The Book of the Courtier, by Count Baldesar Castiglione

Note 262 page 144. Agostino Bevazzano or Beazzano, (flor. 1500-1550), was born at Treviso, near Venice, of which republic his ancestor Francesco had been chancellor in the 15th century. His own portrait hung in the Grand Council Chamber at Venice. He lived some time in Venice, but in 1514 he was employed as secretary by Bembo and sent to Leo X at Rome, where he resided chiefly until 1526. Besides being a noted writer of Italian and Latin verse, he acquired great skill in public affairs and came to be regarded as an oracle at the papal court. Late in life he was painfully afflicted with gout, and passed the last years of his life at Verona and at Treviso, where he died and was buried in the cathedral.

Note 263 page 145. The Marquess Federico Gonzaga of Mantua, (born 1440; died 1484), was the son of the Marquess Ludovico and Barbara of Brandenburg, and married Margarita, daughter of Duke Albert III of Bavaria. His family attained sovereign power at Mantua in 1354 and continued to exercise it for nearly four centuries. Having succeeded to the marquisate on the death of his father in 1478, he expelled from Italy the Swiss who were besieging Lugano, joined the Milanese in a league against the pope in 1479, and in 1482 joined another league against Venice. He is said to have committed suicide.

Note 264 page 145. Niccolò Leonico Tomeo, (born 1456; died 1531), was a native of Venice, and belonged to an Albanian family. He studied Greek under Chalcondylas at Florence, and for many years taught philosophy at Padua, being the first Italian to expound Aristotle from the original text. He wrote philosophical and moral dialogues and also some Italian verse. His friend Bembo wrote of him: “An illustrious philosopher both in life and learning, equally versed in Latin and Greek, wherein he lived and dwelt, leaving ambition and thirst for riches to others.” He was also a wit.

Note 265 page 145. Agostino Foglietta, (died 1527), was a Genoese nobleman, who exercised great authority at Rome under Leo X and Clement VII. He was a warm friend of Castiglione, who received cordial aid from him in the efforts that were made on behalf of Francesco Maria della Rovere. He was slain in the sack of Rome by a shot from an arquebuse. In other MS. versions of The Courtier the names of Fedra (Tommaso Inghirami) and Antonio di Tommaso appear in place of Foglietta’s.

Note 266 page 146. Giovanni di Cardona was a Spanish soldier in the service of the “Great Captain” and of Cesare Borgia. He had a brother Ugo (mentioned at page 147, see note 271) and another brother Pedro, who was Count of Gosilano. Giovanni seems to have fallen at the battle of Ravenna in 1512.

Note 267 page 146. Of Alfonso Santacroce nothing more is known than is contained in this mention of him in the text.

Note 268 page 146. Francesco Alidosi, Cardinal of Pavia, (died 1511), was descended from the Lords of Imola, being the second son of the Lord of Castel del Rio. Having been educated for the Church, he attached himself to Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, whose lasting gratitude he won by steadfastly refusing to poison the cardinal at the desire of Alexander VI. On the accession of Julius II, he was rapidly promoted in spite of the objections raised in the consistory on the score of his questionable character. He was made Bishop of Miletus, Bishop of Pavia, a cardinal (1505), Legate of the Patrimony, Legate of Romagna, and Archbishop of Bologna. In these offices he proved violently tyrannical and a ruthless and bloody persecutor, especially of the Bolognese partisans of the Bentivogli; so that the city rose against him in 1511 and drove him out. His assassination by young Francesco Maria della Rovere has been already mentioned (see note 3). The odium connected with his name finds an echo also in another passage in the text, page 151.

Note 269 page 146. Alfonso I of Naples, (born 1385; died 1458), succeeded his father Ferdinand the Just as King of Aragon and Sicily in 1416, and in 1435 managed to enforce against René of Provence his double claim to Naples, based upon his descent from the former Hohenstauffen rulers of that kingdom, and also upon his adoption as heir by the last Angevin queen of Naples. Scholarly, enlightened, generous and benevolent, he was the ideal type of royal Mæcenas and the hero of his century. He often went afoot and alone about his capital, saying that “a father, walking amid his children, has naught to fear.” On one occasion when a galley full of soldiers and sailors was about to sink, and the men he had ordered to their rescue were hesitating, he leaped into a skiff, crying, “I prefer to be the companion rather than a spectator of their death.” When Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turks in 1453, he welcomed learned refugees to his capital; his court was a meeting-place for the savants of his time; and even when engaged in war, his captains might be seen gathered near their king, listening to his exposition of Livy instead of wasting their leisure at games of chance. He was noted also for his gentle disposition and merry humour and seems to have deserved his title of “the Magnanimous.”

