Part 71

BEATRICE D'ESTE DUCHESS OF MILAN 1475-1497 ]

Reduced from Braun’s photograph (no. 42.371) of the portrait, in the Pitti Gallery at Florence, attributed to Piero della Francesca (1420-1492). For an account of this and other portraits, see l'Archivio Storico dell'Arte for 1889, p. 264. Some of the events of her short life are mentioned in note 398 at page 399 of this volume.

Note 147 page 73. The original reads: havendo prima danzato una bassa, ballarono una Roegarze. The danza bassa was of Spanish origin and is believed to have consisted of sliding steps and of posturing, in which the feet were not lifted. The verb ballare seems to be derived from the low Latin balla, a ball. In the Middle Ages the game of ball was accompanied with dance and song, and we may well believe that a class of dances, thus originating and denominated generally balli, were more animated than the danza bassa. Although a Greek derivation has been ascribed to the word roegarze, Cian affirms that the dance thus named was of French origin. The earliest French translator of THE COURTIER renders the word by rouergoise, which is apparently derived from Rouergue, the name of an ancient French province to the south-west of Lyons.

FILIPPO MARIA VISCONTI DUKE OF MILAN 1391-1447 ]

Reduced from Giraudon’s photograph (no. 254) of a drawing, in the Louvre, by Vittore Pisano, better known as Pisanello, (1380?-1451?).

NOTES TO THE SECOND BOOK OF THE COURTIER

Note 148 page 75. This passage reflects the medico-philosophical theories which the Renaissance inherited from antiquity, and which regarded “the vital spirits” as something far more tangible and material than what we call the principle of life or vital spark. Compare the early conception of electricity as a fluid substance. “Complexion” is of course here used to mean temperament or constitution, and not the mere colour and texture of the skin.

Note 149 page 77. Duke FILIPPO MARIA VISCONTI, (born 1391; died 1447), was the son of Giangaleotto and Caterina Visconti, and brother of Giovanni Maria Visconti, whom he succeeded as Duke of Milan in 1412. He married Beatrice di Tenda (widow of Facino Cane), who brought him nearly a half million of florins dowry, besides her husband’s soldiers and cities, and thus enabled him gradually to win back the Lombard part of his father’s duchy, which his brother had lost. He was very ugly in person, and so sensitive that he rarely appeared in public. Wily but unstable, he was continually plotting schemes that seemed to have no object, and he mistrusted his own generals, even Francesco Sforza, who turned against him, forced him to a ruinous peace, and after his death was soon able to seize his duchy. In him the cruel selfishness of the Renaissance tyrant did not degenerate into mad thirst for blood, as in the case of his terrible brother. He read Dante, Petrarch and French romances of chivalry, and even dallied with the Latin classics, but genuine learning was neglected and despised at his court.

Duke BORSO D'ESTE, (born 1413; died 1471), like his brother and predecessor, was a natural son of Duke Niccolò III. Kindly and just, he was idolized by the Ferrarese and especially by the women. He patronized letters and art and was fond of splendid living, yet in spite of the luxury of his court, he left a treasure of about a million pounds sterling. The art of printing was established at Ferrara shortly before his death. He appears to have been himself ignorant of Latin, and encouraged the literary use of Italian and the study of French romance. Histories of Ferrara, as well as the writings of contemporary humanists, are full of his generous deeds. His mild sway passed into a proverb, and the time of “the good Duke Borso” was long remembered as a kind of golden age.

Note 150 page 77. NICCOLῸ PICCININO, (born 1380; died 1444), was so humbly born as to possess no other surname than that conferred on him in ridicule of his small stature. Having served under the famous Braccio da Montone, he married the latter’s niece, and achieved such distinction as a soldier as to share with Francesco Sforza the fame of being the first condottiere of his day. He became the friend and general of Duke Federico of Urbino. His rough wit was highly esteemed.

Note 151 page 77. This consciousness of the corruption then prevailing in Italy is even more frankly expressed by Machiavelli: “It is but too true that we Italians are in a special degree irreligious and corrupt.” (Discorsi, I, 12.)

Note 152 page 78. The reference here is to Plato’s Phædo, c. 3. Socrates is said to have turned Æsop’s fables into verse.

Note 153 page 83. The Italian noun fierezza (rendered “boldness”) and the adjective fiero (more anciently fero, the epithet applied by Petrarch to Achilles, see note 120) are derived from the Latin ferus (wild, untamed, impetuous), the root of which we see in our English word ferocious. While retaining its etymological signification, fiero was used to mean also: haughty, intrepid, strong, sturdy.

