DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42863#0145
HE GOES TO MILAN 123
exhortations.—Your devoted servant, Jo. Franc.
VlGILIUS.”
The excellent tutor’s description of Federico's
tastes and habits agrees with all we know of this
prince in after life. Without ever attaining to his
mother or brother Ercole’s love of learning, he was
decidedly more cultured than his father or Gonzaga
uncles, and from his boyhood he inherited the Estes’
passion for chivalrous romances, of which he made
a large collection in future years. Now, at the age
of fifteen, he asked nothing better than to leave his
books and seek fresh experiences at the gay court of
Milan. Here he found a gracious reception and was
invited to accompany Francis I. to Vigevano. The
Venetian envoy, Contarini, describes Federico as a
handsome and graceful boy, who entertained the
young patricians in his suite at a feast that was
equally remarkable for good cheer and good com-
pany, and sent them away charmed with his courtesy
and amazed at his feats of horsemanship. The young
prince took an active part in the royal hunting
parties and games at pallet. His letters to his mother
give a lively picture of His Most Christian Majesty
joining in the game of pcdla in as vigorous a fashion
as any football player of to-day, giving and receiving
blows in the scuffle, knocking over his courtiers,
and coming into violent collision with the tall and
athletic Gonzaga prince, Federico of Bozzolo, amidst
the laughter of the bystanders. But Isabella’s son,
who had barely two hundred ducats in his purse,
found it quite impossible to accept the king’s invita-
tion to play cards with him, and win or lose hundreds
of ducats in a single game.1
1 M. Sanuto, Diarii, xxi. 296, 329.
exhortations.—Your devoted servant, Jo. Franc.
VlGILIUS.”
The excellent tutor’s description of Federico's
tastes and habits agrees with all we know of this
prince in after life. Without ever attaining to his
mother or brother Ercole’s love of learning, he was
decidedly more cultured than his father or Gonzaga
uncles, and from his boyhood he inherited the Estes’
passion for chivalrous romances, of which he made
a large collection in future years. Now, at the age
of fifteen, he asked nothing better than to leave his
books and seek fresh experiences at the gay court of
Milan. Here he found a gracious reception and was
invited to accompany Francis I. to Vigevano. The
Venetian envoy, Contarini, describes Federico as a
handsome and graceful boy, who entertained the
young patricians in his suite at a feast that was
equally remarkable for good cheer and good com-
pany, and sent them away charmed with his courtesy
and amazed at his feats of horsemanship. The young
prince took an active part in the royal hunting
parties and games at pallet. His letters to his mother
give a lively picture of His Most Christian Majesty
joining in the game of pcdla in as vigorous a fashion
as any football player of to-day, giving and receiving
blows in the scuffle, knocking over his courtiers,
and coming into violent collision with the tall and
athletic Gonzaga prince, Federico of Bozzolo, amidst
the laughter of the bystanders. But Isabella’s son,
who had barely two hundred ducats in his purse,
found it quite impossible to accept the king’s invita-
tion to play cards with him, and win or lose hundreds
of ducats in a single game.1
1 M. Sanuto, Diarii, xxi. 296, 329.