DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36838#0160
ILLUSTRIOUS GUESTS
105
so much amusement to our illustrious ladies. Fra
Serahno tells Isabella that the letter which she sent
to him by Count Lodovico Canossa, tilled him with
such transports of delight that he rushed into the
Duchess's bedroom, to the amazement of her waiting-
women, and danced and capered about madly, until
Elisabetta herself caught him by the hair and asked
what had happenedJ In spite, however, of his vaunted
devotion to the Marchesana, Fra Seratino evidently
found Urbino a very pleasant sojourn; and although
he returned to Mantua in October, by Christmas he
was back again, enjoying the Aesh-pots of the ducal
court, and playing the fool for the benefit of knights
and ladies.
There were other and more exalted personages
among the guests who spent that autumn at the court
of Urbino. Foremost among those who hastened to
rejoice with the Duke and Duchess, on their happy
restoration, was Guidobaldo's eldest sister, Giovanna
della Rovere, the widow of Pope Julius II.'s brother,
the late Prefect of Rome. The Lady Prefetessa, as
she was still called, arrived from the Papal court,
bringing her son Francesco, the Duke's adopted heir,
and her youthful daughter, Costanza, a girl of fifteen,
whom Castiglione describes as being as good and
gentle as she was fair to look upon. With them
came two other Princesses, the Prefetessa's elder
daughter Maria, the widow of Venanzio Varano, Lord
of Camerino, and her niece Felice della Rovere,
the beautiful and accomplished daughter of Pope
Julius II. Both had suffered from the cruelties of
Cesare Borgia, and had narrowly escaped with
their own lives. The poor young wife of Varano
had seen her husband murdered with his father
* V. Cian in ' Archivio storico Lombardo/ viii. 40b.
105
so much amusement to our illustrious ladies. Fra
Serahno tells Isabella that the letter which she sent
to him by Count Lodovico Canossa, tilled him with
such transports of delight that he rushed into the
Duchess's bedroom, to the amazement of her waiting-
women, and danced and capered about madly, until
Elisabetta herself caught him by the hair and asked
what had happenedJ In spite, however, of his vaunted
devotion to the Marchesana, Fra Seratino evidently
found Urbino a very pleasant sojourn; and although
he returned to Mantua in October, by Christmas he
was back again, enjoying the Aesh-pots of the ducal
court, and playing the fool for the benefit of knights
and ladies.
There were other and more exalted personages
among the guests who spent that autumn at the court
of Urbino. Foremost among those who hastened to
rejoice with the Duke and Duchess, on their happy
restoration, was Guidobaldo's eldest sister, Giovanna
della Rovere, the widow of Pope Julius II.'s brother,
the late Prefect of Rome. The Lady Prefetessa, as
she was still called, arrived from the Papal court,
bringing her son Francesco, the Duke's adopted heir,
and her youthful daughter, Costanza, a girl of fifteen,
whom Castiglione describes as being as good and
gentle as she was fair to look upon. With them
came two other Princesses, the Prefetessa's elder
daughter Maria, the widow of Venanzio Varano, Lord
of Camerino, and her niece Felice della Rovere,
the beautiful and accomplished daughter of Pope
Julius II. Both had suffered from the cruelties of
Cesare Borgia, and had narrowly escaped with
their own lives. The poor young wife of Varano
had seen her husband murdered with his father
* V. Cian in ' Archivio storico Lombardo/ viii. 40b.