NOTES TO THE LIFE OF TULLIA D'ARAGONA.

1.—Page 7.

There is in the possession of M. EugÈne Piot, of Paris, who has kindly communicated it to me, a contemporary song in celebration of the beauty and pomp of Giulia di Ferrara. It is of extreme rarity, and is a very curious morsel of Roman social history in the sixteenth century. The state, glory, splendour, and social standing of the celebrated Roman courtesan are vauntingly set forth in verses put by the writer into her own mouth. The intention, however, is evidently satirical.

2.—Page 13.

The phraseology of the original marks the nature of Strozzi's connection with Tullia more unmistakeably than any permissible English translation could do. The Italian words are, "Senza qualche pratica di donne non saprei vivere; onde ho piÙ volentieri praticato seco, che con altra;" &c.

NOTES TO THE LIFE OF OLYMPIA MORATA.

1.—Page 39.

The entire passage runs as follows; "Prima era in grazia del Papa Madonna Lucrezia sua figlia, la quale È savia e liberale; ma adesso il Papa non l'ama tanto, e l'ha mandato a Nepi; e le ha dato Sermoneta, che gli costa ducati ottanta mila; benche il Duca—(her brother Cesare)—ghiel' abbia tolta, dicendo, 'È donna; non la potrÀ mantenere.' E si dice anche che esso duca ecª.—(sic)—con la predetta sorella Lucrezia; il qual Duca sarÀ, se vive, uno dei primi capitani d'Italia."

It is fair to observe, that the tenour of this ambassador's report seems to acquit Lucrezia of having been her brother's accomplice in the murder of her husband, Don Alphonso of Aragon.

2.—Page 70.

Olympia's biographers, M. Bonnet and Mr. Colquhoun, in a work entitled "Life in Italy and France in the Olden Time," have supposed that Morato was called to Ferrara by Alphonso to be tutor to his sons, and that this engagement was previous to his exile; and the former of the above writers names Ippolito and Alphonso as having been his pupils. The authority he cites is a letter of Curione; in which, however, it is simply stated that Morato educated two brothers of Hercules. Now, of the two named by M. Bonnet, Ippolito was born in 1509, and Alphonso in 1527, facts which alone cast some difficulty on the statement. Further, it is difficult to understand why, when Ippolito, the second son, and Alphonso, the fourth son, were entrusted to Morato, Francesco, the third son, born in 1510, should have been withheld from his care. But the question is set at rest and all made clear by the authority of the accurate work of Girolamo Baruffaldi, in vol. viii. of the Raccolta Ferrar. di Opusc., in which, as well as in Frizzi's elaborate history, Morato is stated to have been entrusted with the education of Alphonso and Alphonsino, the sons of Duke Alphonso by Laura Dianti, who was his wife—say the Ferrarese writers—his concubine, say the defenders of the Apostolic chamber, who considered these sons as illegitimate—after the death of Lucrezia Borgia. Alphonso was born in 1527, and Alphonsino in 1530. The elder would therefore have been six, and the younger three years old at the time of Morato's departure from Ferrara; dates which sufficiently prove that the tutorship in question must have commenced after his return in 1539, when the lads were respectively twelve and nine years old.

3.—Page 75.

Marot's lines run as follows:—

"Ha! Marguerite, escoute la souffrance
Du noble cueur de RenÉe de France;
Puis comme soeur plus fort que d'esperance

Console–la.

"Tu sais comment hors son pays alla,
Et que parents et amis laissa lÀ,
Mais tu ne sais quel traitement elle a

En terre estrange.

"Elle ne voit ceulx À qui se veult plaindre,
Son oeil rayant si loing ne peut attaindre;
Et puis les monts pour ce bien lui estaindre

Sont entre deux."

4.—Page 88.

The original Latin of Giraldi's lines is given here in justice to the author, and also in justice to the translator.

"Tota es splendida et emicas nitore,
Virtutum tenera educata in aula
Inter Virgineum chorum RenatÆ,
Inter Pieridum chorum sororum.
Felix cui famulatur hÆc puella!
Felices genuere qui parentes,
Et te nomine OlympiÆ vocarunt!
Felicissimus ille, si modo ulli,
Uxor contigeris viro fruenda!
Hinc et non nihil ipse sum beatus,
Inter articularios dolores,
Cui talis faveat seni puella!"

5.—Page 89.

