Note [218] page 136. The present form (bisticcio) of bischisso (rendered ‘playing on words’) has a meaning somewhat different from that indicated in the text,—being the term applied to a succession of words the similarity of whose sound renders them difficult to pronounce, e.g., “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”

Note [219] page 136. At this time the general use of family names was comparatively recent, and their form was somewhat variable. Thus, such surnames as Pio and Fregoso were treated as still being, what they doubtless originally were, merely personal epithets, and so were given the feminine form (Pia, Fregosa) when applied to women. The adjective pia means dutiful, pious, kind, while impia or empia of course means the reverse.

Note [220] page 136. “The greatest of the Furies is my bedfellow.” With a change of one syllable in the Latin, this becomes Furiarum maxima juxta accubat (“The greatest of the Furies lies hard by”), Æneid, V, 605-6.

Note [221] page 136. Geronimo Donato, (born 1457; died 1511), was a native of Venice, where he held many public offices, besides being sent abroad as ambassador of the Republic, especially to the courts of Alexander VI and Julius II. He also enjoyed no small fame as a cultivator of science, art and letters (particularly Greek and theology). The incident narrated in the text occurred during his embassy to Alexander, to whom on another occasion he made a far wittier retort. Being jestingly asked by the pope where Venice got its right of lordship over the Adriatic, he answered: “Let your Holiness show me the title deed to the Patrimony of St. Peter, and on the back of it will be found inscribed the grant to the Venetians of their dominion over the Adriatic.”

Note [222] page 136. In the Roman Church a “station” (stasione) is a church where indulgences are granted at certain seasons. In earlier times such churches were visited in solemn procession, which afterwards came to be regarded as an opportunity for social recreation. The word is used also to designate the indulgences earned by visiting, on appointed days, many churches founded by popes.

Note [223] page 136. “As many stars as heaven, so many girls hath thy Rome,” Ovid’s Ars Amandi, I, 59.

Note [224] page 136. “As many kids as the pasture, so many satyrs hath thy Rome,” is as close an English rendering as Donato’s Latin will bear.

Note [225] page 136. Marcantonio della Torre belonged to an ancient noble family of Verona, was a famous anatomist, and is said to have included Leonardo da Vinci among his pupils. He died at the age of thirty, and was highly praised for his learning. His father Geronimo lectured on medicine at Padua.

Pietro Barozzi became Archbishop of Padua in 1487, and died in 1507. Bandello (who had read The Courtier in MS.) relates the same story in somewhat wittier form, but gives the name of the prelate as Gerardo Landriano, Bishop of Como.

Note [226] page 137. St. Luke, xvi, 2.