198

Chron. Venet. in Murat. xxiv. col. 14 and 76.

199

Malipiero, l. c. p. 565, 568.

200

Trithem. Annales Hirsaug, ad. a. 1490, tom. ii. pp. 535 sqq.

201

Malipiero, l. c. 161; comp. p. 152. For the surrender of Djem to Charles VIII. see p. 145, from which it is clear that a connection of the most shameful kind existed between Alexander and Bajazet, even if the documents in Burcardus be spurious. See on the subject Ranke, Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtschreiber, 2 Auflage, Leipzig, 1874, p. 99, and Gregorovius, bd. vii. 353, note 1. Ibid. p. 353, note 2, a declaration of the Pope that he was not allied with the Turks.

202

Bapt. Mantuanus, De Calamitatibus Temporum, at the end of the second book, in the song of the Nereid Doris to the Turkish fleet.

203

Tommaso Gar, Relaz. della Corte di Roma, i. p. 55.

204

Ranke, Geschichte der romanischen und germanischen Völker. The opinion of Michelet (Reforme, p. 467), that the Turks would have adopted Western civilisation in Italy, does not satisfy me. This mission of Spain is hinted at, perhaps for the first time, in the speech delivered by Fedra Inghirami in 1510 before Julius II., at the celebration of the capture of Bugia by the fleet of Ferdinand the Catholic. See Anecdota Litteraria, ii. p. 419.

205

Among others Corio, fol. 333. Jov. Pontanus, in his treatise, De Liberalitate, cap. 28, considers the free dismissal of Alfonso as a proof of the ‘liberalitas’ of Filippo Maria. (See above, p. 38, note 1.) Compare the line of conduct adopted with regard to Sforza, fol. 329.

206

Nic. Valori, Vita di Lorenzo; Paul Jovius, Vita Leonis X. l. i. The latter certainly upon good authority, though not without rhetorical embellishment. Comp. Reumont, i. 487, and the passage there quoted.

207

If Comines on this and many other occasions observes and judges as objectively as any Italian, his intercourse with Italians, particularly with Angelo Catto, must be taken into account.

208

Comp. e.g. Malipiero, pp. 216, 221, 236, 237, 468, &c., and above pp. 88, note 2, and 93, note 1. Comp. Egnatius, fol. 321 a. The Pope curses an ambassador; a Venetian envoy insults the Pope; another, to win over his hearers, tells a fable.

209

In Villari, Storia di Savonarola, vol. ii. p. xliii. of the ‘Documenti,’ among which are to be found other important political letters. Other documents, particularly of the end of the fifteenth century in Baluzius, Miscellanea, ed. Mansi, vol. i. See especially the collected despatches of Florentine and Venetian ambassadors at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of sixteenth centuries in Desjardins, Négotiations diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane. vols. i. ii. Paris. 1859, 1861.

210

The subject has been lately treated more fully by Max Jähns, Die Kriegskunst als Kunst, Leipzig, 1874.

211

Pii II. Comment. iv. p. 190, ad. a. 1459.

212

The Cremonese prided themselves on their skill in this department. See Cronaca di Cremona in the Bibliotheca Historica Italica, vol. i. Milan, 1876, p. 214, and note. The Venetians did the same, Egnatius, fol. 300 sqq.

213

To this effect Paul Jovius (Elogia, p. 184) who adds: ‘Nondum enim invecto externarum gentium cruento more, Italia milites sanguinarii et multæ cædis avidi esse didicerant.’ We are reminded of Frederick of Urbino, who would have been ‘ashamed’ to tolerate a printed book in his library. See Vespas. Fiorent.

214

Porcellii Commentaria Jac. Picinini, in Murat. xx. A continuation for the war of 1453, ibid. xxv. Paul Cortesius (De Hominibus Doctis, p. 33, Florence, 1734) criticises the book severely on account of the wretched hexameters.

215

Porcello calls Scipio Æmilianus by mistake, meaning Africanus Major.

216

Simonetta, Hist. Fr. Sfortiæ, in Murat. xxi. col. 630.

217

So he was considered. Comp. Bandello, parte i. nov. 40.

218

Comp. e.g. De Obsidione Tiphernatium, in vol. 2, of the Rer. Italic. Scriptores excodd. Florent. col. 690. The duel of Marshal Boucicault with Galeazzo Gonzaga (1406) in Cagnola, Arch. Stor. iii. p. 25. Infessura tells us of the honour paid by Sixtus IV. to the duellists among his guards. His successors issued bulls against duelling.

219

We may here notice parenthetically (see Jähns, pp. 26, sqq.) the less favourable side of the tactics of the Condottieri. The combat was often a mere sham-fight, in which the enemy was forced to withdraw by harmless manœuvres. The object of the combatants was to avoid bloodshed, at the worst to make prisoners with a view to the ransom. According to Macchiavelli, the Florentines lost in a great battle in the year 1440 one man only.

220

For details, see Arch. Stor. Append. tom. v.

221

Here once for all we refer our readers to Ranke’s Popes, vol. i., and to Sugenheim, Geschichte der Entstehung und Ausbildung des Kirchenstaates. The still later works of Gregorovius and Reumont have also been made use of, and when they offer new facts or views, are quoted. See also Geschichte der römischen Papstthums, W. Wattenbach, Berlin, 1876.

222

For the impression made by the blessing of Eugenius IV. in Florence, see Vespasiano Fiorent, p. 18. See also the passage quoted in Reumont, Lorenzo, i. 171. For the impressive offices of Nicholas V., see Infessura (Eccard, ii. col. 1883 sqq.) and J. Manetti, Vita Nicolai V. (Murat. iii. ii. col. 923). For the homage given to Pius II., see Diario Ferrarese (Murat. xxiv. col. 205), and Pii II. Commentarii, passim, esp. iv. 201, 204, and xi. 562. For Florence, see Delizie degli Eruditi, xx. 368. Even professional murderers respect the person of the Pope.

The great offices in church were treated as matters of much importance by the pomp-loving Paul II. (Platina, l. c. 321) and by Sixtus IV., who, in spite of the gout, conducted mass at Easter in a sitting posture. (Jac. Volaterran. Diarium, Murat. xxiii. col. 131.) It is curious to notice how the people distinguished between the magical efficacy of the blessing and the unworthiness of the man who gave it; when he was unable to give the benediction on Ascension Day, 1481, the populace murmured and cursed him. (Ibid. col. 133.)

223

Macchiavelli, Scritti Minori, p. 142, in the well-known essay on the catastrophe of Sinigaglia. It is true that the French and Spanish soldiers were still more zealous than the Italians. Comp. in Paul. Jov. Vita Leonis X. (l. ii.) the scene before the battle of Ravenna, in which the Legate, weeping for joy, was surrounded by the Spanish troops, and besought for absolution. See further (ibid.) the statements respecting the French in Milan.

224

In the case of the heretics of Poli, in the Campagna, who held the doctrine that a genuine Pope must show the poverty of Christ as the mark of his calling, we have simply a kind of Waldensian doctrine. Their imprisonment under Paul II. is related by Infessura (Eccard, ii. col. 1893), Platina, p. 317, &c.

225

As an illustration of this feeling see the poem addressed to the Pope, quoted in Gregorovius, vii. 136.

226

Dialogus