AXON, William E.A. Ortensio lando, a humorist of the Renaissance. LIBRARY OP iiVERSIDE *A 'N ORTENSIO LANDO, A HUMORIST OF THE RENAISSANCE. WILLIAM E. A. AXON, F.R.S.L. TRANSACTIONS K.S.L., VOL. XX. ORTENSIO LANDO, A HUMORIST OF THE RENAISSANCE. BY WILLIAM E. A. AXON, F.E.S.L. VW THE Renaissance the period of the revolt of the human intellect against the formalism and benumbing spirit of authority that dominated the Middle Ages, the period when the buried literature and art of the ancient world was recovered, the period when human daring and ingenuity discovered a world beyond the sea and worlds beyond the sky, when Columbus and Copernicus, the humanists and the reformers, were filling the minds of men with new and transforming forces in every department of human thought and action was necessarily a time favourable for the development of individuality and strongly marked character. Popes, princes, scholars, warriors, pass in stately procession, some stained with many crimes and vices, some endowed with magnificent talents, but all instinct with exuberant individuality. To the later stages of this wonderful movement belongs Lando. His first book was not printed until some years after the sack of Rome, and he disappears from our view in the middle of the sixteenth century, 1 2 OETENSIO LANDO. when the Renaissance was practically complete in literature, in art, and in religion.* Ortensio Lando was born at Milan somewhere about the beginning of the sixteenth century, but the precise year has eluded research. His father, Domenico Lando, was a member of the noble family of Landi of Piacenza, several of whom have attained distinction. His mother was a Milanese, Oaterina Castelletti. He names amongst his teachers Ber- nardino Negro, Celio Rhodogino, and Alessandro Minuziano.t He went from the University of Milan to that of Bologna, where he studied medicine, and at a later period was created a Doctor of Medicine. Italy was in a disturbed condition, and his youth was passed in the profession of arms. He served under Pozzo da Perego and many other leaders, and attained at least the rank of captain. * This attempt to trace in detail the career of Lando would not have been made but for the encouragement of Mr. Richard Copley Christie, the biographer of Etienne Dolet, who with great liberality allowed the use of his rare books and bibliographical notes. Scholars must deeply regret that Mr. Christie has not accomplished his work on the ' Types of the later Renaissance,' since no other can claim the same knowledge of humanism and its literature. In this work Lando would have been taken as the type of the humorist a classification here adopted. f Caelius Rhodiginus was the Latin name of Lodovico Ricchieri, who was born at Rovi-go (hence his pen-name) about 1450, and died in 1525, after a life of much vicissitude. His death is said to have been hastened by chagrin at the overthrow of his great patron Francis I. Minutianus was born at San Severe about 1450, and became Professor at Milan. To him is due the editio princeps of the complete works of Cicero, though all the writings in it had been issued separately. He was a printer or employed printers in his house, and Minutianus imprcssit is found on various books. He is believed to have died about 1521, and left no fortune to his two sons but their father's reputation as a scholar. OETENSIO LANDO. 6 Lando first comes clearly into light at Lyons, where his earliest book was printed in 1534. This was entitled ' Cicero Relegatus et Cicero Revocatus ' (Lugduni apud Seb. Gryphium, 1534), and is an octavo of eighty-eight pages.* Lando dedicated it to Pomponio Trivulzio, in the hope that " these amusing narratives " might be of some relief during an illness from which he was suffering. It is not signed. The letters H. A. S. D. have been variously interpreted, but are probably to be read " Hortensius anonyrnus [or rather, perhaps, Amicus] Salutem dicit." The book consists of two dialogues ; in the first the defects of Cicero and of his writings are discussed, and he is condemned to exile. The second dialogue replies so successfully to the first that the judgment is reversed, and Cicero enters Milan in triumph on January 1st, 1534. In this book, with which he began a literary career, Laudo already shows the qualities that distinguished his after-work, the love of paradox, and the pleader's skill in dealing not only with one but both sides of the question. The disciples of the Tullian cult were furious with the first dialogue, and were not appeased by the second, as we know from the * Paradossi,' in one of which Lando returns to the subject, and argues that Cicero was ignorant both of philosophy and rhetoric. At Lyons he met Gio- vanni Angelo Odone, who had been a fellow student with him at Bologna, and whose report is curious. Odone styles Lando a despiser of the Greek literature, * It was reprinted in the same year at Venice and at Leipzig, and there are editions at Napoli, 1536, and at Venezia, 1539. It is included in Vorst, ' De Latinatate selecta ' (Berolini, 1718). 4 ORTENSIO LANDO. who declared that he cared for no books except those of Christ and Cicero. " He had Christ neither in his hands nor in his books, and if he had Him in his heart God only knows," Odone declares. The only book Lando had brought from Italy was the Familiar Letters of Cicero, and Odone insinuates that he was an exile, and dare not return to his native country. Whatever may have been the motive of the evident ill-will that inspired them, it is certain that Odone's statements are inaccurate.* Lando came to Lyons from Rome, where he had been occupied for some time by important business, and after the issue of ' Cicero Revocatus ' he returned to Italy, and was going freely about the country at the very time when Odone was calling him an exile. Lando after a short stay at Milan went to Rome, but soon returned to his native city. Leaving Lombardy, he spent eighteen days at Lucca, where he was hospitably entertained, and twenty-eight days at Forci, traversed Tuscany, touched at Rome, and proceeded to Naples, wherein 1535 he published ' Forcianae Questiones, in quibus varia Italorum in- genia explicantur, multaque alia scitu non indigna. Autore Philalete Polyptopiensi cive " (Neapoli, ex- cudebat Martinus de Ragusia, 1535).f The title is a compliment in return for the good- * See Christie's ' Life of Etienne Dolet,' 1880, pp. 13, 34, 183, 217, 218. f There was a second edition from the same press in 1535 ; third edition, Basileae, 1541 ; fourth, as an addition to Johannis Peregrini Convivalium Sermonum liber (Basileae, 1542) ; fifth, Basileae, 1544 ; sixth, Lovanii, 1550; seventh, Norimbergae, 1591; eighth, Franco- furti, 1616 ; ninth, Lucae, 1763. The editor, J. B. M. C. M. D. L. that is J. B. Montecaltini civis magnifici dominii Lucensis takes some superfluous trouble to show that the ' Questiones ' were not ORTENSIO LANDO. 