The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy

Lettere Pittoriche, i. p. 71, in a letter of Vinc. Borghini, 1577. Macchiavelli (Stor. Fior. vii. cap. 28) says of the young gentlemen in Florence soon after the middle of the fifteenth century: ‘Gli studî loro erano apparire col vestire splendidi, e col parlare sagaci ed astuti, e quello che più destramente mordeva gli altri, era più savio e da più stimato.’

379

Comp. Fedra Inghirami’s funeral oration on Ludovico Podocataro (d. Aug. 25, 1504) in the Anecd. Litt. i. p. 319. The scandal-monger Massaino is mentioned in Paul. Jov. Dialogues de Viris Litt. Illustr. (Tiraboschi, tom. vii. parte iv. p. 1631).

380

This was the plan followed by Leo X., and his calculations were not disappointed. Fearfully as his reputation was mangled after his death by the satirists, they were unable to modify the general estimate formed of him.

381

This was probably the case with Cardinal Ardicino della Porta, who in 1491 wished to resign his dignity and take refuge in a monastery. See Infessura, in Eccard. ii. col. 2000.

382

See his funeral oration in the Anecd. Litt. iv. p. 315. He assembled an army of peasants in the March of Aneona, which was only hindered from acting by the treason of the Duke of Urbino. For his graceful and hopeless love-poems, see Trucchi, Poesie Inedite, iii. 123.

383

How he used his tongue at the table of Clement VII. is told in Giraldi, Hecatomithi, vii. nov. 5.

384

The charge of taking into consideration the proposal to drown Pasquino (in Paul. Jov. Vita Hadriani), is transferred from Sixtus IV. to Hadrian. Comp. Lettere dei Principi, i. 114 sqq., letter of Negro, dated April 7, 1523. On St. Mark’s Day Pasquino had a special celebration, which the Pope forbade.

385

In the passages collected in Gregorovius, viii. 380 note, 381 sqq. 393 sqq.

386

Comp. Pier. Valer. De Infel. Lit. ed. Mencken, p. 178. ‘Pestilentia quæ cum Adriano VI. invecta Romam invasit.’

387

E.g. Firenzuola, Opera (Milano 1802), vol. i. p. 116, in the Discorsi degli Animali.

388

Comp. the names in Höfler, Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Academie (1876), vol. 82, p. 435.

389

The words of Pier. Valerian, De Infel. Lit. ed. Mencken, p. 382, are most characteristic of the public feeling at Rome: ‘Ecce adest Musarum et eloquentiæ totiusque nitoris hostis acerrimis, qui literatis omnibus inimicitias minitaretur, quoniam, ut ipse dictitabat, Terentiani essent, quos quum odisse atque etiam persequi cœpisset voluntarium alii exilium, alias atque alias alii latebras quærentes tam diu latuere quoad Deo beneficio altero imperii anno decessit, qui si aliquanto diutius vixisset, Gothica illa tempora adversus bonas literas videbatur suscitaturus.’ The general hatred of Adrian was also due partly to the fact that in the great pecuniary difficulties in which he found himself he adopted the expedient of a direct tax. Ranke, Päpste, i. 411. It may here be mentioned that there were, nevertheless, poets to be found who praised Adrian. Comp. various passages in the Coryciana (ed. Rome, 1524), esp. J. J. 2b sqq.

390

To the Duke of Ferrara, January 1, 1536 (Lettere, ed. 1539, fol. 39): ‘You will now journey from Rome to Naples,’ ‘ricreando la vista avvilita nel mirar le miserie pontificali con la contemplazione delle eccellenze imperiali.’

391

The fear which he caused to men of mark, especially artists, by these means, cannot be here described. The publicistic weapon of the German Reformation was chiefly the pamphlet dealing with events as they occurred; Aretino is a journalist in the sense that he has within himself a perpetual occasion for writing.

392

E.g. in the Capitolo on Albicante, a bad poet; unfortunately the passages are unfit for quotation.

393

Lettere, ed. Venez. 1539, fol. 12, dated May 31, 1527.

394

In the first Capitolo to Cosimo.

395

Gaye, Carteggio, ii. 332.

396

See the insolent letter of 1536 in the Lettere Pittor. i. Append. 34. See above, p. 142, for the house where Petrarch was born in Arezzo.

397

L’Aretin, per Deo grazia, è vivo e sano,
Ma’l mostaccio ha fregiato nobilmente,
E più colpi ha, che dita in una mano.’
(Mauro, ‘Capitolo in lode delle bugie.’)

398

See e.g. the letter to the Cardinal of Lorraine, Lettere, ed. Venez. fol. 29, dated Nov. 21, 1534, and the letters to Charles V., in which he says that no man stands nearer to God than Charles.

399

For what follows, see Gaye, Carteggio, ii. 336, 337, 345.

400

Lettere, ed. Venez. 1539, fol. 15, dated June 16, 1529. Comp. another remarkable letter to M. A., dated April 15, 1528, fol. 212.

401

He may have done so either in the hope of obtaining the red hat or from fear of the new activity of the Inquisition, which he had ventured to attack bitterly in 1535 (l. c. fol. 37), but which, after the reorganisation of the institution in 1542, suddenly took a fresh start, and soon silenced every opposing voice.

402

[Carmina Burana, in the Bibliothek des literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, vol. xvi. (Stuttg. 1847). The stay in Pavia (p. 68 (#x5_x_5_i31)bis), the Italian local references in general, the scene with the ‘pastorella’ under the olive-tree (p. 146 (#x7_x_7_i57)), the mention of the ‘pinus’ as a shady field tree (p. 156 (#x8_x_8_i5)), the frequent use of the word ‘bravium’ (pp. 137, 144), and particularly the form Madii for Maji (p. 141 (#x7_x_7_i51)), all speak in favour of our assumption.]