GIACOMO SADOLETO
1477-1547
Head enlarged from a photograph, specially made by Alinari, of a part of the fresco, “Leo X's Entry into Florence,” in the Palazzo Vecchio at Florence, by Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574). See Milanesi’s edition of Vasari’s Opere, viii, 142. The chief facts of his life are given in note 242, at page 369 of this volume.
Note [43] page 12. Cesare Gonzaga, (born about 1475; died 1512), was a native of Mantua, being descended from a younger branch of the ruling family of that city, and a cousin of Castiglione, with whom he maintained a close friendship. His father’s name was Giampietro, and he had a brother Luigi. Having received a courtly and martial education at Milan, and after spending some time with his relatives at Mantua, he entered the service of Duke Guidobaldo of Urbino. In 1504 he shared Castiglione’s lodgings after their return from a campaign against Cesare Borgia’s strongholds in Romagna, and in the carnival of 1506 they together recited Castiglione’s eclogue Tirsi, in the authorship of which he is by some credited with a part. A graceful canzonet, preserved in Atanagi’s Rime Scelte, attests his skill in versification. On Guidobaldo’s death in 1508, the two friends remained in the service of the new duke, Francesco Maria. In 1511 Cesare fought bravely against the French at Mirandola, and the next year took part in the reduction of Bologna, where he soon died of an acute fever. Little more is known of him, beyond the fact that he was a knight of St. John of Jerusalem, that Leo X sent him on a mission to Charles V of Spain, and that he was among the many friends of the famous Isabella d'Este (see note [397]).
Note [44] page 12. Count Ludovico da Canossa, (born 1476; died 1532), belonged to a noble Veronese family (still honourably extant), and was a close friend of Castiglione and a cousin of the latter’s mother. His boyhood was passed at Mantua, and his happiest years at Urbino, where he was received in 1496. In the pontificate of Julius II he went to Rome, and was made Bishop of Tricarico, in southern Italy, 1511. Under Leo X he was entrusted with several embassies, one of which (1514) was to England to reconcile Henry VIII with Louis XII, and another (1515) was to the new French king, Francis I, at whose court he continued to reside, and through whose influence he was made Bishop of Bayeux in 1516. In 1526 and 1527 he served as French ambassador to Venice. His ability and zeal as a diplomatist are shown not only by the importance of the posts that he held, but by his numerous letters that have been preserved. At the time of his friend Bibbiena’s death in 1520, Canossa remarked that it was a fixed belief among the French that every man of rank who died in Italy was poisoned.
Note [45] page 12. Gaspar Pallavicino, (born 1486; died 1511), was a descendant of the marquesses of Cortemaggiore, near Piacenza. He appears in The Courtier as the youthful woman-hater of the company, and was a friend of Castiglione and Bembo. For an interesting discussion of his rôle in the dialogues, see Miss Scott’s paper, cited above (page [316]).
Note [46] page 12. Ludovico Pio belonged to the famous family of the lords of Carpi (a few miles north of Modena), and was a brave captain in the service of the Aragonese princes, of Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan, and of Pope Julius II. His father Leonello and more celebrated uncle Alberto had been pupils of Aldus, and were second cousins of Emilia Pia. His wife was the beautiful Graziosa Maggi of Milan, who is immortalized in the paintings of Francia and the writings of Bembo.
Note [47] page 12. Sigismondo Morello da Ortona is presented in The Courtier as the only elderly member of the company, and the object of many youthful jests. He is known to have taken part in the ceremony of the formal adoption of Francesco Maria della Rovere as heir to the duchy in 1504, is referred to in Castiglione’s Tirsi, and seems to have been something of a musician.
LOUIS XII OF FRANCE
1462-1515
Much enlarged from a negative, specially made by Berthaud, of a part of a pen-drawing in the National Library at Paris. The drawing is touched with gold, and forms part of a series illustrating a MS. chronicle (nos. 20360-2) engrossed at Genoa in 1510 by Anthoine Bardin. See note 250.