Magnificent Lorenzo, &c.,--This moment I have thrown away burin, chisel, compasses, square, wax, modelling tools, architecture, perspective, have given four kicks to that bull, and have sent back the clay to the potter, because hideous pots had been made for me, and because I perceive that the peppered dishes of our knight of Prato, Messer Luca Calvanese, are more esteemed by Count Girolamo than all other talents, sciences, or arts, they having obtained for him knighthood. Now the art of cooking is not inborn in Luca, but has been obtained by him in a piggish way solely out of my book, and I believe the cleanest dish he ever prepared was at Monte Guffoni, when he gave you two plates full of beccafichi[191] cooked by hand. So I have determined to abandon all other arts and to take to cooking, and therefore pray Your Magnificence to recommend me to the head steward, who is over the cooks, in order that I may get back my book. I hope that in a short time Messer Luca of the Pepper will not be able to hold a sieve. I would to God I had been brought up under Cibacca[192] instead of under Donatello, for seeing how times go, before I had made two giacomini[193] or two jellies, the Count would have created me Prior of Pisa. And I say if they make him head of the giants, or of something else which had better not be mentioned, you are the better judge, I being a pupil of Donato. But above all, before Messer Luca has taken possession of it, I beg you to get me back my cookery book. Once I have it in my hands trust me to put him, his pepper-pot, his wantons and his title, into a pie covered with pepper, without passing them through a sieve, and then I will make so many pills of it. May God send all that court to the devil. I pray Him that I may see the Pope, the Count, and Messer Luca suffocated in a vat full of pepper, and you, beware of their treachery. From the castle of S. Anthony in the Wilderness.--[No date.] From your servant Bertoldo.[194] In 1475 everything was peaceful in Italy. Lorenzo was able to give his attention to the reconstruction of the University of Pisa, in which town he spent some months, to devote himself to poetry and philosophy, and often to indulge in his love of outdoor sports. Niccolò Roberti, Duke Borso d’Este’s ambassador to Florence, wrote to his master in January: Most illustrious Lord,--There is no news to send save that near Pisa, where Lorenzo is enjoying much sport with the King’s [Ferrante of Naples] hawkers, two of the falcons sent to him by H.M. have been lost, and they are the two best. Your Excellency must not wonder at my sending such news, because here little else is talked about. Idleness is so universal in Italy that if things do not change there will be more to write of battles between birds and dogs than of armies and gallant deeds.--January 22, 1474 (1475).