[1167] For the facts here quoted, see Annal. Foroliviens. in Murat. xxii. col. 233 sqq. (comp. col. 150). Leonbattista Alberti endeavoured to give a spiritual meaning to the ceremony of laying the foundation. Opere Volgari, tom. iv. p. 314 (or De Re Ædific. 1. i.). For Bonatto see Filippo Villani, Vite and Delia Vita e delle Opere di Guido Bonati, Astrologo e Astronomo del Secolo Decimoterzo, raccolte da E. Boncompagni, Rome 1851. B.’s great work, De Astronomia, lib. x. has been often printed.
[1168] In the horoscopes of the second foundation of Florence (Giov. Villani, iii. 1. under Charles the Great) and of the first of Venice (see above, p. 62), an old tradition is perhaps mingled with the poetry of the Middle Ages.
[1169] For one of these victories, see the remarkable passage quoted from Bonatto in Steinschneider, in the Zeitschr. d. D. Morg. Ges. xxv. p. 416. On B. comp. ibid. xviii. 120 sqq.
[1170] Ann. Foroliv. 235-238. Filippo Villani, Vite. Macchiavelli, Stor. Fior. l. i. When constellations which augured victory appeared, Bonatto ascended with his book and astrolabe to the tower of San Mercuriale above the Piazza, and when the right moment came gave the signal for the great bell to be rung. Yet it was admitted that he was often wide of the mark, and foresaw neither his own death nor the fate of Montefeltro. Not far from Cesena he was killed by robbers, on his way back to Forli from Paris and from Italian universities where he had been lecturing. As a weather prophet he was once overmatched and made game of by a countryman.
[1171] Matteo Villani, xi. 3; see above, p. 508.
[1172] Jovian. Pontan. De Fortitudine, l. i. See p. 511 note 1, for the honourable exception made by the first Sforza.
[1173] Paul. Jov. Elog. sub v. Livianus, p. 219.
[1174] Who tells it us himself. Benedictus, in Eccard, ii. col. 1617.
[1175] In this sense we must understand the words of Jac. Nardi, Vita d’Ant. Giacomini, p. 65. The same pictures were common on clothes and household utensils. At the reception of Lucrezia Borgia in Ferrara, the mule of the Duchess of Urbino wore trappings of black velvet with astrological figures in gold. Arch. Stor. Append. ii. p. 305.
[1176] Æn. Sylvius, in the passage quoted above p. 508; comp. Opp. 481.