to the value of two thousand crowns, with others besides, which he obtained no long time after.
Being subsequently made keeper of the wardrobe to Don Ferrante, when that Signor was removed from the viceroyalty of Sicily to the government of Milan, Domenico accompanied him to the last-named place, and receiving employment among the fortifications of that district by much industry, and being also rather penurious than otherwise, Domenico Giuntalocchi rendered himself very rich. But what is more, he attained to such credit that in the government of Milan almost everything was regulated by his will. Hearing this, Niccolò Soggi, who was still in Arezzo, and had now become old and needy, without having any work to do, went to seek Domenico at Milan, thinking that as he had not failed Domenico when the latter was a youth, so Domenico would not now fail him, but on the contrary, availing himself of his services, since he had many persons in his employ, would certainly be able to assist him. as he ought to do in that his poverty-stricken age.
But Niccolò discovered to his sorrow that the human judgment in promising itself too much from others very frequently deceives itself, and that men who change their condition, change also for the most part their nature and wishes also. Arrived in Milan, lie found Domenico in so much grandeur, that he experienced the utmost difficulty in getting speech of him; but when, after enduring no little pains, he had done so, the poor Kiccolb related to him all his sorrows, and entreated earnestly that Domenico, by giving
The practice had long prevailed: an authentic register existing in the house of Chigi enumerates nearly 650 saleable offices, of which the income amounted to about 100,000 crowns. These were for the most part Procurators, Registrars, Abbreviators, Correctors, Notaries, Secretaries, nay, even Messengers and Doorkeepers, whose increased numbers were continually raising the cost of a Bull or a Brief. It was indeed for that very purpose that their offices took the particular form assigned to them. As to the duties connected with each, these were little or nothing. Most curious were the titles that some of these offices bore. There was the 'College of the Hundred Janissaries,’ for example. There were also Stradiotes and Mamelukes, who were however afterwards suppressed; with Cautioners, adds Onuphrius Panormus, “without whom no papers were considered complete.” A College of twenty-six Secretaries was founded by Innocent VIII.; Alexander VI. named eighty Writers of Briefs; and Julius II. added a hundred Writers of Archives”, all purely sinecure.
