Note 330 page 169. Although in this and a few other passages, Castiglione uses virtù in the sense of our “virtue,” he more often gives it its etymological meaning of “manliness,” which the present translator has generally rendered by “worth.” In considering a word like this, we must take into account the character of him who uses it. To Machiavelli, as no doubt to most of his contemporaries in Italy, virtù meant simply that combination of strength, courage, tenacity and cunning that enables a man to achieve his ends,—whether good or bad.

Note 331 page 171. Achaia, here used as synonymous with Greece, was the name given to that country when conquered by the Romans and made a province. Olympia was not in Achaia proper, but in the adjoining district of Elis, some forty miles south of the modern Patras. The site has been thoroughly excavated by German archæologists, the most noted discovery being that of the “Hermes” of Praxiteles and the “Victory” of Pæonius.

Note 332 page 172. That is to say, nude. According to the familiar Greek myth, Eris (goddess of discord), to avenge her exclusion from the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis, threw among the wedding guests a golden apple inscribed “To the Fairest.” A dispute arising between Aphrodite, Hera and Athena concerning the apple, Zeus appointed the shepherd Paris to decide their claims. The prize having been awarded to Aphrodite, she aided Paris to carry off the beautiful Helen of Sparta, and thus gave rise to the Trojan War.

Note 333 page 173. The Order of St. Michael was instituted in August 1469, by Louis XI of France, and was highly esteemed down to Castiglione’s time, but later suffered in estimation, owing to the freedom with which membership was bestowed. Francis I wore the insignia of the order at the battle of Pavia, 1525.

Note 334 page 173. The Order of the Garter was instituted by Edward III of England in 1344. He assigned to its use the chapel (at Windsor) of St. George, who was its patron saint. Duke Guidobaldo of Urbino having, like his father, been made a knight of the order, Castiglione went to England in 1506 to receive the insignia on the duke’s behalf.

Note 335 page 173. The Order of the Golden Fleece was instituted by Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy (paternal grandfather of Charles V’s paternal grandmother) in 1429 in honour of his third marriage, to Elizabeth of Portugal. Its badge, a golden ram, is shown in our portraits of Charles V and his grandfather Maximilian I.

Note 336 page 173. The king of Persia at this time was Ismail Sufi I, (born 1480; died 1524). He was descended from a family of noted piety, whose peculiar beliefs became the origin of the national Persian faith. Having been proclaimed shah in 1499, after nearly a century of disorderly government by the successors of Timur the Tartar, he spent most of his reign in enlarging and assuring his dominions, and founded the dynasty that was to rule Persia until 1736. He waged an unsuccessful war with Selim I of Turkey, the son and successor of Bajazet II, and died while on a pilgrimage to his own father’s tomb. His subjects revered him as a saint.

Note 337 page 174. The ‘Lady whom I know’ is of course the Duchess.

Note 338 page 175. Pygmalion will be remembered as the legendary sculptor-king of Cyprus, who fell in love with an ivory statue that he had made of a beautiful girl, and prayed to Aphrodite to breathe life into it. His prayer being granted, he married the girl, who was called Galatea.

Note 339 page 181. The opinions here ascribed to Plato, are found in the Fifth Book of his “Republic,” but seem to have undergone serious change when he wrote his “Laws.”

Note 340 page 182. The comparative merits of man and woman were much discussed in Greek antiquity and during the Renaissance, and form the subject of a copious literature in which Castiglione’s contribution occupies no unimportant place.

Note 341 page 184. The reference here is to a fragment of the so-called Orphic Hymns, beginning: “Jove the End, Jove the Beginning, Jove the Middle, all things are of Jove: Jove Male, Immortal Virgin Jove.” In this and other respects the theogony to which the name of Orpheus is attached, is closely related to the most ancient religious systems of India.

Note 342 page 185. The author probably refers to Aristotle’s Tenth Problem.

Note 343 page 188. The reference here is doubtless to Jerome’s 54th Epistle (on Widowhood), and to his first tract against Jovinianus, both written about 394 A.D. He was born in what is now the Hungarian town of Stridon about 340, and died in a monastery at Bethlehem 420 A.D. Perhaps his best remembered work is the Vulgate or Latin translation of the Bible.

