"I send you," wrote Calmeta to the Marchioness of Mantua in 1502, in a letter enclosing Pistoia's verses, "an invective against Sasso for certain sonnets and epigrams which he printed at Bologna against our Duke Lodovico Sforza, and which some people say that I wrote. It was never my habit to attack others, but if I had wasted a little ink in defending so illustrious a prince, I hardly think I should deserve much blame."[26]

Before the coming of Beatrice there had been no theatre in Milan, but Lodovico had done his best to encourage dramatic art. As early as 1484, he had written to the Duke of Ferrara, asking him to lend him a Bolognese actor, Albergati by name, who was also a skilled mechanic, to give sacred representations during Holy Week in Milan. The presence of Duke Ercole's daughter naturally gave a fresh impulse to the growth of dramatic art, and after Lodovico's visit to Ferrara in 1493, a theatre was erected in Milan. Courtiers and poets vied with each other in the production of plays and masques at each successive Christmas or Carnival. In 1493, Niccolo da Correggio wrote a pastoral entitled Mopsa e Daphne, which was performed at court that Carnival, and which he afterwards sent to Isabella, promising to explain its allegorical meaning at their next meeting. Another time, Gaspare Visconti composed the masque with the chorus of Turks, to which we have already alluded, for representation before the duke and duchess. On one occasion a piece called La Fatica was acted at the house of Antonio Maria Sanseverino, whose wife, Margherita of Carpi, was the sister of Elizabeth Gonzaga's beloved companion, Emilia Pia, and herself a learned and cultivated princess. On another a representation described as La Pazienza was given before the court, in honour of a visit which Cardinal Federigo Sanseverino paid to Milan.

Music, as Calmeta tells us, was another art that flourished in an especial manner at the Milanese court. Both Lodovico and his wife were passionately fond of music, and the delicious melodies that daily resounded through their palace halls were the theme alike of chronicler and poet. When first Lorenzo de Medici had sent Leonardo to his friend's court to charm the Moro's ears with the surpassing sweetness of his playing, he had brought with him a well-known musician and maker of instruments, Atalante Migliorotti, who stood high in Lodovico's favour, and spent much of his time at Milan. We find Isabella d'Este writing to her friend, Niccolo da Correggio, in 1493, begging him to procure her the loan of a silver lyre, given him by Atalante, that she may learn to play this instrument; and in the following year the marchioness herself stood godmother to the Florentine musician's infant daughter, who was called Isabella after her illustrious sponsor. And in 1492 we find Lodovico writing to thank Francesco Gonzaga for allowing a certain Narcisso, who was in the Marquis of Mantua's service, to visit Milan, and saying what exquisite pleasure this singer's voice has afforded him. The following summer, Isabella, in her turn, begged her sister to allow her favourite violinist, Jacopo di San Secondo, to spend a few weeks at Mantua; and on the 7th of July Beatrice wrote to desire his return. "Since you are back at Mantua, I think you will not want Jacopo di San Secondo much longer, and beg you to send him back to Pavia as soon as possible, since his music will be a pleasure to my husband, who is suffering from a slight attack of fever." This Jacopo was a famous violin-player of his day, who had settled at the Moro's court, and who after Lodovico's fall left Milan for Rome, where he became the friend of Raphael and Castiglione, and is said to have served as model for the laurel-crowned Apollo of the Parnassus, in the Vatican Stanze. Another of Beatrice's favourite singers was Angelo Testagrossa, a beautiful youth who sang, we are told, like a seraph, and who, after the death of this princess, accepted Isabella's pressing invitation to Mantua, where he composed songs and gave her lessons on the lute. Testagrossa is said to have sung in the Spanish style, which was much in vogue at Milan, where a Spaniard named Pedro Maria was director of the palace concerts, and is frequently mentioned in Bellincioni's poems. The priest Franchino Gaffuri, as already stated, occupied the first chair of music ever founded in Italy. Besides this master's works on music, another treatise on harmony, composed by a priest named Florentio, and dedicated to Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, is preserved in the Trivulzian Library, with a fine miniature of Leonardo playing the lyre as frontispiece.

Both the Flemish priest Cordier, with the wonderful tenor voice, and the accomplished master Cristoforo Romano were, as we know, among the chosen singers who accompanied Beatrice on her travels. And there was one more gifted artist, who, like Atalante Migliorotti, was both a skilled musician and a mechanic, and whose whole life was devoted to the construction of musical instruments of the choicest quality, Lorenzo Gusnasco of Pavia. It was Lodovico Moro who first discovered the rare talents of this "master of organs," as he was styled by his contemporaries, and it was for Beatrice's use that he began to make those wonderful clavichords and lutes and viols that made his name famous throughout Italy. In his hands the manufacture of musical instruments was carried to the highest pitch of excellence. He grudged no labour and spared no pains to make his work perfect. The choicest ebony and ivory, the most precious woods and delicate strings were sought out by him; the best scholars supplied him with Greek and Latin epigrams to be inscribed upon his organs and clavichords. In his opinion both material and shape were of the utmost importance, because, as he wrote to Isabella d'Este, "beauty of form is everything," "perche ne la forma sta il tuto." The work of this gifted maker naturally acquired a rare value in the eyes of his contemporaries. Sabba da Castiglione and Teseo Albonese praise him as the man who, above all others, has learnt the secret of combining lovely melodies with beauteous form, just as a divine soul is enshrined in a fair body. Painters and scholars alike took delight in Lorenzo's company. He was the intimate friend of Giovanni Bellini and Andrea Mantegna, of Pietro Bembo and Aldo Manuzio, of Leonardo and Isabella d'Este. It was in these festive days, in the Castello of Pavia, that Lorenzo da Pavia first met both the great Florentine and the accomplished princess who set so high a store on his friendship. For more than twenty years Isabella corresponded regularly with this gifted artist, and employed him not only to make organs and lutes for her, but to buy antiques and cameos, Murano glass and tapestry, choice pictures and rare books. Whether she wished for a fantasia, or Holy Family from the hand of Gian Bellini, or a choice edition of Dante or Petrarch from the press of Aldo Manuzio, it was to Messer Lorenzo that the request was addressed. In 1494, the Pavian master moved to Venice, where he found it easier to procure materials for his trade, and was able to carry on his work on a larger scale. By this time his fame had spread far and wide through Italy. He made an organ for Matthias Corvinus, the King of Hungary, and another which he himself took to Rome for Pope Leo X. But his relations with Duchess Beatrice were not interrupted by this change of abode. In that same year he made her that clavichord which Isabella describes as the best and most beautiful which she had ever seen, and which she never ceased to covet until, after her sister's death and Lodovico's fall, she obtained possession of the precious instrument.

It was at Venice, in the early spring of 1500, that Leonardo da Vinci once more met this master, whom he had formerly known so well at Pavia and Milan. There the two artists who had lived together for many years in the Moro's service conversed sadly of the terrible catastrophe which had overwhelmed their old master in sudden and inevitable ruin, and mourned over the disastrous fate which had plunged the fair Milanese into confusion and misery. Then, as they looked back on the happy days of their former life, and talked of their old companions, the painter brought out a drawing which Lorenzo immediately recognized as the portrait of Isabella d'Este, the illustrious princess, who was proud to call herself their friend.

"Leonardo," he wrote the next day to the Marchesana, "is here in Venice, and has shown me a portrait of your Highness, which is as natural and lifelike as possible."[27] This drawing, which the princess describes in a letter to the painter as being ni carbone and not in colours, is now one of the treasures of the Louvre, and has an inestimable value, both as the work of Leonardo and as a genuine portrait of the most brilliant lady of the Renaissance.

FOOTNOTES:

[24] Uzielli, Ricerche, i.: Renier, Gaspare Visconti.

[25] Gazette des B. Arts, 1879, p. 514.

[26] Renier, Sonetti di Pistoia p. 35.

[27] A. Baschet, Aldo Manuzio, pp. 70-75.



CHAPTER XIII

Visit of Duke Ercole to Milan, and of Isabella d'Este—Election of Pope Alexander VI.—Bribery of the Cardinals—Influence of Ascanio Sforza over the new Pope, and satisfaction of Lodovico—Hunting-parties at Pavia and Vigevano—Fetes at Milan—Visit of Isabella to Genoa—Lodovico's letters—Piero de Medici—King Ferrante's jealousy of the alliance between Rome and Milan.

1492

That summer Isabella d'Este at length accomplished her long-intended visit to her sister, whom she had not seen since the wedding fetes. Early in July she received a pressing invitation from Lodovico himself, urging her to accompany her father, Duke Ercole, who was expected at Milan towards the end of the month. But, as she wrote to her husband, who was then in Venice, it was quite impossible for her to start on her journey at this early date. In the first place, half of her household was in bed, ladies and servants alike were suffering from a feverish epidemic which had attacked the whole court; and in the second place, many preparations were necessary if she were to appear at Milan in state worthy of the Marquis of Mantua's wife. "Of course, if you wish it," she adds proudly, "I will set off alone, in my chemise, but this I think you will hardly desire."

