During the last twenty years the patient researches of successive students in the archives of North Italian cities have been richly rewarded. The State papers of Milan and Venice, of Ferrara and Modena, have yielded up their treasures; the correspondence of Isabella d'Este, in the Gonzaga archives at Mantua, has proved a source of inexhaustible wealth and knowledge. A flood of light has been thrown on the history of Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; public events and personages have been placed in a new aspect; the judgments of posterity have been modified and, in some instances, reversed. We see now, more clearly than ever before, what manner of men and women these Estes and Gonzagas, these Sforzas and Viscontis, were. We gain fresh insight into their characters and aims, their secret motives and private wishes. We see them in their daily occupations and amusements, at their work and at their play. We follow them from the battle-field and council chamber, from the chase and tournament, to the privacy of domestic life and the intimate scenes of the family circle. And we realize how, in spite of the tragic stories or bloodshed and strife that darkened their lives, in spite, too, of the low standard of morals and of the crimes and vices that we are accustomed to associate with Renaissance princes, there was a rare measure of beauty and goodness, of culture and refinement, of love of justice and zeal for truth, among them. As the latest historian of the Papacy, Dr. Pastor, has wisely remarked, we must take care not to paint the state of morals during the Italian Renaissance blacker than it really was. Virtue goes quietly on If in Isabella we have the supreme representative of Renaissance culture in its highest and most intellectual phase, Beatrice is the type of that new-found joy in life, that intoxicating rapture in the actual sense of existence, that was the heritage "And when Duchess Beatrice died," wrote the poet, Vincenzo Calmeta, "everything fell into ruin, and that court, which had been a joyous paradise, was changed into a black Inferno." Then Milan and her people become a prey to the rude outrages of French soldiery. Leonardo's great horse was broken in pieces by Gascon archers, and the Castello, "which had once held the finest flower of the whole world, became," in Castiglione's words, "a place of drinking-booths and dung-hills." The treasures of art and beauty stored up within its walls were destroyed by barbarous hands, and all that brilliant company was dispersed and scattered abroad. Artists and poets, knights and scholars—Leonardo and Bramante, Galeazzo and Niccolo—were driven out, and went their way each in a different direction, to seek new homes and other patrons. But the memory of the young duchess—the Donna beata of Pistoja and Visconti's song—lived for many a year in the hearts of her loyal servants, Castiglione enshrined her name in his immortal pages, Ariosto celebrated her virtues in the cantos of his "Orlando Furioso," and far on in the new century, grey-headed scholars spoke of And to-day, as we pace the dim aisles of the great Certosa, we may look on the marble effigy of Duchess Beatrice and see the lovely face with the curling locks and child-like features which the Lombard sculptor carved, and which still bears witness to the love of Lodovico Sforza for his young wife. In conclusion, I must acknowledge how deeply I am indebted to Signor Luzio, keeper of the Gonzaga archives at Mantua, and to his able colleague, Signor Renier, for the assistance which they have lent to my researches, as well as for the help afforded by their own publications, in which many of Isabella and Beatrice d'Este's most interesting letters have already been given to the world. The State archives of Milan and Mantua are the principal sources from which the information contained in the present volume is drawn, and a list of the other authorities