NOTES TO THE FIRST BOOK OF THE COURTIER Note 27, page 9. In a Greek epigram written in a book borrowed from Duke Guidobaldo, Poliziano (see note 105) praises the lender as the worthy son of a father who never suffered defeat, dwre^Toto Trarpbg yovov. History shows that this phrase was a rhetorical exaggeration, but it became almost proverbial. Note 28, page g. Although long since despoiled of its treasures, the palace is still one of the architectural monuments of Italy. Many writers have de- scribed its magnificence, — some of the fullest accounts being those by Bernar- dino Baldi (1553-1617); Fr. Arnold {Der HersogUche Palastvon Vrbino; Leipsic: 1857); J. A. Symonds ("Italian Byways;" London: 1883; pp. 129-155); Charles Blanc {Histoire de la Renaissance Artistique en Italie; Paris: 1894; ii, 87-90); and Egidio Calzini {Urbino e i Suoi Monument*; Florence: 1899; pp. 9-46). Baldi's description wilUbe found reprinted as an appendix to Rigutini's (i88g and 1892) editions of The Courtier. For more than fourteen years Duke Federico employed from thirty to forty copyists in transcribing Greek and Latin MSS. Not only the classics, but ecclesiastical and mediaeval authors, as well as the Italian poets and humanists were represented in his library, which contained 792 MSS. Ultimately the collection was sent to Rome, where it forms part of the Vatican Library. Note 29, page 9. Born in 1422, Duke Federico was in fact sixty years old when he died. Note 30, page 9. In his Latin epistle to Henry VII of England, Castiglione says that Duke Guidobaldo began to be afflicted with gout at the age of twenty- one years. Note 31, page 10. ALFONSO II of Naples, (born 1448; died 1495), was the eldest son of Ferdinand I and Isabelle de Clermont. As Duke of Calabria, commanding the papal forces, he defeated the Florentine league in 1479, and in 1481 drove the Turks out of southern Italy. On his father's death in 1494, he succeeded to the crown of Naples; but having rendered himself obnoxious to his subjects, he abdicated in favour of his son Ferdinand just before the arrival of Charles VIII of France, and took refuge in a Sicilian convent, where he soon died, tortured by remorse for the hideous cruelties that he had perpe- trated. His wife was Ippolita Maria, daughter of the first Sforza .duke of Milan; while his daughter Isabella's marriage to Giangaleazzo Sforza, the rightful duke, and the usurpation of the latter's uncle Ludovico " il Moro " (see note 302), became the immediate cause of the first French invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. Note 32, page 10. Ferdinand II of Naples, (born 1469; died childless 1496), made a gallant but vain stand against the French, and retired to Ischia with his youthful wife-aunt Joanna. When Charles VIII evacuated Naples after a stay of only fifty days, Ferdinand was soon able, with the help of his cousin Ferdinand the Catholic's famous general Consalvo de Cordova, to regain his 327
