uick intelligence and cultured tastes led her to
appreciate the society of poets and scholars. The natural love of
splendour, which she shared with the Moro, went hand-in-hand with
artistic invention. Her rich clothes and jewels were distinguished by
their refinement and rare workmanship. The fashions which she
introduced were marked by their elegance and beauty. She took especial
delight in music and poetry, and gave signs of a fine and discriminating
literary judgment. And like Lodovico, she knew not only how to attract
men of genius, but how to retain them in her service. Where, again, asks
Castiglione, who had known her in her brightest days at Milan, shall we
find a woman of intellect as remarkable as Duchess Beatrice? And her own
secretary, the writer known as "_l'elegantissimo_ Calmeta" in the
cultured circles of Mantua and Urbino, has told us how much men of
letters owed to her sympathy and help. In the life of his friend,
Serafino Aquilano, written seven years after Beatrice's death, when the
Milanese was a French province and the Moro a captive at Loches, Calmeta
recalls the brilliant days of his old life at Lodovico's court, and
speaks thus of his lost mistress:--

"This duke had for his most dear wife Beatrice d'Este, daughter of
Ercole, Duke of Ferrara, who, coming to Milan in the flower of her
opening youth, was endowed with so rare an intellect, so much grace and
affability, and was so remarkable for her generosity and goodness that
she may justly be compared with the noblest women of antiquity. This
duchess devoted her time to the highest objects. Her court was composed
of men of talent and distinction, most of whom were poets and musicians,
who were expected to compose new eclogues, comedies, or tragedies, and
arrange new spectacles and representations every month. In her leisure
hours she generally employed a certain Antonio Grifo"--a well-known
student and commentator of Dante--"or some equally gifted man, to read
the Divina Commedia, or the works of other Italian poets, aloud to her.
And it was no small relaxation of mind for Lodovico Sforza, when he was
able to escape from the cares and business of state, to come and listen
to these readings in his wife's rooms. And among the illustrious men
whose presence adorned the court of the duchess there were three
high-born cavaliers, renowned for many talents, but above all for their
poetic gifts--Niccolo da Correggio, Gaspare Visconti, and Antonio di
Campo