Note 344 page 189. “If not chastely, then discreetly.”

Note 345 page 190. Octavia, (born 70; died 11 B.C.), was a great-niece of Julius Cæsar, and became the second wife of the triumvir Mark Antony for the purpose (ultimately vain) of cementing the alliance between him and her brother Augustus. Her beauty, accomplishments and virtues proved unavailing against the wiles of Cleopatra, who induced Antony to divorce her. After Antony’s death, she remained true to the interests of his children, including those by his first wife and by Cleopatra. Through the two daughters that she bore to Antony, she became the grandmother of the Emperor Claudius, and great-grandmother of his predecessor Caligula and of his successor Nero.

Note 346 page 190. Porcia’s first husband was Marcus Bibulus, who was Consul with Cæsar in 59 B.C. She inherited her father’s republican principles, courage and firm will, and was her second husband Brutus’s confidante in the conspiracy against Cæsar. On his death at Philippi in 42 B.C., she put an end to her life.

Note 347 page 190. Caia Cæcilia Tanaquil appears in Roman legend as the second wife of King Tarquinius Priscus, endowed with prophetic powers, closely connected with the worship of the hearth-deity, expert in healing, and a model of domestic virtues. The traditional date of her husband’s reign is 616-578 B.C.

Note 348 page 190. Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi (born about 189 B.C.; died about 110 B.C.), wrote letters that had survived in Cicero’s day and were prized for their style. Even in her own lifetime the Romans erected a statue in honour of her virtues. Left a widow with twelve young children, she devoted herself wholly to their training, and rejected all offers of marriage, including that of Ptolemy.

Note 349 page 191. Plutarch (from whose history the narrative in the text is a paraphrase) describes Alexandra as being actuated in her regency solely by ambitious motives. Her husband, Alexander Jannæus, was the son of Johannes Hyrcanus and brother of Aristobulus I, whom he succeeded as second King of the Jews after the Babylonish Captivity. His reign (104-78 B.C.) was marked by atrocities.

Note 350 page 191. The reference here is to Mithridates VI, Eupator, King (120-63 B.C.) of Pontus on the southern shore of the Black Sea. In the Life of Lucullus, Plutarch relates that having been utterly defeated by the Romans in 72 B.C., Mithridates gave order to have his wives Bernice and Monima put to death together with his sisters Statira and Roxana, in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy,—while he himself took refuge with his son-in-law. Statira is described by Plutarch as grateful to her brother for not forgetting her amid his own anxieties, and for providing her the means of an honourable death.

Note 351 page 191. This Hasdrubal was the general of the Carthaginians in their last struggle with Rome. When Scipio captured Carthage in 146 B.C., Hasdrubal surrendered, while it is said that his wife, after upbraiding him for his weakness, flung herself and her children into the flames of the burning temple in which they had sought shelter.

Note 352 page 191. In fact, Harmonia was Hiero’s granddaughter, and the wife of a Syracusan named Themistus, who (after the death of Hiero in 215 B.C.) was chosen one of the leaders of the commonwealth and afterwards perished in a fresh revolution. Death was then decreed against all surviving members of Hiero’s family, and Harmonia was slain together with her aunts, Demarata and Heraclea.

Note 353 page 192. The reference is of course to the familiar story of the obstinate dame who persisted in declaring that a certain rent had been made with scissors, and whose husband vainly tried to change her mind by plunging her in a pond. Each time she came to the surface, she cried “Scissors,” until, unable to speak from strangulation, she stretched forth her hand and made the sign of the instrument with two fingers. In a coarser form, the story was current in Italy even before Castiglione’s time.

Note 354 page 192. The conspiracy in question was discovered in 65 A.D. Tacitus relates that Epicharis strangled herself with her girdle while on the way to be tortured a second time.

Note 355 page 192. Leæna was an Athenian hetaira beloved by Aristogeiton. When he and Harmodius had slain the tyrant Hipparchus in 514 B.C., she was supposed to be privy to their plan, and died under torture. The statue in question is mentioned by Pausanias and said by Plutarch (in his essay on Garrulity) to have been placed “upon the gates of the Acropolis.” Recent archæologists identify its site as being on the level of the Acropolis, near the southern inner corner of the Propylæa.