Signor Lodovico's invitation, however, was gladly accepted, and Isabella made every preparation to start by the middle of August. She sent to Ferrara, urging her favourite goldsmith, as he loved her, to finish a necklace of a hundred links by next week, and begging him to lend her some more jewelled chains for the use of her courtiers and maids-of-honour. And the same day she wrote to the Venetian merchant Taddeo Contarini, excusing herself for her delay in paying for some jewels which she had lately bought, since her visit to Milan necessarily entailed heavy expenses. By the 10th of August she was able to start on her journey, and spent a night on the way at Canneto with her kinswoman, Antonia del Balzo, wife of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga of Bozzolo, who came to meet her with two beautiful daughters. "Messer Andrea Mantegna himself," exclaimed the marchioness, "could not paint fairer maidens!" On the 12th, she reached Cremona, where Lodovico's cousin, Francesco Sforza, was awaiting her, and a crowd of people hailed her arrival with enthusiasm. After spending a night in the Episcopal palace, she went on to Pizzighettone, where she discovered that her best hat had been forgotten, and sent a messenger back to Mantua with the key of her black chest, desiring one of her servants to look out her hat with the jewelled feather and send it after her by a flying courier. On the 15th, the Marchesana reached Pavia, where both the Duchesses of Milan and Bari rode out to meet her, and placing her between them, after many embraces, conducted her through the city. Here the two dukes and all the ambassadors were awaiting her, and a troop of trumpeters and outriders escorted the party up to the castle gates. That evening she supped alone with Beatrice, and the hours flew by in delightful intercourse. Both sisters were in the highest spirits, and Isabella anticipated the greatest pleasure from her visit, only regretting that her husband had not been able to accompany her.

"The only news here," she wrote next day to the marquis, "is the election of this new Pope, which fills every one with great joy, and is said to be entirely due to Monsignore Ascanio, who will, they say, be the new Vice-Chancellor."

On the 25th of July, Innocent VIII. had breathed his last, and on the 6th of August, the conclave met to elect a new Pope. Among the twenty-three Cardinals of which the Sacred College then consisted, three were prominent candidates for the papal tiara. First of all there was Cardinal Roderigo Borgia, the oldest and wealthiest of the group, who held the three most important archbishoprics in Spain, as well as innumerable benefices in the rest of Christendom, and whose scandalous vices amid the general corruption of morals in Rome offered no bar to his advancement to the chair of St. Peter. Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, the rich and powerful brother of Lodovico Moro, was the second candidate for the tiara; while the third was Giuliano della Rovere, Cardinal of S. Pietro in Vincula, whose well-known French sympathies, as well as the influential position which he had occupied in Rome under his uncle, Sixtus IV., made him unpopular with most of his colleagues. When Ascanio Sforza saw that he could not ensure his own election, he threw his whole influence on the side of Borgia, who lavished his gold and promises freely among the other members of the Sacred College, with the result that he was elected on the 11th of August, and proclaimed Pope under the title of Alexander VI. The secret Archives of the Vatican[28] give full particulars of this election, which was obtained by the most flagrant simony, and proved a prelude to the days of confusion and misery which Fra Girolamo Savonarola, the Dominican of Florence, daily prophesied were in store for the Church. Ascanio Sforza was the first to reap the reward of his base compliance. The new Pope loaded him with favours, and openly acknowledged his indebtedness both to him and Lodovico, while at Milan the event was hailed with public rejoicings, and joy-bells and solemn processions celebrated the accession of this pontiff, who was destined to prove the most bitter enemy of the House of Sforza.

"Signor Lodovico," wrote the Ferrarese envoy, our old friend Giacomo Trotti, to his master, "is in the highest spirits at the success of his brother's efforts. Cardinal Ascanio is likely, people say, to administer all the papal estates, and will be every bit as much pope as if he sat in Alexander's chair."

Isabella's letters to her husband give the same impression. On the 19th of August she wrote from Pavia—

"To-day I dined with Signor Lodovico and my sister in their rooms, according to our usual habit of taking our meals together, sometimes in my rooms, sometimes in theirs. After dinner he dismissed all the company, excepting the Duke and Duchess of Milan, myself, and my companions, whom Signor Lodovico invited to remain, and with his own lips he read aloud a letter from his ambassador in Rome, saying that His Highness had sent for him, and addressed him in the following terms: 'Take note of my words. I acknowledge that I have been made pope by the action of Monsignore Ascanio, contrary to all expectations, and in a truly miraculous manner. I mean to show myself the most grateful of popes. It is my pleasure that he should sit in my chair, and dispose of my spiritual and temporal estate as if I were myself,' with many other affectionate words. Cardinal Ascanio has already received the first proofs of his gratitude, since, besides the vice-chancellorship, the Pope has given him his own furnished house in Rome, as well as the city of Nepi, and many other things. And His Highness has already dined with him in private.

"Besides this, Signor Lodovico read us a letter which the Pope had written with his own hand to Monsignore Ascanio, complaining that he had not seen him for half a day, a period which seemed to him more like a thousand years, and begging him to come to him at once, since he had many things of the utmost importance to settle with him. After describing this interview, the said Monsignore went on to tell how warmly His Holiness spoke of Signor Lodovico, saying that he was determined to maintain the most cordial relations with His Highness, and profit in all cases by his advice, and only wished that he were seated in his chair. All of this, my dear lord, affords the court here reason for the greatest rejoicings, and I have expressed both in word and gesture the pleasure which your Highness and I take in these things, because of our close union with Signor Lodovico."

The marchioness goes on to describe a hunting-party, in which the whole court had taken part.

"Yesterday, about four o'clock, all of these lords and ladies rode out with me to a place called S. Pirono, some four miles from Pavia, and had fine sport. White tents were erected in the meadows on the edge of the forest, and in the midst a pergola of green boughs, under which the duchess and I took our places, the duke and others, whether on horseback or on foot, occupying other tents. One stag of the eight which were found there, ran out of the wood, followed by eight of the Duke of Bari's dogs. Messer Galeazzo galloped after it with a long spear, and killed it before our eyes. To-morrow we dine at Belriguardo, and go on to supper at Vigevano, where we expect my father, who is to arrive on Thursday."

Duke Ercole had reached Pavia on the 4th of August, and had paid a visit to the Certosa with his son-in-law, after which he returned to Ferrara, where his presence was required, owing to urgent affairs of State connected with the Pope's death. Now he once more joined his daughters, accompanied by his son Alfonso and a troop of actors and pages skilled in singing and reciting poetry. Among them was young Ariosto, the bard of the Orlando Furioso, who was to celebrate the praises of all the princely personages present at Pavia and Vigevano, in his great poem, and who on this occasion probably met Leonardo for the first time. Fetes and hunting-parties now succeeded each other every day. Even the King of Naples' ambassadors went out hunting, and one of them succeeded in wounding a wild boar. Isabella sent her husband wonderful accounts of the thrilling adventures and splendid sport which afforded the two sisters such unfeigned delight.

"To-day," she wrote on the 27th of August, "we went out hunting in a beautiful valley which seemed as if it were expressly created for the spectacle. All the stags were driven into the wooded valley of the Ticino, and closed in on every side by the hunters, so that they were forced to swim the river and ascend the mountains, where the ladies watched them from under the pergola and green tents set up on the hillside. We could see every movement of the animals along the valley and up the mountain-side, where the dogs chased them across the river; but only two climbed the hillside and ran far out of sight, so that we did not see them killed, but Don Alfonso and Messer Galeazzo both gave them chase, and succeeded in wounding them. Afterwards came a doe with its young one, which the dogs were not allowed to follow. Many wild boars and goats were found, but only one boar was killed before our eyes, and one wild goat, which fell to my share. Last of all came a wolf, which made fine somersaults in the air as it ran past us, and amused the whole company; but none of its arts availed the poor beast, which soon followed its comrades to the slaughter. And so, with much laughter and merriment, we returned home, to end the day at supper, and give the body a share in the recreations of the mind."[29]

Four venison pasties were despatched to Mantua the next day as a present to the marquis, whose absence from these expeditions his wife never ceased to regret, and for whom, at least in these early years of her married life, she had a genuine affection.

"All of these days," she writes on the 22nd, "I have been trying to write to Your Highness, but have never been able to find time, as I am always in my sister's and Signor Lodovico's company. Now I have at length snatched a moment, and hasten to pay you a visit in mind, since I cannot do so in person. For greater even than all the pleasures which I am enjoying here, is the satisfaction I receive when I hear that you are well and happy." A week later she wrote again: "It really seems an age since I saw Your Highness, and, pleasant and delightful as it is here, I begin to get a little tired of these scenes, but rejoice at the prospect of paying a visit to Genoa before long." And in an affectionate letter to her mother, she says that sometimes in the middle of the finest hunt she remembers with a pang how long it is since she has seen her, and how far away she is from Ferrara, and the thought throws a shadow over the brightest sunshine and the gayest pastimes.

After a succession of boar hunts at Novara and Mortara, Lodovico and Beatrice took their guests to Milan on the 15th of September, and Isabella entered the capital on horseback between the two young duchesses, while "the old Duchess Bona," she tells her husband, "and her daughter Madonna Bianca, with many other ladies, were awaiting me in my rooms in the Castello, the same suite which Signor Lodovico occupied at the time of his wedding."

The duke's mother still remained at court, and occupied rooms in the Castello, although she made no secret of her aversion for her powerful brother-in-law, and was secretly intriguing against him with her nephew, Charles VIII. At her request the French king wrote a letter to Lodovico, desiring him to give the duchess's mother leave to come to France for his wife Anne of Brittany's confinement. But the Moro, fearing the effect of Bona's presence at the French court, courteously declined Charles's invitation, alleging as an excuse the fact that both Bona's daughter-in-law, the Duchess Isabella, and her young sister-in-law, his own wife Beatrice, were expecting similar events early in the next year, while her daughter Bianca was of marriageable age and needed her mother's protection. At Milan new pleasures awaited Isabella. Theatrical representations in honour of Duke Ercole, were given by the Delle Torre family and other noble houses, and Isabella spent long days with her sister in the park and beautiful gardens of the Castello, among the roses and fountains which Lodovico loved. He was never tired of beautifying and enlarging the grounds, which now extended three miles round the Castello, and sent to Mantua for a pair of swans to adorn the lake, saying how much he liked to watch the movements of these white-plumed birds upon the water. To his sister-in-law, as Isabella always repeated in her letters, the Moro showed himself the kindest and most generous of hosts, and was unwearied in providing for her amusements and gratification.

