Part 75

Note 239 page 139. Don Gonzalvo Hernand y Aguilar, better known as Consalvo de Cordoba, or THE GREAT CAPTAIN, (born 1443; died 1515), was a native of Montilla, near Cordova, and belonged to an ancient family of Spanish grandees. His father’s name was Pietro, and his mother’s was Elvira Errea. Bred to war in early youth and knighted on the field of battle at the age of sixteen, he followed the fortunes of Ferdinand the Catholic, and took an active part in the conquest of Granada. In 1494 he was sent to Italy to aid Ferdinand II of Naples against Charles VIII, won a long succession of victories over the French, and was finally made Constable and Viceroy of Naples. Later, Ferdinand the Catholic, listening to slanderous reports regarding him, deprived him of office, and in 1507 recalled him to Spain, where he died in disgrace. His good qualities were much admired by Castiglione, who had fought against him, but his fame was not unstained by acts of cruelty and bad faith, which (it is fair to say) were common at the time and seem to have been committed only against his master’s foes. Giorgione is said to have painted his portrait at Venice, and a life of him by Paolo Giovio was published at Florence in 1552.

CONSALVO DE CORDOBA “THE GREAT CAPTAIN” 1443-1515 ]

Enlarged from a negative, specially made by Alinari through the courtesy of Professor I. B. Supino, of Annibal’s medal in the National Museum at Florence. See Armand’s Les Médailleurs Italiens, i, 176.

Note 240 page 139. The Spanish word vino means not only “wine” but also “he came.” In pronunciation it would be easily mistaken for Y-no. Y no lo conocistes is the Spanish for “And thou knewest Him not.” Compare St. John, i, 11.

Note 241 page 139. The word marano (here rendered “heretic”) meant a renegade Moor, and is said by Symonds to have been generally used in Italy at this time as a term of reproach against Spaniards.

Note 242 page 139. GIACOMO SADOLETO, (born 1477; died 1547), was a native of Modena and the son of a noted jurist, Giovanni Sadoleto. He studied Latin at Ferrara and Greek at Rome, where he settled in the pontificate of Alexander VI and acquired a great reputation for learning. Leo X appointed him a secretary at the same time with Bembo, (who shared with him the name of being the best Latinist of the day), and soon made him Bishop of Carpentras, a town fifteen miles north-east of Avignon. He was secretary also to Clement VII, to whom he boldly declared that the sack of Rome (1527) was inflicted by God as a punishment for human wickedness. Paul III created him a cardinal in 1536. A sincerely pious man, he was conscious of the evils of the Church and did not escape suspicion of heresy. He was a close friend of Vittoria Colonna, and the Roman Academy often met at his house on the Quirinal. Besides Latin poems (one of which, on the newly discovered Laocoön group, made him famous), his works include commentaries on the Psalms and the Epistle to the Romans, and a Latin exhortation to the princes and people of Germany against Lutheran heresies. Although far from rich, he was very charitable, especially in providing young men of his flock with the means of education.

Note 243 page 139. LUDOVICO DA SAN BONIFACIO is identified by Cian as a Paduan, who held the offices of prothonotary and private chamberlain under Leo X, successfully disputed with Bembo the possession of a canonry at Padua in 1514, was sent to different courts by Leo, and died at Padua in 1545.

ERCOLE RANGONE, (died 1572), belonged to an illustrious family of Modena, and achieved some note as a soldier and diplomatist, having commanded the Florentine forces in 1529, and served as Ferrarese ambassador to France, Spain and Germany. He was esteemed by Castiglione, of whose wife Ippolita Torello he seems to have been a kinsman.

The COUNT OF PEPOLI probably belonged to a noble Bolognese family of that name, but has not been identified with certainty.

Note 244 page 140. Of SALLAZA DALLA PEDRADA nothing seems to be known beyond the mention of him in the text.

Note 245 page 140. PALLA DEGLI STROZZI, (born 1372; died 1462), was a wealthy and cultivated Florentine patrician. Having honourably filled high offices of state, he was banished by Cosimo de' Medici in 1434 for ten years to Padua. Himself an enthusiastic scholar and patron of classical studies, he caused many Greek MSS. to be brought into Italy (including works of Plato, Aristotle and Plutarch), and was the first Italian to collect books for the express purpose of founding a public library, in the execution of which design he was prevented by his exile from anticipating Cosimo. He employed learned Greeks to read to him, and was instrumental in inducing Chrysoloras to teach at Florence,—an engagement regarded by Symonds as having secured the future of Hellenic study in Europe. The story narrated of him in the text is elsewhere told of an exile belonging to the Albizzi family.

