke's committal to prison ere he should be allowed
+to plead, in order to secure the due course of justice against any
+elusory proceedings; whereupon he was put under arrest in his own
+house, and bound over to appear in the sum of 100,000 golden ducats.
+Thereafter, the judges having taken evidence and published it, the
+Pope advocated the cause and pronounced an acquittal, which the
+Duke refused to accept, insisting that the prosecution should take
+its course, and returning under arrest until it should do so. This
+having been proceeded with, the cardinals gave sentence, acquitting
+him "of the said charge of homicide, and the punishment it legally
+inferred," and debarring all future action thereanent at the public
+prosecutor's instance. Whereupon Julius embodied this narrative in
+a bull subscribed by eighteen cardinals, and formally guaranteed by
+the amplest authority, as a protection to Francesco Maria against any
+future question affecting his tranquillity and status.[326]
+
+[Footnote 326: The notorial transumpt of this bull, verified in 1516
+by three notaries in presence of the municipality of Urbino, is
+preserved in the Archivio Diplomatico at Florence, and the preceding
+abridgment was made from an authenticated extract obtained by me
+there in 1845. In the same archives there is another formal acquittal
+to the like purpose, which it is needless to quote.]
+
+The remission of the Duke's subsequent misconduct was contained in
+a papal brief of the 10th of January, 1513, addressed to himself,
+wherein it was stated that he had been accused by many of maintaining
+intelligence with the King of France before the battle of Ravenna,
+and of other intrigues against the Roman Government, as well as of
+various crimes, including slaughter of cardinals and lèse-majesty,
+and that he had in consequence been deprived of his dukedom and
+dignities; but that having experienced his zeal and good faith in
+the like matters, the Pontiff could not persuade himself of his
+guilt, for which reason he, _ex motu proprio_, granted to him and his
+adherents plenary remission from all spiritual and temporal censures
+and sentences incurred therein, and restored him to all his honours
+and dignities. The entire wording of this document, the original of
+which is preserved along with the bull just quoted, shows a studious
+exactitude and elaboration of terms, so as to guard it against
+future question; but, considering its importance with reference to
+the prosecution subsequently mooted against the Duke by Leo X., it
+may be well here to give the _ipsissima verba_ of the remission
+clauses. The brief is addressed, but has no counter-signature; a
+transumpt of it in the same archive has the name "Baldassar Tuerdus"
+as a counter-signature.
+
+"Motu proprio, et ex certâ nostrâ scientiâ ac maturâ deliberatione,
+et apostolice potestatis plenitudine, apostolicâ auctoritate, tenore
+presentium, tibi et illis plenarie remittimus pariter et indulgemus,
+teque ac illos, et illorum singulos, ab omnibus sententiis censuris
+et penis quibuslibet, spiritualibus et temporalibus, a jure vel ab
+homine quomodolibet promulgatis, auctoritate scientiâ et potestate
+predictis, absolvimus et liberamus, ac te tuosque filios, natos et
+nascituros ac heredes quoscunque, ad Vicariatum, Ducatum, Comitatus,
+teque ac subditos, adherentes, complices ac sequaces, ac singulorum
+eorundem heredes, ad feuda, dominia, honores et dignitates, offitia,
+privelegia, bona ac jura, ac ad actus legitimos, quibus forsan
+premissorum, et aliâ quâcunque occasione, etiam de necessitate
+experimendâ privati, censeri possetis, auctoritate scientiâ et
+potestate premissis restituimus, et etiam reintegramus, et ad eundem
+statum reducimus et reponimus, in quo tu et illi eratis ante tempus
+quo premissa commisissetis; districtius inhibentes quibuscunque
+officialibus nostris, et dicte Ecclesie, qui sunt et pro tempore
+erunt, ne contra te et subditos, adherentes, complices et sequaces,
+aut aliquem vestrum, occasione hujusmodi criminum possint procedere,
+aut occasione premissorum te vel illos, aut aliquem eorum, molestare
+quoquo modo presumant; ac decernentes ex nunc irritum et inane
+quicquid ac quoscunque processus et sententias, quos seu quas
+contra inhibitionem nostram hujusmodi haberi contigerit, seu etiam
+promulgari."
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX VI
+
+(Page 392)
+
+LETTER FROM CARDINAL WOLSEY TO LORENZO DE' MEDICI
+
+
+The following letter has been lately printed by the Marchese Caponi,
+in the _Archivio Storico Italiano_, vol. I., p. 472, from the
+original in his possession:--
+
+ To the most illustrious and most excellent Prince our Lord
+ Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, dear to us as a brother.
