Note [142] page 71. Ettore Romano Giovenale was a cavalier of whom little more is known than that he was in Francesco Maria’s service, fought successfully as one of the thirteen Italian champions at Barletta, was afterwards in the service of the Duke of Ferrara, who dismissed him for an act of treachery.
Note [143] page 71. Collo Vincenzo Calmeta of Castelnuovo, (died 1508), was a courtly poet and prose writer, who had been secretary to the Duchess Beatrice d'Este of Milan. Later he enjoyed the especial favour of this lady’s sister, the Marchioness Isabella d'Este of Mantua, and also of the Duchess of Urbino, who protected him from the displeasure of her brother the Marquess of Mantua, and at whose court he improvised verse somewhat after the manner of the Unico Aretino. In a letter (1504) from Urbino to Isabella d'Este, Emilia Pia wrote: “Of news here there is none that is not known to you, except that Calmeta is continually composing songs and divers other things, and this carnival has written a new comedy, which he would have sent you if he had thought it would give you pleasure.” Among Calmeta’s works were a verse compendium of Ovid’s Ars Amandi, and a biography of his friend and fellow improvisatore, Serafino Ciminelli d'Aquila (see note [255]). As known to us, his poetical writings do not rise above mediocrity, and wholly fail to explain the esteem in which they were held.
Note [144] page 71. Orazio Florido was a native of Fano, one of the Adriatic coast towns nearest to Urbino. Having been chancellor to Duke Guidobaldo, he became secretary to Duke Francesco Maria. When Francesco was combating the usurper Lorenzo de' Medici in 1517, he sent one of his officers with Florido under protection of a safe-conduct to challenge Lorenzo to personal combat. In spite of the safe-conduct, Florido was detained and sent to Leo X at Rome, where he was basely tortured in the hope of extorting political secrets from him. He remained steadfastly faithful to his master, and afterwards made a tour of the courts of Europe seeking aid for his lord.
Note [145] page 73. Margarita Gonzaga was a niece of the Duchess of Urbino, being a natural daughter of the Marquess Gianfrancesco of Mantua. She was for many years one of the ornaments of the Urbino court. Various mentions of her in contemporary letters show her as a woman of unusual beauty, sprightly wit and gay disposition. She had several suitors, apparently including Filippo Beroaldo, who is mentioned later in The Courtier (page [139]).
Note [146] page 73. Of Barletta nothing more is known than what is contained in this and another shorter mention of him in The Courtier (page [87]).
BEATRICE D'ESTE
DUCHESS OF MILAN
1475-1497
Reduced from Braun’s photograph (no. 42.371) of the portrait, in the Pitti Gallery at Florence, attributed to Piero della Francesca (1420-1492). For an account of this and other portraits, see l'Archivio Storico dell'Arte for 1889, p. 264. Some of the events of her short life are mentioned in note 398 at page 399 of this volume.
Note [147] page 73. The original reads: havendo prima danzato una bassa, ballarono una Roegarze. The danza bassa was of Spanish origin and is believed to have consisted of sliding steps and of posturing, in which the feet were not lifted. The verb ballare seems to be derived from the low Latin balla, a ball. In the Middle Ages the game of ball was accompanied with dance and song, and we may well believe that a class of dances, thus originating and denominated generally balli, were more animated than the danza bassa. Although a Greek derivation has been ascribed to the word roegarze, Cian affirms that the dance thus named was of French origin. The earliest French translator of The Courtier renders the word by rouergoise, which is apparently derived from Rouergue, the name of an ancient French province to the south-west of Lyons.
