ty years under the superintendence of Dolcebuono and
Amadeo. Bramante supplied designs for the new facade and portals that
were added to the cathedral of Como in 1491, and for the majestic church
of Abbiategrasso, close to this favourite country house of the Sforzas.
A number of other churches, both in Milan and the neighbourhood, were
designed by him or his scholars, and bear witness to the revolution
which he had effected in Lombard architecture. At Piacenza and Cremona,
at Saronno and Lugano, new churches and palaces arose, and the famous
Sanctuary of Varallo in the Val Sesia was founded in 1491 by that devout
personage, Messer Bernardino Caimo, on his return from a pilgrimage to
the Holy Land. The same passion for building and decoration prevailed
everywhere. On all sides poets and scholars celebrated Lodovico's name
as the Pericles of this new Athens, and joined in the chorus of praise
which inspired Pistoia's famous line--

"E un Dio in cielo e il Moro in terra."

"There is one God in heaven and the Moro upon earth."

CHAPTER XII

Beatrice d'Este as a patron of learning and poetry--Vincenzo Calmeta,
her secretary--Serafino d'Aquila--Rivalry of Lombard and Tuscan poets
--Gaspare Visconti's works--Poetic jousts with Bramante--Niccolo di
Correggio and other poets--Dramatic art and music at the court of
Milan--Gaffuri and Testagrossa--Lorenzo Gusnasco of Pavia.

1492

Lodovico Moro, as we have seen, was justly extolled by his
contemporaries as the most illustrious Mecaenas of his age. As Abbe
Tiraboschi, the learned historian of Italian literature, wrote ninety
years ago, "If we consider the immense number of learned men who flocked
to his court from all parts of Italy in the certainty of receiving great
honours and rich rewards; if, again, we remember how many famous
architects and painters he invited to Milan, and how many noble
buildings he raised, how he built and endowed the magnificent University
of Pavia, and opened schools of every kind of science in Milan; if
besides all this we read the splendid eulogies and dedicatory epistles
addressed to him by scholars of every nationality, we feel inclined to
pronounce him the best prince that ever lived." And in Beatrice d'Este,
Lodovico possessed a wife admirably adapted to share his aims and
preside over his court. Both her birth and education fitted her for the
position which she now occupied. Her youth and beauty lent a new lustre
to the court, her q