Note 270 page 147. The battle of Cerignola (a town in Apulia near Cannæ, the scene of one of Hannibal’s victories) was fought 28 April 1503, between the Spanish army under the “Great Captain” and the French forces of Louis XII, and resulted in the defeat of the latter with the loss of more than half their men.

Note 271 page 147. Ugo di Cardona, a brother of the Giovanni already mentioned, was a Spanish soldier who fought under Cesare Borgia and the “Great Captain,” and was killed by the hand of Francis I at the battle of Pavia in 1525.

Note 272 page 147. This is a corruption of the name of St. Erasmus, a Syrian bishop who suffered martyrdom about 304, and became a favourite saint among the sailors on the Mediterranean. His name is given to certain electrical phenomena often seen at sea and on land also.

Note 273 page 147. Ottaviano Ubaldini, (died 1498), was the son of a famous condottiere, Bernardino Ubaldini, and Aura di Montefeltro, a sister of Duke Federico. His father having died in 1437, he was bred at the court of Urbino and became the trusted counsellor of his uncle Federico, who left to him the guardianship of the young duke, Guidobaldo. To personal valour and address in statecraft he united (if we may trust the rhymed chronicle of Raphael’s father) a knowledge of classic literature, and a taste for music and the other fine arts. He is known to have been a zealous cultivator of astrology. By some writers Duke Federico (the circumstances of whose birth were not free from mystery) was believed to have been an Ubaldini, and this Ottaviano was openly regarded as his brother.

Note 274 page 147. Antonello da Forli was a soldier of fortune who died before May 1488, and of whom little seems to be known apart from this anecdote. It is found also in two other books, where the witty Florentine is named as Cosimo de’ Medici.

Note 275 page 147. San Leo was a fortress perched on an almost inaccessible crag eighteen miles north-west of Urbino. It is mentioned by Dante (Purgatorio, iv, 25) and also by Machiavelli (Art of War, iv) as a place of great natural strength. When in the spring of 1502 Cesare Borgia disclosed his hostile designs against Duke Guidobaldo, the latter, knowing that he could not hold out at Urbino, retired to San Leo, but soon afterwards fled in the garb of a peasant, and the castle was surrendered. In the same year, however, it was recaptured by stratagem. In the spring of 1503 it was besieged by the adherents of Borgia, and bravely defended for six months by Ottaviano Fregoso and the castellan Lattanzio da Bergamo (referred to in the text), in the hope of succour from Guidobaldo, who had taken refuge at Venice. Cian says that the place at last fell and was not again recovered by Guidobaldo until after the death of Alexander VI. On the other hand Dennistoun (ii, 13) asserts that by a reinforcement of twenty-five men the castle was enabled to hold out until Guidobaldo’s restoration; he assigns the incident in the text to the first capture (1502), gives the name of the castellan as Scarmiglione da Foglino, and affirms that the surrender was treacherous.

Note 276 page 147. Duke Valentino, i.e. Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valentinois, (born 1478; died 1507), was an openly acknowledged son of Cardinal Roderigo Borgia (afterwards Alexander VI) by Rosa Vanozza, who was the mother also of Cesare’s sister Lucrezia. Created a cardinal on his father’s accession, he procured the murder of his brother Giovanni in 1497, resigned his cardinalate the same year, was given the French duchy of Valentinois in 1498, and married Charlotte d’Albret, daughter of the King of Navarre, in 1499. Having been created Duke of Romagna by his father in 1501, he proceeded to reduce the various fiefs comprised within his intended domain, including the duchy of Urbino. After the death of Alexander VI, Cesare was held in captivity by Julius II and by Ferdinand the Catholic, escaped to his father-in-law’s court in 1506, and fell in battle the following year, the very day after the close of the Courtier dialogues. Handsome, accomplished and subtle, he was a patron of learning and an adept in the cruel and perfidious politics of his day. Upon his public career is founded the famous Principe of Machiavelli, who says: “If all the duke’s achievements are considered, it will be found that he built up a great superstructure for his future power; nor do I know what precepts I could furnish to a prince better than such as are to be derived from his example.”

