DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36838#0180
THE PREFECT S MARRIAGE
128
Captain, and a Chamberlain, and each is richly clad
according to his ofHce. Thus were they honourably
escorted to the hostelry of Cappello. But His
Holiness has not yet given them an audience/
The Papal Master of Ceremonies, Burcardo, who
dilates on the barbaric splendour of the Polish envoys,
and the Venetian ambassador, Giustiniani, explain
that this delay was caused by an attack of gout which
gave the Pope acute pains in one knee and compelled
him to remain in bed. There was some talk of
putting off the Prefect's marriage until the following
Sunday, but, as this would have been Passion Sunday,
His Holiness refused to defer the ceremony, which
took place in the Vatican on March 2, as Castiglione
relates.
' To-day being Sunday, the happy marriage of our
Illustrious Lord Prefect with the Lady Leonora was
celebrated, to the great satisfaction of the triends of
both parties. These nuptials took place in the palace,
in the Hall of the Popes, in the presence of eighteen
Cardinals—Recanati, Portugal, Naples, Sta. Pras-
sede, S. Giorgio, Alessandria, Gurk, Grimani, Como,
Volterra, Bologna, Fiesco, S. Pietro ad Vincula,
Aragona, Medici, Sanseverino, Ascanio Sforza,
Colonna—and many other prelates. The Marquis
of Mantua's brief of procuration was recited, and the
Illustrious Lord Giovanni made this contract on the
part of the bride, and my Lord Duke and the Prefect
on the other side. His Holiness could not be present,
owing to a slight At of gout.'*
Another marriage which closely concerned both
the Pope and the Duke of Urbino, and had been
publicly announced at the same time as the union of
Francesco Maria and Leonora, was that of the Pontiff's
* Serassi, i. 15.
128
Captain, and a Chamberlain, and each is richly clad
according to his ofHce. Thus were they honourably
escorted to the hostelry of Cappello. But His
Holiness has not yet given them an audience/
The Papal Master of Ceremonies, Burcardo, who
dilates on the barbaric splendour of the Polish envoys,
and the Venetian ambassador, Giustiniani, explain
that this delay was caused by an attack of gout which
gave the Pope acute pains in one knee and compelled
him to remain in bed. There was some talk of
putting off the Prefect's marriage until the following
Sunday, but, as this would have been Passion Sunday,
His Holiness refused to defer the ceremony, which
took place in the Vatican on March 2, as Castiglione
relates.
' To-day being Sunday, the happy marriage of our
Illustrious Lord Prefect with the Lady Leonora was
celebrated, to the great satisfaction of the triends of
both parties. These nuptials took place in the palace,
in the Hall of the Popes, in the presence of eighteen
Cardinals—Recanati, Portugal, Naples, Sta. Pras-
sede, S. Giorgio, Alessandria, Gurk, Grimani, Como,
Volterra, Bologna, Fiesco, S. Pietro ad Vincula,
Aragona, Medici, Sanseverino, Ascanio Sforza,
Colonna—and many other prelates. The Marquis
of Mantua's brief of procuration was recited, and the
Illustrious Lord Giovanni made this contract on the
part of the bride, and my Lord Duke and the Prefect
on the other side. His Holiness could not be present,
owing to a slight At of gout.'*
Another marriage which closely concerned both
the Pope and the Duke of Urbino, and had been
publicly announced at the same time as the union of
Francesco Maria and Leonora, was that of the Pontiff's
* Serassi, i. 15.