s work; his own copy had formerly belonged to Daniel
Heinsius, who, in verses written in his hand, describes its rarity and
the price it too cost:--

Roma meos fratres igni dedit, unica Phoenix
Vivo, aureisque venio centum Heinsio.

"Rome gave my brothers to the flames, but I survive a solitary
Phoenix. Heinsius bought me for a hundred golden ducats."

This collection contains a great number of pieces composed at different
times, against the popes, cardinals, &c. They are not, indeed, materials
for the historian, and they must be taken with grains of allowance. We
find sarcastic epigrams on Leo X., and the infamous Lucretia, daughter
of Alexander VI.: even the corrupt Romans of the day were capable of
expressing themselves with the utmost freedom. Of Alexander VI. we have
an apology for his conduct:

Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Christum;
Emerat ille prius, vendere jure potest.

"Alexander _sells_ the keys, the altars, and Christ;
As he _bought_ them first, he had a right to _sell them_!"

On Lucretia:--

Hoc tumulo dormit Lucretia nomine, sed re
Thais; Alexandri filia, sponsa, nurus!

"Beneath this stone sleeps Lucretia by name, but by nature Thais;
the daughter, the wife, and the daughter-in-law of Alexander!"

Leo X. was a frequent butt for the arrows of Pasquin:--

Sacra sub extrema, si forte requiritis, hora
Cur Leo non potuit sumere; vendiderat.

"Do you ask why Leo did not take the sacrament on his
death-bed?--How could he? He had sold it!"

Many of these satirical touches depend on puns. Urban VII., one of the
_Barberini_ family, pillaged the Pantheon of brass to make cannon,[63]
on which occasion Pasquin was made to say:--

Quod non fecerunt _Barbari_ Romae, fecit _Barberini_.

On Clement VII., whose death was said to be occasioned by the
prescriptions of his physician:--

Curtius occidit Clementem; Curtius auro
Donandus, per quem publica parta salus.

"Dr. Curtius has killed the pope by his remedies; he ought to be
remunerated as a man who has cured the state."

The following, on Paul III., are singular conceptions:--

Papa Medusaeum caput est, coma turba Nepotum;
Perseu caede caput, Caesaries periit.

"The pope is the head of Medusa; the horrid tresses are his
nephews; Perseus, cut off the head, and then we shall be rid of
these serpent-locks."

Another is