FOOTNOTES:
[1] Zurita, Anales de Aragon, v. 36.
[2] Zurita (iv, 55) says he died sin dexar ninguna sucesion. Notwithstanding this, Cittadella, in his Saggio di Albero Genealogico e di memorie su la Familia Borgia (Turin, 1872), ascribes two children to this Pedro Luis, Silvia and Cardinal Giovanni Borgia, the younger.
[3] Raynaldus, 1460. No. 31.
[4] Statura procerus, colore medio, nigris oculis, ore paululum pleniore. Hieron. Portius, Commentarius, a rare publication of 1493, in the Casanatense in Rome.
[5] Gianandrea Boccaccio to the duke, Rome, February 25 and March 11, 1493. State archives of Modena.
[6] Sanuto, Diar. v. i, 258.
[7] Abstract of the marriage contract in the archives of the Capitol. Cred. xiv, T. 72. From an instrument of the notary Agostino Martini.
[8] See Adinolfi's notice quoted by the author in his Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter. 2d Aufl. vii, 312.
[9] The letter, with the inscription "A Messer Carlo Canale," is printed in the edition of Milan, 1808. Angelo Poliziano, Le Stanze e l'Orfeo ed altre poesie.
[10] In the archives of Mantua there is a letter from the Marchesa Isabella to Carlo Canale, dated December 4, 1499.
[11] Lodovico Gonzaga to Bartolomeo Erba, Siamo contenti contrahi in nome nro. compaternità cum M. Carolo Canale, et cussi per questa nostra ti commettiamo et constituimo nostro Procuratore. Note by Affò in his introduction to the Orfeo, p. 113.
[12] Ma Adriana Ursina, la quale è socera de la dicta madona Julia (Farnese), che ha sempre governata essa sposa (Lucrezia) in casa propria per esser in loco de nepote del Pontifice, la fu figliola de messer Piedro de Mila, noto a V. Ema Sigria, cusino carnale del Papa. Despatch from the above named to Ercole, Rome, June 13, 1493, in the state archives of Modena. And again she is mentioned in a despatch of May 6, 1493, as madona Adriana Ursina soa governatrice figliola che fu del quondam messer Pietro del Mila.
[13] Jacobus Burgomensis de claris mulieribus, Paris, 1521.
[14] Accedit studium illud tuum et perquam fertile bonarum litterarum in quo hac in aetate seris.... Non deerit surgenti tuæ virtuti commodus aliquando et idoneus praeco.—At tu Cæsar profecto non parum laudandus es; qui in hac aetate tam facile senem agis. Perge nostri temporis Borgiæ familiæ spes et decus. Introduction to the Syllabica. Rome, 1488. Gennarelli's Edition of Burchard's Diary.
[15] Regarding Cæsar's studies at Pisa, see Angelo Fabroni, Hist. Acad. Pisan. i, 160, 201.
[16] On June 16, 1491, some changes were made in this contract, which Beneimbene has noted in the same protocol-book.
[17] Cum simonia et mille ribalderie et inhonestate si è venduto il Pontificato che è cose ignominiosa et detestabile. Despatch of Giacomo Trotti, Ambassador of Ferrara in Milan, to the Duke Ercole, August 28, 1492, in the archives of Modena.
[18] These stanzas were written by Hieronymus Porcius, who printed them in Hieronym. Porcius Patritius Romanus Rotæ Primarius Auditor.... Commentarius; a rare publication of Eucharius Silber, Rome, September 18, 1493. The stanzas of Michele Ferno of Milan conclude:
Borgia stirps: bos: atque Ceres transcendit Olympo,
Cantabunt nomen sæcula cuncta suum;
which turned out to be a true prophecy. See Michæl Fernus Historia nova Alexandri VI ab Innocentii obitu VIII; an equally rare publication of the same Eucharius Silber, A. 1493.
[19] Ex arce Spoletina, die v. Oct. (Di propria mano). Vr. vti fr. Cesar de Borja Elect. Valentin. Published by Reumont in Archiv. Stor. Ital. Serie 3, T. xvii, 1873. 3 Dispensa.
[20] Era venuto il primo marito de la dicta nepote, qual fu rimesso a Napoli, non visto da niuno.... Despatch of Gianandrea Boccaccio, Bishop of Modena, Rome, November 2, 1492, and November 5 and 9. Archives of Modena.
[21] Despatch of that date in the archives of Mantua. Lucretia was still sometimes designated as the Pope's niece.
[22] Gianandrea Boccaccio to Duke Ercole, Rome, February 25, 1493.
[23] Ms. Memoirs of Pesaro, by Pietro Marzetti and Ludovico Zacconi, in the Bibl. Oliveriana of Pesaro.
[24] Boccaccio's despatches, Rome, February 25, March 11, 1493.
[25] Magni et excellentis ingenii et preclare indolis; præ se fert speciem fillii magni Principis, et super omnia ilaris et jocundus, e tutto festa: cum magna siquidem modestia est longe melioris et prestantioris aspectus, quam sit dux Candie germanus suus. Anchora lue è dotato di bone parte. Despatch of March 19, 1493.
[26] Mai fù visto il più carnale homo; l'hama questa madona Lucrezia in superlativo gradu. Boccaccio's Despatch, Rome, April 4, 1493. The word carnale is to be taken only in the sense of nepotism, as it is plainly so used elsewhere by the ambassador.
