DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0069
FEDERICO’S DAUGHTERS
39
daughters are well and happy and very obedient,
so that it is a real pleasure to see them busy with
their books and embroidery. They are very easy to
manage, and they enjoy riding their new pony, one
on the saddle, the other on pillion. They ride all
about the park, but always attended by servants on
horseback, and we follow in the chariot. They are
quite delighted with this pony, and Your Excellency
could not have made them any present which gave
them greater pleasure. I hope, my dear lord, by the
grace of God, to be able to give you good news every
day, in order that Your Highness may rest satisfied,
to whose favour I commend myself.—Your devoted
servant, Violante de’ Preti.”1
On February 23,1483, the little princesses received
a visit from no less a personage than Lorenzo dei
Medici, who spent a night at Mantua on his way to
attend a conference at Cremona, where a new league
was formed against Venice, and sent word to
Violante’s pupils by their dancing master that they
might expect him after dinner. In her next letter to
the Marquis, Violante describes how the little girls
came to meet the Magnifico Lorenzo, and led him
into their rooms, and how he sat down between them
and talked for some time, and told them, when he
took his leave, that their father was rich in fair
children. The next day their brother, Francesco
Gonzaga, who entertained this distinguished guest
in his father’s absence, wrote and informed the
Marquis how he had accompanied the Magnifico
Lorenzo on foot to mass at S. Francesco, and how
he went on from the church to the house of Andrea
Mantegna, “ where he greatly admired some of
1 A. Luzio e R. Renier, Mantova e Urbino, p. 6.
39
daughters are well and happy and very obedient,
so that it is a real pleasure to see them busy with
their books and embroidery. They are very easy to
manage, and they enjoy riding their new pony, one
on the saddle, the other on pillion. They ride all
about the park, but always attended by servants on
horseback, and we follow in the chariot. They are
quite delighted with this pony, and Your Excellency
could not have made them any present which gave
them greater pleasure. I hope, my dear lord, by the
grace of God, to be able to give you good news every
day, in order that Your Highness may rest satisfied,
to whose favour I commend myself.—Your devoted
servant, Violante de’ Preti.”1
On February 23,1483, the little princesses received
a visit from no less a personage than Lorenzo dei
Medici, who spent a night at Mantua on his way to
attend a conference at Cremona, where a new league
was formed against Venice, and sent word to
Violante’s pupils by their dancing master that they
might expect him after dinner. In her next letter to
the Marquis, Violante describes how the little girls
came to meet the Magnifico Lorenzo, and led him
into their rooms, and how he sat down between them
and talked for some time, and told them, when he
took his leave, that their father was rich in fair
children. The next day their brother, Francesco
Gonzaga, who entertained this distinguished guest
in his father’s absence, wrote and informed the
Marquis how he had accompanied the Magnifico
Lorenzo on foot to mass at S. Francesco, and how
he went on from the church to the house of Andrea
Mantegna, “ where he greatly admired some of
1 A. Luzio e R. Renier, Mantova e Urbino, p. 6.