5 will shown to Laudo at Forci. The book deals pleasantly with the diverse customs of the various provinces of Italy. In the next five years it is thought that he visited Sicily, as he speaks in his writings of being at Messina, Catania, &c. He formed a dislike to the ways of his native land, and resolved to seek a free country where the people were well-mannered and void of ambition. This political Utopia he expected to find in Switzerland, the Grisons, or the Yalais, and hastening thither he was at first charmed by an appearance of sweet and amiable equality, but further experience quickly showed him that here also pride and ambition flourished as luxuriantly as elsewhere. At Basle he played a practical joke at the expense of a printer. His attack on Erasmus, which appeared in 1540, was printed and issued by the ingenuous typographer under the impression that it was a warm eulogy of the great scholar. ' In Desideri Erasmi Rotherodami Funus, dialogus lepidissimus nunc primum in lucem editus' (Basileae, 1540) a tract of extreme rarity may therefore take its place as one of the curiosities of literature. Lando's name does not appear. The author, " Philalethes ex Utopia," styles himself a physician, and dedicates the book to Conte Fortunate Martinengo. As the dialogue shows that it is written by one of the house of Landi, an ardent defender of Erasmus in 1541, written by Aonio Paleario. A kind of translation " in pessima poesia italiana " appeared. This was " Le due giornate del poeta Bandarino, dove si tratta de tutti i costumi che in le citta di Italia a loco a loco usar si sogliono," 1556. An Italian translation was published in 1857. 6 ORTENSIO LANDO. made an oration in the University of Basle against Bassiano Lando, whom he, of course wrongly, supposed to be the author. This oration of B. J. Eroldo was printed at the . end of the works of Erasmus in 1703. Having had his joke, Lando went from Switzerland to France, and after visiting various parts of the kingdom, and being received at the court of King Francis, he reappeared at Lyons in 1543, where he printed his * Paradossi,' which he had written during his journey through the Romagna and to Piacenza. This was his first Italian book : ' Paradossi, cioe, sententie fuori del comune parere, novellamente venute in luce, opera non men dotta, che piacevole, et in due parti separata' (Lione : Gioanni Pullon da Trino, 1543).* This is the most characteristic of the numerous volumes written by Lando. In it he essays to show that poverty is better than riches, ugliness better than beauty, and blindness than sight ; that it is better to be foolish than wise, that it is not a mis- fortune for a prince to lose his state, that drunken- ness is better than sobriety, that a barren wife is preferable to a fruitful one, that it is better to be exiled than to live in the fatherland, that it is better * The ' Paradossi ' were reprinted at Vinegia 1544, 1545 (with an attack on the vain-glory of the Venetian patricians judiciously omitted), at Lione 1550, Yenezia 1563, Bergamo 1594, with altera- tions and omissions, and Vicenza 1602. It was early translated into French in several editions, and into Spanish. The ' Declama- tions parodoxes' of Jean Duval (Paris, 1603) is a translation or adaptation of Lando. A portion was turned into English by Anthony Mundy in his ' Defence of Contraries ' (London, 1593). Per- haps also Thomas Lodge's ' Paradoxes against Common Opinions,' London, 1602, is from Lando. That on the " Vita parca " forms the third part of the ' Hygiasticon,' Camb., 1634, and has been reprinted by the present writer (Manchester, 1899). OBTENSIO LANDO. 7 to be weak and in bad health than to be strong and stout, that it is neither detestable nor odious to have a faithless wife, that it is better to weep than to laugh, that scarcity is preferable to abundance, that it is better to be born in a little village than in a populous city, that it is better to live in lowly cottages than in great palaces, that it is not an evil to be wounded and beaten, that it is better to be in prison than at liberty, that war is better than peace, that the death of a wife is not to be lamented, that it is better to be without servants than to have them, that a spare diet is better than one that is luxurious, that it is better to be ignobly born than to inherit noble blood, that woman is of greater excellence and dignity than man, that it is better to be timid than brave, that the works of Boccaccio, and especially the ' Decamerone,' are not worth read- ing, that the writings we have under the name of Aristotle the Stagirite were not written by him, that Aristotle was not only ignorant, but was the most wicked man of his age ; and lastly, that Cicero was ignorant both of philosophy and of rhetoric. As a specimen of Lando's style we may quote one of the shortest of the paradoxes : " MEGLIO E m PIANGERE CHE RIDERE. " (PARADOSSO XII.) " Non diremo noi (et con gran ragione) che miglior sia il pianto che il riso, poi che Solomone sci'itto n' ha lasciato nelle sue sagratissime carte, che meglio sia di girsene alia casa di pianto che dell' allegrezza ? Pel riso, molte anime da lor corpi si partirno con infinite dolore de suoi con- o-iunti, et per il pianto niuna (ch' io sappia) se ne disciolse giamai. II riso sempre abundo nelle bocche de pazzi, et 8 ORTENSIO LANDO. del seno usciti, ne se legge clie il Salvatore nostro ridesse giamai, ma d' haver bene piu d' una volta lagrirnato, fassi da fedeli Scrittori plena et intiera fede, per tanto promisse egli, a chiunque piangeva felicita, eterna, et a ridenti mi- naccia di morte. II pianto e segno di penitenza et com- puntione, et al spesso lagrimare u' esortano instantemante le voci di santi Profeti, et il riso de scorni sovente fu cagione, et de temerita inditio aperta. Quanti sdegni, quanti furori ha una sol lagrimetta amorzati? quanti amori ha riuniti ? et quanti feroci cuori intenereti ? et quanta mercede s' e gia pel peso delle lagrime impetrata ? tutte le forze humane insieme raccolte, non havrebbono potuto impetrare quel che una lagrima ha sovente ottenuto. Fu sempre molto da piu stimato Heraclito perche pianse che Democrito per haver riso, et Crasso, che dal non haver mai riso fu detto Agelasto, oprd moltissime cose degne di eterna lode. II pianto e cagione, che i nostri corpi quando son tenerelli aumentino, et percio molti non si curano di rachetare i piangenti bambini nelle culle, accioche per il pianto le membre si dilatino et a riguardeval mi sura cre- schino. Scrive anchora Hippocrate che le infirmita col riso congiunte, sono dall' altre piu difficile a risanare, lasciamo adunque il ridere da canto poi che non ha del grave, et in tante calamitose rovine luogo alcuno non si vede al ridere atto et opportune." The author does not give his name, but at the end is an enigmatic inscription, SVISNETR OHTABEDVL, which, when read backwards, gives us the expla- natory phrase "Hortensius ludebat." There is also a letter to the courteous readers from Paulo Mascranico, who says that the author was M.O.L.M., surnamed " II Tranquillo," that is Messer Ortensio Lando, Medico (or Milanese). Tranquillus was his academic name. This little volume contains, in addition to its ORTENS10 LANDO. 