+
+ Most illustrious and most excellent Lord Duke, dear to us
+ as a brother,
+
+ The Signor Adriano, your Excellency's servant, has
+ delivered your most courteous and kind letters addressed
+ to us, on eagerly perusing which we recognised with great
+ satisfaction your Excellency's friendly dispositions in
+ our behalf. We have in consequence received the said
+ Signor Adriano with the greatest possible civility, and
+ have freely offered and promised him our every favour and
+ support in all places and circumstances. Having learned
+ that your Excellency takes no small pleasure in dogs,
+ we now send you by your said servant some blood-hounds
+ [_odorissequos_], and also several stag-hounds of uncommon
+ fleetness, and of singular strength in pulling down their
+ game. And we farther specially beg of you to let us know if
+ there be anything else in this famed kingdom that you would
+ wish; and should you in future boldly make use in your
+ affairs of my assistance, good-will, and influence, such as
+ it is, whether with his Majesty my sovereign, who is most
+ favourably disposed towards you, or with any other person
+ whatsoever, you will find me willing and ready to oblige
+ you. May you be preserved in happiness. From our palace in
+ London, the 28th of June, 1518.
+
+ As your Excellency's brother,
+
+ T. CARDINAL OF YORK.
+
+
+END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
+
+
+
+
+GENEALOGICAL TABLES
+
+[Transcriber's Note: In the original genealogical tables, natural
+children are denoted by a wavy line, here represented by the !
+symbol.]
+
+
+
+
+DESCENT OF THE DELLA ROVERE DUKES OF URBINO.
+
+
+ LUDOVICO LEONARDO = LUCHINA STELLA MUGLIONE.
+ DELLA ROVERE. |
+ |
+ _____________|________________________________________________
+ | | | |
+ FRANCESCO DELLA ROVERE, RAFFAELE = TEODORA ---- = GIOVANNI JOLANDA | GIROLAMO
+ POPE SIXTUS IV., | MENEROLA. | BASSO, RIARIO.
+ b. 1414, d. 1484. | | d. 1483.
+ | |
+ _______________________________| |
+ | |
+ | __________________________________________|________
+ | | | | | | 1476.
+ | GIROLAMO, FRANCESCO, BARTOLOMEO. GUGLIELMO, ANTONIO = CATERINA
+ | Cardinal, of Prior of d. 1482. MARCIANA,
+ | S. Chrisogono, Pisa. niece of
+ | d. 1507. Ferdinand
+ | of Naples.
+ |_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
+ | | | | 1474. |
+ BARTOLOMEO, GIULIANO DELLA ROVERE, LEONARDO, Duke = GIOVANNA, GIOVANNI, Prefect = GIOVANNA DI GABRIELE GARA = LUCHINA = G. FRANCESCO
+ Patriarch POPE JULIUS II., of Sora, | nat. daughter of Rome, Lord of | MONTEFELTRO, DELLA ROVERE. | | FRANCIOTTI,
+ of Antioch. b. 1453, d. 1513. Prefect of | of Ferdinand Sinigaglia, | of Urbino, | | DELLA ROVERE,
+ ! Rome, d. 1475. | of Naples, b. 1458, d. 1501. | d. 1514. | | of Lucca.
+ ! | Duchess of | | |
+ ! | Sora. | | |
+ ! | | | |
+ ! S.P. | | |
+ __________________! _____________________________________________________________| | |
+ ! | | |
+ ! | _____________________________________________________________________________________| |
+ ! | | | | |
+ ! | RAFFAELE. SISTO, Cardinal GERAUD | SISTA = GALEAZZO _______________________________________|
+ ! | of S. Pietro D'ANCEZUN, RIARIO. | | |
+ ! | in Vincula, d. 1503. | | |
+ ! | d. 1577. GALEOTTO, Cardinal NICOLÒ = ---- LUCREZIA = MARCANTONIO
+ ! |______________________________________________________ of S. Pietro in | COLONNA.
+ ! | Vincula. |
+ !_______________________________________________________________________ | |
+ | 1 2 | | | | ___________________|
+ RAFFAELE, = NICOLOSA = ANTONIO FELICE = GIAN-GIORDANO GIULIA. CLARICE. | | | 1541.
+ d. 1502. FOGLIANO, DELLA ROVERE. ORSINI, of | GUIDO. LAVINIA = PAOLO ORSINI.
+ of Fermo. Bracciano. |
+ _____________________________________________________________________________|__________________
+ | | 1509. 1497. | 2 | |
+ FEDERIGO, FRANCESCO MARIA I., = LEONORA IPPOLITA, VENANZIO = MARIA = GALEAZZO COSTANZA, DEODATA.