Note 277 page 148. Literally: “It must be believed to have been in despair.”

Note 278 page 148. Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica (Scipio with the pointed nose), was an eminent Roman jurist who was Consul in 191 B.C., and own cousin of Scipio Africanus the Elder.

Note 279 page 148. Alonso Carillo is said by Cian to have been one of the many Spaniards who lived at Rome in the service of popes and cardinals belonging to that nation. The Spanish annotator Fabié identifies him as a son of Don Luis and Donna Costanza de Rivera.

Note 280 page 148. My Lady Boadilla. Cian’s identification of this lady as Beatriz Fernandez de Bobadilla, Marchioness of Moya, is confirmed by the fact that Boscan’s translation (1534) gives her name as the Marchioness of Moya instead of ‘my lady Boadilla.’ She and her husband are warmly mentioned in a codicil to Isabella the Catholic’s will, as being among that queen’s most dear and faithful friends.

Note 281 page 149. In this passage, Antonio Ciccarelli’s expurgated edition (1584) substitutes “a painter of antiquity” for Raphael, “certain Roman senators” for the two cardinals, and Romulus and Remus for St. Peter and St. Paul. The picture in question has been identified as one painted by Raphael in 1513-14 for the church of San Silvestro.

Note 282 page 149. ‘Aught else ... upon thy shoulders,’ i.e., a head. The Cato referred to was probably Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis, (born 95 B.C., died 46 B.C.), the Roman philosopher and patriot who espoused the cause of Pompey, and committed suicide on hearing of Cæsar’s victory at Thapsus.

Note 283 page 150. This queen must have been Isabella the Catholic; see note 391.

Note 284 page 150. Rafaello de’ Pazzi, (born 1471, died 1512), was a native of Florence, but was bred away from his home, doubtless owing to the proscription of his family for participation in the Pazzi conspiracy against Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici. Having fought for Cesare Borgia and later for Julius II, he was captured by the French in 1511, and was slain the following year in the battle of Ravenna.

Note 285 page 150. The Prior of Messina is now identified by Cian as a Spanish soldier, Don Pedro de Cuña, who was killed at the battle of Ravenna in 1512.

Note 286 page 151. Of Paolo Tolosa nothing more is known than is contained in the text.

Note 287 page 151. Like purple in Roman times, rose was the aristocratic colour at this period. Cosimo is reported by Machiavelli (Storia Fiorentina, vii, 6) to have said that “two ells of rose-coloured cloth make a man of quality.”

Note 288 page 151. Gianotto de’ Pazzi is regarded by Cian as possibly identical with a certain Florentine, Giovanni de’ Pazzi, who was born in 1476 and died in 1528.

Note 289 page 151. Of Antonio Rizzo nothing more is known than is contained in the text.

Note 290 page 151. ‘The renunciation of a benefice,’ i.e. the notarial deed or testament by which a priest resigned his benefice or prebend in favour of someone else.

Note 291 page 151. Antonio Torello, (died 1536), was private chamberlain to Julius II and Leo X, who conferred a canonry and several prebends upon him in 1514. In the briefs he is designated as a priest of the diocese of Foglino, and is given certain benefices there, which had fallen vacant on the death of another priest. We thus infer that Torello must have been familiar with the subject referred to in the text. He was made a Roman citizen in 1530.

Note 292 page 151. These two hunchbacks have not been identified. “The Wheel” (la Ruota or Rota della Giustizia, or simply la Rota) was the highest civil and criminal court of Rome prior to 1870. Its name may have originated in the circular arrangement of the judges’ (auditors’) seats (compare the hemicyclium of Cicero’s time), or possibly in a wheel-shaped porphyry figure set in the pavement of the hall where they sat. The play is of course on the double meaning of the word torto, crooked, wrong.