[27] Cod. Aragon, ii, 2.67, ed Trinchera.
[28] Carte Strozziane, filz 343. In the archives of Florence.
[29] Lelia Ursina de Farnesio congratulated him on his appointment, January 13, 1494. Ibidem.
[30] In the earlier edition of this work I found some difficulty in the passage: "Chredo che questa puta sia figlia del Papa, como Madonna Luchretia è nipote di S. R. Signoria." I am now convinced that the è is an error of the writer or the copyist and should be simply the conduction e. Lorenzo Pucci's brother Giannozzo was married to Lucrezia Bini, a Florentine, who is mentioned later in this same letter.
[31] This letter is printed in Atti e Memorie Modenesi, i. 433.
[32] Despatch of Giorgio Brognolo to the Marchese, Rome, May 6 and 15, 1494. Archives of Mantua.
[33] Despatch of Jacomo Trotti to Duke Ercole, Milan, June 11, 1494. May 1st the women were still in Rome, for on that date Madonna Adriana wrote a letter from there to the Marchesa of Mantua recommending a friend to her. The letter is in the Mantuan archives.
[34] The letter is published in Ugolino's Storia dei Conti e Duchi d'Urbino, II. Document No. 13. I saw the original in the state archives of Florence; only the address is in Alexander's hand, the rest is written by the Chancellor Juan Lopez, who signs himself Jo. Datarius.
[35] Memorie di Tommaso Diplovatazio Patrizio Constantinopolitano e Pesarese, da Annibale Olivieri. Pesaro, 1771.
[36] Regarding Collenuccio see the works of his compatriot Giulio Perticari, Opp. Bologna, 1837. Vol. ii, 52 sqq.
[37] This information is given by Marino Sanuto, Venuta di Carlo VIII, in Italia; original in the Paris library, also a copy in the Marciana. He calls Giulia "favorita del Pontefice, di età giovane, et bellissima savia accorda et mansueta."
[38] According to one of Brognolo's despatches (Mantuan archives) Giulia and Adriana returned December 1st, on which date Pandolfo Collenuccio, who was in Rome, wrote, "Una optima novella ce è per alcuno. Che Ma Julia si è recuperata, et andò Messer Joan Marrades per Lei. Et è venuta in Roma: e dicesi, che Domenica de nocte allogiò in Palazzo." Archives of Modena.
[39] Despatch of Giacomo Trotti, Milan, December 21, 1494. Archives of Modena.
[40] Che li pareva ogni hora vedere messer Bartolomeo da Calche venire a Sua Eccia cum una staffetta, chel papa fosse preso, e li fosse taliata la testa.
[41] Trotti to the Duke of Ferrara, Milan, December 24, 1494.
[42] This is the date given by Marino Sanuto in his Ms. History of the Invasion of Charles VIII, fol. 470.
[43] These dates are from the Diary of Marino Sanuto, vol. i. fol. 55, 58, 85.
[44] Il di de S. Laurentio il Duca de Gandia figliuolo del Papa, intrò in Roma accompagnato dal Card. de Valentia, et tutta la corte con grandissima pompa. Despatch of Ludovico Carissimi to the Duke of Ferrara, Rome, August 15, 1496. Archives of Modena.
[45] Boccaccio to Ercole, March 24, 1495.
[46] The report is given in Diar. Marino Sanuto, vol. i, 258, and is reprinted in part in the Civiltà Cattolica, March 15, 1873, p. 727. The entire passage is as follows: Da Roma per le lettere del orator nostro se intese et etiam de private persone cossa assai abominevole in la chiesa di Dio che al papa erra nato un fiolo di una dona romana maridata ch'el padre l'havea rufianata e di questa il marito invitò il suocero ala vigna el lo uccise tagliandoli el capo ponendo quello sopra uno legno con letere che dicera questo e il capo de mio suocero che a rufianato sua fiola al papa et che inteso questo il papa fece metter el dito in exilio di Roma con Taglia. Questa nova vene per letere particular etiam si godea con la sua spagnola menatali di spagna per suo fiol duca di Gandia novamente li venuto.
[47] Epitaphia clarissimarum mulierum que virtute: arte: aut aliqua nota claruerunt. Codex Hartmann Schedel in the State Library of Munich.
[48] Lod. Zacconi, Hist. di Pesaro, Ms. in the Bibl. Oliveriana; also Pietro Marzetti.
[49] Letters in the Gonzaga archives in Mantua.
[50] Battista Almerici I, and Pietro Marzetti, Memorie di Pesaro, Ms. in the Oliveriana. These chronicles are often confusing as to dates and full of mistakes.
[51] Marino Sanuto, Diar. vol. i, 410. March, 1497.
[52] This document is given in part by Amati in Strozzi's Periodico di Numismatica, Anno III, part ii, p. 73. Florence, 1870.
[53] In the archives of Modena. Letters of Donato Aretino from Rome.
[54] Letter of Ludovico Carissimi, Rome, August 8, 1497. Archives of Modena.
[55] Et mancho se è curato de fare prova de se qua con Done per poterne chiarire el Rmo. Legato che era qua, sebbene S. Extia tastandolo sopra ciò gli ne habia facto offerta. Despatch from the Ferrarese ambassador in Milan, Antonio Costabili, to Duke Ercole, Milan, June 23, 1497. Archives of Modena.