9 challenges to Mrs. Grundy, some literary heresies that must have provoked many adverse criticisms, but Lando determined that he would himself show the folly of the ' Paradossi.' So he issued ' Confuta- tione del Libro de Paradossi, nuovamente composta et in tre oratione distinta.' There is no imprint and no date to this booklet of twenty-four pages, but it is believed to have come from the press of Lodovico Avanzo at Venice in 1545. It is dedicated to Ippolita Gonzaga, Contessa della Mirandola, in the hope that the ' Confutatione ' would be welcome where the ' Paradossi ' had been acceptable ; from which we may perhaps conclude that the authorship of the two books was no great secret. Even if the style did not betray him we have Lando's own con- fession of the authorship in the ' Sferza.' After the appearance of the ' Paradossi ' he visited Germany, and claims also to have seen Antwerp and England. At Frissingen he was wel- comed by the Cardinal of Augsburg, and at Augs- burg by those famous merchants the Fuggers, who were then the wealthiest persons in the entire com- mercial world. On his way home in 1544 he was robbed near Brescia, but the governor of that town hearing of his misfortune entertained him at his house and made good his losses. This hospitality he perhaps owed to his standing in literature, for Messer Antonio da Mula (Amulio), who held the city for Venice, was also a man of letters. On reaching Piacenza in the summer of 1545, Lando found it under the control of Pier Luigi Farnese, who had been invested by the Pope with lordship of Parma and Piacenza. Lando, as a member of the 10 ORTENSIO LANDO. Imperialist party, probably took refuge on the other side of the Po. Within the imperial boundaries he, with others, suspected by the new prince, would find asylum. At the little town of Torbale, on the Lago di Grarda, he was an observer of the knavery of the fishermen who sold as excellent the bad fish that was to serve at Trent for the ecclesi- astics who were then assembling for the famous council. Lando was present at that great church assembly, and, by the favour of Bishop Madruccio, in whose train he was, heard the oration of his fellow-citizen, Bishop Musso. The motive of these restless wanderings does not appear. His Ciceronian declaration that when he came to a city of freedom and good manners, there he would stay, need not be taken too seriously. It is one of those explanations which does not ex- plain. After the fashion of the time, Lando, as an accomplished scholar, appears to have been a wel- come addition to the train of great personages travelling in state for business or pleasure. Thus in France he journeyed with the Conte di Piti- gliano, in the Romagna with the Bishop of Trent, and elsewhere with the Bishop of Catania. These noble patrons were expected at least to make a pretence of advancing the interests of the scholars whose companionship or vassalage added to their dignity and renown. Lando, indeed, confesses, with perhaps pardonable exaggeration, that but for literature he must have begged his bread from door to door. In his discourse in praise of the solitary life he declares that his ancestors were of much better condition than himself, and that his own ORTENSIO LANDO. 11 evil fortune was due to the anger of princes and the wickedness of the age, and not to gluttony, lust, gambling, alchemy, murder, or misdeeds on his part. Lando did not stay long with any of his protectors, nor does he appear to have received pay from them. His own temper was brusque ; he dis- claimed the arts of the courtier, and for a single word, as he tells us, he broke with a noble friendship, although it had been honourable, useful, and plea- sant for him. After these wandering years he settled down at Venice. The city of St. Mark was henceforth his home except when visiting at the villas of the Gonzaga family. His special patrons were Isabella and Lucrezia Gonzaga, the latter of whom he jok- ingly styled " la gran Caesariana," and scolded as too imperial. Isabella Gonzaga, daughter of Frederico I, Marchese de Mantua, was the wife of Guido Ubaldo di Montefeltro, Duca d'Urbino. Lucrezia was the daughter of Pyrrhus de Gonzaga, and was married at the age of fourteen and against her will to Giovanni Paolo Manfrone, a country gentleman whose evil conduct brought him into danger of the death penalty, from which he was saved by the intervention of his wife. She could not, how- ever, obtain his release from prison, although she appealed to the Duca de Ferrara, to two Popes and even to the Grand Turk. He died in prison, leaving four children, including two daughters who took the veil. There is a curious account of these patronesses of Lando in the pages of Bayle. They were famous in their own day for learning and virtue. In 1548 there appeared at Venice a translation of ]2 ORTENSIO LANDO. the ' Utopia ' of Sir Thomas More. ' La Republica nuovamente ritrovata, dell governo dell' isola E utopia, nella quale si vede nuovi modi di gover- nare stati, regger popoli, dar legger a senatori,' &c. (\ r inegia, 1548), was issued without any indi- cation of the printer, but is attributed to Aurelio Pincio. It is dedicated to (rieronimo Fava by A. F. Doni, who confesses that the name of the translator had been withheld from him. It is re- vealed by Sansovino in an edition of his ' Governo dei Regni ' (Vinegia, 1561), who says that the version was made by " Hortensio Lando, uomo in vero di molte lettere, ma delle cose della lingua volgare poco accurata." Sansovino's revision was reprinted at Milan in 1821. The authorship was also alluded to in the title of another of Lando's books which appeared in the same year. It is entitled ' Commentario delle piu notabili, et mos- truose cose d' Italia, et altri luoghi, di lingua aramea in italiana tradotto, nel quale si impara et prendesi istremo piacere. Yi e poi aggiunto un breve cata- logo delle cose, che si mangiano et si bevono, nuovamente ritrovato, et da M. Anonymo di Utopia composto. 1548.'* There is no indication of the place of printing. In this curious book Lando probably summarises as the result of one journey the experiences gained in the many wanderings of past years. Beginning with Sicily he speaks of devoting seventy-five days to that island. Taking ship at Messina he crossed the straits to Reggio in Calabria, and crossing the province came to Naples, * The second edition appeared at Venezia, 1550; third, 1553 ; fourth, 1554 ; fifth, 1569. ORTENSIO LANDO. 