Note 293 page 151. Latino Giovenale de’ Manetti, (born 1486; died 1553), was a native of Rome, and a canon of St. Peter’s, but being of minor rank he had a wife and children. He held various offices, including that of Commissary General of Roman Antiquities, and was employed in several papal embassies. A writer of Latin and Italian verse, he was a friend of Castiglione, Bembo and Bibbiena, and is mentioned in the autobiography of Cellini, who says that he “had a pretty big dash of the fool in him,”—apparently because he presumed to improve one of the sculptor’s designs for a crucifix.

Note 294 page 152. Peralta is regarded by Cian as probably identical with a certain Captain Luijse Galliego de Peralta, who bore a letter (1521) from Castiglione at Rome to the Marquess Federico of Mantua, then fighting against the French. In this letter Castiglione speaks of having known Peralta for years as “a man of character and a valiant.” Cian regards him as identical also with a certain Colonel Peralta, whose death at the battle of Frosinone is mentioned (in a letter of 1526) among those of other Spaniards.

Molart is identified by Cian as the French soldier of fortune, “Molard,” who commanded a battalion of Gascons at the battle of Ravenna (11 April 1512), and who fell there bravely fighting by the side of Gaston de Foix.

Aldana afterwards served under the Marquess of Mantua at Pavia in 1522, having been summoned (as was Castiglione also) from Rome at the head of his company.

Note 295 page 152. The duel in question is thus described by Branthôme in his Discourse on Duels: “The Grand Master de Chaumont, the King’s Lieutenant in the State of Milan, also allowed a duel to two Spaniards who had asked it of him. The name of one was Signor Peralta, who had formerly been in the King of France’s service, ... and the other Spaniard was called Captain Aldana. Their combat was on horse, à la genette (jennet), with rapier and dagger and three darts to each man. Peralta’s second was another Spaniard, and Aldana’s was the gentle Captain Molart. It had snowed so much that their encounter took place in the Piazza at Parma, from which the snow had been cleared, and there being no other barriers than the snow, each of the two combatants did his duty right well. And at last my lord de Chaumont, who had appointed the ground and was umpire, caused them to retire with equal honour.”

Note 296 page 152. Cian inclines to regard this Master Marcantonio as identical with a certain eccentric physician of the same name, who lived at Urbino and was the author of a fantastic law book and a long comedy. Of Bottone da Cesena nothing more is known than is contained in the text.

Note 297 page 152. ‘Three sticks,’ i.e., the gallows.

Note 298 page 152. Of the three persons bearing the name Andrea Coscia and known to have lived at this time, it is uncertain which one is here referred to.

Note 299 page 152. A MS. copy of The Courtier contains the following passage: “Again a Venetian (forgive me, messer Pietro), coming to visit my lady Maddalena, sister to my lady Duchess,—as soon as he was near he offered her his hand, but without removing his cap. My lady Maddalena drew back a step, and drew back her hand too, saying: ‘Gentle Sir, put on your cap; cover your head.’ He still advanced and offered his hand; whereupon she replied: ‘I will never do it, unless you cover.’ Thus the poor man was so put to shame that he at last removed his cap.” Under similar circumstances Madame Bernhardt is said to have reproved Edward VII (then Prince of Wales) by feigning not to recognize him with his hat on.

Note 300 page 152. My Lord Cardinal, i.e., Giovanni de’ Medici, afterwards Leo X, (born 1475; died 1521). He was the second son of Lorenzo de’ Medici and Clarice Orsini, and an elder brother of the Magnifico of The Courtier. Made a cardinal at the age of thirteen, and exiled from Florence with the rest of his family in 1494, he was present at the election of Alexander VI, of whose character he is said to have shown true appreciation at the time by remarking: “We are in the wolf’s jaws; he will gulp us down, unless we make good our flight.” During the reign of Julius II, he seems to have been subservient to that pontiff, and in 1511 was a member of the court of six cardinals which acquitted the young Duke of Urbino of the charge of murdering Cardinal Alidosi. The pontificates of Alexander and Julius had exhausted Italy with wars, and the Christian world, weary of their scandalous violence, hailed with relief the accession of the cultivated and seemingly gentle young prelate, Giovanni de’ Medici. Of his reign,—so brilliant in art and letters, so disastrous to the Church,—it is enough to say that the key is found in the famous phrase with which, on his elevation to the Chair of St. Peter, he greeted his brother Giuliano: “Let us enjoy the Papacy, since God hath given it us.” To him the immortality of the soul was an open topic for debate, while he regarded sound Latinity and a ready tongue as more important than true doctrine and pure living. Sincerely zealous for the diffusion of liberal knowledge, he was extravagantly munificent to artists, scholars and authors. Like all his family, after the first Cosimo, he was a poor financier, and on his sudden death he was found to have pawned the very jewels of his tiara. His reckless expenditure led to the sale of indulgences, and thus in no small degree to the progress of the Reformation.