+ died young. DUKE OF URBINO, | d. of Francesco VARANA, R. SFORZA. d. 1507.
+ b. 1490, d. 1538. | Marquis of Mantua, d. 1503.
+ | d. 1543.
+ |
+ _____________________________|_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
+ | 1534. | 1548. | 1547. | 1548. | 1552. |
+ FEDERIGO, GIULIA VARANA, = GUIDOBALDO II. = VITTORIA FARNESE, IPPOLITA = DON ANTONIO GIULIA = ALFONSO D'ESTE, ELISABETTA, = ALBERICO CIBÒ, GIULIO, Cardinal
+ died young. d. of Giovanni | DUKE OF URBINO, | d. of Pier-Luigi, D'ARAGONA § Marq. of d. 1561. § Marquis of Archbishop of
+ Maria, Duke of | b. 1514, | Duke of Parma, DI MONTALTO. Montecchio, of Massa. Urbino, 1533,
+ Camerino, | d. 1574. | d. 1602. whom the Dukes d. 1578.
+ b. 1523, | ! | of Modena. !
+ d. 1547. | ! |_______________________________________________________________________________________________________ !
+ | !____________________ | | | !______________
+ _________________________| ! | | | !
+ | 1560. | ! 1570. | 1599. | 1565. | 1583. !
+ A son. COUNT FEDERIGO = VIRGINIA = FERDINANDO ORSINI, ! LUCREZIA D'ESTE, = FRANCESCO MARIA II., = LIVIA DELLA ROVERE, ISABELLA = BERN. DI S. LAVINIA = ALFONSO !
+ BORROMEO, S.P. Duke of Gravina. ! d. of Ercole II., | DUKE OF URBINO, | d. of Marquis of S. SEVERINO, d. 1632. D'AVALOS, !
+ brother of ! Duke of Ferrara, | b. 1549 + 1631. | Lorenzo, b. 1585. Prince of Marq. of !
+ S. Carlo. ! b. 1536, | | Basignano. Pescara. !
+ ! d. 1598. S.P. | !
+ _________________________________________________! | _________________________________________!
+ | | | | |
+ | { 1. COUNT ANTONIO A daughter = SIGNOR GUIDOBALDO | IPPOLITO, Marq. = ISABELLA VITELLI GIULIANO,
+ A daughter = { LANDRIANO. RENIER. | of S. Lorenzo. | DELL'AMATRICE. Abbot of
+ { 2. SIGNOR P. ANTONIO | | S. Lorenzo.
+ { DA LUNA. | ______________________________|__________
+ | | | 1599. |
+ _______________________________________________| GIULIO. LIVIA, = FRANCESCO MARIA II., LUCREZIA = MARCANTONIO,
+ | 1621. b. 1585. DUKE OF URBINO. Marq. Lante.
+ FEDERIGO-UBALDO, = CLAUDIA DE' MEDICI, = ARCHDUKE LEOPOLD
+ b. 1605, d. 1623. | b. 1606, d. of of Austria.
+ | Ferdinand I.,
+ | Grand Duke of
+ | of Florence.
+ |
+ | 1637.
+ VITTORIA, = FERDINAND II., Grand
+ b. 1622, § Duke of Florence,
+ d. 1694. b. 1630, d. 1670.
+
+
+
+
+DESCENT OF THE MEDICI, as connected with URBINO.
+
+_From Les Généaologies Souveraines._
+
+
+ GIOVANNI DE' MEDICI
+ 5th from Lippo de' M. of
+ Florence who d. 1258,
+ d. 1428.
+ |
+ _____|_____________________
+ | |
+ COSIMO DE' M., = CONTESINA LORENZO DE' M., = GINEVRA
+ _Pater Patriæ_, | DE' BARDI. d. 1440. | CAVALCANTI.
+ d. 1464. | |
+ | |
+ PIETRO DE' M., = LUCREZIA PIER-FRANCESCO = LAUDAMIA
+ d. 1472. | TORNABONI. DE' M., | ACCIAJOLI.