13 where he met Mario Galeotti, D. Leonardo Carolines, the Princess of Salerno, the Marchesa de Palude, the Contessa di Nola, and other persons. From there he went to Rome, and was entertained in S. Angelo by the Contessa di Alife. At Ancona he made the acquaintance of Messer Francesco Gabriele. At Sinigaglia he had episcopal hospitality from the Bishop Marco Vigero. In Pesaro he was the guest, in her palace, of the Ducessa Eleonora Gonzaga. Passing into Tuscany, he was received at Siena by Gio. Loteringo. He proceeded to Florence and to Lucca, where he stayed with Ludovico and Vincenzio Buonvisi. From there he went to Bologna and Modena. He visited Correggio to be present at a public duel between two knights who were both mortally wounded, a circumstance that would appear to prove that duelling was then taken more seriously than it is sometimes in fhe present day where that barbarous fashion still survives. At this place Lando fell ill of a fever, and was visited and befriended by the most important of the inhabitants, including Rinaldo Corso, Veronica Gambara, and Lucrezia d' Este. From Correggio he proceed to Reggio and Puvino, where he stayed with Rodolfo Gonzaga, and to Parma, where he was the guest of Agnolo Gabriele. Leaving there, he embarked at Genoa for Corsica and Sardinia. After completing his examination of these islands he returned to Genoa. Then in the course of his Lombardian wanderings he witnessed the battle of Seravalla, which was fought between the army of France, largely com- posed of Italians, and that of the Imperialists. The French were beaten owing to the want of discipline, 14 OBTENSIO LANDO. and the disagreement between Mirandola and Strozzi. At Cremona he was received by MM. Stanga and Trecchi, whilst at Piacenza he was the guest of Isabella Sf orza, whom he gallantly described as having such talent " that to be a queen she needs only a kingdom." The saving clause here has great efficacy. He next went to Milan, crossed the Brianza, and visited his former commander, Pozzo da Perego. Then he visited Como, Logano, and the three Pievi, where he saw the Marchese di Marignano, and Chiavenna, where he was received by his friends the Pestalozzi with impressive courtesy. In the Valtellina he was warmly wel- comed by the brothers Crotti, by Nicolo Madrio, Gio. M. Guicciardo, the inquisitor Marcantonio, the Cavaliere di Tirano, and his son-in-law, da Bormo, Paolo Malacria, Niccolo Marliano, and the " astuto e sagace Friggero." Following the way through part of the Valcamonica, he went to Brescia and stayed four months with the governor, Antonio da Mula. He visited Bergamo and Crema, and hearing that the Council was to commence on St. Luke's day at Trent he turned in that direction, and reached there the night before the opening of the session. Here, as we have already seen, he was cordially received by Bishop Madrucdio, and listened in the church of St. Vigilio to the oration of Musso. After a few days he journeyed to Mantua in the company of the jurist Bartolommeo Pestalozza. He then visited Ferrara, Padua, and Rovigo, where he had to lament the death of his old teacher, Celio Rhodogino. Finally he arrived at Venice, where he was entertained by Benedetto ORTENSIO LANDO. 15 Agnello, the Mantuan ambassador, and where he made the acquaintance of Aretino. These records of Italian travel have an air of greater probability than the narrative of journeys in Egypt and other parts of Africa and the East. His statements in the ' Commeiitario ' as to the Italian places and persons are often corroborated by passages in his other writings, and by the historic facts he mentions. However much mingling there may be of imagina- tion, his notices of Italy in the sixteenth century are curious and valuable. The ' Commentario ' is dedi- cated to Co. Lodovico Rangone, and the ' Catalogo ' to Grio. Batt. Luzago. The author's name is not given, but at the end of the ' Catalogo ' is written SUDNAL, SUISNETROH, ROTVA, TSE, i. e. " Est autor Hortensius Landus." There is also a letter from Nicolo Morra at the end of the ' Commentario ' in which he says that it was " nato dal constantissimo cervello di M.O.L. detto pur la sua mansuetudine il tranquillo." After the ' Catalogo' comes the "brieve apologia di M. Ortensio Lando, per 1' autore dal presente * Catalogo/ : In the same year appeared " Lettere di molte valorose Donne (diretta a donne) nella quale chiara- mente appare non essere tie di eloquentia, ne di dottrina alii huomini inferiori " (Vinegia : Gabriel Giolito, 1548).* The book is dedicated to Sigis- mondo Rovello, who was the English ambassador at Venice. Lando's name is, as usual, not directly named, but in some sonnets at the end written by Dolce, Parabosco, Aretino, and Sansovino he is praised for having collected the contents of the * There was a second edition in 1549. 16 ORTENSIO LANDO. volume. In a Latin letter by Bartolomeo Pesta- lozza he says that this cost Lando much labour and much money, and that the publication was made at the request of Ottaviano Raverta, the bishop-elect of Terracina. That Lando was more than editor is the opinion of most critics. It ap- pears a strange proceeding to issue in this way the letters of ladies of consideration and social stand- ing, and still more so if we suppose that they were not written by these ladies, but by the humorist Lando himself. Some of them deal with topics which ladies do not often discuss in print, such as the means of having male children, confinement, suckling, &c. To this year also belongs the " Sermoni Funebri de varii authori nella morte de diversi animali " (Vinegia : Gabriel Giolito, 1548). There were really two editions issued in the same year. One is dedicated Giovan Jacopo Fucchero, one of the Fuggers, who were then, as already mentioned, the richest family in Christendom, and the other to Nicolo delli Alberti da Bormo.* Lando, pretend- ing to have no hand in the matter, printed at the end with his own name a defence of the author. In the * Cataloghi ' he acknowledged the author- * The book was reprinted at Genoa 1558 and 1559, and at Venegia in 1622 in conjunction with Firenzuola's ' Consigli degli animali.' It was several times printed in France, where two translation s appeared. One is by Claude de Pountoux (1569) ; the other, published under the name of ' Thierri de Timofille,' was by Francois d'Amboise (1583). A Latin translation, said to be very unfaithful, appeared at Leyden in 1590, and was the work of William Canter. Under the changed title of ' Dilettevoli oratione nella morte di diversi animali ' the book was reprinted, Venetia, 1712. OETENSIO LANDO. 17 ship, which might easily be divined without his formal avowal. After an interval there appeared ' La Sferza di Scrittori, antichi e moderni, di M. Anonimo di Utopia, alia quale e dal medesimo aggiunta una essortatione allo studio delle lettere ' (Yinegia, 1550). This has no printer's name, but bears the printer's mark of the well which was used by Arriva- bene. It is dedicated to the ambassador Agnello. The first part is in Lando's favourite vein of para- dox, and contains a long array of adverse criti- cisms on famous writers. But the ' Essortatione,' which is dedicated to Galeotti Pico della Mirandola, is as powerful in eulogy as the other is in dis- praise. The modern part includes an attack on Ortensio Lando, whose poetry is condemned in the severest terms.