Here are Olympia's hexameters and pentameters in her own Greek:—

"??p?te ?? ??pas?? ??? f?es?? ??da?e ta?t?,
?' ??p?te pas?? ?s?? ?e?? pa?d??e ????,

?pp?da?? ??st??, p?? d' ?? ??a??? ????d?????
??????? ?? a?t?? ??????? ?f?te???.

???? ?? ????? ?e???a t? ?????? ?e?p??,
??ata ?e???d???, st???a ?a? ?a??????.

???s??? d' ??aa? ?e???a t?? ???e?e?ta,
?a???ss?? ?' e?a???? t?? d???f??? ??????.

???a? t??p??ta? e? ?s?? ?????s? ???a??e?,
?a?ta d? ?? ??d??, ta?ta d? ?a??s???."

6.—Page 99.

The few lines in the text on the subject of the watercourses of the lower valley of the Po, may serve to indicate the nature of the matters in dispute between the government of Ferrara and that of the Pope. But they are very insufficient to give any competent idea of that very curious and interesting subject. And any attempt to do so would lead to a digression of most inordinate dimensions. The subject is not only one of very curious historical interest, but is of the highest economic and scientific importance at the present day. In one word, the remarkably friable soil of large districts of the mountain chain of Upper and Central Italy is in process of being moved away into the seas on either coast of the peninsula. The large low flats, which have been already formed by this process, make it difficult for the waters to transport across them the materials they are heavily charged with. Hence districts of extreme fertility, rice grounds, marshes, malaria, rivers running in embankments above the level of the surrounding country, inundations, malicious cutting of banks, fights, and demoralisation of the riverain populations, old havens destroyed, and finally deserted by the sea, commercial cities left commerceless, and a whole train of ulterior consequences. The subject is a very large one, and to him who would look beyond the mere temporary troubles of the Pope's despotisms, and churches, the most vital one of any that affects the future of Italy.

7.—Page 106.

Olympia's Greek hexameters and pentameters run thus:—

"??t?a?e? ????d?? ??d?? ?ta ?a???e??????
???? ? t?? ??et?? f?sf??? e??a????.

??pe? ??? ??t???s? t? ??? ??a??????? ?st?
??de?? ??t' ??????, ??t' ?pe?ss?? ????.

?? ?a????t?? ?d??e? ?' e?et?? p???? a?t??
??s?e?a? st??e??? ???????? e?? ??d??."

8.—Page 129.

Here is the original of this curious and very obscure passage:

"De vestibus, petere illas non decet. Nam nuper Princeps per quandam mulierem nuntiavit mihi, non esse verum quod nobillissimi Camilli uxor quicquam de salutanda filia illi dixisset. Attamen quia filia hoc vellet, se id permettere factum; illam vero petiisse mihi unam vestem quam non prius se daturam quam ipsa rediisset, dixit. HÆc respondisse arbitror, ut viderem illam nihil mea causa facere, sed illius; et ut (sed tacere melius est, quod omnes vident) LysippÆ satisfaceret quam secum tunc fuisse credo. Ut ut hÆc sint, illas me habituram vix credo. Vale."

M. Jules Bonnet gives no assistance towards understanding this difficult passage. He translates (?) as follows, without any remark. "Il serait feu convenable de rÉclamer publiquement les objets que j'ai laissÉs À la cour. La duchesse m'a fait dire, par une de ses femmes, qu'il n'Était pas vrai que l'Épouse du noble comte Camillo Orsini l'eÛt chargÉe de salutations pour sa fille. Elle a cependant ajoutÉ qu'À la sollicitation de cette derniÈre, elle consentait À ce que l'on me cedÂt une de mes robes, ce qui ne pourrait avoir lieu toutefois qu'aprÈs son propre retour À Ferrare. Cette rÉponse a ÉtÉ sans doute calculÉe pour me montrer qu'on agit ainsi, par consideration pour une autre, et non pour moi; ou plutÔt elle a ÉtÉ inspirÉe par la haine de celle qui ne nous veut que du mal, et qui est en ce moment au palais. Mais il vaut mieux se taire sur un sujet, qui n'est un secret pour personne. Je n'espÈre rien obtenir quoi qu'il arrive." It will be observed that here is no attempt at translating "quia filia hoc vellet, se id permittere factum," seeing that by no possible construction could "hoc" refer to the giving of the robe, or to aught else than the salutation previously spoken of. Then why should "Lysippa" be changed into "the hatred of one who wishes us only ill"? Is it not more likely that Lysippa, whoever she was, merely wanted the dresses for herself?

9.—Page 159.