+ | d. 1477. |__________________________________________________
+ ______________________|__________________________ |
+ | | | |
+ LORENZO DE' M., = CLARICE BIANCA = GUGLIELMO GIULIANO |
+ _the Magnificent_, | ORSINI. DE' PAZZI. DE' M., |
+ d. 1492. | d. 1478. |
+ | ! |
+ | GIULIO DE' M., |
+ | CLEMENT VII., |
+ | d. 1535. |
+ _______________|_____________________________________________________________ |
+ | | | | |
+ PIETRO DE' M., = ALFONSINA GIOVANNI DE' M., GIULIANO DE' M., = FILIBERTA, MADDALENA = FRANCESCO CIBÒ, |
+ d. 1504. | ORSINI. LEO X., d. 1521. _the Magnificent_, of Savoy. Count of |
+ | Duke de Nemours, Anguillara. |
+ | d. 1516. |
+ LORENZO DE' M., = MADELEINE ! _________________________________________|
+ Duke of Urbino, | DE LA TOUR. ! |
+ d. 1519. | IPPOLITO DE' M., |
+ ! | Cardinal, |
+ ! | d. 1535. |
+ ! | |
+ ! CATERINA DE' M., = HENRY II. |
+ ! d. 1589. of France. |
+ ! |
+ ALESSANDRO DE' M., = MARGARETTA OF AUSTRIA, |
+ Duke of Florence, bastard of Charles V. |
+ d. 1537. |
+ ____________________________________________________________|
+ |
+ GIOVANNI GIORDANO = CATERINA RIARIO SFORZA,
+ DE' M. | of Imola.
+ |
+ GIOVANNI DE' M., = MARIA SALVIATI.
+ _delle bande nere_, |
+ d. 1526. |
+ |
+ COSIMO I. DE' M., = ELEONORA DI TOLEDO.
+ GRAND DUKE |
+ OF FLORENCE, |
+ d. 1574. |
+ |
+ _____________________|_____________
+ | |
+ JOANNA, of = FRANCESCO MARIA DE' M., = BIANCA FERDINAND II. DE' M., = CHRISTINE
+ Austria. GRAND DUKE OF FLORENCE, CAPELLO. GRAND DUKE OF FLORENCE, | DE LORAINE.
+ d. 1587. d. 1608. |
+ _______________________________________________________________|
+ | 1 | 2
+ COSIMO II. DE' M., = MARIA MADDALENA, FEDERIGO, Prince = CLAUDIA = ARCHDUKE LEOPOLD,
+ GRAND DUKE OF of Austria. of Urbino, | of Austria.
+ FLORENCE, d. 1621. d. 1623. |
+ |
+ FERDINAND II. DE' MEDICI, = VITTORIA DELLA ROVERE,
+ GRAND DUKE OF FLORENCE, § Princess of Urbino.
+ d. 1670.
+
+
+
+
+DESCENT OF THE COLONNA, as connected with URBINO.
+
+
+ AGAPITO, eleventh in descent = CATERINA CONTI.
+ from Pietro Colonna, |
+ who lived in 1100. |
+ ____________________|_________
+ | |
+ ODDO, elected MARTIN V. LORENZO ONOFRIO = SUEVA GAETANI
+ in 1407, d. 1431. | DA FONDI.
+ ____________________________________________|_________________
+ | | |
+ ODOARDO, Duke = FILIPPA CONTI. ANTONIO, Duke of = IMPERIALE CATERINA = GUIDANTONIO,
+ of Marsi. | Paliano, d. 1471. | COLONNA. d. 1438. § Count of
+ | | Urbino.
+ __________|______ |
+ | | |
+ LORENZO ODDONE, FABRIZIO, Grand = AGNESE DI |
+ d. 1484. Constable of | MONTEFELTRO, |
+ | Naples, d. 1520. | d. 1522. |
+ | ! | |
+ MUZIO, ! | |
+ d. 1516. SCIARRA. | |
+ | |
+ ______________________________| |_______
+ | | |
+ ASCANIO, Grand = GIOVANNA VITTORIA, = FERDINANDO, |
+ Constable of § D'ARAGONA, b. 1490, Fr. Marquis |
+ Naples, claimant natural d. 1548. of Pescara, |
+ of Urbino, branch of d. 1525. |
+ d. 1557. the Crown |
+ of Naples. |
+ ______________________________________________________|
+ | | | |
+ GIROLAMO = VITTORIA CARDINAL PIER = BERNARDINA PROSPERO,
+ | CONTI. GIOVANNI, ANTONIO. | CONTI. d. 1523.
+ | d. 1508. |____
+ _____|_________________________ |
+ | | | | |
+ CARDINAL OTTAVIANO. MARCELLO. GIULIO. MARC ANTONIO = LUCREZIA
+ POMPEO, | | GARA DELLA
+ d. 1532. | | ROVERE.
+ | |
+ MARZIO, OTTAVIA = SIGISMONDO
+ d. 1546. VARANA,
+ d. 1522.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44235 ***
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