DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36838#0117
68 COUNT BALDASSARE CASTIGLIONE
be seen on the clihs above the ducal palace. His
birth was hailed with general rejoicing, and the Duke
hastened home from his victorious campaign at Vol-
terra to the cradle of his new-born son.
' Alas for the vanity of human bliss !' sang Giovanni
Santi, ' more slender than the spider's web of gossa-
mer !' Federico reached Gubbio on a July day, to
find his wife dying, and was only just in time to
receive her last farewell. ' With the most bitter and
heartfelt grief/ wrote the bereaved husband to his
kinsfolk, ' I inform you that my wife Battista sickened
on Tuesday last with headache and fever, and that
Our Ford God took her soul to himself at eleven
o'clock on this 6th instant, leaving me as miserable,
distressed, and inconsolable as anyone can be in this
world.' ' She was my wife,' he told Pope Pius II.,
who had known and highly esteemed the young
Duchess, ' precious above all others, the beloved
partner of my toil and cares, the joy of my public
and private life ! No greater misfortune could have
befallen me U
The Duchess, who was only twenty-six at the time
of her death, was buried with great pomp in the
church of S. Bernardino, outside the city gates, on
the hill opposite the ducal palace. This beautiful
Renaissance building had been erected by Federico
on the site of another shrine where his ancestors were
buried, and is supposed to be an early work of the
great architect Bramante, who left home for Milan
about 1472. The Duke was on friendly terms with
the Zoccolanti friars, who occupied the neighbouring
convent; and his biographer Muzio relates how one
winter night, when the friars were snowed up and
rang their bells to call for help, Federico himself went
i Cod. Vat. Urb., H98 ; Dennistoun, i. 304.
be seen on the clihs above the ducal palace. His
birth was hailed with general rejoicing, and the Duke
hastened home from his victorious campaign at Vol-
terra to the cradle of his new-born son.
' Alas for the vanity of human bliss !' sang Giovanni
Santi, ' more slender than the spider's web of gossa-
mer !' Federico reached Gubbio on a July day, to
find his wife dying, and was only just in time to
receive her last farewell. ' With the most bitter and
heartfelt grief/ wrote the bereaved husband to his
kinsfolk, ' I inform you that my wife Battista sickened
on Tuesday last with headache and fever, and that
Our Ford God took her soul to himself at eleven
o'clock on this 6th instant, leaving me as miserable,
distressed, and inconsolable as anyone can be in this
world.' ' She was my wife,' he told Pope Pius II.,
who had known and highly esteemed the young
Duchess, ' precious above all others, the beloved
partner of my toil and cares, the joy of my public
and private life ! No greater misfortune could have
befallen me U
The Duchess, who was only twenty-six at the time
of her death, was buried with great pomp in the
church of S. Bernardino, outside the city gates, on
the hill opposite the ducal palace. This beautiful
Renaissance building had been erected by Federico
on the site of another shrine where his ancestors were
buried, and is supposed to be an early work of the
great architect Bramante, who left home for Milan
about 1472. The Duke was on friendly terms with
the Zoccolanti friars, who occupied the neighbouring
convent; and his biographer Muzio relates how one
winter night, when the friars were snowed up and
rang their bells to call for help, Federico himself went
i Cod. Vat. Urb., H98 ; Dennistoun, i. 304.