"To-day," she writes on the evening after her arrival at Milan, "Signor Lodovico showed me the treasure, which Your Highness saw when you were last here, but which has lately received the addition of two large chests full of ducats, and another full of gold quartz about two and a half feet square. Would to God that we, who are so fond of spending money, possessed as much!"[30]

After which characteristic expression, the Marchesana proceeds to tell her lord that the date of her departure for Genoa has been fixed for the last day of September, and to describe her brother-in-law's preparations for the visit. Before her departure, he made a splendid present, which she describes in a letter written on the 20th of September. "Yesterday Signor Lodovico sent me, with the Duchess of Milan and Bari, to look at some sumptuous brocades which he had seen in the house of one of the richest merchants here. When we came home, he asked me which I considered the finest. I replied that what I had most admired was a certain gold and silver tissue embroidered with the twin towers of the lighthouse in the port of Genoa, bearing the Spanish motto, Tal trabalio mes plases par tal thesauros non perder."

The Moro praised her good taste, saying that he had already had a camora, or robe, made for his wife of this material, and begged her to accept fifteen yards of the same stuff, and wear it for his sake.

"This brocade," wrote Isabella joyfully to her husband, "is worth at least forty ducats a yard!" And without delay she sent for a tailor to cut out the gown, in order that she might wear it once before she left Milan.

The Marchesino Stanga and Count Girolamo Tuttavilla were chosen to escort Isabella to Genoa, where she was received in state by the governor Adorno, and splendidly entertained at the Casa Spinola by the chief citizens. Beatrice's delicate state of health had prevented her from accompanying her sister on this journey, but she still persisted in taking long hunting expeditions, and one day when she and the Moro were staying at Cuzzago, encountered a savage boar which had already wounded several greyhounds.

"My wife," wrote the Moro to his sister-in-law, "came suddenly face to face with this furious beast, and herself gave it the first wound, after which Messer Galeazzo and I followed suit, so that the boar must have had great pleasure in feeling how much trouble it had given us and to what dangers its hunters had been exposed."

The result of this long and fatiguing hunting expedition was that Beatrice fell seriously ill. Lodovico was much alarmed, and sent daily bulletins both to his sister-in-law and to her mother at Ferrara. "There is no fresh news to give you here," he wrote on the 6th of October. "My whole days are spent at the bedside of my dear wife, endeavouring to distract her thoughts and amuse her mind as best I can during her illness."

Isabella, who had intended to return home from Genoa, hurried back to Milan at the news of her sister's illness, and did not leave her until she was convalescent. During these weeks Lodovico showed himself the most devoted and attentive of husbands, and his letters to Isabella are full of the practical jokes and witty dialogues and repartees with which he and Messer Galeazzo amused the duchess. The following letter affords a characteristic specimen of the kind of fooling which these great Renaissance lords and ladies carried on at the expense of the half-witted jesters and buffoons who were attached to their different households:—

"DEAR SISTER AND MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND EXCELLENT LADY,

"You know what good sport we had in the wild boar-hunts at which you were present this last summer. Poor Mariolo, you remember, could not be there, first because he was ill at Milan, and afterwards because he was required to keep my wife company during her illness, and was much distressed to have been absent from these expeditions, when he heard that even the king's ambassadors had wounded a wild boar. And he told us all what great things he would have done, had he only been present. Now that my dearest wife is better, and begins to be able to go out-of-doors again, I thought we would have a little fun at his expense. Some wolves and wild goats having been driven into a wood near La Pecorara, which, as you know, is about a mile from here, on the way to La Sforzesca, Cardinal Sanseverino had a common farm pig shut up in the same enclosure, and the next day we went out hunting, and took Mariolo with us. While we hunted the wolves and wild goats, we left the pig to him, and he, taking it for a wild boar, chased it with a great hue and cry along the woods. If your Highness could only have seen him running after this pig, you would have died of laughter, the more so that he gallantly tried to spear it three times over, and only succeeded in touching its side once. And seeing how proud he was of his prowess, we said to him, 'Don't you know, Mariolo, that you have been hunting a tame pig?' He stood dumb with astonishment, and stared as if he did not know what we could mean, and so we all came home infinitely amused, and every one asked Mariolo if he did not know the difference between a wild boar and a tame pig!

"Your brother, LODOVICO MARIA SFORTIA.[31]

Vigevano, December 6, 1492."

The most remarkable thing about these letters is that a prince who was engaged in so much and varied business, who himself conducted a vast correspondence in which the most intricate diplomatic questions of the day were involved with his envoys at the different European courts, and personally superintended every detail of administration, while at the same time he gave minute instructions to the hundreds of architects, sculptors, and painters in his service, should have found time to write these bantering epistles to his sister-in-law. One of these letters, for instance, is devoted to a long account of the jokes that passed between Messer Galeazzo and the duchess at table, how Messer Galeazzo begged to be allowed a taste of the duchess's soup, and complained that he was forgotten now that the Marchesana was no longer there, and how Beatrice told him she would write and tell her sister, to which he replied, "Tell her whatever you like, as long as I get my soup!"

Yet at this very moment, when he penned these joking letters to Isabella, Lodovico was engaged in some of the most difficult and anxious negotiations with other States.

During Ercole d'Este's visit, the question of sending the customary congratulations to the new Pope had been discussed, and Lodovico had suggested that the ambassadors of the four allied powers—Milan, Naples, Florence, and Ferrara—should send a joint deputation, both as a mark of special honour to His Holiness, and as a public manifesto to foreign powers of the strength of these united States. The step, he was confident, would produce a good effect both on the King of the Romans and Charles VIII. of France, whose designs on Italy were already exciting alarm. Both the Duke of Ferrara and King Ferrante, who had been consulted through his ambassadors, when they came to hunt at Vigevano, agreed readily to Lodovico's proposal, and the only person to raise objections was Piero de' Medici, who had lately succeeded his father as chief magistrate of Florence, and pretended to the same power. The death of his friend Lorenzo had been sincerely deplored by Lodovico, who, before many months had passed, began to discover how weak and contemptible a character his son possessed, and had already consulted his astrologer as to the influence which this young man would have upon his own fortunes. Now the vain and foolish youth refused to join in the proposed embassy to the Vatican, because he wished to appear alone before Alexander VI. and impress that new Pope by the magnificence of his apparel and retinue. Not content with frustrating the Moro's plan, Piero induced King Ferrante to withdraw his consent to the joint deputation, a step which did not tend to improve the strained relations that had existed for some time past between Naples and Milan. Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere had retired to Ostia in disgust at the election of the Borgia Pope, leaving Ascanio Sforza all powerful at the Vatican, and the Pope availed himself of every occasion to show his friendship for Lodovico. Already a marriage had been proposed between Alexander's daughter Lucrezia Borgia and Giovanni Sforza, Prince of Pesaro, and the King of Naples looked with alarm on the friendly relations that existed between the Holy See and Milan. "Alexander VI.," said Ferrante, bitterly, "has no respect for the Holy Church, and cares for nothing but the aggrandisement of his own family. Rome will soon become a Milanese camp."

But while Lodovico Sforza looked with suspicion on the intrigues of Ferrante's son Alfonso, and was anxious to strengthen his alliance with other powers, he had as yet no thought of inviting the French to invade Italy. On the contrary, the whole tenor of his private letters and public despatches was marked by the same anxiety to maintain cordial relations with the different Italian states, in order that they might present a united front to foreign enemies. However friendly were his advances to the King of France, he had never by word or hint given him the slightest encouragement to invade Italy or assert his claim to the crown of Naples. It was only when he saw peace restored between Charles and Maximilian, on the one hand, and on the other a treaty of alliance concluded between the Pope and the King of Naples, that he began to tremble for his own safety, and suddenly changed his policy. But for the moment counsels of peace prevailed, and the ambitious Moro could look forward with hope and confidence to the coming year, that promised to bring him new joys, and perchance the fulfilment of his long-cherished desire, in the birth of a son and heir.

FOOTNOTES:

[28] Pastor's "History of the Popes," vol. v. p. 383, etc.

[29] Luzio-Renier, op. cit., p. 350, etc.

[30] Luzio-Renier, op. cit., p. 356.

[31] Luzio-Renier, op. cit., p. 361.



CHAPTER XIV

Birth of Beatrice's first-born son—The Duchess of Ferrara at Milan—Fetes and rejoicings at court and in the Castello—The court moves to Vigevano—Beatrice's wardrobe—Her son's portrait—Letters to her mother and sister—Lodovico's plans for a visit to Ferrara and Venice.

1493

On the 25th of January, at four o'clock on a winter's afternoon, Beatrice gave birth to a son in the Rocchetta of the castle of Milan.

