Part 85

In an earlier MS. version the text here reads: “Then messer Bernardo Bibbiena said: ‘I do not think that any of those present, except myself, have seen the prince Don Carlos, who, having recently lost such a father as the king Don Philip was, has shown such courage and wisdom in this great bereavement, that although he has not reached the tenth year of his age, we may nevertheless regard him as competent to rule over all his hereditary possessions, vast though they be,—and that the Empire of Christendom (which men think will be in his hands) must grow not a little in power and dignity.’”

Note 463 page 279. FEDERICO GONZAGA, the first Duke of Mantua, (born 1500; died 1540), was the son of the Marquess Gianfrancesco Gonzaga and Isabella d’Este. At the age of ten he spent some time as the hostage-guest of Julius II at Rome, where he seems to have been generally caressed. Raphael is known to have introduced the boy’s face into one of the Vatican frescoes, and a little later to have painted his portrait. Having succeeded his father as marquess in 1519, he waged war for Leo X against the French. In 1527 he joined the league of Italian princes against Charles V, but went over to the Emperor’s side two years later, and was created Duke of Mantua. In 1531 he married Margarita Paleologus. Both Giulio Romano and Benvenuto Cellini were in his employ.

Note 464 page 280. These lines were written after Ottaviano Fregoso’s election as Doge of Genoa; see note 11.

Note 465 page 281. In an earlier MS. version, my lady Emilia continues: “‘And even if it were so, I do not see how he is on that account set above the Court Lady.’ The Magnifico Giuliano said: ‘We regard the Lady as the equal of the Courtier, and according to my lord Ottaviano, the Courtier is superior to the Prince; therefore the Court Lady comes to be superior to the Prince.’”

Note 466 page 284. Phœnix appears in the Iliad as appointed by Peleus to superintend the education of the latter’s son Achilles.

Note 467 page 284. ARISTOTLE was summoned (342 B.C.) to undertake the education of Alexander, who was then thirteen years old, and whom no one had thus far been able to control. The philosopher’s training continued uninterruptedly for four years, included instruction in poetry, rhetoric, philosophy, physics, and medicine,—and is said to have had beneficial effect upon the future conqueror’s character.

Note 468 page 285. Stagira lay on the easterly side of the Chalcidic peninsula. Philip had destroyed it in his Olynthian campaign of 348 B.C., but rebuilt it at Aristotle’s request and caused a gymnasium to be erected there, in a shady grove, for the use of the philosopher and his pupils, among whom was Alexander.

Note 469 page 285. Plutarch expressly affirms that Alexander’s policy, of uniting all the nations under his sway into a single people, was not founded on Aristotle’s advice, as indeed an examination of the latter’s political theories would seem to prove.

Note 470 page 285. The Bactrians were an Aryan people dwelling on the upper Oxus, in what is now Afghanistan. They were conquered in 327 B.C. by Alexander, who married Roxana, the daughter of one of their princes. In ancient times the inhabitants of northern and eastern Europe and Asia were called Scythians.

Note 471 page 285. CALLISTHENES was a cousin and fellow pupil of Alexander’s. On Aristotle’s recommendation, Alexander took Callisthenes with him on his Asiatic expedition of 334 B.C., but, exasperated by his young kinsman’s plain-spoken disapproval of his conduct, had Callisthenes put to death.

DON CARLOS PRINCE OF SPAIN 1500-1558 ]

Reduced from Braun’s photograph (no. 43.099) of the portrait, in the Borghese collection at Rome, attributed to Bernhard Strigel (1460?-1528).

Note 472 page 285. DIO, (born about 408; died about 354 B.C.), was an austere Syracusan philosopher who became an ardent disciple of Plato on the occasion of the latter’s short residence at the court of Dionysius the Elder, and later induced the younger DIONYSIUS also to invite Plato to Syracuse, where, however, the philosopher was unable long to check the tyrant’s profligacy.

Note 473 page 287. Bembo was thirty-six years old at the date of the Courtier dialogues.

Note 474 page 288. In Book III of Bembo’s Gli Asolani (1505), a hermit discourses to Lavinello on the beauty of mystical Christian love. Bembo had a villa called Lavinello, near Padua.

Note 475 page 288. Much of the following disquisition seems to be drawn from Plato and from Bembo’s Gli Asolani. As Bembo is known to have revised THE COURTIER before publication, we may assume that he was content with the form and substance of the discourse here attributed to him.

Note 476 page 294. STESICHORUS was a Greek lyric poet who lived about 630-550 B.C., and was supposed to have been miraculously stricken blind after writing an attack upon Helen of Troy. His true name is said to have been Tisias, and to have been changed to Stesichorus because he was the first to establish a chorus for singing to the harp. Fragments of his verse have survived.

Note 477 page 294. These ‘five other stars’ are of course the five planets then known (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn), in addition to the Sun and Moon, which were until long afterwards regarded as planets. “The sun, the moon and the five planets were always to be found within a region of the sky extending about 8° on each side of the ecliptic. This strip of the celestial sphere was called the Zodiac, because the constellations in it were (with one exception) named after living things (Greek ζῷον, an animal); it was divided into twelve equal parts, the Signs of the Zodiac, through one of which the sun passed every month, so that the position of the sun at any time could be roughly described by stating in what ‘sign’ it was.” Arthur Berry’s “Short History of Astronomy” (London, 1898), p. 13.

Note 478 page 305. Castiglione here follows that version of the Hercules myth which represents the hero, tormented by the poisoned shirt sent him by the jealous Deianeira, as throwing himself upon a burning pyre on Mount Œta, whence he was caught up to heaven in a cloud.

Note 479 page 305. Compare: Exodus, iii, 2; Acts, ii, 1-4; and II Kings, ii, 11-2.

Note 480 page 307. This dialogue is by some represented as having actually taken place in the presence of Raphael.

Note 481 page 308. PLOTINUS was born in Egypt about 204 A.D., and taught philosophy at Rome. He lived so exclusively the life of speculation that he seemed ashamed of bodily existence, and concealed his parentage, birthplace and age.

Note 482 page 308. ST. FRANCIS, (Gianfrancesco Bernardone, 1182-1226), was born and died at Assisi near Perugia, and was canonized in 1288.

Note 483 page 308. II Corinthians, xii, 2-4.

Note 484 page 308. Acts, vii, 54-60.

Note 485 page 308. St. Luke, vii, 37.

Note 486 page 309. Mount Catria lies less than twenty miles to the southward of Urbino, between Pergola and Gubbio, and rises a little more than a mile above the sea level. It is mentioned by Dante in the Paradiso (xxi, 109).

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