NOTES TO THE FIRST BOOK OF THE COURTIER a master of military exercises at the Urbino court, and perhaps a captain in the duke's army. He may have been identical with one Pietro dal Monte, who is mentioned as a soldier in the pay of Venice (1509), and described as "blind in one eye, but of great valour, gentle speech, and not unlearned in letters," and as " commanding 1500 infantry, and a man of great experience not only in war but in affairs of the world." Note 52, page 12. Antonio Maria Terpandro, one of the most jovial and ■welcome visitors at Urbino, is said by Dennistoun to have been a musical ornament of the court. He enjoyed the heartiest friendship of Bembo and Bibbiena. Note 53, page 12. NiccOLb Frisio or FRIGIO is mentioned in a letter by Bembo as a German, but seems more probably to have been an Italian. Den- nistoun speaks of him as a musician. In a letter from Castiglione to his mother (1506), the writer warmly commends to her "one messer Niccolo Frisio, who I hear is there [i.e., in Mantua], and I earnestly hope that you will treat him kindly, for I am under the greatest obligation to him with respect to my Roman illness. . . I am sure he loves me well." In another letter by a friend of Bembo, Frisio is described (1509) as an Italian long resident in courts, sure of heart, gentle, a good linguist, faithful to his employers, and as having been used by Julius II in negotiating the League of Cambray against Venice. He had relations also with the marchioness Isabella of Mantua (see note 397), whom he aided in the collection of antiquities. Growing weary of worldly life, he became a monk in 1510, and retired to the Certosa of Naples. Note 54, page 12. According to Cian, omini piacevoli (rendered 'agreeable men') here means 'buffoons.' Note 55, page 13. This passage establishes the date of the first dialogue as 8 March 1507. Note 56, page 13. My lady Emilia contends that she has already told her choice of a game, in proposing that the rest of the company should tell theirs. Note 57, page 14. COSTANZA Fregosa was a sister of the two Fregoso brothers already mentioned, and a faithful companion of the Duchess of Urbino. She married Count Marcantonio Landi of Piacenza, and bore him two worthy children, Agostino and Caterina, to the former of whom Bembo stood sponsor and became a kind of second father. Three letters by the lady have been preserved. Note 58, page 15. Belief in the efficacy of music as a cure for the bite of the tarantula still survives in Andalusia, Sardinia and parts of southern Italy. In a note on the tarantella dance, Goethe wrote: "It has been remarked that in the case of mental ailments, and of a tarantula bite, which is probably cured 334