"Signor Lodovico's joy at the birth of his first-born son is beyond all description," wrote Giacomo Trotti to his master, Duke Ercole. Duchess Leonora was present on the occasion, and herself announced the happy event in a letter to her daughter Isabella, who promptly sent a special envoy with her congratulations to the Duke of Bari and her sister. A fortnight before, Leonora had set out for Pavia, where Trotti had been sent to meet her, and crowds shouting Moro! Moro! had everywhere hailed her arrival. Three days later, she reached Milan in time to make the last preparations before the birth of her grandson. The child, a fine healthy boy, received the name of Ercole, in compliment to his grandfather, the Duke of Ferrara, but was afterwards called Maximilian, when the emperor became his godfather after his marriage to Bianca Sforza. The auspicious event was hailed with public rejoicings. The bells rang for six days, and solemn processions were held, and thanksgivings offered up in all the churches and abbeys of the Milanese. Prisoners for debt were released, and the advent of the new-born prince was celebrated with as great honour as if his father had been the reigning duke. Already some of the courtiers attached to Giangaleazzo's household began to whisper that the birth of Francesco, the little Count of Pavia, two years before, had been celebrated with far less pomp. But in the same week Duchess Isabella, who was residing in the Corte ducale of the Castello, gave birth to a daughter, who received the name of Bona, so that, as Lodovico informed the foreign ambassadors, there was double cause for rejoicings.

Full and elaborate details of the ceremonies observed on this occasion, and of the splendid fetes that attended the recovery of the two duchesses, were sent to Isabella d'Este at Mantua by her mother's maid of honour, Teodora degli Angeli. Every particular of the decorations in the rooms of the Castello, the colour of the hangings and the draperies of the cradle, the gowns worn by the different princesses at their successive appearances in public, was faithfully reported for Isabella's benefit. On the eve of the young prince's birth, the sumptuous cradle and layette prepared for his reception were shown to the Ambassadors, chief magistrates, and nobles of Milan, and displayed on tables covered with gold and crimson brocade, lined with Spanish cat, in the Sala del Tesoro, adjoining Beatrice's rooms. All through the next fortnight costly gifts for the young duchess and her new-born babe were received from the magistrates of Milan and the chief towns of the duchy, and principal courtiers. On Sunday, the 4th of February, the ambassadors, councillors, magistrates and court officials, together with many noble Milanese ladies, were invited to present their congratulations to Beatrice, and that evening the gifts presented to her were publicly displayed in the Sala del Tesoro. The doors of the shelves along the walls were thrown open, and the splendid gold and silver plate, the massive jars, bowls, vases, and dishes, which they contained, were ranged in tiers on a stand, protected by iron bars and guarded by two men-at-arms wearing ducal liveries. The seneschal of Lodovico's household, Ambrogio da Corte, received the guests at the doors of the Rocchetta, paying each of them the honours due to his rank, and conducted them to the Sala del Tesoro. There they were received by stewards clad in silver brocade, who led them through a suite of rooms adorned with gilded columns and hung with white damask curtains richly embroidered with equestrian figures and other Sforzesque devices, into the presence of the duchess. This chamber was still more richly decorated than the others. "Indeed, it is calculated," writes the admiring maid of honour, "that the tapestries and hangings here are worth 70,000 ducats." Two pages guarded the doors, and within, near the fireplace, Duchess Leonora sat at her daughter's bedside, accompanied by two or three ladies. Beatrice's own couch was gorgeously adorned with draperies of mulberry colour and gold, and a crimson canopy bearing the names of Lodovico and Beatrice in massive gold, with red and white rosettes and a fringe of golden balls which alone was valued at 8000 ducats.

"All," exclaimed Teodora—"bello e galante, beyond words!"[32]

After paying their respects to the illustrious mother, the guests passed on into the room of the new-born child—la camera del Puttino. Here the walls were hung with brocades of the Sforza colours, red, white, and blue, and tapestries, embroidered with all manner of beasts and birds and fantastic designs. But the golden cradle itself, which had been made in Milan, was the most beautiful thing of all, with its four slender columns and pale blue silk canopy enriched with gold cords and fringes. "Truly rich and elegant beyond anything that I have ever seen!" writes the ecstatic maid of honour, whose eyes were fairly dazzled by the sight of all these splendours, and who, as she told Isabella, was lost in wonder and admiration at the magnificence of the Milanese court. After a glimpse of the royal infant, sleeping under his coverlid of cloth of gold, watched over by Beatrice's ladies, the visitors were conducted into Signor Lodovico's hall of audience, where he received the ambassadors and chief councillors, and through the adjoining room, occupied by his favourite astrologer, Messer Ambrogio da Rosate—"without whom nothing can be done here," remarks Teodora—back to the entrance hall, where the seneschal was in waiting to escort them to the gates.

Messer Ambrogio, as Teodora opined, had to be consulted before the duchess was allowed to leave her bed. This was on Wednesday, the 24th of February, on which day both the royal ladies issued from their rooms at the same hour. "Now at length," wrote the lively maid of honour to Isabella, "I am able to inform your Highness that the illustrious Madonna your sister has left her room, and those poor tormented souls whose task it has been for so many nights to bring in shawls to spread over the presents, are at last freed from their labours."

That same day, both the young duchesses went in state to S. Maria delle Grazie, to return thanks and praise to God for the birth of their children. The royal ladies rode in the Duchess of Ferrara's chariot, a sumptuous carriage hung with purple, and were accompanied by Leonora herself and five other Sforza princesses—Alfonso d'Este's wife, Anna; Duke Giangaleazzo's sister, Bianca Sforza; Signor Lodovico's daughter, Bianca, the youthful bride of Galeazzo Sanseverino; Madonna Beatrice—Niccolo da Correggio's mother—and Madonna Camilla Sforza of Pesaro. The toilettes worn on this occasion were exceptionally rich, as Teodora relates. "Our Madonna, Duchess Leonora, wore black, as usual, but was very gallantly adorned with her finest jewels. The Duchess of Bari had a lovely vest of gold brocade worked in red and blue silk, and a blue silk mantle trimmed with long-haired fur, and her hair coiled as usual in a silken net. Duchess Isabella wore gold brocade and green velvet enriched with crimson cords and silver thread, and a mantle of crimson velvet lined with grey silk. Both ladies were covered with jewels. Madonna Anna's camora was of cloth-of-gold with crimson sleeves, lined with fur and edged with gold fringe. One fine invention which I noticed was a new trimming made of grey lamb's wool, but there was no end to the variety of colours and fringes or to the beauty of the jewels."

After hearing a solemn Te Deum and other canticles very beautifully sung by the choir of the ducal chapel, the whole party drove to the house of Count Della Torre, who entertained the dukes and duchesses, ambassadors and councillors, and all the chief gentlemen and ladies of the court at a splendid banquet. On the following day the duchesses and princesses were entertained at a feast given by Niccolo's mother, Madonna Beatrice, in her rooms in the Castello, and appeared in fresh costumes and still more splendid jewels. On Friday no fete was given, but most of the youthful princes and princesses went out hunting in the park, and three stags were killed in the course of the day. Beatrice appeared in a riding-habit of rose-tinted cloth, and a large jewel instead of a feather in her silk hat, and rode on a black horse. Madonna Anna wore black and gold, with a pearl-embroidered crimson hat, and her sister Bianca also appeared on horseback, while Duchess Leonora spent the day with old Duchess Bona in her rooms.

On Saturday a fete was given at the house of Gaspare di Pusterla. Beatrice looked particularly charming with a feather of rubies in her hair, and a crimson satin robe embroidered with a pattern of knots and compasses and many ribbons, "after her favourite fashion," adds Teodora. It is these very ribbons that we still see to-day, both in the few portraits that we have of the short-lived duchess, and in the marble effigy upon her tomb. Isabella of Aragon appeared on this occasion, in a gown embroidered with books and letters, a favourite device of Renaissance ladies; while Anna Sforza was all in white, "because it was Saturday," explained Teodora, and she had vowed to wear no colours on that day for a certain number of weeks. This was a common practice with many Italian princesses who had lately recovered from illness or given birth to a child, and one to which we find frequent allusion in the correspondence of Isabella d'Este. On Saturday all the court attended high mass at S. Maria delle Grazie, and a last entertainment was given, this time by Duchess Beatrice herself, in the Rocchetta.

The next day, Lodovico took his wife and mother-in-law, with the Duchess of Milan and their other guests, to Vigevano, to enjoy a little rest and country air. But here fresh amusements awaited them, and the splendour of Beatrice's wardrobe and the treasures of her camerini filled the Ferrarese visitors with wonder and envy. On the 6th of March, Bernardo Prosperi wrote to tell Isabella that our Madonna had been conducted by the jester Mariolo over Beatrice's "guardaroba," and had seen all the splendid gowns, pelisses, and mantles which had been made for her during the last two years, about eighty-four in all, "besides many more," adds the writer, "which your sister the duchess has in Milan." The costliness of the materials, and the rich and intricate embroidery which covered satins and brocades, made Leonora exclaim that she felt as if she were in a sacristy looking at priests' vestments and altar frontals. After examining all of these fine clothes, the duchess was taken into two other camerini, where Beatrice, after the fashion of great ladies in those days, had collected her favourite books and object d'art. One cabinet was full of Murano glass of delicate shape and colour, of porcelain dishes, and majolica from Faenza or Gubbio. Another held ivories, crystals, and enamels engraved in the same style as Lodovico's vases in the treasury at Milan. Perfumes and washes filled another case, while a separate cabinet was devoted to hunting implements, dog-collars, pouches, flasks, horns, knives, and hoods for falcons. "There was, indeed," added Duchess Leonora's attendant, "enough to fill many shops."

