NOTES TO THE SECOND BOOK OF THE COURTIER Note 215, page 135. Giacopo di Nino was Bishop of Potenza from 1506 until 1521, and seems to have been a butt for the ridicule of Leo X's court. Note 216, page 136. An earlier version of this passage reads: "And of this kind was what Rinaldo in the Morgante said to the Giant: ' Where do you hang your spectacles?' " The Morgante Maggiore is a serio-burlesque romantic poem by Luigi Pulci (1431-1487), introducing, among other characters of medi- aeval romance, Rinaldo, his cousin Orlando, and the giant Morgante. Note 217, page 136. Galeotto Marzi da Narni, (born about 1427; died about 1490), a singular example of the adventurer-humanist, studied at the universities of Padua and Bologna, and taught at the latter place. He twice visited the court of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, for whom he wrote a book on j^ests. He was something of an astrologer and also the author of a work on chiromancy. Being accused of heresy, he was imprisoned at Venice in 1477, and condemned to make public recantation in the Piazzetta with a crown of devils on his head. He is said to have been learned and witty. The story given in the text became almost proverbial. Note 218, page 136. The present form [bisticcio) of bischisso (rendered 'play- ing on words') has a meaning somewhat different from that indicated in the text, — being the term applied to a succession of words the similarity of whose sound renders them difficult to pronounce, e.g., " Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." Note 219, page 136. At this time the general use of family names was com- paratively recent, and their form was somewhat variable. Thus, such sur- names as Pio and Fregoso were treated as still being, what they doubtless originally were, merely personal epithets, and so were given the feminine form (Pia, Fregosa) when applied to women. The adjective pia means duti- ful, pious, kind, while impia or empia of course means the-reverse. Note 220, page 136. "The greatest of the Furies is my bedfellow." With a change of one syllable in the Latin, this becomes Furiarum maxima juxta accubat (" The greatest of the Furies lies hard by "), ^Eneid, V, 605-6. Note 221, page 136. Geronimo DONATO, (born 1457; died 1511), was a native of Venice, where he held many public offices, besides being sent abroad as ambassador of the Republic, especially to the courts of Alexander VI and Julius II. He also enjbyed no small fame as a cultivator of science, art and letters (particularly Greek and theology). The incident narrated in the text occurred during his embassy to Alexander, to whom on another occasion he made a far wittier retort. Being jestingly asked by the pope where Venice got its right of lordship over the Adriatic, he answered: "Let your Holiness show me the title deed to the Patrimony of St. Peter, and on the back of it will 365
