llustrious man in Pesaro and might
have continued her studies under him and other natives of Greece if she
was so disposed. A library, which the Sforzas had collected, provided
her with the means for this end. Another scholar, however, no less
famous, Pandolfo Collenuccio, a poet, orator, and philologist, best
known by his history of Naples, had left Pesaro before Lucretia took up
her abode there. He had served the house of Sforza as secretary and in a
diplomatic capacity, and to his eloquence Lucretia's husband, Costanzo's
bastard, owed his investiture of the fief of Pesaro by Sixtus IV and
Innocent VIII. Collenuccio, however, fell under his displeasure and was
cast into prison in 1488 and subsequently banished, when he went to
Ferrara, where he devoted his services to the reigning family. He
accompanied Cardinal Ippolito to Rome, and here we find him in 1494 when
Lucretia was about to take up her residence in Pesaro. In Rome she may
have made the acquaintance of this scholar.[36]

Nor was the young poet Guido Posthumus Silvester in Pesaro during her
time, for he was then a student in Padua. Lucretia must have regretted
the absence from her court of this soulful and aspiring poet, and her
charming personality might have served him for an inspiration for verses
quite different from those which he later addressed to the Borgias.

Sforza's beautiful consort was received with open arms in Pesaro, where
she immediately made many friends. She was in the first charm of her
youthful bloom, and fate had not yet brought the trouble into her life
which subsequently made her the object either of horror or of pity. If
she enjoyed any real love in her married life with Sforza she would have
passed her days in Pesaro as happily as the queen of a pastoral comedy.
But this was denied her. The dark shadows of the Vatican reached even
to the Villa Imperiale on Monte Accio. Any day a despatch from her
father might summon her back to Rome. Her stay in Pesaro may also have
become too monotonous, too empty for her; perhaps, also, her husband's
position as condottiere in the papal army and in that of Venice
compelled him often to be away from his court.

Events which in the meantime had convulsed Italy took Lucretia back to
Rome, she having spent but a single year in Pesaro.

FOOTNOTES:

[35] Memorie di Tommaso Diplovatazio Patrizio Constantinopolitano e
Pesarese, da Annibale Olivieri. Pesaro, 1771.

[36] Regarding Collenuccio see the