* Yet there is nothing remaining in verse that is known to have come from the pen of Lando. f In the same year that the * Sferza ' was printed there appeared altogether five books from the same busy and bizarre brain. The second was ' Oracoli de moderni ingegni si d' huomini come di donne, ne' quali, unita si vede tutta la philosophia morale, che fra molti scrittori sparsa si leggeva' (Yinetia : Gabriel Grolito, 1550). It is dedicated to Agosto d' Ada in a letter dated from Venice, 20th June, 1550, at the house of the Mantuan ambassador. * See p. 24. t The ' Sferza ' was not reprinted, unless we may reckon as its second edition a book by Gervasio Annisi, ' Della Sferza della Scienza et de Scrittori ' (Vinegia, 1640), who, whilst making some slight changes and alterations, has practically plagiarised the whole of Lando's work. 2 18 OETENSIO LANDO. There is also a letter from Bartolomeo Testa da Bassano, who states that the author was M. 0. L. The book is made up of thoughts and repartees attributed to various persons, of whose names there is an index. Lando places himself amongst the "moderni ingegni," but in place of giving his name, styles himself "flagello di scrittori, Anonimo di Utopia.' In his philosophy, " those who lament that they do not excel in all the arts are like those who complain that vines do not produce figs, and that the olive does not bear chestnuts." The most interesting passages, perhaps, are those which he attributes to " il divino Aretino," of profligate memory. Aretino on his side treats Lando with respect. He classes him with Doni and Sansovino amongst the illustrious poets and historians. He styles him " non ineno gentile che dotto," and narrates an anecdote of one of Lando's literary jokes that was not carried out. One evening, in Aretino' s chamber, when Franciotto, Sansovino, Vassallo, Boccamazza, and others were present, Lando said that he had written a book in which he had taken passages from the printed letters of Aretino, and had attributed them to this or that great philo- sopher ; but afterwards, admonished by conscience, had torn the MS. into pieces. Aretino replied that it was an injury to him that the book had not been printed. The maxims and sayings would either be thought to be the fruit of his genius or of that of the ancient philosophers. Those who knew them to be his would give them due praise, and those who thought he had appropriated them would at ORTENSIO LANDO. 19 least place him on a level with the other learned men, who are, he said, notorious for theft in matters of study. In the end the literati, instead of judg- ing him as an ignoramus, would look upon him as a master of every science.* Thus his reputa- tion, either for genius or learning, would have gained. The third book of the year was ' Ragionamenti familiari di diversi autori, non meno dotti che faceti' (Vinegia, al segno del Pozzo, 1550). This is dedicated to M. Rev. Andrea Matteo Acqua- viva. The twenty-six short discourses, whilst pro- fessedly by various authors, are evidently all the production of Lando. In one he argues in favour of that from which he dissuades in the next. There is a curious passage in which Doroteo Brigido is exhorted to become a friar. The fourth was the ' Vita di Beato Ermodor Alessandrino, da Theodoro Cipriano, scritta et nella nostra volgar lingua tradotta ' (Vinegia, al segno del Pozzo, 1550). This translation is dedi- cated to Virginia, Marchesana Pallavicina, and the name of the translator is revealed in a sonnet by Ruscelli. At the end are letters to Lando from Emilia Rangona Scotta, Alda Torella Lunata, and Ippolita Pallavicina Sanseverina, three of his friends and protectresses, who exhort him to abandon secular writing and to devote himself to the production of religious books. The fifth book was ' Consolatorie de diversi autori, nuovamente raccolto e da che le rac- * ' Sesto Libro delle Lettere di M. Pietro Aretino,' Parigi, 1609, ff. 116, 152, 165. 20 ORTENSIO LANDO. colse devotamente consecrate al S. Galeotto Picco Conte della Mirandola et Cavalier di S. Michele' (Vinegia, al segno del Pozzo, 1550). Although Lando's name does not appear, there is no doubt as to the authorship. The sixth was * Miscellaneae Questiones' (Ve- netiis : Jolitum, 1550), in which Lando, returning to the use of the Latin language, propounds and solves a number of doubtful points. It is accom- panied by a letter from Lando to Vanni, the am- bassador at Venice of the King of England. Two years later came ' Quattro libri de Dubbi, con le solutioni a ciascun dubbio accomodate. La materia del primo e naturale, del secondo e mista (benche per la piu sia morale) del terzo e amorosa, et del quarto e religiosa ' (Vinegia : Gabriel Giolito, 1552).* As a matter of fact the printer could not then obtain licence to print the third section, and the book was issued without the love doubts, but a year later they were included in the ' Varii Com- ponimenti.' The moral doubts are dedicated to Gio. Bernardino Sanseverino, Duca di Soma, and those on religion to Benedetto Agnello. The plan of the ' Dubbi ' is very simple. The friends of Lando appear to have regarded him as an oracle, to whom all sorts of grave, frivolous, or puzzling questions on love, natural philosophy, morals, and religion might be addressed with the certainty that * A second edition, including the dubbi amorosi, was issued by the same printer, with the dates 1555 and 1556. The 'Solva di bellissimi dubbi,' printed at Piacenza in 1597 as the work of Annibale Novelli, consists merely of the first two sections of Lando's book with few and unimportant alterations. French editions ap- peared at Lyons in 1558, 1570, Rouen 1610, 1635. ORTENSIO LANDO. 21 the querist would receive an ingenious if not always a satisfactory reply. " Why are women and children so ready to weep ?" asks one; and Lando replies in what was then, but has now ceased to be, scientific language, " Because they are of a humid nature " (p. 132). " Who is it that does not know how to converse?" " He that does not know how to be silent " (p. 180). " What is wine?" " It is the death of memory and the poison of mankind, by which the age is corrupted and the flower of beauty is lost" (p. 180). Mirrors, he says, are given to women that they may behold their fleeting beauty, and fans to cool their great ardour, and gloves to hinder the rapacity of their hands, and chains be- cause they are fools (p. 62). In this ungallant speech there is an allusion to the barbarous treat- ment which was formerly thought to be proper for those who had lost, or never possessed, the gift of reason. " What is the life of man with- out literature?" "Ib is death, and truly a grave for man " (p. 180). " How is true glory nourished ? " " With much action and little speech " (p. 181). "What is the condiment of food?" "Hunger." "And of drinking?" "The thirst caused by honest exercise" (p. 82). " What is the greatest pestilence ? " " The pleasure of the body " (p. 184). What will Scotland's fair daughters say to this ? " D' onde nasce che le femine di Scotia si tosto invecchiano? Nasce dalla molta crapola, e dai varii cibi che usano " (p. 272) : " Envy is an abominable monster that dwells in courts, and if it were chased thence would find refuge in monas- teries " (p. 274). Lando sometimes speaks dis- 22 OETENSIO LANDO. paragingly of the fair sex, but when a lady asks him, "Which is the nobler man or woman?" he replies, " God always adds fresh nobility to the newer creatures He makes ; thus, as being nobler, he formed man after the beasts, and last of all made woman, and therefore she is noblest, being taken out of man, who of all the other animals was the most perfect" (p. 285). Lando's next work was ' Due Panegirici nuova- mente composti, de quali 1' uno e in lode della S. Marchesana della Padulla et 1' altro in commenda- tione della S. Donna Lucretia Gonzaga da Gazuolo ' (Vinegia : Gabriel Giolito, 1552). The eulogy of Maria Cardona, Marchesana della Padulla, is dedi- cated to Bernardo Michas, and that of Lucretia to Gion. Michas. The second, so it is stated, was first written in Latin, then turned into Spanish, and lastly into Italian. The book contains also a letter by Ruscelli, Greek and Latin epigrams by Gio. Maria and Anichino Bonardi, and Fr. Robortello, and a Spanish poem by Alfonso Nunnez di Reynoso. The laudations of the beauty, virtue, and accom- plishments of these ladies of the Imperial party are of the most extravagant kind. Bandello, who was Lucretia' s tutor, is described as " non men dotto che religioso e santo." Her husband, Manfrone, who had first died in the dungeons of Ferrara, is treated with scant courtesy. None of Lando's works have been more sought after than ' Varii Componimenti di M. Hort. Lando nuovamente venuti in luci,' * Quesiti amorosi colle risposte,' * Dialogo intitolato Vlisse,' ' Ragiona- mento tra un cavalliere et un huomo solitaria,' ORTENSIO LANDO. 