DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42863#0040
CHAPTER XXII
1501—1510
Isabella’s library in the Grotta—Her relations with Aldo Manuzio—
Letters of Lorenzo da Pavia and of Aldo—The Aldine editions
of classics—Isabella’s letters to Aldo—He is thrown into prison
on Mantuan territory—Letter of the Emperor Maximilian to
Isabella on his behalf — Death of Aldo Manuzio — Lorenzo
da Pavia’s last letters to Isabella—His journey to Rome and
death.
Besides paintings, antiques, and medals, the Grotta
of the Corte Vecchia contained the choicest treasures of
Isabella d’Este’s library, safely kept on shelves under
lock and key. Here were placed those rare manuscripts
of Greek and Latin authors which she loved to col-
lect, the French and Spanish romances in which she
took so much pleasure, and the richly illuminated and
sumptuously bound volumes of original poems pre-
sented to her by living writers, and dedicated to her
in flowery epistles.
“ Ask Maddalena for the key of the Grotta,” she
wrote from Milan, in the summer of 1514, to Gian
Giacomo Calandra, “and take the Carcere d’Amore1
out of my library and send it to me here.” Again,
two years earlier, her friend the Venetian patrician,
Carlo Francesco Valerio, wrote to beg for the loan of
the Marchesa’s two editions of the Cento Novelle, one
of which he had seen in the Grotta, the other in M.
Giacomo Calandra’s Camerino.2
1 The Spanish romance, Lu Carcel d’Amor, by Diego di San Pedro.
2 Yriarte, Gazette d. B. Arts, 1895.
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1501—1510
Isabella’s library in the Grotta—Her relations with Aldo Manuzio—
Letters of Lorenzo da Pavia and of Aldo—The Aldine editions
of classics—Isabella’s letters to Aldo—He is thrown into prison
on Mantuan territory—Letter of the Emperor Maximilian to
Isabella on his behalf — Death of Aldo Manuzio — Lorenzo
da Pavia’s last letters to Isabella—His journey to Rome and
death.
Besides paintings, antiques, and medals, the Grotta
of the Corte Vecchia contained the choicest treasures of
Isabella d’Este’s library, safely kept on shelves under
lock and key. Here were placed those rare manuscripts
of Greek and Latin authors which she loved to col-
lect, the French and Spanish romances in which she
took so much pleasure, and the richly illuminated and
sumptuously bound volumes of original poems pre-
sented to her by living writers, and dedicated to her
in flowery epistles.
“ Ask Maddalena for the key of the Grotta,” she
wrote from Milan, in the summer of 1514, to Gian
Giacomo Calandra, “and take the Carcere d’Amore1
out of my library and send it to me here.” Again,
two years earlier, her friend the Venetian patrician,
Carlo Francesco Valerio, wrote to beg for the loan of
the Marchesa’s two editions of the Cento Novelle, one
of which he had seen in the Grotta, the other in M.
Giacomo Calandra’s Camerino.2
1 The Spanish romance, Lu Carcel d’Amor, by Diego di San Pedro.
2 Yriarte, Gazette d. B. Arts, 1895.
20