* * * * * PIETRO BEMBO[*44] was born at Venice in 1470, and had the first rudiments of education at Florence, whither his father Bernardo was sent as ambassador from the Signory. Having learned Greek at Messina under Constantin Lascaris, and studied philosophy at Padua and Ferrara, he devoted himself to literary pursuits. At the court of the d'Este princes, where he was introduced by his father then resident as envoy from Venice, he met with the consideration due to his acquirements, and found a brilliant society, including Sadoleto, the Strozzi, and Tibaldeo. There he was residing when the arrival of Lucrezia Borgia threatened to establish for it a very different character; but the dissolute beauty seems to have left in the Vatican her abandoned tastes, and adopting those of her new sovereignty she became distinguished as a patroness of letters. The intimacy which sprang up between this princess and Bembo has given rise to some controversy as to the purity of its platonism, a discussion into which we need not enter. The life of the lady, the writings of the Abbé, and the morals of their time combine to justify suspicion, where proofs can hardly be looked for.[*45] "But if their solemn love were crime, Pity the beauty and the sage,-- Their crime was in their darkened age!" [Footnote *44: For a splendid account of Bembo, cf. GASPARY, _Storia della Lett. Ital._ (Torino, 1891), vol. II., part II., pp. 60-7, and the _Appendice Bibliographica_ there, pp. 284-5.] [Footnote *45: This is altogether unfair, uncalled for, and untrue. Dennistoun is not to be trusted where a Borgia is concerned; like Sigismondo Malatesta they hurt the Urbino dukes too much.] [Illustration: _Anon. des._ _L. Ceroni sculp._ CARDINAL BEMBO _From a drawing once in the possession of Cavaliere Agricola in Rome_] Their correspondence lasted from 1503 to 1516, and many of his letters are published.[*46] The prevailing tone of these is rhetorical rather than passionate, and is quite as complimentary to her virtues as to her beauty. The Ambrosian Library at Milan possesses nine autograph epistles in Italian and Latin from Lucrezia, addressed "to my dearest M. Pietro Bembo," with the dates supplied in his hand. A tress of fair auburn hair, originally tied up with them, and doubtless that of the Princess, is now shown in the adjoining museum. That her tastes and accomplishments were not unworthy of such a friendship appears from many dedications of works to her while Duchess of Ferrara, including the Asolani of her admirer. [Footnote *46: Cf. MORSOLIN, _P. Bembo e Lucrezia Borgia_, in the _Nuova Antologia_ (Roma, 1885), and BEMBO, _Opere_ (Venice, 1729), vol. III., pp. 307-17; also CIAN, in _Giorn. Stor. della Lett. Ital._, XXIX., 425.]