Note 356 page 192. Massilia became the modern Marseilles.

Note 357 page 192. This story is taken from the “Memorable Doings and Sayings” of Valerius Maximus (flor. 25 A.D.), in which Castiglione mistranslates the Latin word publicè (at the public charge) as publicamente (publicly).

Note 358 page 192. Of several persons of this name, the one here referred to was probably the Roman Consul (14 A.D.),—a patron of literature and a friend of Ovid. Had the Magnifico been allowed to finish his sentence, he would (following the narrative of Valerius Maximus) have doubtless added the name of a town in Asia Minor, Julida.

Note 359 page 195. This story (which was used by Tennyson for his play of “The Cup”) is found in Plutarch’s tract “Concerning Women’s Virtue,” where the scene is placed in Galatia, in Asia Minor.

Note 360 page 197. The number of the Sibyls is usually reckoned as ten: Persian (or Babylonian), Libyan, Phrygian, Delphian, Cimmerian, Erythræan, Samian, Trojan, Tiburtine, and Cumæan,—of which the last was the most famous.

Note 361 page 197. Aspasia, (flor. 440 B.C.), was born at Miletus in Asia Minor, but in her youth removed to Athens, where she was celebrated for her talents and beauty, and became the mistress of Pericles, one of whose orations she is said by Plato to have composed. Her house was the centre of intellectual society, and was even frequented by Athenian matrons and their husbands.

Note 362 page 197. Diotima was a probably fictitious priestess of Mantinea in the Peloponnesus, reputed to have been the instructress of Socrates. Her supposed opinions as to the origin, nature and objects of life, form the subject of Plato’s “Symposium.”

Note 363 page 197. Nicostrate or Carmenta was a prophetic and healing divinity, supposed to be of Greek origin. Having tried to persuade her son Evander to kill his father Hermes, she fled with the boy to Italy, where she was said to have given the Roman form to the fifteen characters of the Greek alphabet that Evander introduced into Latium.

Note 364 page 197. This ‘preceptress ... to Pindar’ was Myrtis, a lyric poetess of the 6th century B.C. She is mentioned in a fragment by Corinna as having competed with Pindar. Statues were erected to her in various parts of Greece, and she was counted among the nine lyric muses.

Note 365 page 197. Of Pindar’s life little more is known than that he resided chiefly at Thebes, and that the dates of his birth and death were about 522 and 443 B.C. respectively. Practically all his extant poems are odes in commemoration of victories in the public games.

Note 366 page 197. The Greek poetess Corinna (5th century B.C.) was a native of Tanagra in Bœotia. She is said to have won prizes five times in competition with Pindar. Only a few fragments of her verse remain.

Note 367 page 197. Sappho flourished about 600 B.C., and seems to have been born and to have lived chiefly at Mitylene. She enjoyed unique renown among the ancients: on hearing one of her poems, Solon prayed that he might not see death before he had learned it; Plato called her the Tenth Muse; and Aristotle placed her on a par with Homer. For a recently discovered and interesting fragment of her verse, see the Egypt Exploration Fund’s “Oxyrhynchus Papyri,” Part I, p. 11.

Note 368 page 198. Castiglione here follows Plutarch. Pliny, on the other hand, affirms that Roman women were obliged to kiss their male relatives, in order that it might be known whether they had transgressed the law forbidding them to drink wine.

Note 369 page 199. This paragraph is taken almost literally from Livy, excepting the incident of the babies borne in arms, which Castiglione seems to have invented.

Note 370 page 199. Titus Tatius was the legendary king of the Sabines. His forces were so strong that Romulus was driven back to the Saturnian Hill, which had previously been fortified and which became the site of the Capitol. The familiar story is to the effect that Tarpeia (daughter to the captain of the fortress), being dazzled by the Sabines’ golden bracelets, promised to betray the hill to them if they would give her the ornaments on their left arms. Accordingly she admitted the enemy at night, but when she claimed her reward, they threw down upon her the shields that they wore on the left arm, and thus crushed her to death. Her infamy is preserved in the name of the neighbouring Tarpeian Rock, from which traitors were flung down.

