[695] We may also compare Platina, Vitae Pontiff. p. 310: ‘Homo fuit (Pius II.) verus, integer, apertus; nil habuit ficti, nil simulati’—an enemy of hypocrisy and superstition, courageous and consistent. See Voigt, ii. 261 sqq. and iii. 724. He does not, however, give an analysis of the character of Pius.
[696] The most important passages are the following: Pii II. P. M. Commentarii, l. iv. p. 183; spring in his native country; l. v. p. 251; summer residence at Tivoli; l. vi. p. 306: the meal at the spring of Vicovaro; l. viii. p. 378: the neighbourhood of Viterbo; p. 387: the mountain monastery of St. Martin; p. 388: the Lake of Bolsena; l. ix. p. 396: a splendid description of Monte Amiata; l. x. p. 483: the situation of Monte Oliveto; p. 497: the view from Todi; l. xi. p. 554: Ostia and Porto; p. 562: description of the Alban Hills; l. xii. p. 609: Frascati and Grottaferrata; comp. 568-571.
[697] So we must suppose it to have been written, not Sicily.
[698] He calls himself, with an allusion to his name: ‘Silvarum amator et varia videndi cupidus.’
[699] On Leonbattista Alberti’s feeling for landscapes see above, p. 136 sqq. Alberti, a younger contemporary of Æneas Silvius (Trattato del Governo della Famiglia, p. 90; see above, p. 132, note 1), is delighted when in the country with ‘the bushy hills,’ ‘the fair plains and rushing waters.’ Mention may here be made of a little work Ætna, by P. Bembus, first published at Venice, 1495, and often printed since, in which, among much that is rambling and prolix, there are remarkable geographical descriptions and notices of landscapes.
[700] A most elaborate picture of this kind in Ariosto; his sixth canto is all foreground.
[701] He deals differently with his architectural framework, and in this modern decorative art can learn something from him even now.
[702] Lettere Pittoriche, iii. 36, to Titian, May, 1544.
[703] Strozzii Poetae, in the Erotica, l. vi. fol. 183; in the poem: ‘Hortatur se ipse, ut ad amicam properet.’
[704] Comp. Thausing: Dürer, Leipzig, 1876, p. 166.