Note 246 page 140. COSIMO DE' MEDICI, Pater Patriæ, (born 1389; died 1464), was a Florentine banker, statesman and patron of literature and art. In his father Giovanni’s house of business he cultivated the rare faculty for finance that he afterwards employed in public administration and private commerce. He inherited his father’s vast fortune in 1429, and made it a practice to lend money to needy citizens and at the same time to involve the affairs of Florence with his own,—thus not only attaching individuals to his interests, but rendering it difficult to control state expenditures apart from his own bank. He understood also how to use his money without exciting jealousy, and while he spent large sums on public works, he declined the architect Brunelleschi’s plans for a residence more befitting a prince than a citizen. He was an early riser, and temperate and simple in his life. While ruling Florence with despotic power, he seemed intent on the routine of his counting-house, and put forward other men to execute his political schemes. Despite occasional checks, he so firmly established the influence of his family as the real rulers of Florence that they were not permanently expelled until the nineteenth century. Much of his power was due to sympathy with the intellectual movement of the age, and although he was not a Greek scholar, he had a solid education, and collected MSS., gems, coins and inscriptions, employing his commercial agents in the work. During a year of exile, he built a library at Venice, and later he built one at Florence and another at Fiesole. His house was the centre of a literary and philosophical society, which included all the wits of Florence and the strangers who flocked to that capital of culture.

Note 247 page 140. CAMILLO PORCARO, or PORZIO, (died 1517), was a brother of the Antonio Porcaro already mentioned in THE COURTIER (at page 138; see note 233). He was a professor of rhetoric at Rome, and a canon of St. Peter’s. Leo X made him Bishop of Teramo, a town near the Adriatic north-east of Rome. He was a member of the Roman Academy, and some of his Latin verse has survived.

COSIMO DE' MEDICI PATER PATRIÆ 1389-1464 ]

Enlarged from a coloured cast of a medal (no. 31), in the King’s Library at the British Museum, attributed to Niccolò Fiorentino.

Note 248 page 140. MARCANTONIO COLONNA, (died 1522), the son of Pierantonio Colonna and Bernardina Conti, was a second cousin of Vittoria Colonna. His wife Lucrezia Gara della Rovere was a niece of Julius II and sister of the Cardinal Galeotto della Rovere already mentioned (at page 122; see note 189). In 1502 he fled from Rome to escape the persecution of the Borgias, repaired to the kingdom of Naples, and took service under the “Great Captain.” He served also in the armies of Julius II, Maximilian I, and Francis I, and took part in nearly all the wars of his time. He was cited as a model of physical beauty and martial prowess.

Note 249 page 141. DIEGO GARZIA is regarded by the Spanish annotator, Fabié, as identical with the famous warrior Diego Garcia de Paredes, (born 1466; died 1530), who began the life of a soldier at the age of twelve, and had a brilliant share, with the “Great Captain,” in the expulsion of the Moors from Spain and later in the Italian campaigns. He was a man of great height and strength, and is said on one occasion to have stopped the wheel of a rapidly moving wind-mill with his single hand. Charles V made him a Knight of the Golden Spur, and he is often called the Chevalier Bayard of Spain.

Note 250 page 141. LOUIS XII, (born 1462; died 1515), was the son of Duke Charles d'Orléans and Anne of Cleves. He accompanied Charles VIII into Italy in 1494, became king on his cousin’s death in 1498, and the following year married Charles’s widow Anne of Brittany. In 1500 he expelled Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan, to whose duchy he laid claim as the grandson of Valentina Visconti. The following year he conquered Naples in alliance with Ferdinand the Catholic, but quarrelled with his ally over the division of the country, with the result that his force was defeated by the “Great Captain” at Garigliano in 1503, and withdrew from Naples in 1504. He joined the League of Cambray against Venice in 1508, but in 1511 the Holy League was formed against him, and in 1513 the French were again compelled to leave Italy. On the death of Anne of Brittany in 1514, he married Mary, the youthful sister of Henry VIII of England, to whom in dying (1 January 1515) he is reported to have said: “Dear, I leave thee my death as a New Year’s gift.” He was sincerely regretted by his subjects, and was known as “The Father of His People.” Michelet says of him: “He was a good man, honest by nature, sometimes absurd, indiscreet, talkative, testy; but he had a heart, and the only way for men to flatter him was to persuade him that they desired the good of his subjects.” Among his sayings was “Good king, stingy king; I prefer to be ridiculous to my courtiers, than deaf to my people.”

Note 251 page 141. DJEM or ZIZIM, (born 1459; died 1495), was a son of Mahomet II, the conqueror of Constantinople. On the death of his father in 1481, he tried to dispossess his brother as sultan, but being defeated, he sought refuge at Rhodes, where the Knights of the Order of St. John received him for a while, and then sent him to France. In 1489 he was surrendered to the custody of Innocent VIII, from whom he passed into the hands of Alexander VI. Both these pontiffs received a subsidy for his maintenance from his brother the sultan. In 1495 Charles VIII took him to Naples, where he was imprisoned and soon died from the effect (it is supposed) of poison administered at Rome by order of Alexander VI. Of his life at the papal court, we get the following glimpse in a letter from Mantegna to the Marquess of Mantua: “The Turk’s brother is here, strictly guarded in the palace of his Holiness, who allows him all sorts of diversion, such as hunting, music, and the like. He often comes to eat in this new palace where I paint [i.e., the Belvedere], and, for a barbarian, his manners are not amiss. There is a sort of majestic bearing about him, and he never doffs his cap to the Pope, having in fact none;... He eats five times a day, and sleeps as often; before meals he drinks sugared water like a monkey. He has the gait of an elephant, but his people praise him much, especially for his horsemanship: it may be so, but I have never seen him take his feet out of the stirrups, or give any other proof of skill. He is a most savage man, and has stabbed at least four persons, who are said not to have survived four hours. A few days ago, he gave such a cuffing to one of his interpreters that they had to carry him to the river, in order to bring him round. It is believed that Bacchus pays him many a visit. On the whole he is dreaded by those about him. He takes little heed of anything, like one who does not understand or has no reason. His way of life is quite peculiar; he sleeps without undressing, and gives audience sitting cross-legged, in the Parthian fashion. He carries on his head sixty thousand yards of linen, and wears so long a pair of trousers that he is lost in them, and astonishes all beholders.”