23 ' Alcune Novelle,' ' Alcune favole,' ' Alcuni scrop- poli, che sogliono occorrere nella cottidiana nostra lingua' (Vinegia: Gabriel Giolito, 1552).* The desire for this book is chiefly due to Lando's place in the series of Italian novelists. The first novel relates the device by which a married woman saved herself from the attack made on her honour by an importunate admirer. By the treachery of another woman he is hidden in a room in which she was to take her afternoon siesta. On seeing him fasten the door, Zenobia realises the trap into which she has fallen, and makes Agnolo believe that she is as much in love with him as he is with her. " I understood from Tebaldina that it was to-morrow you were coming, but I would rather have the egg to-day than the chicken to- morrow." She takes off her boots, and says that it will be safest for her to tell the servants that if her husband Pandaro asks for her they are to say that she has gone to the Suore di Santa Chiara. Deceived by her attitude, Agnolo permits her to leave the room, and hides behind a curtain awaiting her return. She sends a servant for her shoes and goes home, leaving Agnolo to think of the phrase that has passed into a proverb if it were not already one " che oggi e meglio 1' uovo che dimana la gallina." * It was re-issued in 1554 or 1555 without the ' Quesiti Amorosi.' Of the novels four were reprinted in Zanetti's ' Novelliere Italiano,' (Venezia, 1754), and four are translated in Roscoe's ' Italian Novel- ists.' And in 1851 there appeared in an edition of seventy copies ' Novelle di M. Ortensio Lando ' (Lucea, 1851). The life prefixed by Salvator Bungi is remarkable for the fulness of its bibliographical details, and is the main source of information as to Lando. 24 OBTENSIO LANDO. The second tale is of a stepmother who is very harsh to her stepson, a young man whose amorous relations with Lucina, her waiting-maid, enable him to effect a characteristic revenge. The three bottles containing the paint and cosmetics with which she desires to make herself beautiful for ever have their contents changed, and the poor lady who has been preparing herself for a festival, is horri- fied to find, by her mirror, that her face is as black as a crow, and that she is otherwise disfigured. Two servants take to flight on seeing her, for they think an evil spirit has come amongst them. She pursues them in the street, and there is an uproar and scandal. Lucina, instigated by Andrea, tells her mistress that she had heard him praying to the image of the Virgin kept in the hall of the house for judgment upon his harsh stepmother, and her transformation is therefore regarded as a punish- ment. He then purchases washes to take out the stains from her face, and tells Caterina that he is certain that if she will now use the same methods as when she was making ready for the festival she will regain her former whiteness and good looks. This led to the reconciliation between Caterina and Andrea, and one happy result of the miracle was that all the stepmothers became kinder to their stepsons. In the third novel we are told that Fenice, a young wife, neglected by her husband Marsilio, who is infatuated with a mistress, makes a plot with Vitelliano by which he dresses in her husband's clothes. Thus whilst Marsilio is with Giannina, Vitelliano is with Fenice. One night Marsilio, to ORTENSIO LANDO. 25 escape from an attack made by the brother of his mistress, has to leave the house of Giannina in a semi-nude condition, and is refused admission at his own house. The servants having seen their master as they suppose return earlier, take Marsilio for an impostor, and the police take him to prison. On his release he is welcomed by his wife, who tells him that a false Marsilio had claimed admittance, and that the voice was so well counterfeited as almost to deceive her. She warns him against the con- tinuance of bad conduct on his part, and so peace is made. The moral is " Chi cerca godere dell' altrui, altri spesso gode del suo." The next three stories are translated in Roscoe's ' Italian Novelists.' In the fourth Manfred, King of Navarre, is driven from his kingdom by his sub- jects, who are unwilling any longer to endure his tyranny. Dying he advises his son never to leave the old for the new, never to indulge in a union with a woman who cannot lawfully be his, never to marry a woman whom he has not seen and who is not of noble birth, and never to strike with the sword until it has been thrice drawn and replaced in the scabbard. On his father's death the young prince is taken to Navarre, and acknowledged as heir and married to a princess of Portugal. On recovering from an illness he decides upon a pil- grimage to Rome and Jerusalem. He is ship- wrecked at Cyprus, and choosing an old road reaches the court, whilst his companions who go by a new one are destroyed. A lady falls in love with him, but in obedience to his father's second maxim he refuses her overtures, and iu revenge she 26 ORTENSIO LANDO. lays a plot by which he is convicted on a false charge of stealing jewelry. On his way to execu- tion a merchant's daughter offers to save him from the gallows by marrying him ; with some hesitation he refuses this offer, " The crown of Navarre," he says, "must'never rest on the head of a merchant's daughter." The incident is reported to the King, and Vitrio is respited, pardoned, and sent back to Spain. He enters the chamber of his wife, and sees an infant sleeping by her side. Thinking that she has been unfaithful he draws his sword. She does not see him, but the child cries out that a man is going to kill him. " Sleep, foolish child," she says in reply ; " no man has ever been in this room since my husband left me." Thus con- vinced, thanks to the fourth maxim, Vitrio sheathes his sword and makes himself known to his joyful wife. The fifth novella is an anecdote of Messer Ugo da Santa Sofia, a famous astrologer and philosopher, who is warned by a peasant that there is a storm impending. He disregards the warning, as he can find no sign by his arts of the imminence of the tempest foretold by the rustic. The storm, how- ever, breaks, and is severe. He goes to the peasant to ascertain the source of his knowledge, and finds that it comes by observing his donkey, who always acts in a certain fashion when bad weather is com- ing. The incident gave rise to a proverbial saying : " You think you know more astrology than Cara- botto's ass," would be met with the retort "You know less than Ugo da Santa Sofia." The sixth story deals with Messer Leandro de' ORTENSIO LANDO. 