[239] Opera Latina, III., Eleg. i., p. 95.
[240] Du Peloux, in a despatch addressed to Charles V. in 1529, alluding to the distractions and miseries of Italy, in terms more appropriate to the period now under our review, observes "that there were two races who occasioned all its misfortunes, the Medici and the Sforza, and that it would be well for the world were both of them extirpated."—Lanz Correspondenz.
[*241] The Lancia had been used in Romagna and the Marche for over half a century, certainly, in 1492. Cf. Edward Hutton, Sigismondo Malatesta, p. 71. Cf. Battaglini, op. cit., vol. II., p. 348.
[242] Of sixteen Vitelli named in the [genealogy] following the appendix, all but the first were renowned condottieri.
[243] Ricotti, III., 257. The Swiss were first brought into Italy by Sixtus IV., and fought at Giornico in 1479.
[244] Carteggio d'Artisti, preface to vol. II. Among the other sources to which we have been indebted for these military details, we may mention Machiavelli, Ricotti, and the Relazioni Venete, passim, but especially Promis' edition of Francesco di Giorgio on military institutions, a work of great learning and research, published at Turin in 1841. See below, ch. xxvii.
[245] Refer back to [p. 189]; also to [p. 248], for a description of the bombards used at the siege of Colle in 1479. The same tendency to overweight artillery seems common to many half-civilised nations. The size of the guns mounted in the Dardanelles is an instance, as well as that of the Scottish Mons Meg; but the most gigantic projectiles yet known have been found among the Burmese, and I believe the Chinese. In modern warfare, field batteries are usually of six, or, at most, nine pounders.
[*246] Ludovico Sforza held dominion in Genoa till 1498, when he was defeated by Louis XII. of France, to whom Genoa was then made over.
[*248] Ludovico was alarmed at the alliance of Florence and Naples, and tried to meet it with a league between the Pope, Milan, and Venice [cf. Codice, Aragonese, II., 254, etc.] On April 25, 1493, Alexander VI., guarded by an armed escort, celebrated Mass in S. Marco, and after published his league with Venice, Milan, Siena, Mantua, and Ferrara. The Pope's object was the recovery of the possessions of the Holy See. Ferrante saw this, and immediately wrote to Spain speaking of him as a profligate and accusing him of stirring up strife—the one weak point in the Pope's armour. The Spanish ambassador, Don Diego Lopez de Haro, came to Rome to offer the obedience of the Catholic kings, and at once began to plead for the peace of Italy, which was enforced by a hostile demonstration on the part of Naples. Alexander agreed to negotiate. The result was that peace was established. Orsini was allowed to keep the castles he had bought from Cibò on condition that he paid 40,000 ducats to the Pope. Peace with Naples was cemented by the marriage of the Pope's son Jofre and Sancia, a daughter of Alfonso.