In September the Republic of Venice sent ambassadors to compliment the new Grand Duchess and declare her to be “the daughter of St Mark,” and she was solemnly crowned in Santa Maria de’ Fiore. Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici, brother and heir to Francesco I, had kept aloof from the Tuscan court since the marriage with Bianca, but at last, early in October 1587, he was persuaded to come to Florence and was received by her with great demonstrations of affection. They went off immediately to Poggio a Cajano for the shooting, and on the 8th October the Grand Duke was attacked by fever, declared by the doctors to be tertian. Two days later the Grand Duchess fell ill of the same malady and the court physician called in Giulio Angeli da Barga, professor of medicine at the University of Pisa, and Giulio Cini, the doctor in attendance on the Cardinal. At first the illness of the Grand Duke and of Bianca was kept secret, but when vague rumours reached the ears of the Pope, it was declared that Francesco had over-eaten himself with mushrooms, whereupon the Holy Father wrote him a homily about abstaining from all indigestible food. To put an end to the various rumours in circulation, a statement was sent to Rome on the 16th October, setting forth that “the Grand Duke has a double tertian fever and incessant thirst; at present everything points towards his restoration to health, as the fourth and seventh days have been easy with abundant sweats, and we hope to go from good to better. But there must be no excesses, and the approach of autumn makes us fear the malady will be a long one. Cause therefore prayers to be said, all the more that the Grand Duchess has almost the same sickness, and this increases the malady of the Grand Duke because she cannot attend on him.”