rom Spain, from France,
and often returned whence they came, their worth doubled by labour and
fine workmanship. The rich man brought his merchandise, the poor his
industry: the one was sure of finding workmen, the other was sure of
finding work.
Art also was by no means behindhand: Dante, Giotto, Brunelleschi, and
Donatello were dead, but Ariosto, Raphael, Bramante, and Michael
Angelo were now living. Rome, Florence, and Naples had inherited the
masterpieces of antiquity; and the manuscripts of AEschylus, Sophocles,
and Euripides had come (thanks to the conquest of Mahomet II) to rejoin
the statue of Xanthippus and the works of Phidias and Praxiteles. The
principal sovereigns of Italy had come to understand, when they let
their eyes dwell upon the fat harvests, the wealthy villages, the
flourishing manufactories, and the marvellous churches, and then
compared with them the poor and rude nations of fighting men who
surrounded them on all sides, that some day or other they were destined
to become for other countries what America was for Spain, a vast
gold-mine for them to work. In consequence of this, a league offensive
and defensive had been signed, about 1480, by Naples, Milan, Florence,
and Ferrara, prepared to take a stand against enemies within or without,
in Italy or outside. Ludovico Sforza, who was more than anyone else
interested in maintaining this league, because he was nearest to France,
whence the storm seemed to threaten, saw in the new pope's election
means not only of strengthening the league, but of making its power and
unity conspicuous in the sight of Europe.
CHAPTER IV
On the occasion of each new election to the papacy, it is the custom
for all the Christian States to send a solemn embassy to Rome, to renew
their oath of allegiance to the Holy Father. Ludovico Sforza conceived
the idea that the ambassadors of the four Powers should unite and make
their entry into Rome on the same day, appointing one of their envoy,
viz. the representative of the King of Naples, to be spokesman for all
four. Unluckily, this plan did not agree with the magnificent projects
of Piero dei Medici. That proud youth, who had been appointed ambassador
of the Florentine Republic, had seen in the mission entrusted to him by
his fellow-citizens the means of making a brilliant display of his
own wealth. From the day of his nomination onwards, his palace was
constantly filled with tailors, jewellers, and merchants of pr
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