Note [417] page 215. This was Ludovico Gonzaga, (born 1458; died 1511), a son of the Marquess Ludovico of Mantua and Barbara of Brandenburg, and a younger brother of “my lady Duchess’s” father. Made Bishop of Mantua in 1483, he continued to hold that office until his death, and appears from various contemporary documents to have been a liberal and wise prince. The last years of his life were spent at Gazzuolo, which he made a centre of culture, art and learning. His brother Gianfrancesco was husband of the Antonia del Balzo mentioned above, note 400. For particulars regarding him, see an article by Rossi in the Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana, xiii, 305.

Note [418] page 215. The basilica of St. Sebastian, on the Appian Way, dates from the 4th century, was built over the most famous of the catacombs, and enjoyed an exceptional veneration during the Middle Ages. The saint was a young military tribune born in Gaul, suffered martyrdom under Diocletian about the year 288, and was buried in the catacombs of Callistus. St. George and he were the favourite saints of chivalry, and may be regarded as the martial Castor and Pollux of Christian myth.

Note [419] page 216. Felice della Rovere, (died about 1536), was a natural daughter of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere (afterwards Julius II) and a certain Lucrezia, the wife of Bernardo de Cuppis (or Coppi) da Montefolco; thus “my lord Prefect” of The Courtier was her own cousin. In 1506 she became the second wife of the elderly and eccentric Giangiordano Orsini, and the ancestress of the Dukes of Bracciano. Her name often occurs in contemporary documents, not only on account of her lofty position but because of her love of art and letters. Both Castiglione and Giancristoforo Romano were her friends. The incident mentioned in the text seems not to be referred to elsewhere. Savona, a seaport on the western Riviera, is near the birthplace of Felice’s great-uncle, Pope Sixtus IV, who was the founder of the della Rovere family.

Note [420] page 216. Duke Guidobaldo’s impotence is said to have given rise to the project of a divorce for his duchess.

Note [421] page 218. The reference here is to Ovid’s Ars Amandi, which enjoyed an extraordinary reputation during the Renaissance, and from which this passage is largely derived.

Note [422] page 220. The Laura to whom Petrarch consecrated no less than three hundred and eighteen sonnets, is usually regarded as identical with Laure, the daughter of a certain knight of Avignon, Audibert de Noves. If this identification be correct, she was born in 1308, married Hughes de Sade in 1325, became the mother of eleven children, and died in 1348. In 1533 Francis I caused her reputed tomb to be opened, and found in it a small box which contained a medal bearing a woman’s profile, and a parchment on which was a sonnet signed by Petrarch.

Note [423] page 220. The so-called “Song of Solomon” is now thought to be the work of a period later than Solomon’s and to contain no mystic meaning.

Note [424] page 222. In the old romance, “Amadis of Gaul,” Isola Ferma is an enchanted island, with a garden at the entrance to which stands an arch surmounted by the statue of a man holding a trumpet to his mouth. Whenever an unfaithful lover attempts to pass, the trumpet emits a dreadful sound with fire and smoke, and drives the culprit back; while it welcomes all true lovers with sweetest music.

Note [425] page 228. Here again the reference is of course to “my lady Duchess.”

Note [426] page 235. The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, first published by Aldus in 1499, was written by Francesco Colonna, a Dominican friar of Venice, who died an old man in 1527. The book is rare, and is said to be an allegorical romance full of lascivious erudition, and written in a pedantically affected mixture of Italian, Latin, and Venetian patois.