The evenings at Vigevano were enlivened with music and singing, and, by Lodovico's orders, a band of Spanish musicians who had been sent from Rome to Milan by his brother, Cardinal Ascanio, came to play before Beatrice and her mother, who both admired the sweet strains of their large viols, and examined the shape and size of their instruments with curiosity. On Sunday theatrical representations were given, and Beatrice appeared in a wonderful new gown made of gold-striped cloth, with a crimson vest laced with fine silver thread "arranged," wrote an admiring lady-in-waiting, "in the most graceful fashion. This your sister wore," she adds, "because it was Carnival Sunday; but even now, although Lent has begun for most of us, Carnival is not yet over for these highnesses, since Signor Lodovico and his duchess, Messer Galeazzo, the Duke and Duchess of Milan, and many of their courtiers, have received dispensations from Rome to eat meat all the same."[33]

Meanwhile Beatrice's little son was growing into a strong healthy child, and her letters are full of the beauty and perfections of her precious babe. Again and again, in her notes to Isabella, she talks of "my son Ercole," with all a young mother's proud delight.

"I cannot tell you," she writes to her sister, "how well Ercole is looking, and how big and plump he has grown lately. Each time I see him after a few days' absence, I am amazed and delighted to see how much he has grown and improved, and I often wish that you could be here to see him, as I am quite sure you would never be able to stop petting and kissing him."

Isabella, on her part, wrote warmly to her sister in return, saying how much she longed to see her beautiful boy—"il suo bello puttino" and "not only to see him, but to hold him in my arms and enjoy his company after my own fashion."

Duchess Leonora returned to Ferrara at the end of another week, and one of Beatrice's first anxieties was to have a portrait of her child painted for her mother. On the 16th of April, she wrote from her favourite country house Villa Nova, where she had brought the babe to enjoy the sweet spring air—

MOST ILLUSTRIOUS MADAMA MINE, AND DEAREST MOTHER,

"Your Highness must forgive my delay in writing to you. The reason was that every day I have been hoping the painter would bring me the portrait of Ercole, which my husband and I now send you by this post. And, I can assure you, he is much bigger than this picture makes him appear, for it is already more than a week since it was painted. But I do not send the measure of his height, because people here tell me if I measure him he will never grow! Or else I certainly would let you have it. And my lord and I, both of us, commend ourselves to your Highness, and I kiss your hand, my dearest mother.

"Your obedient servant and child, BEATRICE SFORTIA DA ESTE, with my own hand.[34]

To the most illustrious Lady my dearest Mother, Signora Duchessa di Ferrara."

The baby's portrait was forwarded to Mantua for Isabella's inspection, together with a letter from her mother, saying—

"I enclose a drawing which has been sent to us from Milan, to show how well our grandson thrives, and certainly, if we have been already told how flourishing he is, this gives us a living witness to his beauty and well-being. And if you ask me whether the portrait is a good one, I need only tell you who has sent it and who is the master who has done this drawing, and then I am sure you will be satisfied."

Leonora's words excite our wonder as to who the artist could be whose name of itself would be enough to satisfy Isabella of the excellence of the work. As Signor Luzio has already remarked,[35] it is impossible to read these words without thinking that Leonardo must have been the artist employed by Lodovico on this occasion to take a sketch of his infant son. But the drawing of Ercole has vanished, and the painter's name remains unknown.

Another name which recurs frequently in Beatrice's letters to both her mother and sister at this time, is that of a Spanish embroiderer, named Maestro Jorba, noted for his rare skill, who was in the service of the Duchess of Ferrara, and was left by her at Vigevano in April, to design hangings and gowns for Lodovico's wife. On the 14th of March, Jorba was sent back to Ferrara with a letter from Beatrice to her mother, expressing her satisfaction with his work; and in April, Leonora sent her a new design for a camora which the clever Spaniard had invented.

"I have to-night," wrote Beatrice in reply, "received the design of the camora made by Jorba, which I admire very much, and have just shown it to my embroiderer, as your Highness advised. He remarks that the flowers of the pattern are all the same size, and since the camora will naturally be cut narrower above than below, the flowers ought to be altered in the same proportion. I have not yet decided what will be the best thing to do, but thought I would tell you what Schavezi says, and wait to hear what you advise, and then do whatever you think best."

Later in the same year, we find Maestro Jorba once more at Milan, working for Duchess Beatrice, much to the annoyance of her sister Isabella, who was anxious to secure the services of the skilful embroiderer, and offered him a salary of two hundred ducats a year if he would settle at Mantua. Jorba, however, seems to have preferred to remain at Ferrara, and only paid occasional visits to the princesses of Este at Milan and Mantua.

Throughout April, all the tailors and embroiderers, goldsmiths and jewellers, in Beatrice's service were busy making preparations for a visit which their mistress was shortly to pay to her old home. Before Leonora left Vigevano the Moro had promised to bring his wife and child to Ferrara in May, and had decided to send Beatrice to Venice, with her mother Duchess Leonora, who was going to spend a few days with her son Alfonso and his wife, at the palace of the Estes on the Canal Grande. He had further intimated his intention of paying a visit to his sister-in-law at Mantua on the way. Isabella, who had just accepted an invitation from the Doge, Agostino Barbarigo, to visit Venice for the Feast of the Ascension, was somewhat dismayed when the news reached her, and looked forward with no little alarm to the prospect of entertaining her splendid brother-in-law. She wrote off without delay to consult her husband on the subject—

"Madama sends me word that Signor Lodovico has decided to visit Ferrara in May, and gives me the list of the company who are to attend him, which I enclose for you to see. For my part I can hardly believe it, but shall be sorry if I am at Venice when such fetes are being held at Ferrara. Your Highness must decide what you think is best for the honour of our house, since when I was at Milan Signor Lodovico told me that if he came to Ferrara he would visit Mantua on the way. No doubt you will do what seems to be most prudent, and will let me know your wishes. But perhaps I may be mistaken.[36]

"Mantua, 9th of April, 1493."

Isabella was still more disturbed when she heard that Lodovico intended to send his wife to Venice. Her pride shrank from the bare notion of appearing before the Doge and Senate at the same time as her sister, whose sumptuous apparel and numerous suite she felt herself unable to rival. "Nothing in the world," she wrote to Gianfrancesco, who was then at Venice as captain-general of the Republic's forces, "will induce me to go to Venice at the same time as my sister the duchess."

And she insisted on her desire to appear before the Doge, not as a guest and foreign visitor, but as a daughter and servant, begging that she might be treated without any pomp or ceremony.

Fortunately, whether from political motives, or from his usual attention to his astrologer's advice, Lodovico deferred his visit to Ferrara until the middle of May, and himself wrote a courteous letter to Isabella, expressing his regret that he would after all be unable to accept her invitation to Mantua, since he found himself obliged to visit Parma. The marchioness, thus happily relieved from her fears, set off for Ferrara on the 4th of May, and proceeded to Venice a week later, having doubled the number of her retinue, and strained every nerve to present an appearance which should not offer too marked a contrast with Beatrice's regal splendours.

FOOTNOTES:

[32] L. Porro in A. S. L., ix. 327.

[33] Porro, op. cit., p. 330.

[34] A. Venturi in A. S. L., xii. 227.

[35] Archivio Storico Lombardo, xvii. 368.

[36] Luzio-Renier, op. cit., p. 365.



CHAPTER XV

Lodovico's ambitious designs—Isabella of Aragon appeals to her father—Breach between Naples and Milan—Alliance between the Pope, Venice, and Milan proclaimed—Mission of Erasmo Brasca to the king of the Romans—Journey of Lodovico and Beatrice to Ferrara—Fetes and tournaments—Visit to Belriguardo, and return of Lodovico to Milan—Arrival of Belgiojoso from France.

1493

The birth of Beatrice's son marks a new development in her husband's policy. Up to that time the Moro seems to have been content to govern in his nephew's name, and had rejected with horror King Ferrante's suggestion that he should depose Gian Galeazzo as incapable, and reign in his stead. But whether it was that Beatrice in her turn had become ambitious to bear the title of Duchess of Milan and see her son recognized as heir to the crown, or whether the birth of his son stirred up new desires in her lord's breast, it is certain that the spring of 1493 was a turning-point in Lodovico's career. From this time he began to aim at reigning in his nephew's stead, and applied himself in good earnest to obtain legal recognition of his title. In the first place, the birth of Ercole, and the extraordinary honours paid to the child and his mother on this occasion, had the effect of exasperating Isabella of Aragon, and exciting new and bitter rivalry between herself and Beatrice. Gian Galeazzo, sunk in idle pleasures and debauchery, had long ceased to take any interest in the government of Milan, or to show the least wish to assert himself. He was recognized on all hands as altogether unfit to rule—in the words of the historian Guicciardini, "incapacissimo." But with his wife it was different. In public she controlled her rage and appeared with her cousin at fetes and state ceremonies, but in private she wept bitter tears. Already her father, Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, had begged his sister Duchess Leonora and her husband to try and induce Lodovico to restore the Duke and Duchess of Milan to their rightful position, and the good duchess, who was on friendly terms with Bona of Savoy and with her own niece, Isabella of Aragon, did all in her power to soften the rivalry between the two young princesses. But after her departure from Milan, Isabella's ill-concealed anger broke out, and, according to Corio, she wrote the memorable Latin letter to her father.