Note 301 page 153. Biagino Crivello was one of Duke Ludovico Sforza’s captains, and is mentioned (July 1500) in a list of Sforza adherents who had rebelled against Louis XII, and whose possessions were declared forfeit. The list speaks of him as keeping himself at Mantua and in Venetian territory, and as owning no attachable property in the Milanese. In April of the same year an ineffectual demand had been made upon the Marquess of Mantua for the surrender of Crivello and other chiefs of the Sforza party.

Note 302 page 153. The Duke, i.e., Ludovico Sforza, “Il Moro,” (born 1451; died 1508), was the fourth son of the Francesco Sforza whom Duke Federico of Urbino had helped to become Duke of Milan (and whose father, a peasant condottiere, Muzio Attendolo, became known as Sforza by reason of great personal strength),—and of Bianca Maria, a daughter of the last Visconti duke of Milan. Early noted for his physical and mental qualities, Ludovico read and wrote Latin fluently, had a tenacious memory, and was a ready speaker. He was tall and of strongly marked features. Unlike his horrible brother Galeazzo Maria, he shunned bloodshed. Banished from Milan after his brother’s assassination in 1476, he returned in triumph in 1479, and assumed the guardianship of his nephew Giangaleazzo, for whom he chose as bride his sister’s child, Isabella (see note 396), daughter of Alfonso II of Naples. Having first sought the hand of Isabella d’Este (see note 397),—who was already betrothed to the Marquess of Mantua,—in 1491 he married her younger sister Beatrice (see note 398), whose influence is by some said to have led him to aggravate the humiliation of his young nephew and niece, the rightful duke and duchess. Being threatened by the latter’s father, the King of Naples, Ludovico invited Charles VIII to enter Italy (1494) and assert the Angevine claim to Naples. His unhappy nephew died the same year, not without suspicion of having been poisoned by the uncle’s order, who thereupon assumed the title as well as the despotic power of duke. Becoming alarmed at the rapid success of the French in Italy, he joined the league formed against them, and was afterwards punished for his treachery by being expelled from Milan by Louis XII and carried to France. It is said that at the time of his capture, the only favour he asked was to be allowed the use of a volume of Dante. He died a prisoner in the Castle of Loches, where, after a vain effort to escape, he was confined in an underground dungeon. At the height of his prosperity his revenues exceeded those of any Italian state except Venice. Policy and also his natural taste for intellectual pleasures led him to copy the Medici in their patronage of art and letters. He aspired to make his capital a modern Athens, and sought to attract men of fame and talent from far and wide. Both Leonardo da Vinci and the architect Bramante were in his pay.

Note 303 page 153. Cervia is a little town on the Adriatic (between Ravenna and Rimini). A Dominican, Tommaso Cattanei, was bishop of the diocese from 1486 to 1509. The pope referred to in the text was Julius II.

Note 304 page 155. ‘Montefiore Inn’ was a proverbial expression for a bad hostelry. The rustic inns of Italy at this period were usually wretched and for the most part kept by Germans.

Note 305 page 156. One Andrea Castillo was secretary to Leo X, and died in 1545.

Note 306 page 156. Cian identifies this Cardinal Borgia as the Francesco (born 1441; died 1511) who was raised to the purple by Alexander VI, and s’s’ known as a schismatic.

Note 307 page 156. The modern form of ballatore is ballerino. Although the distinction is not free from doubt, there seems to be reason for believing that danzare was the term applied to the more stately forms of dance, while ballare was reserved for more animated movements. See note 147.

Note 308 page 157. The Bergamasque was and still is regarded as the rudest and most rustic of the Italian dialects.

