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 NOTES TO THE THIRD BOOK OF THE COURTIER the picture. Isabella's brilliant career, and especially her close relations with the chief men of her day and her weighty influence upon contemporary poli- tics, are the subject of many scholarly volumes and interesting articles written jointly by Alessandro Luzio of Mantua and Rodolfo Renier of Turin. Note 398, page 204. Beatrice d'Este, (born 1475; died 1497), married Lu- dovico Sforza, Duke Regent of Milan, in the same year (1491) in which his niece Anna Sforza married Beatrice's brother Alfonso, the future husband of Lucrezia Borgia. Younger, apparently less beautiful, and certainly less ac- complished than her sister Isabella, Beatrice encouraged her husband's patronage of art and letters, and took part in his turbid political schemes. It will perhaps never be determined precisely to what extent she was responsi- ble for his treatment of his young nephew and of the latter's wife (see note 396), and for the disasters to Italy that ensued, but she is known to have exercised a great ascendency over her husband's mind, and he is said to have spent at her tomb the last night before his final capture and downfall. After the ex- pulsion of the French from Italy in 1512, her sons Maximilian and Fran- cesco Maria successively held the duchy for a time, until it passed into the hands of Spain in 1535. For an account of her life, the reader is referred to Mrs. Henry Ady's recently published "Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan; a Study of the Renaissance," which owes much to the labours of Luzio and Renier. Note 399, page 205. Eleanora of Aragon, (born 1450; died 1493), was the elder sister of the Beatrice who married Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. A projected union with Ludovico Sforza (who afterwards married her daughter) having been abandoned, she became in 1473 the wife of Duke Ercole I of Fer- rara, and bore him two daughters and four sons. Other c9ntemporary accounts confirm the praise bestowed upon her by Castiglione, and show her to have been a woman of rare merit, manly courage and enlightened culture. Fond of music, and herself a player upon the harp, she seems to have been a dis- criminating patroness of art and letters, and at the same time to have taken an active share in the serious cares of government, especially when her hus- band was absent or disabled. A pleasant glimpse of her character is gained from a letter written by her to the duke's treasurer on behalf of a certain Nea- politan engineer, who had rendered important services but had fallen ill and was in want. "You will see what this poor man's needs are. You know with what devotion he has served us, nor are you ignorant who sent him to us,— ^^^ circumstance worthy of consideration. It would ill become us so 4o treat him in his sickness as to give him cause for complaint agaijiMst u^. You must know what his pay is. See, then, what can be done, and arrange for helping him." She did not live to witness the downfall of her family in Naples. Note 400, page 205. ISABELLA DEL BALZO, (died 1533). was a daughter of the Prince of Altamura, and the wife of Federico III of Naples (see note 401). When her husband lost his crown in 1501, she (together with the faithful 399