The works of Olympia were printed under the supervision of Curione, at BÂle, in 1570, with the following title:—

"OlympiÆ FulviÆ MoratÆ, fÆminÆ doctissimÆ ac plane divinÆ, opera omnia quÆ hactenus inveniri potuerunt, et quibus CÆlii Secundi Curionis selectÆ epistolÆ ac orationes accesserunt."

The work is dedicated by Curione to Queen Elizabeth. It is a volume of small octavo size, and that part of it occupied by the writings of Olympia consists of 244 pages.

The contents are as follows:—

Three prefaces to lectures on the Paradoxes of Cicero.

An essay on Q. M. ScÆvola in Greek.

Translations into Latin of two fables of Boccaccio.

A dialogue between Olympia and Lavinia della Rovere.

A dialogue between Philotima and Theophila.

Two books of letters. Of these forty–seven only are by Olympia. They are all in Latin, save one in Greek, written in her girlhood to her master Sinapi, and one in Italian. The rest of the letters are mostly from her correspondents to her. A few are from one of these to another on matters relating to her.

After the letters there are translations of eight psalms into Greek verse.

Five short pieces of a few lines of Greek verse.

Three equally short fragments of Latin verse.

NOTES TO THE LIFE OF BIANCA CAPPELLO.

1.—Page 222.

The original text of the judgment leaves no doubt of Bianca's indiscretion previous to her flight. Maria Donati is condemned, "quod fuerit adeo perfida et temeraria, quod dum esset ancilla in domo, v. n. d. Bartol. Capello, ausa fuerit ad instantiam Petri de Bonaventuris filii Zanobii Florentini, ut ejus animum et libidinem expleret lÆnocinium prÆstare in fallendo, et ad id alliciendo Blancham filiam prdict. v. nob. ex quo ipsa Blancha non solum habuit rem cum prÆdicto Petro, sed etiam cum ipso ex domo ejus patris et e venetiis aufugit."

2.—Page 248.

The important chronicle written by Settimanni, a Florentine patrician of the 16th century, and which contains more revelations of Medicean secrets than perhaps any other of the numerous "ricordi" of that period, is now at last being printed (it is said?) at Parma. Its existence, and the important nature of its contents, have long been well known by Florentine writers. But, for a long time, the only extant copy, which is preserved in the "Archivio delle Riformagioni," was not permitted to be seen.

3.—Page 299.

Galluzzi writes, that Francis consented to the wish of the ambassadors, who desired to crown Bianca. But that this is an error, and that the statement in the text is correct, is proved by the existence of a letter extant in the registers of the Senate, under the date of the 6th October, 1579, from the senate to the ambassadors Tiepolo and Michiel, ordering them to place a ducal crown on Bianca's head, "per accondiscendere al desiderio delle loro altezze," etc., etc.

Galluzzi probably thought that it looked better for Tuscany to represent that Venice was the requesting, and Francesco the consenting party.

4.—Page 301.

Few who have visited Florence will forget the strange irregularity in the plan of the "palazzo vecchio," and the legend which was, doubtless, told them to explain it,—that the republic would not suffer its palace to stand in any degree on ground accursed, by having been the site of the mansions of a vanquished faction,—dubbed, of course, when vanquished,—enemies of their country.

5.—Page 335.

There exists a tradition among the literary men of Florence, that the MS. of this history by Martinetti was purchased in Florence by an Englishman, and carried to England. The loss of it is much lamented by them, as there is reason to think that it would be found to be a more valuable history of the period of which it treats,—the reigns of the Medicean Grand Dukes,—than any other extant.

6.—Page 337.

I have thought it as well to give the reader the original words of this strange passage in Signor Soderini's letter, that he may be the better able to judge for himself how far any such meaning as that suggested, may, with any probability, be attributed to them. They run thus:

"Quando, che alli giorni passati la Morte cavalcÒ sopra il suo destriero magro, e disfatto per investirsi del titolo di Grande. La Morte ottenne a Roma il titolo di Grande, e conseguita ch'ella ebbe cossifatta indecentissima intitolazione, se ne cavalcava frettolosa alla volta del Poggio a Caiano, e quivi con irresistibile forza e pari valore assaltÒ il Grande Etrusco di Firenze e Siena, e lo abbattÈ alli 19 di Ottobre, 1587, a 4 ore e mezzo di notte, e di 47 anni lo privÒ di vita dopo strani e disusati scontorcimenti, e ululati e muggiti diversi."