hment
was maintained.

By this time Cardinal Roderigo's wealth and power had grown to
stupendous proportions, and he lived in a splendour well worthy of his
lofty rank. He was now fifty-three years of age, still retaining the air
and vigour of a man in his very prime, which, no doubt, he owed as much
as to anything to his abstemious and singularly sparing table-habits. He
derived a stupendous income from his numerous abbeys in Italy and
Spain, his three bishoprics of Valencia, Porto, and Carthage, and
his ecclesiastical offices, among which the Vice-Chancellorship alone
yielded him annually eight thousand florins.(1)

1 The gold florin, ducat, or crown was equal to ten shillings of our
present money, and had a purchasing power of five times that amount.

Volterra refers with wonder to the abundance of his plate, to his
pearls, his gold embroideries, and his books, the splendid equipment of
his beds, the trappings of his horses, and other similar furnishings in
gold, in silver, and in silk. In short, he was the wealthiest prince of
the Church of his day, and he lived with a magnificence worthy of a king
or of the Pope himself.

Of the actual man, Volterra, writing in 1586, says: "He is of a spirit
capable of anything, and of a great intelligence. A ready speaker,
and of distinction, notwithstanding his indifferent literary culture;
naturally astute, and of marvellous talent in the conduct of affairs."

In the year in which Volterra wrote of Cardinal Roderigo in such terms
Vannozza was left a widow by the death of Giorgio della Croce. Her
widowhood was short, however, for in the same year--on June 6--she took
a second husband, possibly at the instance of Roderigo Borgia, who
did not wish to leave her unprotected; that, at least, is the general
inference, although there is very little evidence upon which to base it.
This second husband was Carlo Canale, a Mantovese scholar who had served
Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga in the capacity of chamberlain, and who had
come to Rome on the death of his patron.

The marriage contract shows that by this time Vannozza had removed her
residence to Piazza Branchis. In addition to this she had by this
time acquired a villa with its beautiful gardens and vine-yards in the
Suburra near S. Pietro in Vincoli. She is also known to have been the
proprietor of an inn--the Albergo del Leone--in Via del Orso, opposite
the Torre di Nona, for she figures with della Croce in a contract
reg