"It was then," writes the Milanese chronicler, "that the duchess, being a princess of great spirit, refused to endure the humiliations to which she and her husband were exposed, and wrote to Alfonso her father, after this manner: 'Many years have passed, my father, since you first wedded me to Gian Galeazzo, on the understanding that he would in due time succeed to the sceptre of his father and ascend the throne of Galeazzo and Francesco Sforza and of his Visconti ancestors. He is now of age and is himself a father; but he is not yet in possession of his dominions, and can only obtain the actual necessaries of life from the hands of Lodovico and his ministers. It is Lodovico who administers the state, treats of war and peace, confirms the laws, grants privileges, imposes taxes, hears petitions, and raises money. Everything is in his power, while we are left without friends or money, and are reduced to live as private persons. Not Gian Galeazzo, but Lodovico, is recognized as lord of the kingdom. He places prefects in the castles, raises military forces, appoints magistrates, and discharges all the duties of a prince. He is, in fact, the true duke. His wife has lately borne him a son, who every one prophesies will soon be called Count of Pavia, and will succeed to the dukedom, and royal honours were paid him at his birth, while we and our children are treated with contempt, and it is not without risk to our lives that we remain under the roof of the palace, from which he would remove us in his envious hatred, leaving me widowed and desolate, destitute of help and friends. But I have still spirit and courage of my own; the people regard us with compassion, and look upon him with hatred and curses, because he has robbed them of their gold to satisfy his greed. I am not able to contend with men, and am forced to suffer every kind of humiliation. There is no one here to whom I can speak, for even our servants are given us by him. But if you have any fatherly compassion, if a spark of royal or noble feeling still lives in your heart, if love of me and the sight of my tears can move your soul, I implore you to come to our help, and deliver your daughter and son-in-law from the fear of slavery, and restore them once more to their rightful kingdom. But if you will not help us, I would rather die by my own hands than bear the yoke of strangers, which would be a still greater evil than to allow a rival to reign in my place.'"

This letter was probably composed by the historian, but there is no doubt that it reproduces the wronged duchess's sentiments, and that Corio does not exaggerate the effect which his daughter's indignant appeal produced upon Alfonso. "Shall we suffer our own blood to be despised?" he is said to have exclaimed, when he called upon his father to avenge his daughter's wrong, and at the same time pointed out how fraught with danger to the realm of Naples was the existence of so powerful and independent a prince as Lodovico. But the old king preferred to have recourse to his usual expedients of cunning and intrigue, and while he employed every artifice to undermine Lodovico's influence both at the other courts of Italy and in France, he sent ambassadors to congratulate the Moro on his son's birth, and only expostulated in a friendly manner with his kinsman. Lodovico himself, however, was too astute not to see the dangers which threatened him, and he became doubly anxious to form a close alliance with the Pope, and with his old enemies the Signory of Venice. Early in 1493, Alexander VI., now Lodovico Sforza's firm friend, proposed a new alliance between himself, Milan, and Venice to the Doge and Senate, and Count Caiazzo was sent by Lodovico to negotiate the terms of the treaty, which was to hold good for twenty-five years, and had for its express object the maintenance of the peace of Italy. Ferrara and Mantua both joined the new league, which was solemnly proclaimed at Venice on St. Mark's day, when, after high mass, the Doge conferred the honour of knighthood on Taddeo Vimercati, the Milanese ambassador, and the banners of Milan and of the Pope were borne in procession round the Piazza.

In order to confirm the alliance, Lodovico not only agreed to visit Ferrara in May, but also decided to send his wife at the head of an embassy to Venice, as a proof of his friendship for his new allies. Four experienced councillors, Count Girolamo Tuttavilla, Galeazzo Visconti, Angelo Talenti, and Pietro Landriano, were chosen to accompany her, and an elaborate paper of secret directions was drawn up by Lodovico himself, dated the 10th of May. On the same day a still more important paper of instructions was delivered by the Moro to Erasmo Brasca, the envoy whom he sent that week to Germany. This agent was instructed to lay two proposals before Maximilian, King of the Romans. In the first place, he was to offer him the hand of Bianca Maria Sforza, the Duke of Milan's sister, with the enormous dowry of 400,000 ducats. In the second, he was to ask Maximilian, on Lodovico's behalf, for a renewal of the investiture of Milan, formerly granted to the Visconti dukes, but never obtained by the three princes of the house of Sforza. As, on the extinction of the Visconti race, the fief ought to have returned to the empire, it was in the emperor's power to bestow the duchy upon Lodovico, whose title would thus be rendered perfectly legal, while Gian Galeazzo would become the usurper, he himself, his father, and grandfather having only held the dukedom by right of a popular election, which had never been confirmed by the emperor. This, then, was the proposal which the Moro secretly made to Maximilian, whose father, the Emperor Frederic III., was at the time still living, but was known to be in very failing health. The King of the Romans was by no means insensible to the advantages of an alliance with the powerful Regent of Milan, or to the large dowry which Bianca Maria would bring with her to replenish his empty coffers. Some objections were raised by the German princes, who chose to consider this marriage with a Sforza princess beneath the imperial dignity, but Maximilian himself readily consented to all Lodovico's conditions, and promised to grant him the investiture of the duchy of Milan as soon as he succeeded his father, only stipulating that this part of the agreement should be kept secret for the present. The royal bridegroom was to receive three hundred thousand ducats as Bianca's dowry, while the remaining hundred thousand, which represented the tribute dues on the investiture of the duchy, as an imperial fief, were to be paid when this part of the transaction was accomplished.

Meanwhile Maximilian had already entered into negotiations with Charles VIII., who, in his anxiety to undertake the expedition of Naples, was ready to make any sacrifices in other directions; and on the 15th of May the Treaty of Senlis was concluded between the two monarchs. Lodovico's ambassador, Belgiojoso, accompanied the French king to Senlis, and kept his master fully informed of all that happened at court. But while the Moro had repeatedly assured Charles of his friendly intentions, he had hitherto prudently abstained from offering any device as to the young king's warlike designs against Naples, and had, it was well known, opposed them. When in March, Charles VIII. had begged him, as a personal favour, to send him his son-in-law, Galeazzo di Sanseverino, of whose knightly prowess he had heard so much, in order that he might confer with this distinguished captain on military questions, Lodovico absolutely refused to consent, fearing the suspicions which Messer Galeazzo's presence at the French court might excite.

Such was the state of political affairs when, on the 18th of May, 1493, Lodovico and Beatrice, with their infant son, arrived at Ferrara. They spent the night before their arrival at the palazzo Trotti, in the suburbs, and on the following morning entered the town by the bridge of Castel Tealde. After riding in state up the Via Grande and the Via degli Sablioni to the Castello they visited the Duomo, attended mass, and made an offering at the altar. The Piazza was decorated with green boughs and bright draperies, and crowds thronged the streets, shouting "Moro! Moro!" as the young duchess rode by in all her bravery, escorted by her brother Alfonso and Madonna Anna, who had ridden out to meet her, with a gay company of Ferrarese lords and ladies. That day Beatrice wore the camora of wonderful crimson brocade, embroidered with the lighthouse towers of the port of Genoa, and a velvet cap studded with big pearls, "as large as are Madama's very largest gems," wrote the faithful Prosperi to Isabella d'Este, "as well as five splendid rubies."

On this occasion Lodovico was determined to dazzle the eyes of the world by his splendour, and the robes and jewels of Beatrice were the wonder of Ferrara and Venice. Ten chariots and fifty mules laden with baggage followed in their train, and Prosperi describes one marvellous new camora, which Beatrice brought with her, embroidered with Lodovico's favourite device of the caduceus worked in large pearls, rubies, and diamonds, with one big diamond at the top. Not to be outdone by her sister-in-law, Madonna Anna appeared in a crimson and grey satin robe, adorned with letters of massive gold, and borrowed her mother-in-law's finest pearls for the occasion, so that, as Prosperi reports, her jewels made almost as fine a show as those of the duchess. Nor was this rivalry in clothes and jewels limited to the royal ladies themselves. Our lively friend, Duchess Leonora's maid of honour, Teodora, gives Isabella an amusing account of the keen emulation that existed between the Milanese and Ferrarese ladies who were to accompany the two duchesses to Venice.[37] Beatrice's ladies each wore long gold chains, valued at two hundred ducats apiece, and her chief maids of honour had been provided with some of their mistress's brocade robes for the occasion. Hearing of this, the Ferrarese ladies begged duchess Leonora to give them similar necklaces, and did not rest until they were supplied with chains valued at two hundred and twenty ducats apiece. And since it transpired that Beatrice had given some of her ladies strings of pearls for their paternosters, Madama presented each of her attendants with pearl rosaries of a still handsomer and costlier description. When Signor Lodovico saw this, he went up to Beatrice, saying, "Wife, I wish all of your ladies to wear pearl rosaries;" and straightway ordered some much larger and finer ones to be made for the Duchess of Bari's attendants. "But Madama," adds Isabella's correspondent, gleefully, "has given some of her smaller pendants to our ladies, a thing which I do not think the duchess can supply; and there is one other point in which the duchess's suite will come off the worst. Madama has had pelisses of green satin with broad stripes of black velvet made for all her ladies, which they are to wear at Venice, and is taking a fresh supply of jewels to lend them when they arrive. This I think the duchess can hardly manage."

However, the next day Prosperi reports that the famous goldsmith Caradosso has just arrived with a quantity of rubies and diamonds, which Messer Lodovico has bought for two thousand ducats, and is having strung into necklaces for his wife's ladies.

