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NOTES TO THE FIRST BOOK OF THE COURTIER Lorenzo de' Medici. Her conduct on these occasions showed rare fortitude and dignity. Note 40, page 12. These devices, so much in vogue during the i6th century in Italy, were the "inventions" which Giovio (a contemporary writer upon the subject) says "the great lords and noble cavaliers of our time like to wear on their armour, caparisons and banners, to signify a part of their generous thoughts." They consisted of a figure or picture, and a motto nearly always in Latin, The fashion is said to have been copied from the French at the time of the invasions of Charles VIII and Louis XII. Note 41, page 12. FEDERico Fregoso, (born 1480; died 1541), was a younger brother of Ottaviano (see note 11), and was educated for holy orders under the direction of his uncle Duke Guidobaldo, at whose court he also perfected him- self in worldly accomplishments. In 1507 Julius II made him Archbishop of Salerno, in the kingdom of Naples, but, owing to his supposed French sympa- thies, he was not allowed to enjoy this benefice, and the next year was put in charge of the bishopric of Gubbio. In the same year he was sent by Julius with the latter's physician to attend Duke Guidobaldo's death-bed, but arrived too late. During the nine years that followed his brother's election as Doge of Genoa (1513), he by turns commanded the army of the Republic, led her fleet against the Barbary pirates (whom he routed in their own harbours), and rep- resented her at the papal court. During the Spanish siege of Genoa in 1522, he escaped to France, was warmly received by Francis I, and made Abbot of St. B^nigne at Dijon, where he devoted himself to theological study. In 1528 he returned to Italy and was appointed to the see of Gubbio. His piety and zeal for the welfare of his flock won for him the title of "father to the poor and refuge of the distressed." In 1539 he was made a cardinal, and two years later died at Gubbio, being succeeded in that see by his friend Bembo. After his death, a discourse of his on prayer happening to be reprinted together with a work by Luther, he was for a time erroneously supposed to have been heretical. He was a profound student of Hebrew, and an appreciative collector of Proven9al poetry. His own writings are chiefly doctrinal, and his reputation rests rather upon his friends' praise of his wit, gentleness, personal accomplishments and learning, than upon the present value of his extant works. Note 42, page 12. PiETRO BEMBO, (born at Venice 1470; died at Rome 1547), was the son of a noble Venetian, Bernardo Bembo (a man of much cultivation^ who paid for the restoration of Dante's tomb at Ravenna), and Elena Marcella. Having received his early education at Florence, where his father was Vene- tian ambassador, he studied Greek at Messina under Lascaris (a native of Hellas, whose grammar of that tongue was the first Greek book ever printed, 1476), and philosophy at Padua and Ferrara, where his father was Venetian envoy and introduced him to the Este court. Here he became acquainted with Lucrezia Borgia, who had recently wedded Duke Ercole's son Alfonso, and to whom he dedicated his dialogues on love, Gli Asolani. By some 330