mbassador to Ferrara. Zambotto used this
description of the wedding festivities in his chronicle, and it was
subsequently reprinted in Lucrezia Borgia in Ferrara, etc.

[169] The Cassaria was first produced in 1508, and the Suppositi in
1509. Giuseppe Campori, Notizie per la vita di Lod. Ariosto, 2d ed.
Modena, 1871, p. 67.

[170] Despatch of the Ferrarese orator, Bartolomeo Cartari, to Ercole,
Venice, January 25, 1502. Archives of Modena.

[171] Cartari says in the same despatch that the robes he had described
were intended for presents. Li Ambasciatori Veneziani le presentarono
due vesti grandi in forma di palii velluto Cremesino foderati di
ermelini, quali levatesi di sopra loro le presentarono. Cagnolo.

[172] Ano dato materia di ridere ad hogni homo cum suo presente. The
Marchesana of Cotrone to the Marquis of Mantua, Ferrara, February 8th.

[173] Violas arcu pulsantes. Caesar Borgia to Ercole, Rome, September 3,
1498.

[174] See Isabella's letters of February 3d and 5th.

[175] Zuccheti reproduces the letter.

[176] P.S. Li gentilhomini de lo Illmo. Sig. Duca de Romagna poiche
sono stati qui XII giorni sono stati da me licentiate per essere
impertinente e senza fructo alcuno a la Santita de N.S. et allo Illmo.
Sig. Duca de Romagna. Minute Ducali a Costabili Beltrando, February 14,
1502.

CHAPTER IV

THE ESTE DYNASTY--DESCRIPTION OF FERRARA

On entering the castle of the Este, Lucretia found a new environment,
new interests--one might almost say a new world. She was a princess in
one of the most important Italian States, and in a strange city, which,
during the latter half of the century, had assumed a place of the first
importance, for the spirit of Italian culture had there developed new
forms. She had been received with the highest honors into a family
famous and princely; one of the oldest and most brilliant in the
peninsula. It was a piece of supreme good fortune that had brought her
to this house, and now she would endeavor to make herself worthy of it.

The family of Este, next to that of Savoy, was the oldest and most
illustrious in Italy, and it forced the latter into the background by
assuming the important position which the State of Ferrara, owing to its
geographical position, afforded it.

The history of the Este is briefly as follows:

These lords, whose name is derived from a small castle between Padua and
Ferrara, and who first appeared about the time of the Lombard invasion