Page:The Book of the Courtier.djvu/709

 NOTES TO THE THIRD BOOK OF THE COURTIER with Laure, the daughter of a certain knight of Avignon, Audibert de Noves. If this identification be correct, she was born in 1308, married Hughes de Sade in 1325, became the mother of eleven children, and died in 1348. In 1533 Francis I caused her reputed tomb to be opened, and found in it a small box which contained a medal bearing a woman's profile, and a parchment on which was a sonnet signed by Petrarch. Note 423, page 220. The so-called "Song of Solomon" is now thought to be the work of a period later than Solomon's and to contain no mystic meaning. Note 424, page 222. In the old romance, " Amadis of Gaul," I sola Ferma is an enchanted island, with a garden at the entrance to which stands an arch surmounted by the statue of a man holding a trumpet to his mouth. When- ever an unfaithful lover attempts to pass, the trumpet emits a dreadful sound with fire and smoke, and drives the culprit back ; while it welcomes all true lovers with sweetest music. Note 425, page 228. Here again the reference is of course to "my lady Duchess." Note 426, page 235. The Hypnerotomachia Poliphiti, first published by Aldus in 1499, was written by Francesco Colonna, a Dominican friar of Venice, who died an old man in 1527. The book is rare, and is said to be an allegorical romance full of lascivious erudition, and written in a pedantically affected mixture of Italian, Latin, and Venetian patois. Note 427, page 237. Ars Amandi, i, 597-602. Note 428, page 237. Ars Amandi, i, 569-72. 405