27 Traversari, canon of Ravenna, who had a passion for telling Munchausen-like stories, and gave pre- sents to a trusty servitor to corroborate his ridi- culous assertions. But on one occasion when the traveller's tale was more than usually improbable, the servant says before his master's guests, " No, I cannot swear to that. You must take the breeches back again, and find some one else in my place." The seventh novel narrates the follies of an old man of seventy who is in love with a young girl, and places himself in some ridiculous positions in consequence. The eighth novel deals with the same incident as Tennyson's ' Lover's Tale,' the plot of which is taken from Boccaccio's ' Decamerone.' It is one of the puzzles of the Renaissance that these stories should so often be repeated. The Novellieri were confessedly imitators of Boccaccio, but it is not easy to understand the motives that moved Lando, for instance, to retell the story of the wife whom seeming death snatched from her husband to become the bride of her lover. He cannot have hoped to surpass Boccaccio in manner, and yet he, and other novelists also, select material which is identical with that used by their great master. The story is told also by D. M. Manni in one of his novelle. In the ninth novel we are told that Lippa de' Lanfranchi and Lodovico Grambacurti are, as boy and girl, deeply in love with each other, and as Lippa's father desires her to become a nun, they prepare to run away. But while Lodovico is on 28 ORTENSIO LANDO. the boat and Lippa is still on the shore, it is over- turned, and he is carried away by the current. A wife escaping from her husband who seeks to kill her, throws her baby into Lippa's arms, and with this she returns home and persuades her father to adopt the infant. She will not go into a monas- tery, but adopts the habit of Santa Chiara. Lodovico is not drowned, but reaches Sardinia, and defends Lisbona, a girl who resembles Lippa, from the attack of a blackguard who habitually annoys the village maidens as they are drawing water from the well. He finds favour in her sight, and in that of her father, but is faithful to his first love. At a marine festival an attack is made by the corsairs, and Lodo- vico defends Lisboua so vigorously that when at last they are taken prisoners Marco Scarletta, the corsair captain, offers to release the girl and to make him the commander of a galley. Lodovico is for seven years a corsair, " rubando amici e nemici." Among his prisoners, at last, is a boy from Pisa, who, in answer to the question of Lodovico, says that he has been sent by Lippa de' Lanfranchi to find Lodovico Grambacurti. This is the child adopted by Lippa. With him Lodovico returns home, marries her, and as they have no children, the boy becomes their heir. The tenth story is of the wife of a painter who conceives an affection for the apprentice of her hus- band. The young man at first refuses her advances, but has not the constancy of Joseph, and the incident is revealed to the husband by the chance remark of his little child. The eleventh novel tells of a knavish miller who ORTENSIO LANDO. 29 lays a plot against the virtue of one of his customers, a girl from a neighbouring and unfriendly village. His wife suspecting his intentions takes the place of his intended victim, and receives the embraces not only of her husband, but of some of his friends whom he had introduced. To escape from the jokes and scorn arising from this incident he leaves the isle of Cyprus, where the scene of the story is laid. The twelfth novel is in some respects the most curious of all. The scene is at Rhodes, where Gioliva is the mistress of a Pisan knight who maintains a beautiful house and garden for her. She has an intrigue with Piero Corsini, and the gardener, Milione, is their intermediary. In a quarrel the gardener kills one of his neighbours, and, in accord- ance with local laws, is hanged where the deed was done. As Piero, on his way to visit Gioliva, passes the ghastly sight, he says, " Oh, Milione, may God pardon thee thy sins." To which Milione, many days dead, replies, " Oh, Piero, if ever I did a good turn for you, take me down, I beg, from these abominable timbers." Piero rushes away affrighted, and the dead man breaking his bonds rushes after, calling loudly to him. In the way there was a company of Jews, amongst whom were women mourning for a certain Moise who had been cut to pieces by his enemies during the preceding night. Piero rushed into the synagogue and fastened the door. Then came the corpse and knocking cried, " Moise, arise and open to me, for I am Milione." Then the dead Jew arose and opened the door for the dead Christian. Piero fell dead and was carried 30 ORTENSIO LANDO. by Milione to the garden gate, where Gioliva was waiting to admit him. On seeing her lover borne by the dead Milione she cried, " Great God, grant Thy pardon to Piero and to me," and so fell dead also. From this marvellous occurrence arose the proverbial saying which at Rhodes was addressed to those who would visit a garden at night, " Beware of Milione that he does not strangle you." The thirteenth story is of Riccardo Capponi, who resigns his fortune into the hands of his son and is sent by him to the city hospital. Finding that public opinion censures him for his ingratitude, Vincenti sends two fine cambric shirts to the old man by his grandson. Questioning the boy on his return, the father learns that he has kept one of them in anticipation of the day when he must take Vincenti to the hospital. This discovery brings remorse. The remark of the boy, " Chi la fa, T aspetta " is proverbial. This is really the last of the novels, but Bongi has added as a fifteenth a letter to Pietro Brachi, a cousin of Lando's, which appeared in the * Lettere Facete ' of Antanagi in 1561. In this Lando recites the adventures of the "cuffia" given by Circe to Juno that she might retain the wandering affections of Jove. The next work in which Lando was concerned is entitled " Lettere della molto illustre Sig. la S. Donna Lucretia Gonzaga da Gazuolo, con gran diligentia raccolte, et a gloria del sesso feminile nuovamente in luce poste " (Vinegia : Gualtiero Scotto, 1552). It is sometimes regarded as a mere imposture, but although Lando may have written ORTENSIO LANDO. 