fortunate
son Giovanni, Duke of Gandia. We do not know whether a marble monument
was erected to her memory, but the following inscription was placed over
her grave by her executor: "To Vanotia Catanea, mother of the Duke Caesar
of Valentino, Giovanni of Gandia, Giuffre of Squillace, and Lucretia of
Ferrara, conspicuous for her uprightness, her piety, her discretion, and
her intelligence, and deserving much on account of what she did for the
Lateran Hospital. Erected by Hieronymus Picus, fiduciary-commissioner
and executor of her will. She lived seventy-seven years, four months,
and thirteen days. She died in the year 1518, November 26th."

Vannozza doubtless had passed away believing that she had expiated her
sins and purchased heaven with gold and silver and pious legacies. She
had even purchased the pomp of a ceremonious funeral and a lie which was
graven deep on her tombstone. For more than two hundred years the
priests in S. Maria del Popolo sang masses for the repose of her soul,
and when they ceased it was perhaps less owing to their conviction that
enough of them had been said for this woman than from a growing belief
in the trustworthiness of historical criticism. Later, owing either to
hate or a sense of shame, her very tombstone disappeared, not a trace of
it being left.

FOOTNOTES:

[234] Despatch of Beltrando Costabili to Ercole, Rome, March 7, 1504.

[235] Magnifico et prestanti viro maiori honorandmo D. Ludovico
Romanellio Ducali Secretario Ferrarie. Omissis. Il Papa mi ha mandato
Don Michiele il quale habiamo cominciato examinare cum turtura de queste
sue sceleranze fin qui [=e] sta saldo et nulla confessa non so m[=o] se
fara cussi in futurum. Omissis. Dixe che Papa Alexandro fu quello che
fece ammazzare Don Alfonso, marito che fu della Ducessa. Rome XX. Lulii,
1504. Thadeus Locumtenens Senatus. In the archives of Modena.

[236] The documents are in the archives of the Sancta Sanctorum.

[237] Act of December 4, 1503, in the same archives.

[238] Archives of the Sancta Sanctorum. The instrument is dated April 1,
1504.

[239] Archives of the Sancta Sanctorum.

[240] Ibid.

[241] This was reported to Cardinal Ippolito by Girolamo Sacrati from
Rome, November 2, 1515. Archives of Modena.

[242] Vannozza's will, in the archives of the Capitol, Cred. xiv, T. 72,
p. 305, among the instruments drawn by the notary Andrea Carosi.

[243] In the diary of Marino Sanuto, vol. xxvi, fol. 135.

C