[99] See letters to him from Pius II., of Nov. 11 and Dec. 12, 1459, in the Laurentian MS. just quoted.
[100] Baldi, II., p. 48.
[101] Dryden's translation of Æneid, VI., p. 810.
[102] See [p. 41] above. The extreme inaccuracy of Frenchmen, in speaking or writing of names and persons, is proverbial; and Sismondi, a French writer, although no Frenchman, has fallen into manifest errors regarding the family of Urbino. We have already detected one as to the birth of Federigo. In chap. LXXI. he calls Battista daughter of Francesco Sforza, and in chap. LXXXI. falls into the still more gross blunder of making Sigismondo Malatesta father-in-law (beaupère) of Federigo. This may be a misprint for beaufrère, which he would have been had Battista been a daughter of Francesco, as well as Polissena, whom Malatesta had married; but this was not the case. See notes at [p. 91] and above.
[103] Urb. Vat. MSS., No. 1236, her funeral oration.
[104] Archivio Diplomatico di Firenze, original dispensation.
[105] Amadigi, canto XLIV., st. 57. Cicero was born at Arpino.
[106] Baldi, III., p. 79. Pius had arranged all this with Federigo at Siena, in February, 1460, and had advanced him money, in order, if necessary, to corrupt Piccinino's troops—Commentaria, p. 97. At p. 100 the Pontiff insinuates against Federigo the same charge which the Urbino writers have preferred against his own legate, of facilitating their transit into the enemy's country, which unquestionably could not have been effected without collusion or remissness in some quarter.
[107] There is much discrepancy as to the date. Berni and Muzio say it was the 22nd of July; Baldi names the 29th; Muratori, followed by Sismondi and Ricotti, the 27th of that month; Simonetta the 22nd of June. Muzio and Baldi, however, agree that the battle was fought on a Tuesday, which must have been the 22nd of July, the Feast of the Magdalen.
[*108] As witness the almost comic challenge of Piccinino to Sforza. Cf. Edward Hutton, op. cit., pp. 124-7.