Note 371 page 199. There is said to be no historical mention of any Roman temple to Venus Armata. Castiglione may have had in mind a passage in the “Christian Cicero” (Lactantius Firmianus, who wrote about 300 A.D.), recording the dedication by the Spartans of a temple and statue to the Armed Venus in memory of their women’s brave repulse of a sudden attack by the Messenians during the absence of the Spartan army.

Note 372 page 199. Calva (bald) was one of the Roman Venus’s most ancient epithets, under which she had two temples near the Capitol. Of the several explanations of this appellation, Castiglione seems to refer to the one which interprets it as the memorial of the Roman women’s heroism in cutting off their hair to make bow-strings for the men during a siege by the Gauls.

Note 373 page 200. In his life of Camillus (died 365 B.C.), Plutarch gives a legendary account of the origin of the Handmaidens’ Festival. At a time when the Romans were ill prepared for war, the Latins sent to demand of them a number of free-born maidens in marriage. This was suspected as a trick to obtain hostages, but no method of foiling it was devised until Tutula, a slave girl, advised the magistrates to send her to the Latin camp along with some of the most beautiful handmaidens in rich attire. This was done, and at night, when her companions had stolen away the enemies’ weapons, Tutula displayed a signal torch agreed on with the Romans, who at once sallied forth, easily captured the Latin camp, and put most of the enemy to the sword.

Note 374 page 200. The Romans are said to have wearied of Cicero’s self-praise for his suppression of the Cataline conspiracy (63 B.C.). The woman in question was a Roman patrician, Fulvia by name, who was the mistress of one of the conspirators and divulged the plot to Cicero.

Note 375 page 200. This Demetrius (II) was grandson to the Demetrius I already mentioned (see note 136), and ruled over Macedonia from about 239 to about 229 B.C. His son, Philip V (237-179 B.C.), joined Hannibal in a war against Rome, which finally ended in the downfall of the Macedonian monarchy and the captivity of his son and successor Perseus (167 B.C.). The incident mentioned in the text is narrated by Plutarch in his work on “Women’s Virtue,” as also is the instance next cited by Castiglione, who however reverses the order of events.

Note 376 page 200. Erythræ was an important city on the west coast of Asia Minor opposite Chios. The nearest approach to ‘Leuconia’ in ancient geography is the distant town Leuconum in what is now Slavonia, between the Danube and the Save.

Note 377 page 201. Plutarch’s version of this story adds that in honour of the Persian women’s bravery on this occasion, Cyrus (559-529 B.C.) decreed that whenever the king returned from a long journey, each woman should receive a ring of gold.

Note 378 page 201. One of Plutarch’s minor works is entitled “Apothegms and Famous Sayings of Spartan Women,” and Castiglione’s contemporary Marcantonio Casanova wrote two Latin distiches on “The Spartan Mother Slaying Her Son.”

Note 379 page 201. Saguntum, the modern Murviedro, was a city of Greek origin on the eastern coast of Spain. After a desperate siege of nearly eight months, it was captured by Hannibal in 219 B.C.

Note 380 page 201. The reference here is to the victory, at Vercelli near Milan, by which the Roman general Caius Marius repelled the advance of the Cimbri into Italy, 101 B.C. The sacred fire (supposed to have been brought from Troy by Æneas as the symbol of Vesta, the hearth deity) was kept alive at Rome by six virgins.

Note 381 page 202. Amalasontha, (498-535 A.D.), was the daughter of Theodoric the Great, and regent of the East Gothic kingdom from his death in 526 until her own. After a prosperous reign she is said to have been strangled by her cousin and second husband Theodatus, at the instigation of the Empress Theodora, the wife of Justinian.

Note 382 page 202. Theodolinda, daughter of Duke Garibald of Bavaria, married (589 A.D.) Autharis, King of the Lombards, and on his death in the following year, she married Duke Agilulph of Turin, who was proclaimed king in 591. She died in 625, after exercising the regency in the name of her son. Her virtue, wisdom and beauty were extolled; she was active in her labours on behalf of Christianity; and she carried on a correspondence with St. Gregory, who was pope from 590 to 604.