A week of brilliant festivities had been arranged by Duke Ercole in honour of his son-in-law. A splendid tournament was held one day on the Piazza in front of the Castello. "Messer Galeazzo rode in the lists," writes the old chronicler of Ferrara, "with all his usual gentilezza, and carried off the prize against his brothers Caiazzo and Fracassa, Niccolo da Correggio, Ermes Sforza, and all other rivals. Afterwards, taking a massive lance in his hand, he charged a gentleman of Mirandola, broke his lance, and unseated him, so that both horse and man rolled over together. And Lodovico sent one hundred ducats to the soldier of Mirandola, because he fought so well. Another day a single-handed contest between a Milanese and a Mantuan man-at-arms was held in the courtyard of the castle, and won by the Mantuan, and Lodovico gave him a satin vest with a gold fringe and skirt of silver cloth, and the Marquis of Mantua and others made him fine presents."[38] Then came the horse-races for the pallium, which Don Alfonso won, and at which Gianfrancesco Gonzaga's famous Barbary horses made a splendid show. A beautiful festa was also held one afternoon in the gardens, at which all the court assisted, and in the evenings, theatrical representations of the Menaechmi and other Latin plays were given, which pleased Lodovico so well that he declared he must build a theatre at Milan on his return. Amongst the pieces given on this occasion was a comedy, of which the plot, Prosperi remarks, appeared to be aimed against Signor Lodovico, but it seems to have given him no offence.

The Moro was apparently in the highest good-humour, courteous and affable, after his wont, to all, and full of proud delight in his wife and child. He admired the palaces and gardens of Ferrara, and surveyed Duke Ercole's latest improvements with keen interest. The width and cleanliness of the streets, struck him especially, and he determined to follow the duke's example and remove the forges and shops which blocked up the road and interfered with the traffic and the pleasantness of the prospect at Milan. But of all the sights which he saw in Ferrara, what pleased him best was Ercole's beautiful villa of Belriguardo. On Saturday, the 25th of May, after Beatrice and her mother had started for Venice, Ercole took his son-in-law and the Milanese nobles to spend the day at this his favourite country house, and entertained the party at a banquet in the famous terraced gardens on the banks of the Po. The same evening Lodovico found time to write to his wife, in which he tells her how much he is enjoying the loveliness of the summer evening at Belriguardo.

"I would not for all the world have missed seeing this place. Really, I do not think that I have ever seen so large and fine a house, or one which is so well laid out and adorned with such excellent pictures. I do not believe there is another to rival it in the whole world, and did not think it possible to find a villa at once so spacious and so thoroughly comfortable and well arranged. To say the truth, if I were asked whether Vigevano, or the Castello of Pavia, or this place was the finest palace in the world—the Castello must forgive me, for I would certainly choose Belriguardo!"[39]

From Belriguardo, Ercole and his son-in-law proceeded to visit Mirandola, the castle and principality of Bianca d'Este's husband, Count Galeotto, and the court of the scholar princes of Carpi, who were intimately connected with the Sanseverini and other noble Milanese houses. After visiting Modena, the ducal party returned to receive the Venetian ambassadors at Ferrara, and accompanied them to Belriguardo, which Lodovico was not sorry to visit a second time. Here the Moro took farewell of his hosts, and, leaving his infant son at Ferrara to await his mother's return, he set out for Parma, on his way back to Milan.

Here at Torgiara, in the Parmesana, he was joined by his envoy, Count Belgiojoso, who, in his anxiety to bring his master the latest news, had ridden the whole 600 miles from Senlis in six days. This faithful servant had already written to give Lodovico details of the treaty concluded between Charles VIII. and Maximilian, and had informed him of the French king's resolve to invade Italy without delay. Now, at his master's summons, he rode to Parma as fast as relays of the fleetest horses could take him, and fell seriously ill on the day after his arrival. The news which he brought determined Lodovico in the policy which he was about to adopt, and decided him to withdraw all opposition to the French king's expedition against Naples. Charles VIII. now appeared as the friend and ally of Maximilian, and even consented to support Lodovico's suit with the King of the Romans. "It seems strange," wrote the Florentine ambassador at the French court to Piero de' Medici, "that the king should support Signor Lodovico in a thing so harmful to the interests of his cousin the Duke of Orleans' claims, but so it is, and this will show you the influence that now predominates in the royal counsels."

Belgiojoso reached Torgiara, in the district of Parma, on the 4th of June, and on the 24th, Maximilian sent the despatch from the castle of Gmunden, by which he accepted the hand of Bianca Sforza in marriage, and promised Lodovico Sforza the investiture of the duchy of Milan as soon as he himself should receive the imperial dignity. In the same month of June, the marriage of the Pope's daughter, Lucrezia Borgia, to Giovanni Sforza of Pesaro was celebrated with great pomp in the Vatican, and the Pope and cardinals joined in the orgies which followed. But old King Ferrante gnashed his teeth with rage, and his son Alfonso vowed vengeance against the hated Moro and all his crew. And in the Duomo of Florence, the fiery Dominican friar, Fra Girolamo of San Marco, preaching with passionate fervour to the crowds who hung on his lips, boldly denounced the shameless profligacy that reigned in high places, and warned the Church and the world of the avenging sword of the Lord.

FOOTNOTES:

[37] Luzio-Renier, op. cit., p. 374.

[38] Muratori, R. L. S., xxiv. 284.

[39] E. Motta in Giorn. st. d. lett. Ital., vii. 387.



CHAPTER XVI

Visit of Beatrice and her mother to Venice—Letters of Lodovico to his wife—Reception of the duchesses by the Doge at S. Clemente—Their triumphal entry—Procession and fetes in the Grand Canal—Letter of Beatrice to her husband—The palace of the Dukes of Ferrara in Venice.

1493

The spring of 1493, as we have already said, proved a turning-point in Lodovico Sforza's policy. And it also marked a new period in the life of Beatrice d'Este. Up to this time the young duchess was a bright and joyous child, intellectual and cultivated like the other ladies of her family, but eager, above all, to enjoy the splendour and gaiety of her new life, to taste of every pleasure, and fling herself into every passing amusement. But now she appears in a new light. For the first time, on this visit to Venice, she takes a leading part in political affairs, and comes before the Doge and Senate as her husband's ambassador and spokeswoman. Here we see this princess, who was not yet eighteen years of age, assuming the character of orator and diplomatist, and revealing these talents which excited the admiration of the Emperor Maximilian and made him pronounce her unlike all other women.

In selecting his young wife for this important mission, Lodovico had acted with his usual prudence and forethought. He saw her remarkable powers of mind, and trusted implicitly in her womanly tact and charm. When the Venetian Senate first heard that Lodovico was to visit Ferrara, they announced their intention of sending ambassadors to request him to accompany the two duchesses to Venice. But the Moro felt that, at this critical moment of his negotiations with both Charles VIII. and Maximilian, his presence at Venice might lead to awkward questions and excite the suspicion of these princes. So he preferred to send his wife, whose journey with her mother and brother would appear rather in the light of a party of pleasure, and whose youth and charms would disarm suspicion, and at the same time exert a beneficial influence on the counsels of the Republic. In the written instructions which he gave Tuttavilla and the other envoys who accompanied Beatrice, they were desired to lay especial stress on the honour which the rulers of Milan were doing the Signory of Venice by the choice of so exalted a lady to be their messenger.

"The presence of the most illustrious Duchess of Bari is the best proof their Excellencies can have of the singular satisfaction with which the Dukes of Milan and Bari regard the conclusion of this league. In sending, the one his aunt, the other his wife, who is the dearest thing that he possesses, to congratulate the Signory on this auspicious occasion, they show you how great and exceptional is the pleasure which they feel at this alliance between our two states."

On Saturday, the 25th of May, the Duchess of Ferrara, with her two daughters, Beatrice Duchess of Bari and Madonna Anna Sforza, and her son Alfonso, accompanied by a large retinue numbering in all 1200 persons, sailed down the Po into the Adriatic, on their way to Venice. Beatrice was accompanied by Antonio Trivulzio, Bishop of Como, Francesco Sforza and his wife, and several other Milanese gentlemen of rank, besides the four ambassadors already named, and in her train were the famous Flemish tenor Cordier and the other court singers of the ducal chapel. On the 20th the party reached Chioggia, where they were entertained in the houses of noble Venetian families, and on the following day sailed up between the islands, under the long sandy shore of the Lido, into the port of Venice. At Malamocco, the fort on the southern point of Lido guarding the entrance of the harbour, they were received by a deputation of patricians, while at S. Clemente the old Doge, Agostino Barbarigo, himself came out to meet them in the bucentaur, followed by an immense company of boats and gondolas in festive array.

"Of all cities that I have ever known, Venice is the one where the greatest honour is paid to strangers," wrote Philippe de Commines, when, a year and a half later, he came to Venice as ambassador from his most Christian Majesty. And on this occasion the welcome offered to the wife of the powerful Moro was grander, and the fetes given in her honour were more splendid, than had been seen for many years.

"Never," wrote Taddeo de' Vimercati, the Milanese ambassador, "was lord or lady received with greater joy, or more magnificently entertained than the duchess has been on this occasion." And in his letters to his wife Isabella, the Marquis of Mantua, who had arrived at Venice three days earlier, and was among the spectators of his mother and sister-in-law's triumphal entry, dilates on the extraordinary honours that were paid them, on the vast concourse of people assembled to greet their arrival, and the exultation with which they were received. He describes the procession of barks and gondolas, filled with ladies in gay toilettes, that were seen rowing across the lagoon many hours before the arrival of the illustrious visitors, and tells how the old Doge—the same whose venerable figure is familiar to us in Giovanni Bellini's altar-piece, at Murano—made his way to S. Clemente early in the afternoon, and retired to rest for an hour or two, in a chamber prepared for his Serene Highness, until the Ferrarese bucentaurs were seen in the distance. Gianfrancesco dwells on the number and beauty of the gaily decorated barges and triremes, and describes the magnificent loggia hung with tapestries and wreaths of flowers which had been erected in front of the palazzo occupied by the Milanese ambassador, at the entrance of the Canal Grande. But what impressed him most of all were the thundering salvoes of artillery which burst from the fleet of galleys, from the arsenal and the Milanese embassy, at one and the same moment, as about five o'clock the Ferrarese bucentaurs reached Malamocco and entered the Venetian waters. "The whole air," he writes, "was filled with confusion, when these demonstrations of great rejoicing burst simultaneously upon our ears."