Note 252 page 141. The GRAND TURK in question was Bajazet II, (born 1447; died 1512), who succeeded his father (Mahomet II, the conqueror of Constantinople) in 1481, was almost uninterruptedly engaged in war with Hungary, Venice, Egypt and Persia, was deposed by his son Selim, and died soon afterwards. He was repeatedly invited by Alexander VI to invade Europe and fight the pope’s Christian enemies. The friendly relations between the two were closely connected with the captivity of Bajazet’s brother, just mentioned. As a token of his gratitude, the Turk sent Innocent VIII the “Lance of Longinus,” the centurion who was supposed to have pierced the Saviour’s side on Calvary and afterwards to have been converted to Christianity. As a reward for the death of his brother, he sent Alexander VI a sum of money equivalent to over £500,000 sterling, and a tunic alleged to have been worn by the Saviour. These, however, were intercepted by the pope’s enemy, Giuliano della Rovere, afterwards Julius II.

Note 253 page 142. The Archbishopric of Florence was occupied by Roberto Folco from 1481 until his death in 1530.

‘The Alexandrian cardinal’ is the name by which Giannantonio di Sangiorgio, (born 1439; died 1509), was commonly known. At the age of twenty-seven he became professor of canon law at Pavia. In 1479 he was made Bishop of Alexandria, and soon afterwards called to Rome and made an Auditor of the Ruota (see note 292), which office he continued to hold until he was created a cardinal in 1493. He was regarded as the most eminent jurist of his day.

BAJAZET II OF TURKEY 1447-1512 ]

Enlarged, with the courteous permission of the Director of the New York Public Library, from a photographic copy of an engraving in Paolo Giovio’s “Eulogy.”

Note 254 page 142. Besides the mention of this NICOLETTO in the text, nothing more seems to be known of him beyond the following anecdote: “Of messer Nicoletto da Orvieto it is narrated that, being in the service of that very courteous pontiff Pope Leo, he once won the lasting favour of his Holiness with only four words; for one day, the talk turning upon a certain vacant benefice which was sought after by a member of the Vitelli family to whom it could be given, he said humourously: ‘Holy Father, fitness requires that it be by all means conferred on Vitello (calf), the more because it has no nearer or closer kinsman than he is,’—playing on the word ‘vacant,’ which he seemed to derive from vacca (cow), the mother of the calf.” Garzoni’s L’Hospidale de’ Pazzi Incurabili, (Piacenza: 1586), page 142.

Note 255 page 142. Antonio Cammelli, (born 1440; died 1502), called PISTOIA from the name of his birthplace, was a prolific writer of verse, chiefly sonnets of a humourous and satirical character, which have no small historical value. He spent the larger part of his life in the service of the d’Este at Ferrara, and in that of Duke Ludovico Sforza, of Milan, to whom he remained faithful in adversity. An edition of his verse was published at Turin by Renier in 1888.

The SERAFINO here mentioned is identified by Cian as a now almost forgotten lyric poet, Serafino Ciminelli, (born 1466; died 1500), who was a native of Aquila (fifty-five miles north-east of Rome), and a welcome guest at the courts of Naples, Rome, Urbino, Mantua and Milan. His verse was by some preferred to that of Petrarch, and the unbounded popularity which he enjoyed was doubtless due to the skill with which he improvised to his own accompaniment on the lute. He was a short ugly man of elfish appearance.

Note 256 page 142. GIOVANNI GONZAGA, (born 1474; died 1523), was the third son of the Marquess Federico of Mantua and Margarita of Bavaria. He married Laura Bentivoglio, fought in his youth against Charles VIII, and in 1512 was in the service of the Sforza family. He was employed also by his brother Gianfrancesco, Marquess of Mantua, in political negotiations. In 1519, on the death of Lucrezia Borgia, he wrote to his nephew, the new Marquess Federico of Mantua: “Lucrezia’s death occasioned much grief throughout the city, and his Ducal Highness in particular displayed extreme distress. Men here tell wonderful things of her life: for the last ten years she wore a hair shirt; and for two years she has been in the habit of confessing every day, and of attending Communion three or four times a month.”