DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42863#0172
148 THE GONZAGAS OF BOZZOLO
breeze gently stirred the leaves with its refreshing
sound.1
These Gonzagas of Bozzolo were Bandello’s most
generous patrons, and Isabella’s loyal friends. There
was Madonna Antonia herself, who had already seen
upwards of seventy years and was yet as young and
lively as ever, known and loved as “the mother of
all,” adored not only by her own large family, but
by all the subjects of her little province. And there
were her gallant sons, Lodovico, Federico, and Pirro,
who were always absent in the wars, but had their
palace in Mantua and their finely situated castle of
Gazzuolo on the steep banks of the river Oglio.
There were her beautiful daughters, most of them
already married to Milanese or Mantuan lords, saving
this youngest and fairest of all, the bright-eyed
Camilla, whose fair young face and divine voice made
her so great a favourite with the Marchesa Isabella.
And there were her grandchildren growing up around
her—Luigi Rodomonte, whose giant stature and heroic
mould were celebrated by Ariosto in immortal verse,
and his sister Giulia, whose surpassing beauty was
soon to become famous throughout Italy. All these
find a place in the novelist’s pages, all these and
many other well-known figures at Isabella’s court—
the gay maids-of-honour*who, we can well believe,
read Bandello’s stories very willingly, and all the
distinguished humanists to whom Paolo Giovio gave
the name of the Accademia di S. Pietro, from the
piazza on which the Castello stood. There, to quote
Bandello’s words, we find the polished and scholarly
librarian, Gian Giacomo Calandra, whose name lives
in Ariosto’s verse;2 the learned and industrious
1 Pt. iv. 5. 2 Orlando Furioso, xlii. 85.
breeze gently stirred the leaves with its refreshing
sound.1
These Gonzagas of Bozzolo were Bandello’s most
generous patrons, and Isabella’s loyal friends. There
was Madonna Antonia herself, who had already seen
upwards of seventy years and was yet as young and
lively as ever, known and loved as “the mother of
all,” adored not only by her own large family, but
by all the subjects of her little province. And there
were her gallant sons, Lodovico, Federico, and Pirro,
who were always absent in the wars, but had their
palace in Mantua and their finely situated castle of
Gazzuolo on the steep banks of the river Oglio.
There were her beautiful daughters, most of them
already married to Milanese or Mantuan lords, saving
this youngest and fairest of all, the bright-eyed
Camilla, whose fair young face and divine voice made
her so great a favourite with the Marchesa Isabella.
And there were her grandchildren growing up around
her—Luigi Rodomonte, whose giant stature and heroic
mould were celebrated by Ariosto in immortal verse,
and his sister Giulia, whose surpassing beauty was
soon to become famous throughout Italy. All these
find a place in the novelist’s pages, all these and
many other well-known figures at Isabella’s court—
the gay maids-of-honour*who, we can well believe,
read Bandello’s stories very willingly, and all the
distinguished humanists to whom Paolo Giovio gave
the name of the Accademia di S. Pietro, from the
piazza on which the Castello stood. There, to quote
Bandello’s words, we find the polished and scholarly
librarian, Gian Giacomo Calandra, whose name lives
in Ariosto’s verse;2 the learned and industrious
1 Pt. iv. 5. 2 Orlando Furioso, xlii. 85.