[56] Concerning this, Pandolfo Collenuccio, a member of Cardinal Ippolito's suite in Rome, wrote to the Duke of Ferrara, December 25, 1498 (1497), as follows: El S. de Pesaro ha scripto qua de sua mano: non haverla mai cognosciuta ... et esser impotente, alias la sententia non se potea dare.... El prefato S. dice però haver scripto così per obedire el Duca de Milano et Aschanio. The autographic letter is in the archives of Modena.
[57] In the same despatch from Milan, June 23, 1497, the Ferrarese Ambassador Costabili stated that Sforza had said to the Duke Ludovico: Anzi haverla conosciuta infinite volte, ma chel Papa non gelha tolta per altro se non per usare con Lei. Extendendose molto a carico di S. Beatno.
[58] The original of this letter is in the archives of Modena.
[59] Bisceglie, formerly pronounced and written Biseglia or Biselli. Quadrata is now Corato, near Andria.
[60] Despatch of Joh. Lucidus Cataneus, Rome, August 8, 1498. Gonzaga archives.
[61] The briefs are in the state archives of Venice.
[62] The instrument is in Beneimbene's protocol-book.
[63] The instrument is in Beneimbene's protocol-book.
[64] Diary of Marino Saruto, ii, 751.
[65] This brief is in the state archives of Spoleto.
[66] The Bull of Investiture, written on parchment, is dated Rome, 1499, Non. (the month is not given). It is an absolute donum. The document is now in the archives of Modena.
[67] Both briefs are preserved in the archives of the State-house of Nepi.
[68] The documents concerning this sale, dated February 11 to 15, 1500, are preserved in the archives of Modena.
[69] Manuscript in the Vatican, No. 5205.
[70] Collocutores itinerantes Tuscus et Remus, Romæ in Campo Floræ, 1497.
[71] See the author's essay, Das Archiv der Notare des Capitols in Rom, and the protocol-book of the Notary Camillus de Beneimbene, 1457 to 1505. Proceedings of k. bayr. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München, 1872. Part iv.
[72] In the Codex Hartmann Schedel in the state library of Munich.
[73] Piazza (Gerarchia Cardinalizia) states that he saw it as late as 1712.
[74] In the Gonzaga archives.
[75] In questa mattina ho hauto lo adviso de la morte del Rmo Card. Borgia mio fratre passato de questa vita in Urbino. Forli, January 16, 1500. Archives of Modena.
[76] A. 1500, Jan. 22 (this is incorrect), mori il Carle Borgia fiolo de Papa Alexo a Orbino. Silva Cronicarum Bernardini Zambotti. Ms. in the library of Ferrara.
[77] La bona memoria del Cardinale Borgia mio fratre. Rome, July 30, 1500. Gonzaga archives.
[78] Cittadella's opinion that Giovanni Borgia, junior, was a son of Pierluigi, Alexander's brother, is also incorrect.
[79] Femina quasi virago crudelissima et di gran animo. Venuta di Carlo VIII, p. 811, Ms. Virago here means amazon.
[80] Over the Porta Romana and on the bastions may still be seen the colossal arms of Paul III and those of his son carved in stone. The inscription reads:
P. ALOISIVS FARNESIVS DVX I. CASTRI ET NEPETE MVNIMENTVM HOC AD TVTELAM CIVITATIS EXSTRVXIT. MDXL.
[81] His correspondence with Gonzaga is preserved in the archives of Mantua.
[82] Ad. Pisaurenses: Guidi Posthumi Silvestris Pisaurensis Elegiarum Librii ii, p. 33. Bonon, 1524.
[83] Pietro Marzetti, Memorie di Pesaro. Ms. in the Oliveriana.
[84] Compare Sannazzaro's epitaph on Alexander VI with the epigram of Guido Posthumus: In Tumulum Sexti.
[85] Cardinal Ferrari to Ercole, Rome, February 18, 1501. This is the first of the letters regarding this subject in the archives of Modena.
[86] Ercole's letter to his ambassador in Florence, Manfredo Manfredi, April 25, 1501. Archives of Modena.
[87] Ferrari to Ercole, May 1, 1501.
[88] Girolamo Saerati to Ercole, Rome, May 8, 1501.
[89] Bartolomeo de' Cavallieri, Ferrarese ambassador to France, to Ercole, Chalons, May 26, 1501.
[90] At least such was the plan advocated by Monsignor de Trans, French ambassador in Rome. Letter of Aldovrandus de Guidonibus to Duke Ercole, Lugo, April 25, 1501. State archives of Modena.
[91] Bartolomeo de' Cavallieri to Ercole, Lyons, June 22, 1501.
[92] Ercole to Giovanni Valla, July 8, 1501. Ercole to the Cardinal of Rouen, July 8, 1501.
[93] Despatches of Bartolomeo de'Cavallieri, Ferrarese ambassador at the court of France, to Ercole, July 10, 14, and 21, 1501.
[94] Despatch of the same, undated.
[95] Ercole to Giovanni Valla, his special envoy to the Cardinal of Rouen, in Milan, July 21 and 26, 1501.
[96] Da Roma accertasi, che la figliola del papa ha partorito.... Giov. Alberto della Pigna to the duke, Venice, March 15, 1498. Archives of Modena.