Note 309 page 157. Except as applied to a small Tuscan stream or torrent (flowing near Acquapendente and Orvieto, and finally tributary to the Tiber), the name Paglia does not occur in modern Italian geography. In his autobiography, Cellini mentions crossing the little stream on his first journey from Siena to Rome. Later in the 16th century, Montaigne records (in his diary of a trip into Italy) having spent the night at “La Paille” (Italian, Paglia), and describes it as “a small village of five or six houses at the foot of several barren and ill-favoured mountains.”

Note 310 page 157. They seem to have been playing primero (the modern primiera), a game much in vogue at this time.

Note 311 page 158. Loreto is a small hill town near Ancona, and is celebrated for its pilgrimage shrine of the Sacred House (Santa Casa), which was reputed to have been the veritable dwelling of the Virgin, miraculously transported by angels from Nazareth, and set down in Italy in 1294. In 1511 and again in 1524 Castiglione wrote to his mother that he was preparing to go to Our Lady of Loreto in fulfilment of a vow. The name was said to be derived from that of the widow upon whose land the house was deposited by the angels.

Note 312 page 158. Acquapendente is the name of a small town sixty-seven miles north-west of Rome.

Note 313 page 159. Monsignor of San Pietro ad Vincula was the title of Cardinal Galeatto della Rovere; see note 189.

Note 314 page 159. Monsignor of Aragon was the title of Cardinal Ludovico of Aragon, (born 1474), a natural son of Ferdinand I of Naples, and a half-brother of Alfonso II (see note 31) and Federico III of Naples (see note 401). He was not elevated to the purple until 1519; Castiglione’s mention of him as a cardinal in dialogues supposed to take place twelve years earlier, doubtless arose from a natural confusion between the time when and the time of which they were written.

Note 315 page 159. ‘The Banchi’ (Banks) was the name of a street in Rome well known in the 15th and 16th centuries. Containing the offices of the papal Curia and magistrates, it became a preferred neighbourhood, and was enriched with fine buildings, among which was the counting-house of Julius II’s finance minister, Agostino Chigi, the greatest banker of his day.

Note 316 page 159. ‘The Chancery’ (Cancelleria) was a palace designed about 1500 by Bramante for Cardinal Riario, but at this time used for public offices and as the residence of Cardinal Galeotto della Rovere, who had enlarged and embellished the building. It was not far from the Banks.

Note 317 page 159. San Celso was the name of a street and church near the Banks. The saint (Celsus) whose memory is thus perpetuated was born at what is now Cimiez, near Nice, suffered martyrdom at Rome under Nero, and was finally put to death (together with his master, St. Nazarius) at Milan in the year 69.

Note 318 page 160. Cesare Beccadello is regarded by Cian as possibly identical with a certain Bolognese, who was the son of Domenico Maria Beccadello, married Landomia Fasanini, and was living at the papal court as late as 1559. The Spanish annotator Fabié suggests that he was the father (1502) of the author Ludovico Beccadello, who was a follower of Bembo and wrote biographies of Petrarch and others.

Note 319 page 161. These are characters occurring in the third, sixth and ninth tales of the Eighth Day, and in the fifth tale of the Ninth Day.

Note 320 page 161. This knavish student seems to be identical with a certain Caio Caloria Ponzio, who was born at Messina. Of his life little more is known than that he studied law at Padua between 1479 and 1488, and, after residing two years at Venice, returned to Sicily. For an account of a short poem by him in praise of Venice, and of his dialect comedy dedicated to the Marquess of Mantua, see Vittorio Rossi’s Caio Caloria Ponzio, e la poesia volgare letteraria di Sicilia nel Secolo XV, reprinted (Palermo, 1893) from the Archivio Storico Siciliano, N. S., A., xviii.

Note 321 page 161. The only belfry at Padua answering to this description is said to be that of San Giacomo.

Note 322 page 162. Gonnella. This name was borne by two famous jesters employed by the d’Este family. The one here referred to was probably the later of the two, who lived at the courts of Dukes Niccolò III and Borso, was the son of a Florentine glover Bernardo Gonnella, and married one Checca Lapi. The next buffoon referred to was probably Ludovico Meliolo, who acted as steward to the court of Mantua about 1500, and was a brother of the goldsmith and sculptor Bartolommeo Meliolo (1448-1514). He was called “the father of jests.”