which have been consulted is given below. Italian. Archivio di Stato di Milano, Beatrice d'Este, Potenze estere, etc. Archivio Gonzaga Mantova, Copia lettera d'Isabella d'Este, etc. A. Luzio and R. Renier, Delle Relazioni di Isabella d'Este Gonzaga con Ludovico and Beatrice Sforza. Archivio Storico lombardo, xvii. T. Chalcus, Residua. Milano, 1644. Archivio Storico Italiano, serie i. vol. iii.; Cronache Milanesi di G. A. Prato, G. P. Cagnola, G. M. Burigozzo, etc.; Serie iii. vol. xii., Serie v. vol. vi., Serie vii. vol. i. L. A. Muratori, Italicarum Rerum Scriptores, vol. xxiv. F. Muralti, Annalia. Paolo Giovio, Storia di suoi Tempi. Marino Sanuto, Diarii, De Bello Gallico, etc. Bernardino Corio, Historie Milanese. Rosmini, Storia di Milano. Fr. Guicciardini, Storia a'Italia. Rendered into English by G. Fenton. 1618. F. Frizzi, Storia di Ferrara, vols. iv. and v. P. Verri, Storia di Milano. R. Renier, Sonetti di Pistoia. Giornale Storico di Letteratura Italiano, vols. v. and vi. Archivio Storico dell' Arte, vols. i. and ii. Renier, Canzoniere di Niccolo da Correggio. A. Campo Ghisolfo, Storia delle Duchesse di Milano. 1542. Rivista Storica Mantovana. Carlo Magenta, I Visconti e Sforza nel Castello di Pavia. F. Calvi, Bianca Maria Sforza Visconti, Regina dei Romani, Imperatrice di Germania. Marchese d'Adda, Indagini sulla Liberia Visconti Sforzesca del Castello di Pavia. Malipiero, Annali Veneti. Romanini, Storia di Venezia, vols. v. and vi. Imhoff, Historia Genealogica ItaliÆ. G. Uzielli, Ricerche intorno a Leonardo da Vinci. G. Uzielli, Leonardo da Vinci e Tre Gentil donne Milanesi. G. d'Adda, Lodovico Maria Sforza. L. Beltrami, Il Castello di Milano, sotto il dominio degli Sforza. 1450-1535. L. Beltrami, Bramante poeta. Padre Pino, Storia genuina del Cenacolo. 1796. B. Bellincioni, Le Rime annotate da P. Fanfani. Bologna. G. Tiraboschi, Storia della Letteratura Italiana, vols. vi. and vii. P. Molmenti, La Vita Privata di Venezia. A. Rusconi, Lodovico il Moro a Novara. F. Gabotto, Girolamo Tuttavilla. G. L. Calvi, Notizie dei principali Professori di Belle Arti che fiorivano in Milano. G. Mongeri, L'Arte in Milano. C. Amoretti, Memorie Storiche sulla vita gli studi e le opere di Leonardo da Vinci. Brigola, Annali della Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano. Carlo dell'Acqua, Lorenza Gusnasco di Pavia. P. Pasolini, Caterina Sforza. French. Manuscrits Italiens, Affaires d'État. BibliothÈque Nationale. Pasquier le Moine, MS. La ConquÊte du DuchÉ de Milan. BibliothÈque Nationale. Jean d'Auton, Chroniques de Louis XII. Edition publiÉe pour la SociÉtÉ de l'Histoire de France, par R. de Maulde La Claviere. 4 vols. Philippe de Commines, Memoires. Nouvelle edition publiÉe par la SociÉtÉ de l'Histoire de France. M. EugÈne MÜntz, La Renaissance en Italie et en France À l'Époque de Charles VIII. M. EugÈne MÜntz, MusÉe du Capitole. M. EugÈne MÜntz, Leonardo da Vinci. C. de Cherrier, Histoire de Charles VIII, Roi de France, d'aprÈs des documents diplomatiques inÉdits. Louis PÉlissier, Louis XII. et Lodovico Sforza. Recherches dans les Archives Italiennes. Louis PÉlissier, Notes Italiennes. Louis PÉlissier, Les amies de Lodovico Sforza. (Revue historique.) Edmond Gaultier, Étude historique sur Loches. Paravicini, Architecture de la Renaissance en Italie. Aldo Manuzio, Lettres et Documents. Armand Baschet. Gazette des Beaux Arts, vol. xvi. German. Dr. Ludwig Pastor, Geschichte der PÄpste, vols. v. and vi. Jacob Burckhardt, Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien. Dr. W. Bode, Dr. MÜller-Walde, Jahrbuch der K. Preuss. Kunstsammlungen. Vols. ix., x., and xviii. K. Kindt, Die Katastrophe Lodovico Moro in Novara. Dr. MÜller-Walde, Leonardo da Vinci. English. History of the Papacy, by Dr. Creighton, Bishop of London. Vols. iv. and v. The End of the Middle Ages, by Madame James Darmetester. The Renaissance in Italy. J. A. Symonds. Old Touraine. T. Cook |