[30] Prose volgari, p. 109.
[31] Ibid. p. 248.
[32] See Prose volgare, p. 481: ‘O cui tyrrheni florentia signa leonis.’
[33] Epistolæ, viii. 6, 7.
[34] See the poems addressed to Cardinal Riario in the Prose volgare, pp. 111-114. Cf. supra, i. 346.
[35] These four books were printed by Cardinal Angelo Mai in the second volume of the Spicilegium Romanum, from two MSS. in the Vatican, and thence in the Prose volgare, pp. 431-523. The MSS. came to the Vatican from Fulvio Orsini. The one on parchment, with the Medici arms on a red leather binding, is the copy of books ii. and iii., presented by the author to Lorenzo. The other contains books iv. and v., apparently in Poliziano’s handwriting and without a dedication.
[36] There has been much question as to the relation between the original ‘Orfeo,’ which the author wanted to destroy, and the later one, which was turned into a tragedy in several acts. The latter was published in 1776 by Ireneo Affò, with a detailed introduction and excursus; and in 1812 Vincenzo Ranucci wrote some extensive philological observations upon it which were reprinted in the Carducci edition, pp. 113-188. The question which has lately been raised as to Poliziano’s authorship of this second version must be left for decision to the poet’s biographers. There is a prospect of a detailed account of his life by I. del Lungo.
[37] It has been shown in vol. i. p. 299, that Poliziano did not begin this poem so early as has been imagined, from an idea that Giuliano’s tournament was held at the same time as that of his brother. That he was at work upon it in 1476 is proved by the allusion to the death of Simonetta, the young beauty to whom Giuliano’s heart was given, an event which Poliziano sang also in Latin, Prose volgare, p. 149. [In Simonettam, ‘Dum pulchra effertur nigro Simonetta pheretro.’]
[38] Laurus, the poetical name by which the poets of the time distinguished Lorenzo.
[39] Roscoe’s translation.