[97] One of the first statements that Cæsar was his brother's murderer is found in a despatch of the Ferrarese ambassador at Venice. De novo ho inteso, como de la morte del Duca di Candia fo causa el Cardinale suo fratello. Pigna's despatch to Ercole, Venice, February 22, 1498.
[98] The Malipiero letter (Archiv. Stor. It. VII, i, 490) contains the following: Si dice, que il sig. Giovanni Sforza ha fatto questo effetto (the murder of Gandia) perchè il Duca (di Gandia) usava con la sorella, sua consorte, la qual è fiola del Papa, ma d'un altra madre (which was incorrect). The Venetian ambassador, Polo Capello, refers to this rumor (si dice) in his well known Relation of September, 1500.
[99] Cavallieri to Ercole, Lyons, August 8, 1501. The Pope has written his nuncio that he agreed to the duke's demands, for the purpose of concluding the marriage, which would be extraordinarily advantageous to himself and the Duke of Romagna.
[100] Despatches of the Ferrarese ambassador, Bartolomeo Cartari, from Venice, June 25, July 28, and August 2, 1501. Archives of Modena.
[101] Ercole's letter to Pozzi in Ferrara, August 25, 1501. Maximilian's letters are not in the Este archives but in Vienna.
[102] The instrument was drawn by Beneimbene.
[103] Cardinal Ferrari to Ercole, Rome, August 27, 1501.
[104] Ducal Records, September 1, 1501.
[105] The letter is reproduced in Zucchetti's Lucrezia Borgia, Duchessa di Ferrara, Milan, 1869.
[106] Ed altre cose che egli disse per maggiormente magnificare il fatto. Matteo Canale to the Duke of Ferrara, Rome, September 11, 1501.
[107] Quale mi pare già essere optima Ferrarese. Despatch from Rome, September 15th.
[108] Che voleva havessimo veduto che la Duchessa non era zoppa. Saraceni to Ercole, Rome, September 16th.
[109] Rome, September 23d, Saraceni.
[110] Despatch, September 25th.
[111] To this Ercole replied in reassuring terms. Letter to his orators in Rome, September 18, 1501.
[112] Despatch of Matteo Canale to Ercole, Rome, September 18, 1501.
[113] Both bulls are in the archives of Modena. The first is a copy, the second an original. The lead seal is wanting, but the red and yellow silk by which it was attached is still preserved. I first discovered the facts in a manuscript in the Barberiniana in Rome.
[114] Mandate of the Pope regarding certain taxes, dated July 21, 1502: Nobili Infanti Johanni Borgia, nostro secundum carnem nepoti; and in another brief, dated June 12, 1502, Dil filii nobilis infantis Johannis Borgia ducis Nepesini delecti filii nobilis viri Cæsaris Borgia de Francia, etc. Archives of Modena.
[115] Geradi to Ercole, Rome, September 28th.
[116] Datum in civitate Hispali, January 7, 1502. Yo el rey. Archives of Modena. In Liber Arrendamentorum Terrarum ad Illmos Dnos Rodericum Bor. de Aragonia Sermoneti, et Jo. de bor., Nepesin. Duces infantes spectantium et alearq. scripturar. status eorundem tangentium. Biselli, 1502.
[117] Lucretia to Ercole, October 18th; Ercole to Lucretia, October 23d.
[118] Gerardo to Ercole, October 15, 1501.
[119] Ercole to Don Francesco de Roxas, October 24, 1501.
[120] Gerardo Saraceni to Ercole, Rome, October 26, 1501.
[121] Per essere queste romane salvatiche et male apte a cavallo.
[122] Gerardo to Ercole, October 26, 1501.
[123] The orator Manfredo Manfredi to Ercole, Florence, November 22 and 24, 1501.
[124] The duke to his ambassadors in Rome, October 7, 1501.
[125] Ercole to Gerardo Saraceni, November 24, 1501. Other letters of like import were written by the duke to his plenipotentiaries.
[126] Ercole to Gerardo Saraceni in Rome, October 11, 1501.
[127] Despatch of the Ferrarese ambassadors to Ercole, Rome, October 31, 1501.
[128] Il quale mal effecto volendo nui fugire, seamo condescesi a contrahere la affinita cum soa Santità. Responsum illmi Dni ducis Ferrarie D. Augustino Semetie Ces Mtis secretario. Ferrara, November 22, 1501.
[129] Che il procedere del Duca era un procedere da mercatante. Ercole to Gerardo Saraceni, December 1, 1501.
[130] Ercole to Alexander VI, December 1, 1501.
[131] Despatch of Giovanni Lucido, in the archives of Mantua.
[132] The report of this agent, who signs himself El Prete, is preserved in the archives of Mantua.
[133] The Farrarese agent, Bartolomeo Bresciani, who had been sent to Rome on matters connected with the Church, is no less complimentary. He says, la Excell. V. remagnera molto ben satisfacto da questa Illma Madona per essere dotada de tanti costumi et buntade. (To the duke, October 30, 1501.) He informed him also that Lucretia often conversed with a saintly person who had been secluded in the Vatican for eight years.
[134] Despatch of Gianluca Pozzi to Ercole, Rome, December 25, 1501.
[135] Pozzi to Ercole, Rome, December 25, 1501.
[136] Fu necessario che la abreviasse, Gianluca and Gerardo to Ercole, Rome, December 30, 1501.
