Part 83

Note 426 page 235. The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, first published by Aldus in 1499, was written by Francesco Colonna, a Dominican friar of Venice, who died an old man in 1527. The book is rare, and is said to be an allegorical romance full of lascivious erudition, and written in a pedantically affected mixture of Italian, Latin, and Venetian patois.

Note 427 page 237. Ars Amandi, i, 597-602.

Note 428 page 237. Ars Amandi, i, 569-72.

NOTES TO THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE COURTIER

Note 429 page 243. Gaspar Pallavicino died in 1511, at the age of twenty-five.

Note 430 page 243. Cesare Gonzaga died in 1512, at about the age of thirty-seven. See note 43.

Note 431 page 244. Federico Fregoso was named Archbishop of Salerno in 1507, very soon after the date of the Courtier dialogues; see note 41.

Ludovico da Canossa became Bishop of Bayeux in 1520; see note 44.

Ottaviano Fregoso became Doge of Genoa in 1513; see note 11.

Bibbiena was made cardinal, and Bembo was appointed papal secretary, in 1513; see notes 10 and 42.

Giuliano de’ Medici was created Duke of Nemours in 1515. As he died in 1516, Castiglione’s use of the present tense (‘that greatness where now he is’) is inconsistent with the mention of Canossa as Bishop of Bayeux. See note 9.

Francesco Maria della Rovere succeeded to the dukedom in 1508; see note 3.

Note 432 page 244. ELEANORA GONZAGA, (born about 1492; died 1543), was the eldest daughter of the Marquess Gianfrancesco of Mantua and Isabella d’Este. In 1505 Castiglione negotiated her union with Francesco Maria della Rovere, but the marriage did not take place until Christmas Eve 1509, upon which occasion Bembo wrote to Federico Fregoso that he had never seen a comelier, merrier or sweeter girl, and that her amiable disposition and surprisingly precocious judgment won general admiration. She seems to have maintained affectionate relations with her aunt and predecessor (“my lady Duchess” of THE COURTIER), whose fame quite outshone her own, and to have exhibited in after life no little strength of character. She is said to have excluded, and even to have expelled, great ladies of questionable morality from her court. Titian’s portrait (1537) represents her in middle age, but his pictures, La Bella and Das Mädchen im Pelz, as well as several of his Venus heads, are generally regarded as idealized presentations of her more youthful face.

Note 433 page 249. The Piazza d’Agone occupied the site of the ancient Circus Agonalis, which derived its name from the Agonalia, a festival held twice a year in honour of Janus. Before, during and long after Castiglione’s time, it was a centre of festivals, amusements and spectacles at the carnival season. It is now called the Piazza Navona.

Note 434 page 250. The famous Athenian commander CIMON, (died 449 B.C.), was the son of the still more famous Miltiades. His victories repulsed the last Persian aggressions and consolidated the Athenian supremacy. Although an admirer of Spartan institutions, he seems to have been of a somewhat indulgent disposition. The SCIPIO here referred to, is probably Publius Cornelius Scipio the Elder, who was the victor over Hannibal and died 183 B.C. LUCULLUS is cited earlier in THE COURTIER as an instance of a soldier with studious tastes; see note 113.

Note 435 page 250. The Theban general and statesman EPAMINONDAS, (died 362 B.C.), is said by Plutarch to have enjoyed the instruction of the Pythagorean philosopher LYSIS of Tarentum, who was driven out of Italy in the persecution of his sect, and found refuge at Thebes.

Note 436 page 250. AGESILAUS was King of Sparta 398-361 B.C. Although small and lame, he was the greatest Spartan commander, and became famous for his victories against the Persian and Greek enemies of his country. XENOPHON, historian, essayist and disciple of Socrates, was banished from Athens about the time of Socrates’s death (399 B.C.), accompanied Agesilaus into Asia, and wrote a panegyric upon him, regarded by Cicero as more glorious than all the statues erected to kings.

The reverence and love of SCIPIO THE YOUNGER (about 185-129 B.C.) for the Rhodian Stoic philosopher PANAÆTIUS (about 180-111 B.C.) is frequently mentioned by Cicero, from whose De Oratore Castiglione seems to have taken this whole passage.

Note 437 page 252. In Greek mythology Epimetheus (Afterthought) and Prometheus (Forethought) were sons of the Titan Iapetus and the ocean nymph Clymene. Angered by a deceit practised upon him by Prometheus, Zeus withheld from men the use of fire; but Prometheus stole fire from heaven and brought it to earth in a hollow reed. For this offence he was chained to a rock where an eagle preyed daily upon his liver (which grew again in the night), until he was finally liberated by Hercules. As compensation for the boon of fire, Zeus sent Pandora (the first woman, endowed with beauty, cunning and other attributes designed to bring woe to man) to be the wife of Epimetheus. Although warned by his brother, Epimetheus accepted her, with the result that she set free the evils which Prometheus had concealed in a box. In a later form of the legend, she received from the gods a box containing the blessings of life, and on her being moved by curiosity to open the box, all of them (save hope) escaped and were lost.

Note 438 page 263. BIAS was born at Priene in Asia Minor, and lived in the 6th century B.C. He was celebrated for his apothegms and reckoned among the Seven Sages of Greece,—the other six being: Thales of Miletus, Solon of Athens, Chilon of Sparta, Cleobulus of Rhodes, Periander of Corinth, and Pittacus of Mitylene,—all of whom flourished about 600 B.C. The fame of these seven men rested not upon their philosophy, as we use the word, but upon their practical wisdom—the fruit of experience.

GIANFRANCESCO GONZAGA MARQUESS OF MANTUA BROTHER OF “MY LADY DUCHESS” 1466-1519 ]

Enlarged from a photograph, kindly furnished by Signer Alessandro Luzio and made by his friend Signor Lanzoni, of a portrait attributed to Francesco Bonsignori (1455-1519) and owned by the antiquary Bressanelli of Mantua.

Note 439 page 264. CLEARCHUS, (died 353 B.C.), was for twelve years a cruel tyrant, not of Pontus, but of Heraclea (the modern Eregli), a city on the Black Sea about 140 miles east of Constantinople. He is said to have been a pupil of both Plato and Isocrates, the latter of whom represents him as a gentle youth.

Note 440 page 264. Of the dozen or more ancients known to have borne the name ARISTODEMUS, none seem to fit precisely the description given in the text, which is taken from a passage in Plutarch’s “On the Ignorant Prince.” Plutarch may have had in mind a certain tyrant of Megalopolis in the 3d century B.C.

Note 441 page 269. The reference here is to Book V of “The Republic.”

Note 442 page 270. Fregoso here declares for what has been called “that Utopia of the 16th Century—the Governo Misto—a political invention which fascinated the imagination of Italian statesmen much in the same way as the theory of perpetual motion attracted scientific minds in the last century.” (Symonds’s “Renaissance in Italy,” i, 306.) In this regard the men of Castiglione’s time, men like Machiavelli and Guicciardini, were only following Plato and Aristotle.

Note 443 page 270. The reference here is to the Cyropædia, i, 6.

Note 444 page 270. Castiglione seems to have in mind the game of tavola reale, which is similar to our backgammon.