Many of these satirical touches depend on puns. Urban VII., one of the Barberini family, pillaged the Pantheon of brass to make cannon,[63] on which occasion Pasquin was made to say:—
Quod non fecerunt Barbari Romæ, fecit Barberini.
On Clement VII., whose death was said to be occasioned by the prescriptions of his physician:—
Curtius occidit Clementem; Curtius auro
Donandus, per quem publica parta salus.
"Dr. Curtius has killed the pope by his remedies; he ought to be remunerated as a man who has cured the state."
The following, on Paul III., are singular conceptions:—
Papa Medusæum caput est, coma turba Nepotum;
Perseu cæde caput, Cæsaries periit.
"The pope is the head of Medusa; the horrid tresses are his nephews; Perseus, cut off the head, and then we shall be rid of these serpent-locks."
Another is sarcastic—
Ut canerent data multa olim sunt Vatibus æra:
Ut taceam, quantum tu mihi, Paule, dabis?