[137] E ciò nello scopo, che se mancasse essa Duchessa verso lo Illmo Don Alfonso non fosse più obbligato di quanto voleva esserlo circa dette gioje. Ercole to Cardinal Ippolito, December 21, 1501. There is a letter of the same date regarding the subject, written by Ercole to Gianluca Pozzi.
[138] Pozzi to Ercole, January 1, 1502. Archives of Modena.
[139] El Prete to Isabella, Rome, January 2, 1502.
[140] Pozzi to Ercole, Rome, December 28, 1501.
[141] Pozzi and Saraceni, Rome, December 28, 1501.
[142] Rome, January 9, 1502.
[143] La Illma Madama Lucrezia porta tutte le bolle piene et in optima forma. Pozzi and Gerardo to Ercole, Rome, January 6, 1502.
[144] In the archives of the municipality of Nepi, where I copied the brief from the records. There is a similar letter in the same form and of the same date, addressed to the commune of Trevi, in the city archives of that place. The latter is printed in Tullio Dandolo's Arte christiána—Passeggiate nell' Umbria, 1866, p. 358.
[145] Beltrando Costabili to Ercole, Rome, January 6, 1502.
[146] Lucretia's colors were yellow and dark brown (morrelo aperto), while Alexander's were yellow and black.
[147] Spogli di Giambattista Almerici. i, 284. Ms. in the Oliveriana in Pesaro.
[148] Si per attendere a lavarse il capo, como anche per essere assai solitaria et remota di soa natura. Despatch from Rimini, January 22, 1502.
[149] Ferrante to Ercole, Rimini, January 23, 1502.
[150] The expression is lavarsi il capo.
[151] Ferrante to Ercole, Imola, January 27, 1502.
[152] Gianluca to Ercole, January 31, 1502.
[153] Bernardino Zambotto. See Monsignor Giuseppe Antonelli's work, Lucrezia Borgia in Ferrara, sposa a Don Alfonso d'Este, Memorie storiche.... Ferrara, 1867.
[154] The ambassador Beltrando Costabili to Duke Ercole, Rome, January 7, 1502.
[155] The duke to his ambassador in Rome, Ferrara, January 22, 1502, in the Minute Ducali a Costabili Beltrando Oratore a Roma.
[156] Isabella Gonzaga, who watched the parade from a window of the palace, describes this scene to the duke. Letter to her husband, Ferrara, February 2d, in the Archivio Storico Ital. App. ii, 305. Her report excels in some particulars the picture given by Marino Sanuo (Diar. vol. iv, fol. 104, sq.). Ordine di le pompe e spectaculi di le noze de mad. Lucretia Borgia. Reprinted in Rawdon Brown's Ragguaglio sulla vita e le opere di M. Sanudo, ii, 197, sq.
[157] Letters in the archives of Modena.
[158] This is according to Isabella Gonzaga; Cagnolo's report mentioned, instead of this woman, another Adriana, the wife of Francesco Colonna of Palestrina.
[159] Ms. chronicle of Mario Equicola in the library of Ferrara, in the University, formerly the Paradiso.
[160] Paolo Zerbinati, Memorie, Ms. in the library of Ferrara, p. 3.
[161] The Ms. is in the library of Ferrara: Nicolai Marii Paniciati ferrariensis, Borgias. Ad. Excell. D. Lucretiam Borgiarm III. Alphonsi Estensis Sponsam celeber MDII. One epigram is as follows:
Tyndaridem jactant Heroica secula cujus
Armavit varies forma superba Duces,
Haec collata tibi, merito Luoretia cedit,
Nam tuus omne Helenes lumen obumbrat honor:
Illa neces populis, diuturnaque bella paravit:
Tu bona tranquillae pacis opima refers.
Moribus illa suis speciem temeravit honestam:
Innumeris speciem dotibus ipsa colis:
Ore deam præstas: virtute venustior alma:
Foeda Helenæ facies æquiparata tuæ.
[162] Cælii Calcagnini Ferrariensis. In Illustriss. Divi Alphonsi Primogeniti Herculis Ducis Ferr. ac Divæ Lucretiæ Borgiæ Nuptias Epithalamium. Laurentius de Valentia Imprimebat Ferrariæ Deo Opt. Max. Favente. Calend. Febr. MDII.
Est levis hæc jactura tamen, ruat hoc quoque quicquid
Est reliquum, juvet et nudis habitare sub antris,
Vivere dura liceat tecum pulcherrima virgo.
Ludovici Areosti Ferrariensis Epithalamion, in vol. i of Carmina Illustrium Poetarum Italorum, p. 342-346.
[164] Di mediocre statura, gracile in aspetto, di faccia alquanto lunga, il naso profilato e bello, li capelli aurei, gli occhi bianchi, la bocca alquanto grande con li denti candidissimi; la gola schietta e bianca ornata con decente valore, ed in essere continuamente allegra e ridente. See Lucrezia Borgia in Ferrara. Ferrara, 1867.
[165] Agnolo Firenzuola, vol. i. Della perfetto bellezza di una donna.
[166] Fu essa Lucrezia di venusto e mansueto aspetto, prudente, di gratissime maniere negli atti, e nel parlare di molta grazia e allegrezza, says Alfonso's secretary, Bonaventura Pistofilo, in his Vita di Alfonso I d'Este. The epithets venusta, gentile, graziosa, amabile, are conferred upon her by all her contemporaries.
