DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0262
222 GIFTS FROM THE SIGNORY
M. Filippo Capello also called and talked in the same
familiar way with Monsignore and me. Then we
went to the ‘ Vergine,’ where we enjoyed seeing the
nuns’ rooms and hearing two of them sing, but owing
to the new regulations lately introduced by Frate
Raphael da Varese, who is preaching in S. Marco
this Lent, no men are allowed to enter the convent.
On our return home we found Alvise Marcello, who
told Monsignore that he had got the order to view the
Treasury to-morrow morning and the Arsenal after
dinner. We commend ourselves to you, and so does
M. Alvise a thousand times. I enclose the names of
the gentlemen, begging you to kiss our little son for
me: M. Alvise Moncenigo, M. Zoanne Gabriele,
M. Pietro Justiniano, M. Alvise Molino.” Venice,
March 16.
The next day Messer Alvise called early with a
present of fish and confectionery from the Signory,1
valued, Sanuto tells us, at twenty-five ducats. This
gift included four large chests of fish of different
kinds, eight large gilt marzipane cakes, twenty-nine
boxes of sweetmeats, four pots of ginger and four of
syrup of violets, as well as twenty pounds of wax
candles. Isabella sent these presents by messenger to
Mantua that evening, begging the Marquis to accept
them for her sake. She added a postscript to the
effect that the Pope’s ambassador had informed the
Duchess how warmly the Doge had spoken of their
august visitors in the College, saying that the Duke
and Marquis could give no better proof of their con-
fidence in the Signory than by sending those persons
who were dearest to them to Venice. “ And all our
friends here say the same thing.”
1 Sanuto, Diarii, iv. 234.
M. Filippo Capello also called and talked in the same
familiar way with Monsignore and me. Then we
went to the ‘ Vergine,’ where we enjoyed seeing the
nuns’ rooms and hearing two of them sing, but owing
to the new regulations lately introduced by Frate
Raphael da Varese, who is preaching in S. Marco
this Lent, no men are allowed to enter the convent.
On our return home we found Alvise Marcello, who
told Monsignore that he had got the order to view the
Treasury to-morrow morning and the Arsenal after
dinner. We commend ourselves to you, and so does
M. Alvise a thousand times. I enclose the names of
the gentlemen, begging you to kiss our little son for
me: M. Alvise Moncenigo, M. Zoanne Gabriele,
M. Pietro Justiniano, M. Alvise Molino.” Venice,
March 16.
The next day Messer Alvise called early with a
present of fish and confectionery from the Signory,1
valued, Sanuto tells us, at twenty-five ducats. This
gift included four large chests of fish of different
kinds, eight large gilt marzipane cakes, twenty-nine
boxes of sweetmeats, four pots of ginger and four of
syrup of violets, as well as twenty pounds of wax
candles. Isabella sent these presents by messenger to
Mantua that evening, begging the Marquis to accept
them for her sake. She added a postscript to the
effect that the Pope’s ambassador had informed the
Duchess how warmly the Doge had spoken of their
august visitors in the College, saying that the Duke
and Marquis could give no better proof of their con-
fidence in the Signory than by sending those persons
who were dearest to them to Venice. “ And all our
friends here say the same thing.”
1 Sanuto, Diarii, iv. 234.