Note 383 page 202. The Theodora here referred to is doubtless the wife, not of Justinian, but of Theophilus, Emperor of Constantinople 829-842. She died in 867, and was canonized by the Greek Church.

Note 384 page 202. Countess Matilda, (1046-1115), one of the most famous heroines of the Middle Ages, was the daughter of Duke Boniface of Tuscany and Beatrice of Lorraine. She ruled over Tuscany and a large part of northern Italy, espoused the papal cause against the Emperor, and exercised an important influence upon the politics of her time. She was noted also for her religious zeal, energy, and austere yet gentle and cultivated life. Count Ludovico’s supposed descent from her paternal uncle Conrad is now regarded as doubtful.

Note 385 page 202. Among the eminent women here referred to, we may note: Duke Guidobaldo’s grandfather’s wife, Caterina Colonna, (died 1438), who was a great-aunt of Vittoria Colonna, and was praised as “noble, beautiful, discreet, charming, gentle and generous”; his great-aunt Battista di Montefeltro, (died 1450), who, having been deserted by her worthless Malatesta husband, wrote moral essays and poetry, and was celebrated for her piety and mental gifts, as well as for her learning and literary accomplishments; his aunt, Brigida Sueva di Montefeltro, (born 1428), who, after enduring for twelve years the brutalities of her Sforza husband, became an abbess and ultimately received the honour of beatification,—her remains being revered as a sacred relic; another aunt of his, Violante di Montefeltro, (born 1430), who was famous for her talents and beauty; his maternal grandmother, Costanza da Varano, (born 1428), was a granddaughter of the Battista above mentioned, inherited much of that lady’s taste for learning, became the associate of scholars and philosophers, wrote Latin orations, epistles and poems, and (by her marriage to a brother of the first Sforza duke of Milan) became the mother of Duke Guidobaldo’s own mother, Battista Sforza, (born 1446), who rivalled her ancestresses’ attainments, administered her husband’s government judiciously during his frequent absences, and was regarded as beautiful, although tiny in person.

Note 386 page 202. Perhaps the most famous woman of the Gonzaga family was “my lady Duchess’s” great-aunt, Cecilia Gonzaga, (born 1425), who shared with her four brothers the tuition of the celebrated Vittorino da Feltre, wrote Greek with remarkable purity at the age of ten, became a nun at nineteen, devoted her life to religious and literary exercises, and was regarded as one of the most learned women of her time. Her niece (?), Barbara Gonzaga, (born about 1455), was educated with especial care, became Duchess of Würtemberg, induced her husband to found the University of Tübingen, and ruled the duchy as regent after his death.

Of the Este family, two aunts (Ginevra, born 1419, and Bianca Maria, born 1440) of Isabella and Beatrice d’Este (see notes 397 and 398), were famous for their knowledge of Latin and Greek, in which languages the younger wrote both prose and verse, besides being an accomplished musician, dancer and needlewoman.

Of the Pio family, Castiglione doubtless had in mind the celebrated Alda Pia da Carpi, who was a sister of Aldus’s pupil and patron Alberto Pio, aunt of Count Ludovico Pio of The Courtier (see note 46), and mother of the still more celebrated poetess Veronica Gambara, (born 1485).

Note 387 page 202. Anne de Bretagne, (born 1476; died 1514), was the daughter and heiress of Duke Francis II of Brittany, which became permanently united to the crown of France through her marriages to Charles VIII (1492) and Louis XII (1499). Castiglione’s praise of her seems to have been in the main justified. Although sometimes vindictive, she was generous, virtuous beyond the standard of her time, and carried cultivation to the verge of pedantry. She surrounded herself with artists, historians, minstrels and poets, and formed a collection of MSS. and other precious objects, largely the spoils of her husbands’ Italian campaigns. Branthôme called her “the worthiest and most honourable queen that has been since Queen Blanche, mother of the king St. Louis, and so wise and virtuous.”