[167] Isabella's remarkable letters regarding the marriage festivities in Ferrara are printed in the Notizie di Isabella Estense by Carlo d'Arco. Archivio Storico Ital. App. ii. 223, sq. The letter of the Marchesa of Cotrone of February 1st is in the library of Mantua, and there are several other letters in the archives of that city written by her to Gonzaga regarding the festivities.
[168] Qual Madama Sposa danzò molte danze al suono delli suoi Tamburini alla Romanesca e Spagnuola: report of Niccolò Gagnolo of Parma, who had accompanied the French ambassador to Ferrara. Zambotto used this description of the wedding festivities in his chronicle, and it was subsequently reprinted in Lucrezia Borgia in Ferrara, etc.
[169] The Cassaria was first produced in 1508, and the Suppositi in 1509. Giuseppe Campori, Notizie per la vita di Lod. Ariosto, 2d ed. Modena, 1871, p. 67.
[170] Despatch of the Ferrarese orator, Bartolomeo Cartari, to Ercole, Venice, January 25, 1502. Archives of Modena.
[171] Cartari says in the same despatch that the robes he had described were intended for presents. Li Ambasciatori Veneziani le presentarono due vesti grandi in forma di palii velluto Cremesino foderati di ermelini, quali levatesi di sopra loro le presentarono. Cagnolo.
[172] Ano dato materia di ridere ad hogni homo cum suo presente. The Marchesana of Cotrone to the Marquis of Mantua, Ferrara, February 8th.
[173] Violas arcu pulsantes. Cæsar Borgia to Ercole, Rome, September 3, 1498.
[174] See Isabella's letters of February 3d and 5th.
[175] Zuccheti reproduces the letter.
[176] P.S. Li gentilhomini de lo Illmo. Sig. Duca de Romagna poichè sono stati qui XII giorni sono stati da me licentiate per essere impertinente e senza fructo alcuno a la Santità de N.S. et allo Illmo. Sig. Duca de Romagna. Minute Ducali a Costabili Beltrando, February 14, 1502.
[177] Cittadella (Guida del Forestiere in Ferrara, Ferrara, 1873) ridicules the story of the looking-glass that disclosed the love of Ugo and Parisina. See his Castello di Ferrara, Turin, 1873, and the description of the castle in the Notizie storico-artistiche sui primarii palazzi d'Italia, Firenze, Cennini, 1871.
[178] Luigi Napoleone Cittadella, La Stampa in Ferrara. Ferrara, 1873.
[179] See first part of Villari's well known biography of Savonarola.
[180] Maxime intendendo che continuano dormire insieme la nocte. Se ben intende ch'el Sig. Don Alfonso el dì va a piacere in diversi loci come giovene; il quale, dice S. Stà. fa molto bene. Beltrando Costabili to the duke, Rome, April 1, 1502.
[181] Silver carlins. Obverse: JOANNES. BOR. DVX. CAMERINI; the Borgia arms surrounded with lilies and the crest of the Lenzuoli. Reverse: S. VENANTIVS DE CAMERI. They are described in the Periodico di Numismatica e Sfragistica per la Storia d'Italia diretto dal March. C. Strozzi, Flor. 1870, A. III, Fascic. ii, 70-77, by G. Amati, and also in A. IV, fasc. vi, 259-265, by M. Santoni. Both writers erroneously describe this Giov. Borgia as the son of the Duke of Gandia, and Amati even confuses Valence in Dauphiné with Valencia in Spain.
[182] In the state archives of Modena there are several letters regarding Lucretia's illness written by the Ferrarese physicians Ludovicus Carrus and J. Castellus.
[183] The duke to Costabili, his ambassador in Rome, October 9-23, 1502.
[184] Despatch of Bartolomeo Cavalieri to Ercole, Macon, September 8, 1503.
[185] Bembo, Opp. iii, 309.
[186] Minute Ducali a Costabili Beltrando, Ferrara, August 28, 1503.
[187] One of these medals is preserved in the cabinet of the Oliveriana in Pesaro. It is reproduced in the Nuova Raccolta delle Monete e Zecche d'Italia di Guidantonio Zanetti, p. 1.
[188] See Giulio Perticari, Op. Bol. 1839, vol. ii. Intorno la morte di Pandolfo Collenuccio. Perticari's opinion is too one-sided and optimistic. The beautiful elegy which he states Collenuccio wrote shortly before his death was written at a much happier time.
[189] The document is in the Este archives.
[190] This is the record already mentioned, Liber Arrendamentorum terrarum ad IIImos Dominos Rodericum Borgiam de Aragonia, Sermoneti, etc., et Johannem Borgiam Nepesini Duces, infantes spectantium. Biselli, 1502
[191] Raxo pavonazo trovato in Guardaroba. De dito raso se ne fodrato dui ziponi e dui boniti per Don Rodrigo e Don Joanne (Braccia 6). De dito raso se ne posto in la capa de Don Rodrigo—Tela d'oro. De dita tela se ne posto a fodrare due cape de raxo pavonazo per Don Rodrigo e Don Joane—braza 12. Dite peze de fuxo doro tirato se ne pose per commission de la Signora nei saioni de Don Rodrigo e Don Joanne, etc. Estratti dall' inventario di roba di Lucrezia Borgia, 1502-1503. Archives of Modena.
[192] Ercole to his ambassador in Rome, December 31, 1503.
[193] Costabili to Ercole, May 6, 1507.
