Next to her husband’s niece by marriage, Emilia Pia (see note [37]), her closest friend seems to have been her brother’s wife, the famous Isabella d'Este (see note 397), with whom she often travelled and continually corresponded by letter. Although still young and accounted beautiful at her husband’s death, she remained faithful to his memory, and the years of her widowhood were cheered by the companionship of her niece, the young duchess Eleanora of Urbino (see note [432]). If we may trust universal contemporary opinion of her virtues and beauty, the author of The Courtier flattered her as little as did the painter of her portrait in the Uffizi Gallery.
FEDERICO GONZAGA
MARQUESS OF MANTUA
FATHER OF “MY LADY DUCHESS”
1440-1484
Enlarged from a part of Alinari’s photograph (no. 18705) of the fresco, “The Return of the Exile,” in the Sala degli Sposi of the Gonzaga Palace at Mantua, painted not later than 1474 by Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506). See Heinrich Thode’s monograph on Mantegna, p. 56. For a notice of the Marquess’s life see note [263].
Note [13] page 3. Vittoria Colonna seems to have had this passage in mind when she wrote, 20 September 1524, to Castiglione in praise of his book: “It would not be fitting for me to tell you what I think of it, for the same reason which you say prevents you from speaking of the beauty of my lady Duchess.”
Note [14] page 3. Giovanni Boccaccio, (born 1313; died 1375), was the natural son of a Florentine tradesman and a Frenchwoman with whom his father had made acquaintance during a business residence at Paris. In early manhood he engaged in commerce at Naples, and had but little learning in his youth, although he studied law for a time. Erudition and authorship became the serious enthusiasm of his life, owing (it is said) to a chance visit to the supposed tomb of Virgil at Naples. In middle life he began the study of Greek at his friend Petrarch’s suggestion; and although he never acquired more than what would now be deemed a superficial knowledge of that language, as a Hellenist he had no precursor in Italy. An ardent if somewhat unappreciative admirer of Dante (whose Divina Commedia he transcribed with his own hands), he was the first Italian author to write for the common people, instead of composing books suited only to the learned and patrician classes. His style was formed by tireless study of classic models, and became a standard for imitation by his successors.
Note [15] page 3. It is now known that the considerations that led Boccaccio to underrate his poems and tales, were ethical rather than literary.
Note [16] page 5. Theophrastus, (born 374; died 287 B.C.), was a native of Lesbos, but resided at Athens. He was the chief disciple and successor of Aristotle, and wrote also upon a great variety of subjects other than philosophy. His best known work, the “Characters,” is a collection of sprightly sketches of human types. La Bruyère’s famous book of the same name was originally a mere translation from Theophrastus. The incident mentioned in the text is thus described in Cicero’s Brutus: “When he asked a certain old woman for how much she would sell something, and she answered him and added, 'Stranger, it can’t be had for less,'—he was vexed at being taken for a stranger although he had grown old at Athens and spoke to perfection.”
Note [17] page 5. I. e., pages 39-54.
Note [18] page 5. The reference here is to Plato’s “Republic,” Xenophon’s Cyropædia, and Cicero’s De Oratore.