DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0171
DOGS AND CATS
135
Mattello is in Paradise, he is making all the saints
and angels laugh ; if he is in hell, Cerberus will
forget to bark.”
The same wits and poets were called upon to write
Latin epigrams and sonnets on Isabella’s pet animals,
on the Persian cat Martino or the Cagnoli/rio Aura.
The novelist Bandello tells us how the Marchesa’s
presence was heralded by the barking of her little
dogs, and on one occasion she desired Brognolo to
send to all the convents in Venice for Syrian and
Thibet cats,1 in order that she might choose the
finest for herself. These pet animals were buried
with great solemnity in the terraced gardens of the
Castello opposite the Corte Vecchia, and cypresses
and tombstones inscribed with their names marked
their graves. All the ladies and gentlemen of Isa-
bella’s household were present on these occasions,
and her favourite dogs and cats joined in the funeral
procession. And it was characteristic of the age that
every incident, from the birth of a prince or the fall
of an empire, to the death of a fool or pet dog, be-
came an occasion for producing Latin epitaphs and
sonnets and elegies in the vulgar tongue.
But more serious subjects now claimed Isabella’s
attention. On the 6th of July, when Mantegna’s
Madonna was borne through the streets of Mantua,
we have seen that the Marchesa’s state of health did
not allow her to walk in the procession, and that she
witnessed the ceremony from Giovanni Gonzaga’s
house in the Borgo. A week later she gave birth to
a second daughter. The babe was named Margherita
after Francesco’s mother, but her sex was a cause of
bitter disappointment to Isabella, who looked with
1 Luzio in Giorn. St. d. Lett. It., vol. xxxiii. 45.
135
Mattello is in Paradise, he is making all the saints
and angels laugh ; if he is in hell, Cerberus will
forget to bark.”
The same wits and poets were called upon to write
Latin epigrams and sonnets on Isabella’s pet animals,
on the Persian cat Martino or the Cagnoli/rio Aura.
The novelist Bandello tells us how the Marchesa’s
presence was heralded by the barking of her little
dogs, and on one occasion she desired Brognolo to
send to all the convents in Venice for Syrian and
Thibet cats,1 in order that she might choose the
finest for herself. These pet animals were buried
with great solemnity in the terraced gardens of the
Castello opposite the Corte Vecchia, and cypresses
and tombstones inscribed with their names marked
their graves. All the ladies and gentlemen of Isa-
bella’s household were present on these occasions,
and her favourite dogs and cats joined in the funeral
procession. And it was characteristic of the age that
every incident, from the birth of a prince or the fall
of an empire, to the death of a fool or pet dog, be-
came an occasion for producing Latin epitaphs and
sonnets and elegies in the vulgar tongue.
But more serious subjects now claimed Isabella’s
attention. On the 6th of July, when Mantegna’s
Madonna was borne through the streets of Mantua,
we have seen that the Marchesa’s state of health did
not allow her to walk in the procession, and that she
witnessed the ceremony from Giovanni Gonzaga’s
house in the Borgo. A week later she gave birth to
a second daughter. The babe was named Margherita
after Francesco’s mother, but her sex was a cause of
bitter disappointment to Isabella, who looked with
1 Luzio in Giorn. St. d. Lett. It., vol. xxxiii. 45.