the neighborhood of
Tivoli.

[3] The preface to the original edition of the 'Cornucopia' is
worth reading for the lively impression which it conveys of
Federigo's personality: 'Admirabitur in te divinam illam
corporis proceritatem, membrorum robur eximium, venerandam oris
dignitatem, aetatis maturam gravitatem, divinam quandam
majestatem cum humanitate conjunctam, totum praeterea talem
qualem esse oportebat eum principem quem nuper pontifex maximus
et universus senatus omnium rerum suarum et totius
ecclesiastici imperii ducem moderatoremque constituit.'

The young Duke, whose court, described by Castiglione, may be said to
have set the model of good breeding to all Europe, began life under the
happiest auspices. From his tutor Odasio of Padua we hear that even in
boyhood he cared only for study and for manly sports. His memory was so
retentive that he could repeat whole treatises by heart after the lapse
of ten or fifteen years, nor did he ever forget what he had resolved to
retain. In the Latin and Greek languages he became an accomplished
scholar,[1] and while he appreciated the poets, he showed peculiar
aptitude for philosophy and history. But his development was precocious.
His zeal for learning and the excessive ardor with which he devoted
himself to physical exercises undermined his constitution. He became an
invalid and died childless, after exhibiting to his court for many years
an example of patience in sickness and of dignified cheerfulness under
the restraints of enforced inaction. His wife, Elizabetta Gonzaga, one
of the most famous women of her age, was no less a pattern of noble
conduct and serene contentment.

Such were the two last princes of the Montefeltro dynasty.[2] It is
necessary to bear their virtues in mind while dwelling on the
characteristics of Italian despotism in the fifteenth century. The Duchy
of Urbino, both as an established dynasty not founded upon violence, and
also as a center of really humane culture, formed, it is true, an
exception to the rule of Italian tyrannies: yet, if we omitted this
state from our calculation, confining our attention to the extravagant
iniquities of the Borgia family, or to the eccentricities of the
Visconti, or to the dark crimes of the court of Naples, we should gain a
false notion of the many-sided character of Italy, in which at that time
vices and virtues were so strangely blended. We must never forget that
the