Isabella d'Este, who had herself lately returned from Venice and was now with her beloved sister-in-law, Elizabeth Duchess of Urbino, at the villa of Porto, devoured her husband's letters greedily, although she professed indifference, and wrote to her mother, "To me all these ceremonies seem very much of the same nature, and are all alike very tedious and monotonous."

There was one point, however, upon which Gianfrancesco confessed himself unable to gratify his wife and sister's curiosity. "I will not attempt," he says, "to describe the gowns and ornaments worn by these duchesses and Madonna Anna, this being quite out of my line, and will only tell you that all three of them appeared resplendent with the most precious jewels."[40] Fortunately, this omission was supplied by one of Beatrice's secretaries, Niccolo de' Negri, who, in a letter to Lodovico, informed him, on the day of her arrival at Venice, that the duchess wore her gold brocade, embroidered with crimson doves, with a jewelled feather in her cap, and a rope of pearls and diamonds round her neck, to which the priceless ruby known as El Spigo was attached as pendant. But the best account we have of Beatrice's visit to Venice is contained in four of her own letters addressed to her husband, which have been preserved in the archives of Milan. They were originally published twenty years ago by Molmenti, who, however, omitted some portions which are given here, and transcribed some of the dates incorrectly. Unfortunately, several of the letters in which Beatrice daily recorded the events of this memorable week for her lord's benefit are missing. But although the narrative is incomplete, it is none the less of rare value and interest. The first two letters after her departure from Ferrara are missing, but in their stead we have two notes from Lodovico, which show how tenderly he thought of his absent wife, and how carefully he followed her movements. On the evening of the 25th, he wrote the letter that has been already quoted, from Belriguardo; on the 26th, he sent her a second note in reply to the letters which he had just received. In one of these Beatrice had apparently given a lively account of her triumphs at cards in the games which she had played with her companions on board the bucentaur. Like Isabella d'Este and most of her contemporaries, the duchess was very fond of scartino and other fashionable card-games, and had the reputation of being exceptionally lucky. In the course of the year 1494, Lodovico informed Girolamo Tuttavilla, who was at one time treasurer to the duchess, that his wife had won no less than three thousand ducats, all of which she declared had been spent in alms. "When I remarked that this seemed a very large sum, the duchess confessed she had paid some of it to embroiderers and other craftsmen. Even then I fail to see how she could have disposed of more than a few hundred ducats. At this rate I fear she will be unable to buy lands or build new houses, but when you return from Naples, we must try and carry out some plans better worthy of your name."

On this occasion Beatrice seems to have won a considerable sum of money at the game of britino during her journey to Chioggia, and had apparently informed her husband of her good luck, for he writes in reply—

"MY DEAREST WIFE,

"It has given me the greatest pleasure to hear from your last letters that you have been winning your companions' money, and since I conclude you have been playing at buttino, I hope you will remember to keep account of your winnings, so that you may keep the money for yourself. But I only say this in case you win, as if you lose, I do not care to hear about it. Commend me to the illustrious Madonna Duchessa, our common mother, as well as to Don Alfonso and Madonna Anna, and salute all the councillors for me.

"Your most affectionate husband, LODOVICUS MARIA SFORTIA.[41]

Belriguardo, 26th of May, 1493."

The first of Beatrice's letters that we have was written on the evening of her arrival at her father's house in Venice and is dated May 27.

"MOST ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCE AND EXCELLENT LORD, MY DEAREST HUSBAND,

"I wrote to you yesterday of our arrival at Chioggia. This morning I heard mass in a chapel of the house where I lodged. The singers assisted, and I felt the greatest spiritual delight in hearing them, Messer Cordier as usual doing his part very well, as he did also yesterday morning. Certainly his singing is the greatest consolation possible. Then we breakfasted, and at ten we entered the bucentaur, dividing our company between the middle-sized and small bucentaur and a few gondolas, which were prepared for us, as being safer, since the weather was still rather stormy. My most illustrious mother, Don Alfonso and Madonna Anna, with a very few servants, entered the small bucentaur, and the other ladies and gentlemen travelled on the larger bucentaur, or in small gondolas, while I entered another gondola with Signor Girolamo, Messer Visconti, and a few others, so as to lighten the small bucentaur and travel more comfortably, as we were assured. So we set out and reached the port of Chioggia, where the ships began to dance. I took the greatest delight in tossing up and down, and, by the grace of God, did not feel the least ill effects. But I can tell you that some of our party were very much alarmed, amongst others Signor Ursino, Niccolo de' Negri, and Madonna Elisabetta. Even Signor Girolamo, although he had been very frugal, felt rather uncomfortable; but no one in my gondola was really ill, excepting Madonna Elisabetta and Cavaliere Ursino, at the port of Chioggia. Most of the others, especially the women, were very ill. The weather now improved so much, that we arrived at Malamocco in quite good time. Here we found about twenty-four gentlemen, with three well-fitted and decorated barges, one of which we entered, with as many of our suite as it could hold, and were honourably seated in the prow. Several Venetian gentlemen now entered our barge, and a certain Messer Francesco Capello, clad in a long mantle of white brocade, embroidered with large gold patterns, like your own, delivered an oration to the effect that this illustrious Signory, having heard of your presence at Ferrara, had sent two ambassadors to show the love they bear you, and that now, having heard of my Lady Mother's and my own visit to Venice, they had sent the other gentlemen who received us at Chioggia, and now, as a further token of their affection, sent these to Malamocco, to express the great pleasure the Signory felt at our coming, and to inform us that the Doge himself, with the Signory and a number of noble matrons, were about to give us welcome and do us honour to the best of their power. My mother, with her usual modesty, begged me to reply, but I insisted on her saying a few words, and afterwards began to speak myself. But hardly had she finished speaking, and before I had begun, than all the gentlemen ran up to kiss our hands, as they had done the day before, so that I could only express my feelings by courteous gestures.

"Then we set off towards Venice, and before we reached S. Clemente, where the Prince was expecting us, two rafts came towards us, and saluted us with the sound of trumpets and firing of guns, followed by two galleys ready for battle, and other barks decked out like gardens, which were really beautiful to see. An infinite number of boats, full of ladies and gentlemen, now surrounded us, and escorted us all the way to S. Clemente. Here we landed, and were conducted to a spacious pavilion hung with drapery, where the Prince, accompanied by the members of the Signory, met us and bade us welcome, assuring us how eagerly our presence had been desired, and saying that my lord father the duke and your Excellency could do him no greater pleasure than to send us, whom he looked upon as his dear daughters. All this and much more concerning the fatherly love which he bore us, he hoped to be able to express at a future occasion. Then he placed my lady mother on his right and myself on his left, with Madonna Anna next to me, and next to my mother the Marquis of Mantua and Don Alfonso—the Marchese having arrived with the Prince—and so he conducted us on board the bucentaur. On the way we shook hands with all the ladies, who stood up in two rows behind the Prince, and then sat down in the same order. All of our ladies shook hands with the Prince, and we set out again on our journey, meeting an infinite number of decorated galleys, boats, and barks. Among others, there was a raft with figures of Neptune and Minerva, armed with trident and spear, seated on either side of a hill crowned with the arms of the Pope and our own illustrious lord, together with your own and those of the Signory of Venice. First Neptune began to dance and gambol and throw balls into the air to the sound of drums and tambourines, and then Minerva did the same. Afterwards they both joined hands and danced together. Next Minerva struck the mountain with her spear, and an olive tree appeared. Neptune did the same with his trident, and a horse jumped out. Then other personages appeared on the mountain with open books in their hands, signifying that they had come to decide on the name that was to be given to the city on the mountain, and they gave judgment in favour of Minerva. This representation was said to signify that the existence of states is founded on treaties of peace, and that those who lay the foundations will give their name to future kingdoms, as Minerva did to Athens.

"As we sailed on, we saw many other barks and galleys, all richly decorated. Among them was one galley of armed Milanese, with a Moor in the centre, armed with a spear, and bearing shields with the ducal arms and your own fastened to the stern and prow. Round this Moor were figures of Fortitude, Temperance, Justice, and Wisdom with a sceptre in his hand, all of which made a fine pageant, and the firing of guns and cannons at the same time sounded quite splendid.

"Besides these there were many barks representing the different arts and crafts of Venice, very beautiful to see. And so we entered the Canal Grande, where the Prince, who talked to us all the way with the utmost familiarity and kindness, took great pleasure in showing us the chief palaces of this noble city, and pointing out the ladies, who appeared glittering with jewels at all the balconies and windows, besides the great company—about a hundred and thirty in number—who were already with us in the bucentaur. All the palaces were richly adorned, and certainly it was a magnificent sight. The Prince showed us all the chief objects along the canal, until we reached my father's palace, where we are lodged, and where the Prince insisted on landing and conducting us to our rooms, although my mother and I begged him not to take this trouble. We found all the palace hung with tapestries, and the beds covered with satin draperies adorned with the ducal arms and those of your Excellency. And the rooms and hall are hung with Sforzesca colours, so you see that in point of good entertainment, good company, and good living we could desire nothing better. This evening three gentlemen came to visit me in the name of the Signory, and made the most splendid offers, beyond all that could have been expected, for my pleasure and convenience. To-morrow, if the audience has taken place, you shall hear more. I commend myself to your Highness.[42]