Note 388 page 202. Charles VIII, (born 1470; died 1498), was the son of Louis XI and Charlotte of Savoy. Having succeeded his father in 1483, and assumed royal power in 1491, he married Anne of Brittany and soon set about enforcing his pretensions to the crown of Naples, transmitted to him through his father and cousin from René of Provence, to whom the last Angevine ruler had devised the kingdom in 1435. As we have seen, the immediate cause of the invasion of Italy (1494) was a request from Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan and Pope Alexander VI. Although the expedition was undertaken without adequate preparation and conducted with incredible foolhardiness,—continuous good fortune together with the mutual jealousies of Italian princes and the decadence of Italian military power enabled Charles to enter Milan, Florence and Rome without hindrance, to seize Naples almost unopposed, and (when threatened by a powerful league formed against him) to retire northwards, to defeat the Italians at Fornovo, and finally to reach France in safety, October 1495. His garrisons were driven from Naples in the following year, but his foray had the immediate result of expelling the Medici from Florence, and the far more important consequence of revealing to the rest of Europe the wealth and helplessness of Italy,—thus paving the way for the subsequent invasions with which the peninsula was scourged during the 16th Century. The remainder of Charles’s life was given up to inglorious ease and pleasure. A son of the painter Mantegna thus describes him: “A very ill-favoured face, with great goggle eyes, an aquiline nose offensively large, and a head disfigured by a few sparse hairs;” while Duke Ludovico Sforza said of him: “The man is young, and his conduct meagre, nor has he any form or method of council.” His own ambassador, Commines, wrote: “He was little in stature and of small sense, very timid in speech, owing to the way in which he had been treated as a child, and as feeble in mind as he was in body, but the kindest and gentlest creature alive.”

Note 389 page 202. Margarita of Austria, (born 1480; died 1530), was the daughter of the Emperor Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy, and a native of Brussels. Having been betrothed to the Dauphin Charles (VIII) and then rejected by that prince in favour of Anne of Brittany, she married (1497) the Infant Juan of Castile, but soon lost both husband and child. In 1501 she married Duke Filiberto of Savoy, and after four years of happiness again became a widow. In 1507 she was entrusted by her father with the government of the Low Countries and the care of her nephew Charles (see note 462). She did much to further the progress of agriculture and commerce in her dominions, and besides showing a lofty spirit and no little political sagacity, she was a patroness of art and letters, and composed a great number of poems in French, most of which are said to be lost. Her correspondence with her father has been published.

Note 390 page 202. Maximilian I, Emperor of Germany, (born 1459; died 1519), was the son of the Emperor Frederick III of Hapsburg and Eleanora of Portugal. In 1477 he married Charles the Bold’s daughter and heiress, Mary of Burgundy, who bore him five children and died in 1482. On the death of his father in 1493, he was elected Emperor, and soon afterwards married Bianca Maria, niece of Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan. He was a member of the league that forced Charles VIII to retire from Italy (1495), of the League of Cambray against Venice (1508), and of the Holy League (1511) for the expulsion of Louis XII from Italy. Although deriving little profit or honour from these and other foreign enterprises, he contrived by prudent marriages to add Bohemia and Hungary to his empire and to make Spain a possession of his family. He also effected many reforms in his government, and even founded several important institutions, such as a postal service and a permanent militia. From his youth he showed a taste for study, became a patron of scholars, poets and artists, and enriched the Universities of Vienna and Ingolstadt. Besides being an accomplished if not very successful soldier, he was the author of works on gardening, hunting and agriculture, as well as on military science.

Note 391 page 202. Isabella the Catholic, (born 1451; died 1504), was the daughter and heiress of Juan II of Castile. Having been trained in retirement to habits of religious devotion, she married (1469) Ferdinand of Aragon, with whom she succeeded jointly to her father’s crown in 1474, but was able to gain complete possession of her dominions only in 1479, the same year in which her husband succeeded his father as King of Aragon. Under her rule the Inquisition was established in Castile (1480), but she recoiled before its horrors and was reconciled to its continuance only by the direct assurance of Pope Sixtus IV. In 1481 began the long war, which (largely owing to her energy and perseverance) resulted in the expulsion of the Moors from Spain, and in which she is said to have organized the earliest military hospitals. The story of her noble patronage of Columbus is familiar. Her later years were clouded by the loss of two of her three children, including her only son, and by the unhappy conjugal life and mental disorder of her daughter, Juana, the mother of Charles V. Castiglione’s praise of Isabella’s lofty qualities is not a little justified by the facts of her life. In personal appearance, she is said to have been agreeable rather than handsome; her features were regular, her green eyes vivacious, her complexion olive, her hair reddish blond, and her stature above the medium.

