way in 1500, the
other in 1503; Francesco and Ludovico died in 1511 and 1512
respectively. Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini passed away in 1510. Vannozza,
in fact, survived all the favorites and creatures of Alexander in the
College of Cardinals with the exception of Farnese, Adrian Castellesi,
and d'Albret,--Caesar's brother-in-law.

By that sort of piety to which senescent female sinners everywhere and
at all times devote themselves she secured new friends. She was an
active fanatic and was constantly seen in the churches, at the
confessionals, and in intimate intercourse with the pious brothers and
hospitalers. In this way she made the acquaintance of Paul Jovius, who
describes her as an upright woman (donna dabbene). If she had lived
another decade she would probably have been canonized. She endowed a
number of religious foundations--the hospitals of S. Salvator in the
Lateran, of S. Maria in Porticu, the Consolazione for the Company of the
Annunziata in the Minerva, and the S. Lorenzo in Damaso, as is shown by
her will, which is dated January 15, 1517.[242]

For years there were inscriptions in the hospitals of the Lateran and of
the Consolazione which referred to her endowments and also to provisions
for masses on the anniversaries of her death and those of her two
husbands.

Vannozza died in Rome, November 26, 1518. Her death did not pass
unnoticed, as the following letter, written by a Venetian, shows:

The day before yesterday died Madonna Vannozza, once the mistress
of Pope Alexander and mother of the Duchess of Ferrara and the Duke
of Valentino. That night I happened to be at a place where I heard
the death announced, according to the Roman custom, in the
following formal words: 'Messer Paolo gives notice of the death of
Madonna Vannozza, mother of the Duke of Gandia; she belonged to the
Gonfalone Company.' She was buried yesterday in S. Maria del
Popolo, with the greatest honors,--almost like a cardinal. She was
sixty-six years of age. She left all her property,--which was not
inconsiderable,--to S. Giovanni in Laterano. The Pope's chamberlain
attended the obsequies, which was unusual.[243]

Marcantonio Altieri, one of the foremost men of Rome, who was guardian
of the Company of the Gonfalone _ad Sancta Sanctorum_, and as such made
an inventory of the property of the brotherhood in 1527, drew up a
memorial regarding her, the manuscript of which is still p