[194] Manfredo Manfredi's despatch to Ercole, Florence, August 20, 1504.
[195] Perche la mogliera del Duca di Candia, che fu morto dal Duca Valentino ha procurato questo acto de tencione et vendicta et che Lei è parente del Re di Spagna. Letter of Giovanni Alberto della Pigna to Ercole, Venice, June 18, 1504.
[196] Costabili's despatch to Duke Ercole, Rome, October 27, 1504.
[197] The contract is in Beneimbene's protocol-book.
[198] Another list of the year 1516 contains a number of magnificently bound breviaries and books of offices, but there are no additional works of a secular nature. For this catalogue I am indebted to Foucard, who copied it from an inventory of the personal property of Lucretia Borgia in the archives of Modena.
[199] Dissertazione del Sig. Dottor Baldassare Oltrocchi sopra i primi amori di Pietro Bembo, indirizzata al sig. Conte Giammaria Mazzucchelli Bresciana. In the Nuova Raccolta d'Opuscoli Scientifici del Calogerà, vol. iv. Lettere di Lucrezia Borgia a messer Pietro Bembo dagli autografi conservati in un Codice della Bibl. Ambrosiana. Milano eoi Tipi dell' Ambrosiana, 1859.
[200] Laeto nata solo, dextrâ, rosa, pollice carpta;
Unde tibi solito pulcrior, unde color?
Num te iterum tinxit Venus? an potius tibi tantum
Borgia purpureo praebuit ore decus?
[201] Ad Bembum de Lucretia.
Si mutatur in X. C. tertia nominis hujus
Littera lux fiet, quod modo luc fuerat.
Retia subsequitur, cui tu hæc subiunge paraque,
Subscribens lux hæc retia, Bembe, parat.
[202] La prima inscrizion ch'agli occhi occorre,
Con lungo honor Lucrezia Borgia noma,
La cui bellezza ed onestà preporre
Debbe all' antiqua la sua patria Roma.
I duo che voluto han sopra sè torre
Tanto eccellente ed onorata soma,
Noma lo scritto: Antonio Tebaldeo,
Ercole Strozza: un Lino, e un Orfeo.
[203] See the Marquis Giuseppe Campori's work: Una Vittima della Storia, Lucrezia Borgia, in the Nuova Antologia, August 31, 1866.
[204] Frizzi Storia di Ferrara, iv, 205.
[205] Cose tutte che sono in ontà del vero, says Antonio Cappelli. Introduction to his Lettere di Lodovico Ariosto, Bologna, 1866. The eclogue is in Ariosto's Opere Minori i. 267. Angela Borgia is mentioned in the last canto (stanza 4) of the Orlando.
[206] The bull is in the archives of the house of Gaetani.
[207] As late as January 15, 1519, a few months before her death, Lucretia wrote to Giulia. The 13th of that month, Pietro Torelli, the Ferrarese ambassador in Florence, reported that he had received a letter for Giulia and would attend to it. Archives of Modena.
[208] Fioravanti Martinelli Carbognano illustrado, Rome, 1644.
[209] In the record of her household expenses, under date of November 20, 1506, there is the following entry: A Garzia Spagnolo per andare a Venezia per la nova del Duca Valentino che era fugito de progione. November 27, she wrote to Gonzaga.
[210] Record of Lucretia's household expenses for the year 1506 (Archives of Modena): July 31, 1506, a Federigo Cancelliere del Duca Valentino per andare per le poste in Spagna dal Duca.
[211] Despatch of the Ferrarese ambassador to France, Manfredo Manfredi, to Duke Alfonso, January, 1507.
[212] Letters of Hieronymus Magnaninus to his master, Alfonso, Ferrara, April 11 to 22, archives of the Este.
[213] Cæsaris Borgiæ Ducis Epicedium per Herculem Strozzam ad Divam Lucretiam Borgiam Ferrariæ Ducem. In Strozzi Poetæ Pater et Filius, Paris, 1530.
[214] See Cittadella's genealogy of the house of Borgia.
[215] Letter of Giulio Alvarotti from France, February 14, 1550, in the archives of Modena.
[216] Campori; Una Vittima della Storia; Antonio Capelli, Lettere di L. Ariosto, Introduction, p. lxi. Also W. Gilbert, Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara, ii, 240.
[217] Despatch of Girolamo Cassola, Augsburg, February 27, 1510. Archives of Modena.
[218] This he announced to the Marchese Gonzaga from Pesaro, November 4, 1505. Archives of Mantua.
[219] Copies of the following instruments concerning the last Sforza of Pesaro are in the archives of Florence: will of Giovanni Sforza, July 24, 1510; agreement between Galeazzo and the Papal Legate, October 30, 1512; Galeazzo's will, March 23, 1515; Isabella's marriage contract, Pesaro, September 29, 1520. The epitaph in the Lateran is as follows: Isabellas Sfortiæ Joannis Pisaurensium P. Feminæ Sui Temporis Prudentia Ac Pietate Insigni Exec. Test. P. Vix. Ann LVII. M. VII. D. III Obiit Ann. MDLXI. XI Kal. Febr. Consensu Nobilium De Mutis De Papazurris. Above is a profile in marble.
[220] J'ose bien dire que, de son temps, ni beaucoup avant, il ne s'est point trouvé de plus triomphante princesse, car elle était belle, bonne, douce et courtoise, à toutes gens. Le Loyal Serviteur Histoire du bon Chevalier, le seigneur de Bayard, chap. xlv.
