DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42863#0354
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CHARLES V. AT MANTUA
The utmost ingenuity had been expended on these
decorations. Each arch was adorned with groups
of gods and goddesses, and inscribed with Greek
and Latin verses. Mars and Venus, Mercury and
Pallas, saluted Cassar in the words of Virgil and in
the name of Mantua. On the Piazza di San Pietro
a colossal Victory held a crown of laurel over the
Emperor’s head. The procession paused at the
gates of the Duomo, and Charles entered the
church to receive the Bishop’s benediction, after
which he crossed the Piazza to the Castello gates,
where the Marchesa Isabella was waiting at the
foot of the grand staircase to welcome him to the
ancestral palace of the Gonzagas.1
Here Charles spent the next four weeks, enjoying
a brief respite from public business and State func-
tions. He accompanied the Marquis on a series of
hunting parties, which had been planned on a
splendid scale. On Sunday the 27th, as many as
5000 riders joined in the sport, and 1000 guests
were entertained at a banquet at Marmirolo, that
superb palace on which Giulio Romano had lavished
all the treasures of his luxuriant fancy. After
dinner the Emperor joined in a game of palla, and
slew a wild boar with his own hand in the hunt
that followed. But the same day His Majesty
nearly met with a serious accident. He was pur-
suing a wounded stag, when his horse came into
violent collision with that of the young Cardinal
Ippolito. Both riders were thrown to the ground,
and Ippolito dei Medici received a severe blow;
“ so that,” as the Venetian, Marco Antonio Venier,
wrote, “one stag, in seeking to avoid death, almost
1 G. Daino, Cronaca, in Arch. St., App. ii. p. 232.
CHARLES V. AT MANTUA
The utmost ingenuity had been expended on these
decorations. Each arch was adorned with groups
of gods and goddesses, and inscribed with Greek
and Latin verses. Mars and Venus, Mercury and
Pallas, saluted Cassar in the words of Virgil and in
the name of Mantua. On the Piazza di San Pietro
a colossal Victory held a crown of laurel over the
Emperor’s head. The procession paused at the
gates of the Duomo, and Charles entered the
church to receive the Bishop’s benediction, after
which he crossed the Piazza to the Castello gates,
where the Marchesa Isabella was waiting at the
foot of the grand staircase to welcome him to the
ancestral palace of the Gonzagas.1
Here Charles spent the next four weeks, enjoying
a brief respite from public business and State func-
tions. He accompanied the Marquis on a series of
hunting parties, which had been planned on a
splendid scale. On Sunday the 27th, as many as
5000 riders joined in the sport, and 1000 guests
were entertained at a banquet at Marmirolo, that
superb palace on which Giulio Romano had lavished
all the treasures of his luxuriant fancy. After
dinner the Emperor joined in a game of palla, and
slew a wild boar with his own hand in the hunt
that followed. But the same day His Majesty
nearly met with a serious accident. He was pur-
suing a wounded stag, when his horse came into
violent collision with that of the young Cardinal
Ippolito. Both riders were thrown to the ground,
and Ippolito dei Medici received a severe blow;
“ so that,” as the Venetian, Marco Antonio Venier,
wrote, “one stag, in seeking to avoid death, almost
1 G. Daino, Cronaca, in Arch. St., App. ii. p. 232.