Note 392 page 202. Ferdinand the Catholic, (born 1452; died 1516), was the son of Juan II of Navarre and Aragon, and is justly regarded as the founder of the Spanish monarchy. The means employed by him in building up his power were perfidy towards other rulers and ruthless oppression of his own people. Besides the other events of his reign, noted above, mention should be made of his cruel expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. These and his other persecutions, supposed at the time to be actuated by zeal for pure religion, were in fact chiefly a source of revenue, and the policy thus inaugurated,—of stifling the commerce, the industry, the free thought and the energy of the nation at the beginning of its greatness,—is now seen to have been one of the important causes of its decline.

Note 393 page 204. Of these two remarkable queens, one was doubtless Federico III’s widow, the Isabella del Balzo who is mentioned below (see note 400). The other may possibly have been her predecessor Joanna, the aunt and widow of Ferdinand II; or (more probably) Ippolita Maria, who was a daughter of the first Sforza duke of Milan and wife of Ferdinand II’s father and predecessor Alfonso II, and of whom Dennistoun says (ii, 122): “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’s De Senectute, followed by a juvenile collection of Latin apothegms curiously indicative of her character and studies.”

Note 394 page 204. Beatrice of Aragon, (born 1457; died 1508), was the daughter of Ferdinand I of Naples and Isabelle de Clermont. In 1476 she married Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary. On his death in 1490, she married Ladislas II of Bohemia, who for a time prevented the succession of Matthias’s natural son John. However the youth attained the Hungarian throne with the aid of the Emperor Maximilian; whereupon Beatrice was repudiated by Ladislas and her marriage was annulled by Alexander VI. In 1501 she returned to Italy, resided at Ischia and died childless. Like her elder sister, the Duchess Eleanora of Ferrara (see note 399), she was a woman of cultivation and taste, and in spite of her political intrigues, she is praised for having done much to strengthen the intellectual bonds between Italy and Hungary, to which country she invited Italian poets, scholars and artists.

Note 395 page 204. Matthias Corvinus, (born 1443; died 1490), was the son of the famous Hungarian general János Hunyadi, and in 1458 was proclaimed King of Hungary by the soldiers whom his father had so often led to victory. His life was a nearly continuous series of great enterprises, among the most noted of which were his campaigns against the Turks and his siege and capture (1485) of Vienna, where he thereafter resided chiefly and died. By no means the least part of his fame was won by the ardour with which he advanced the cause of science, art and letters in his country, and bestowed upon his people not only an enlightened code of laws but also the benefits of Renaissance culture. He introduced printing into Hungary, and was the founder of a magnificent public library at Buda Pest, containing fifty thousand volumes, for the most part MSS. which he caused to be copied in Italy and the East.

Note 396 page 204. Isabella of Aragon, (born 1470; died 1524), was the daughter of Alfonso II of Naples and Ippolita Maria, daughter of the first Sforza duke of Milan. In 1489 she made a splendid entry into Milan as the bride of her own cousin Giangaleazzo Sforza, whose rights as duke were gradually usurped by his uncle Ludovico il Moro. This usurpation has been regarded as partly due to the ambition of Ludovico’s young wife, Beatrice d’Este (see note 398), who could not endure the precedence rightfully belonging to Isabella. As has been seen, it was to protect himself against the wrath of Isabella’s father and grandfather, that Ludovico invited Charles VIII into Italy as his ally. When Charles reached Pavia, he had to endure the pathetic spectacle of his forlorn cousin Giangaleazzo (they were sisters’ sons) in prison, and to hear the piteous pleadings of the beautiful Isabella, who fell at his feet and besought him to have mercy on her husband. Her appeal was withstood, and Ludovico of course had no scruple in setting aside the rights of her infant children. Fresh trials awaited her in her native country, to which she returned in 1500, and from which her family had been expelled.