[Footnote 62: "Itaque multas sæpè feminas vidi, audivi etiàm esse plures, quæ certarum omninò virtutum, optimarum quidem illarum atque clarissimarum, sed tamèn perpaucarum splendore illustrarentur: in quâ verò omnes collectæ conjunctæque virtutes conspicerentur, hæc una extitit, cujus omninò parem atque similem aut etiam inferiorem paulò, non modò non vidi ullam, sed ea ubi esset etiàm ne audivi quidem."--Bembo de Guidobaldo.] An anonymous and now lost complimentary poem, written about 1512, and formerly in the library of S. Salvadore at Bologna, celebrated Elisabetta's charitable aid in the establishment of a _monte di pietà_,[63] at Fabriano, and alluded to her prudent government of the state in the Duke's absence. The terms of affection with which she regarded her husband's adopted heir underwent no change after her bereavement; and his marriage to her niece Leonora Gonzaga strengthened the tie. We shall find her making great personal exertions to modify the measures of Leo X. against Francesco Maria; and she shared his confiscation and exile, which she could not avert. She lived, however, to return with him to the house she had twice been compelled to relinquish, and saw his dynasty securely established in the state which had owned her as its mistress. [Footnote 63: The Italian name for those public establishments, at which small sums are lent on pledges under government superintendence. The Duchess is said to have introduced them at Urbino, and to have founded there an academy, which rose to considerable celebrity among similar weeds of literature that long flourished and still vegetate in Italy.] Her trials were closed on the 28th of January, 1526, by an easy death. She left the residue of her property to Duchess Leonora, after payment of numerous pious bequests to various churches, with liberal legacies to her household; and she was interred by the side of her beloved husband in the church of S. Bernardino. BOOK FOURTH OF LITERATURE AND ART UNDER THE DUKES DI MONTEFELTRO AT URBINO CHAPTER XXIII The revival of letters in Italy--Influence of the princes--Classical tastes tending to pedantry and paganism--Greek philosophy and its effects--Influence of the Dukes of Urbino. When writing upon Italy of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a prominent place must be allotted to letters and arts. At Urbino in particular, their progress was then great, their influence proverbial; and our next eight chapters will contain notices of them which would have interrupted the continuity of our previous narrative.