anything it was in writing innuendoes and invectives.
Among other anecdotes, he relates how, while he was being dislocated on
the rack, the inquisitors Vianesi and Sanga held a sprightly colloquy
about a ring which the one said jestingly the other had received as a
love-token from a girl. The whole situation is characteristic of Papal
Rome in the Renaissance.

[1] See _Les Arts a la Cour des Papes pendant le XV. et le XVI.
Siecles_, E. Muentz, Paris, Thorin, 2me Partie. M. Muentz has
done good service to aesthetic archaeology by vindicating the
fame of Paul II. as an employer of artists from the wholesale
abuse heaped on him by Platina. It may here be conveniently
noticed that even the fierce Sixtus IV. showed intelligence as
a patron of arts and letters. He built the Sistine Chapel, and
brought the greatest painters of the day to Rome--Signorelli,
Perugino, Botticelli, Cosimo, Rosselli, and Ghirlandajo.
Melozzo da Forli worked for him. One of that painter's few
remaining masterpieces is the wall-picture, now in the Vatican,
which represents Sixtus among his Cardinals and Secretaries--a
magnificent piece of vivid portraiture. Sixtus again threw the
Vatican library open to the public, and In his days the
Confraternity of S. Luke was founded for the encouragement of
design. Rome owes to him the hospital of S. Spirito, a severe
building, by Baccio Pontelli, and the churches of S. Maria del
Popolo and S. Maria della Pace. Innocent VIII. added the
Belvedere to the Vatican after Antonio del Pollajuolo's plan,
and commenced the Villa Magliana. Alexander VI. enriched the
Vatican with the famous Borgia apartments, decorated by
Pinturhicchio. He also began the Palace of the University, and
converted the Mausoleum of Hadrian into the Castle of S.
Angelo. These brief allusions must suffice. It is not the
object of the present chapter to treat of the Popes as patrons;
but it should not be forgotten that, having accepted a place
among the despots of Italy, they strove to acquit their debt to
art and learning in the spirit of contemporary potentates.

[2] Corio sums up his character thus: 'Fu costui uomo alla
libidine molto proclivo; in grandissimo precio furono le gioie
appresso di lui. Del giorno faceva notte, e la notte ispediva
quanto gli occorreva.' Marcus Attilius Alexius says: 'Paulus
II. ex co