COSTUMES OF THE PRINCESSES 201 Urbino in my carretta to her lodgings, which are those of Ventimiglia above the loggia. I will not describe Madonna Lucrezia's appearance, as you have seen her. She wore a vest of wrought gold trimmed with crimson satin, with slashed sleeves in Castilian fashion, a crimson satin mantle, turned back on one side and lined with sable, open at the throat to show a frilled chemise, in the usual fashion. On her neck she wore a string of big pearls, with a pendant of ruby and a pear-shaped pearl, and a gold coif on her head, but no band. Madonna Lucrezia Bentivoglio received her on the shores of the Fo with a great company of ladies. Madonna Teodora was presented to her by Don Alfonso's seneschal as chief lady-in-waiting, together with twelve Ferrarese maidens wearing camoras of crimson satin, and black velvet mantles lined with black lamb. The gentlemen of her household have not yet been chosen. Five carriages were sent to meet her-one hung with gold brocade, and led by four white horses, each worth fifty ducats apiece; one covered with red velvet, led by roan horses, all very fine; and three hung with purple satin, with horses of different colours. I have not mentioned Don Alfonso, because, as I told Your Excellency before, he went last night to Bentivoglio, returned to Ferrara this morning, and joined my father at Torre della Fossa. The Duchess of Urbino is very well and lively, and commends herself to Your Excellency with me, and I beg you to kiss the dear child of our love. -Your wife, ISABELLA." On this occasion the Duchess of Urbino wore black velvet embroidered with a gold pattern, while Isabella herself was attired in a black velvet robe 202 LUCREZIA'S APPEARANCE trimmed with lynx fur, with a green velvet vest studded over with gold plaques—a gift from Francesco a gold circlet on her head, and a gold collar set with diamonds round her neck. Her beauty and distinguished air attracted general admiration, as the Marchesa di Cotrone, who accompanied her to Ferrara, wrote that evening to the Marquis. "The bride is not beautiful, but sweet and attractive in appearance, and although she had many ladies with her, and among them that illustrious Madonna, the Duchess of Urbino, who is very handsome and a worthy sister of Your Excellency, yet my illustrious lady was universally pronounced, both by our people and by those who came with the Duchess, to be by far the most beautiful, so much so that if the bride had foreseen this, she would have made her entry by torchlight! There can be no doubt of this, since others are as nothing at my lady's side. So we shall bear the prize back to the home of my own Madonna."1 On the following day the Duke and his son rode out to meet the bride at Casale, and escorted her across the bridge of Castel Tedaldo, and through the town to the ducal palace. The pageant is described by contemporaries as the grandest ever seen in Ferrara. "I will tell you the order of this illustrious bride's entry," writes Isabella, "and whatever else is worth noting, as best I can. First of all came my father's seventy-five archers in white and red liveries, with three captains in different costumes, then eighty trumpeters, among them six of the Duke of Romagna's, wearing cloth of gold, and purple and 1 D'Arco, op. cit. ENTRY OF THE BRIDE 203 white satin uniforms, and twenty-four pipers and trumpeters. Behind them came the nobles and gentlemen of Ferrara, of whom seventy wore golden chains, none of which cost less than 500 ducats, while many were worth 800, 1000, and even 1200 ducats. Then followed the Duchess of Urbino's suite, all in black velvet and satin, and after them Signor Don Alfonso and M. Annibale Bentivoglio. His Highness rode a big bay horse with purple velvet trappings embossed with gold. He wore a suit of grey velvet covered with scales of beaten gold, worth at least 6000 ducats, a black velvet cap trimmed with gold lace and white feathers, and grey leather gaiters. Eight squires walked behind him, four men and four boys, in French suits of gold brocade and purple velvet, with hose of red and purple cloth. Then came the bride's suite, twenty of whom were Spaniards clad in black and gold, but only twelve of the whole company wore gold chains, and these not at all large ones or equal to those worn by my gentlemen. These were followed by the Bishops of Adria, Comachio, Cervia, and two others sent by the Pope. Then came the ambassadors, walking two abreast-a Lucchese and a Sienese together, the other Sienese with a Florentine, and so on, the two Venetians wearing long crimson satin mantles; last of all the four Roman ambassadors in long cloth-of-gold mantles lined with crimson satin. Behind them were six drummers and two Spanish jesters in brocade of variegated colours. Then the bride, under a crimson baldacchino carried by the doctors. In front of her was a big dapple-grey horse, given her by the Duke, with crimson trappings embroidered with gold, led by eight grooms in purple and yellow vests and hose.” 204 STATE PROCESSION The Venetian chronicler1 informs us that, as the bride rode over the bridge of Castel Tedaldo, her horse took fright at the guns, and would have thrown her if her groom had not rushed to her help, and placed her on a mule. Isabella continues: "The bride was mounted on a roan mule with velvet trappings covered with gold lace, and fastened with nails of beaten gold. She wore a cloth of gold camora with purple satin stripes and flowing sleeves after the French fashion, and a sbernia of wrought gold, open on one side, and lined with ermine, as were her sleeves. Round her throat was the necklace of rubies and diamonds which belonged to Madonna of Ferrara, of blessed memory! On her head was the jewelled cap which my lord father sent together with the necklace to her in Rome, without any band. Six of Don Alfonso's chamberlains, all wearing fine gold chains, held the reins. The French ambassador rode at her side, outside the baldacchino." The bride, according to another account, sent for the French envoy, Philippo Bert, when the procession started, and made him ride at her side, as a token of the Pope's gratitude to the King of France for bringing about the marriage. "Behind the bride, the Duchess of Urbino and my lord father; the Duchess on the right on a roan mule, with black and gold velvet trappings, wearing a black velvet robe adorned with certain triangles of beaten gold which are astrological signs, a string of pearls at her throat, and a gold coif on her head. My Lord Duke rode a roan horse, with black velvet and a suit of purple velvet, and was followed by two ladies, Donna Hieronima Borgia and the wife of 1 Marino Sanuto, Diarii, iv. 222-230. ISABELLA RECEIVES THE BRIDE 205 Fabio Orsini, both in black velvet; and behind them, Madonna Adriana, a widowed relative of the Pope. These were the only women on horseback. Madonna Lucrezia Bentivoglio rode in a chariot hung with gold brocade, followed by twelve other chariots, bearing the bride's ladies and her own Ferrarese and Bolognese ladies. Behind them came two sumptermules, with black and silver trappings, elaborately worked, and fifty-six more with red and yellow clothing, and twelve with purple and yellow. A few arches, as I told Your Excellency, were erected at certain points along the route, and there were some representations which are not worth mentioning, and no one paid much attention to them." At five o'clock the procession reached the Piazza, where two rope-dancers descended simultaneously from opposite towers, and at the same moment the doors of the dungeons were thrown open and all the prisoners released. On the steps of the ducal palace, the Marchesa, magnificently arrayed in a camora of cloth of gold, embroidered with her favourite device of musical notes and rests, received the bride, and conducted her to the Sala Grande, followed by the Duke and the whole company. In this noble hall, hung with Leonora's priceless tapestries, two Ferrara poets, Celio Calcagnini, the friend of Raphael and Erasmus, and Ariosto, recited a Latin Epithalamium in the bride's honour, and hailed Lucrezia as pulcherrima Virgo-a title which may well have sounded ironical in the ears of the bystanders, when applied to one whom the Romans had derisively called "the Pope's daughter, wife, and daughter-in-law." The following day was spent in dancing and acting, and in the evening Isabella took up her pen |