Note 154 page 87. “Brawls” (Italian, brandi; French, branles) were a kind of animated figured dance, said to be of Spanish origin and to have resembled the modern cotillon. A letter by Castiglione mentions this dance as having been performed by figures dressed as birds in one of the interludes when Bibbiena’s Calandra was first presented at Urbino. This and other passages suggest that the use of masks was even more common in Italian society of the author’s time, than at the present day.

Note 155 page 88. Castiglione’s letters show that he possessed and played upon a variety of musical instruments, and it is known that in Duke Federico’s time, the palace of Urbino was well supplied with instruments and musicians.

Note 156 page 88. Viol is the generic name for the family of bowed instruments that succeeded the mediæval fiddle and preceded the violin. Invented in the 15th century, it differed from a violin in having deeper ribs, a flat back, and a broad centre-piece on which the sound post rested. Its neck was broad and thin; it had from five to seven strings, and was made in four sizes, of which the lowest pitched (the violone or double bass) is still in use. The tone of the instrument is said to have been penetrating rather than powerful.

Note 157 page 89. Wind instruments, and especially the flute, are here referred to. According to Plutarch, Alcibiades maintained that they were regarded with disfavour by Pallas and Apollo because the face is distorted in playing upon them.

NICCOLÒ PICCININO 1380-1444 ]

Reduced from Giraudon’s photograph (no. 252) of a drawing, in the Louvre, by Vittore Pisano, better known as Pisanello, (1380?-1451?).

Note 158 page 90. The Pythagoreans supposed the intervals between the heavenly bodies to be determined by the laws of musical harmony. Hence arose the celebrated doctrine of “the music of the spheres” (already referred to by Castiglione in the text, page 63); for in their motion the heavenly bodies must each occasion a certain sound or note depending on their distances and velocities, which notes together formed a musical harmony, inaudible to man because he has been accustomed to it from the first and has never had an opportunity to contrast it with silence, or because it exceeds his powers of hearing. Pythagoras himself (died about 500 B.C.) taught his disciples to sing to the accompaniment of the lyre, and to chaunt hymns to the gods and to virtuous men.

Note 159 page 90. As the Italian commentator, Count Vesme, suggests, the author may have meant to say, “shave twice a day.” A weekly visit to the barber may, however, have been usually regarded as sufficient at this time.

Note 160 page 93. In the beginning of his Encomium on Folly (which was well known in Italy when Castiglione wrote THE COURTIER), Erasmus pretends that, “although there has been no lack of those who, at great cost of oil and sleep, have exalted ... the fourth-day ague, the fly, and baldness, with most tedious praise,” Folly is languishing without a eulogist. Among the works of Lucian (flor. 160 A.D.) there is a brief humourous book in praise of the fly; the philosopher Favorinus (flor. 120 A.D.) is said to have written a eulogy on the fourth-day ague; and there is another on baldness by the early Christian writer, Synesius (flor. 400 A.D.). The men of the Renaissance delighted in similar displays of wit.

Note 161 page 94. The Italian procella (rendered ‘fury’) primarily means a tempest, and is so translated in the earliest French and English versions of THE COURTIER (estourbillon, storm). The still earlier Spanish version has pestilencia.

Note 162 page 95. The Italian impedito (rendered ‘palsied’) literally means entangled as to the feet.

Note 163 page 96. St. Luke, iv, 8 and 10.

Note 164 page 97. In Æsop’s fable, Asinus Domino Blandiens, an ass receives a sound cudgelling for his efforts to win his master’s favour by caresses that he was ill fitted to bestow.

Note 165 page 100. TITUS MANLIUS,—called TORQUATUS from the chain (torques) that he took from the body of a gigantic Gaul whom he had slain in single combat,—was a favourite hero of Roman story. The incident referred to here occurred shortly before a Roman victory over the Latins at the foot of Vesuvius. Manlius and his colleague in command had proclaimed that no Roman might engage a Latin singly on pain of death, but a son of Manlius accepted a challenge from one of the enemy, slew his adversary, and bore the bloody spoils in triumph to his father, who thereupon caused the young man to be put to death before the assembled army. Manlius was Consul in 340 B.C.

Note 166 page 101. PUBLIUS LICINIUS CRASSUS MUCIANUS was Roman Consul in 131 B.C. According to Livy, the incident narrated in the text occurred during an unsuccessful campaign against Pergamus, which ended in Crassus’s voluntary death.