Then there is also a report that H.M. the King has spontaneously ceded all our castles and has ordered M. Giovan Battista Bentivoglio to consign them to the Florentines; this is good news.
I shall have your yarn on the 10th of this month, it has been spun at Naples and Benedetto Salutati writes that you have been well served, so, if you wish, as soon as I get it I can send it on to you. I delayed, if you remember, until my return. Tell me what to do and your commands shall be obeyed. I think we shall be here all September. I have no more to say save that I commend myself to Your Magnificence, and if any friend of yours is at present Vicar of San Giovanni, I beg you to keep me in mind, for I should do you honour. Valete.—In Rome, August 4, 1480. Your servant,
Papinio di Artimino, Cancellarius.[284]
Papinio di Artimino, from Rome, to Lucrezia de’ Medici
Magnifica atque honestissima Domina, post recomandationem &c.,—In my last of the 2nd instant I replied to a letter of Your Magnificence of the 26th of last month, and informed you of what had happened until now.
Now I must tell Your Magnificence that this morning while visiting the ambassador of H.M. the King to hear whether there was any fresh news, he told me that he had heard from the Venetian ambassador that the Turkish camp which was at Rhodes had been broken up, and the army had returned to Constantinople, the Venetian ambassador said he had letters to this effect. If true, this seems to me good news.
On Monday morning a school-building here fell and it was feared that more than twenty boys had been killed. But only the master perished, which is looked upon as a great miracle. The loud screams of the fathers and the mothers cannot be described. God, at that moment, shielded innocence. He continues to work great wonders. Let us pray that He will not look at our great sins.
Messer Antonio Ridolfi, the ambassador of our Republic, bears himself in such guise that all the citizens are much indebted to him, he never ceases day or night to solicit and press forward their affairs. I have hopes in Almighty God and His glorious Mother the Virgin Mary that he may return with great honour and an end be put to so much tribulation. May God be pleased to do this.
By my letter of the 23rd of last month I suggested, in case you and the Magnificent Lorenzo approved, that His Magnificence should write a letter to the Cardinal of Milan and one to the Cardinal of Portugal advising and begging them to accelerate this holy enterprise; for although they are well disposed yet I know it would help matters much. I see their Seigneuries often and they are favourably inclined. Valete.—Ex Roma, die 8 Octobris 1480. Vester servitor fidelissimus.
Papinus de Artiminus, Cancellarius.[285]