DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0322
280
ISABELLA’S MOTTO
composed by Mario Equicola, on her favourite motto,
Nec spe nec metu.
The Marchesa, as we have already seen, in common
with most Italian lords and ladies of the age, was in the
habit of adopting special devices and mottoes. The
musical notes which gave expression to her love of
music, the candelabra bearing the motto Sufficit unum
in tenebris which Paolo Giovio suggested, and which
were embroidered in gold on her festal robes, may
still be seen among the decorations of her camerini at
Mantua. There too, inscribed in quaint characters, we
may read the words of her favourite motto, Nec spe nec
metu, by which she expressed that serene equanimity
and philosophic frame of mind to which she aspired,
neither elated by hope nor cast down by fear. She
chose this motto for her own as early as 1504, when,
at the request of her friend Margherita Cantelma,
she gave one of the Imperial ambassadors who visited
Mantua and Ferrara gracious permission to use the
words in writing and in his armorial bearings and on
the liveries of his servants, “ we ourselves,” she wrote
at the time, “being the inventor of this motto, and
having adopted it as our peculiar device.”1 In the
following autumn Mario Equicola, the Calabrian
secretary of Margherita Cantelma, who had followed
her and Sigismondo to Ferrara, and was often em-
ployed by the Este princes, wrote from Blois to
inform Isabella that he had written a book on this
device, and only awaited her permission to publish the
work.
“Most illustrious Lady,—It was the custom of
ancient authors to seek for noble and excellent sub-
jects in order to render their works immortal.
1 Luzio e Renier, Giorn. St. d. Lett. It., xxxiii. 49.
ISABELLA’S MOTTO
composed by Mario Equicola, on her favourite motto,
Nec spe nec metu.
The Marchesa, as we have already seen, in common
with most Italian lords and ladies of the age, was in the
habit of adopting special devices and mottoes. The
musical notes which gave expression to her love of
music, the candelabra bearing the motto Sufficit unum
in tenebris which Paolo Giovio suggested, and which
were embroidered in gold on her festal robes, may
still be seen among the decorations of her camerini at
Mantua. There too, inscribed in quaint characters, we
may read the words of her favourite motto, Nec spe nec
metu, by which she expressed that serene equanimity
and philosophic frame of mind to which she aspired,
neither elated by hope nor cast down by fear. She
chose this motto for her own as early as 1504, when,
at the request of her friend Margherita Cantelma,
she gave one of the Imperial ambassadors who visited
Mantua and Ferrara gracious permission to use the
words in writing and in his armorial bearings and on
the liveries of his servants, “ we ourselves,” she wrote
at the time, “being the inventor of this motto, and
having adopted it as our peculiar device.”1 In the
following autumn Mario Equicola, the Calabrian
secretary of Margherita Cantelma, who had followed
her and Sigismondo to Ferrara, and was often em-
ployed by the Este princes, wrote from Blois to
inform Isabella that he had written a book on this
device, and only awaited her permission to publish the
work.
“Most illustrious Lady,—It was the custom of
ancient authors to seek for noble and excellent sub-
jects in order to render their works immortal.
1 Luzio e Renier, Giorn. St. d. Lett. It., xxxiii. 49.