[221] Despatch of this ambassador in the archives of Mantua.
[222] Per trovarmi tuttavia involta in lachryme et amaritudine per la morte del Duca di Biselli mio figliolo carrissimo.
[223] The instrument is in the Liber Arrendamentorum, from Lucretia's chancellery.
[224] El quale zipon de Dernascho e brochato, sua Signoria el manda a donare a don Rodrigo suo figliolo a Barri.
[225] October 24, 1506. Spesa per un nocchiero, che ha condotto Don Giovanni Borgia de Finale a Ferrara. November 5, 1506. Tela di renso sottile per far camicie mandato a Carpi al sig. Don Giovanni Borgia.
[226] May 15, 1508. Berette per Don Giovanni e Don Rodrigo Borgia. May 25th. Spesa per guanti a Don Giovanni e Don Rodrigo Borgia. October 16th. Bartolommeo Grotto, maestro de li ragazzi, per pagare certi libri zoè Donati e regule per detti ragazzi. December 15. Per un Virgilio comprato da Don Bartolommeo Grotto a don Giovanni.
[227] Unica in disgracia.
[228] Letters in the Este archives show that there was another Don Rodrigo Borgia, who, in the year 1518, was described as the "brother" of the Duchess Lucretia, and was then under the care of tutors in Salerno. His guardians were Madama Elisabetta—who may have been his mother—and her daughter Giulia. Lucretia, to whom the letters of Giovanni Cases (Rome, May 12, September 3, 1518) and another by Don Giorgio de Ferrara (Rome, December, 1518,) are addressed, seems to have acted as a mother to this child. This second Rodrigo died, a young clerk, in 1527. August 30th of that year the Ferrarese ambassador in Naples, Baldassare da Fino, wrote from Posilipo as follows: Lo Illmo et Rev. Signor Don Rodrico de Casa Borgia, stando in Ciciano, cum la Signora Madama sua matre, sono da 15 giorni che, prima vexato da Febre continua, se ne morse—a sheet without any address, in the archives of Modena. Again, in January, 1535, this deceased son of Alexander VI is mentioned in a report sent from Rome, which contains the following words: Era venuta nuovamente un Vescovo fratello di Don Roderico Borgia, figliuolo che fu di Papa Alessandro.... Avvisi di Roma. State archives of Modena.
[229] Printed in the Italian edition of Roscoe's Life of Leo X, vii, 300.
[230] Cittadella N 31. She endeavored to secure the Prebend of S. Jacopo for him. In her record of household expenses there are entries of purchases of clothing for him, beginning with December 23, 1517.
[231] Two golden bracelets—per donare alla Regina de Franza, 27 Aprile, 1518; other articles of personal adornment—mandati per lo Illmo D. Joanne Borgia al Re de Franza (November 16, 1518). The ambassadors Carlo da Correggio and Pistofilo Bonaventura informed Lucretia of his favorable reception at the court of France, in letters dated December, 1518, and January to March, 1519. State archives of Modena.
[232] Documents in the State archives of Florence, among the papers regarding Urbino. CI. I. Div. C. Fil. xiv. In 1534 Giulia Varano married Guidobaldo II of Urbino and brought him Camerino, which, however, he was compelled to relinquish in 1539 to Paul III, who gave it to his nephew Octavio Farnese.
[233] Copia di una lettera da Roma di 19 Novembre, 1547. State archives of Modena.
[234] Despatch of Beltrando Costabili to Ercole, Rome, March 7, 1504.
[235] Magnifico et prestanti viro maiori honorandmo D. Ludovico Romanellio Ducali Secretario Ferrarie. Omissis. Il Papa mi ha mandato Don Michiele il quale habiamo cominciato examinare cum turtura de queste sue sceleranze fin qui [=e] sta saldo et nulla confessa non so m[=o] se fara cussi in futurum. Omissis. Dixe che Papa Alexandro fù quello che fece ammazzare Don Alfonso, marito che fù della Ducessa. Rome XX. Lulii, 1504. Thadeus Locumtenens Senatus. In the archives of Modena.
[236] The documents are in the archives of the Sancta Sanctorum.
[237] Act of December 4, 1503, in the same archives.
[238] Archives of the Sancta Sanctorum. The instrument is dated April 1, 1504.
[239] Archives of the Sancta Sanctorum.
[240] Ibid.
[241] This was reported to Cardinal Ippolito by Girolamo Sacrati from Rome, November 2, 1515. Archives of Modena.
[242] Vannozza's will, in the archives of the Capitol, Cred. xiv, T. 72, p. 305, among the instruments drawn by the notary Andrea Carosi.
[243] In the diary of Marino Sanuto, vol. xxvi, fol. 135.
[244] This letter is quoted by Zucchetti.
[245] Printed in Zucchetti's work. Che da forse dieci anni in qua la portava el silizio.... This is not, as Zucchetti supposes, the goat-hair shirt.
[246] In this translation it appears on the cover.
[247] Di quella mala sorte che fù quella, e con tante disoneste parti. See Ugolino Storia dei Duchi d'Urbino, ii, 242.
[248] J. M. S. Daurignac, Histoire de S. François de Borgia, Duc de Gandie, Troisième Général de la Compagnie de Jesus. Paris, 1863.