31 often in her name, it is difficult to suppose that he would have issued this book without the knowledge and assent of his patroness. That he should forge three hundred letters, print them with her name on the title, and dedicate them to her relation Pietro Paulo Manfrone, Governor of Verona, and do this without reproof or repudiation, is incredible. That he acted as her secretary in the composition of many of these epistles is a much more reasonable theory. Whatever may be the precise historical character of the book, it bears many evidences that Lando had a great share in its authorship. One of the strangest of the letters is that addressed to the Grand Turk, begging Solyman to bring an army to Italy for the release of her husband. That she sent such an in- vitation is noted by Tiraboschi. There is less room for doubt as to the " Dialogo di M. Ortensio Lando, nel quale si ragiona della consolatione, et utilita che si gusta leggendo la sacra Scrittura. Trattasi etiandio del? ordine, che tener si dee nel leggerla, et vera eloquenza et di varia dottrina alii pagani superiore " (Venetia, al segno del Pozzo, 1552). This is in the form of a dialogue between Lucrezia Gonzaga and Filalete, who stands for the author. It is dedicated by him to Beatrice di Luna, to whom also the printer, Arrivabene, addresses a note, in which he says that he had the MS. and permission to publish from Gonzaga. In another letter to Beatrice, the writer, Euscelli, declares that the " miracoloso " Lando must have been inspired and aided by God to have written " cosi santa opera." Fontanini, who was rather suspicious of Lando's good faith, had the 32 OETENSIO LAN DO. book examined by a theologian, who vindicated his acuteness by detecting passages not merely doubtful, but condemned by authority as heretical. Bongi, who will not hear of Lando as a heretic, thinks that his errors, if errors they are, originate in his want of familiarity with such subjects, and are unintentional. The lay reader will not find much that sounds heterodox. Lando shows great familiarity with the Bible, and quotes it in the Vulgate freely. His next book is undated, but as he alludes in it to the ' Dialogo sulla Consolazione,' it may be at- tributed to the end of 1552. The title is ' Una breve pratica di medicina per sanare le passioni delP animo. Al magnifico Signer David Otho. [Padova :] Appresso Gratioso Perchacino.' The last on this long list is ' Sette libri di Catha- loghi a varie cose appartenenti, non solo antiche, ma anche moderne ; opera utile molto alia historia, e da cui prender si po materia di favellare d' ogni proposito che ci occorra ' (Vinegia : Gabriel Giolito, 1552). This small thick volume is dated at the end 1553. It is a collection of anecdotes and historical data arranged according to subject, and in many cases having modern instances to enforce the moral of the ancient stories. Lando complains in a letter to Lucrezia Gonzaga, under date of 20th December, that the authorities had forbidden the publication of the lists of adulterers, traitors, cruel and un- grateful persons of his own day which he had in- tended to include. The book is anonymous, and the author includes his own name amongst those who were ignorant, unhappy, ugly, and irascible. ORTENSIO LANDO. 33 In thus painting himself as one of the most un- fortunate and despicable of men, it may be doubted whether Lando was justly but severely judging himself or merely indulging in the playful though bizarre humour of which he was a master. The plan of the ' Cataloghi ' is ingenious, and it vindicates the claim of the book to furnish matter for conversation on every subject. Thus the first book contains lists of those who have been famous for beauty, ugliness, chastity, unchastity, good memory, bad memory, and adultery. There are lists of women famous in learning and in war, of women who have been the occasion of wars, and those who have been the means of bringing benefits. There are lists of men famous in war and for personal strength, of those who have died from excess of joy, and of those renowned as choleric, passionate, and disdainful. To the names suggested by his wealth of classical learning, Lando adds modern instances, except in cases where he has thought it wiser to abstain from indicating contemporaries who were infamous for their crimes and vices. He is more prodigal of praise than of blame, and the plan of his book enables him to cite certain of his friends, and especially the noble ladies whose patron- age he enjoyed, as models of grace, virtue, and amiability. It must be said that he does not spare himself. Few men have been drawn so unflattering a portrait as that given in the ' Cataloghi ' of Ortensio Lando. In the list of modern poets the name of Dante will be sought in vain, though he is named elsewhere by Lando. Of Aretino, " detto il flagello dei principi," we are told that he " scrive 3 34 ORTENSIO LANDO. altamente, e con stile disusato e nuovo, de varii soggetti." The catalogue of poets is little more than a list of names, and most of these are now forgotten. In the account of those who have written on lowly matters, he mentions himself as a singer of the death of a horse, a cat, a monkey, &c., and mentions Conte Costanzo Landi as one who wrote of ashes and of the beard. Amongst the astro- logers he names Cardan and Paul III. Amongst the painters he names Giotto, Correggio, and many others, but not Raphael. Such is the list of the known writings of Ortensio Lando, but long as it is there are other books which have not been identified. He mentions in 1548 that he had published a volume of novels and of translations from Greek authors, " non piu vedute a' nostri tempi." This is unknown. Doni speaks of a dialogue on marriage, but whether it was ever printed is unknown. Weiss and others attribute to him ' La Pazzia ' published originally in 1541, but this is now universally admitted to be the work of Vianesio Albergati. Lucrezia Gonzaga in a letter to Lando acknowledges the receipt of his ' Dialogo intitolato del temperare gli affetti dell' animo,' which is not known to exist. It was by the agency of Lando that there appeared the ' Vera tranquillita dell' animo' of Isabella Sforza, a book much praised in its day, though now forgotten. It was printed at Venice by Aldus in 1544, and was dedicated by Lando to Otto Truxes, Bishop of Augsburg. So much was Lando impressed by the superiority of the lady's presentation of divine phi- losophy that he suppressed, he says, a work of his ORTENSIO LANDO. 35 own on the same subject. Mention has already been made of the unfavourable references to him- self which our author makes in some of his books. The sincerity of the painter may perhaps be doubted, and there is certainly an air of humorous exaggeration in the picture. A man who laughs at his own defects, moral or physical, disarms his detractors of their strongest weapon that of ridi- cule, which is much feared not only by the foolish but by the average human being. Here in a con- densed form is Lando's effort at self -portraiture : " I have travelled in many lands, but have never seen one more deformed than Ortensio Lando ; every part of his body is imperfect. With ears longer than a donkey's he is deaf. He is rather short-sighted, small of stature, has negro lips, his nose is flattened, his hands are crooked, his visage is saturnine and ashen-coloured.* He sacrificed valuable and esteemed friendships for a single word.f Knowing that princes have no esteem for litera- ture, he scarcely cares to read a book, and avoids learned men as evil in their deeds and influence. " There are other autobiographical references. Thus, amongst the modern examples of friendship, the names of Rinaldo Corso and Lando are cited. On seeing his honoured father Domenico fall from his horse, although he felt almost certain that he had not sustained any great injury, Ortensio was so alarmed that he fainted. |j Of himself he says that * ' Cataloghi,' p. 18. f Ibid., p. 99. J Ibid., p. 115. Ibid., p. 28. || Ibid., p. 300. 3G ORTENSIO LANDO. he was unfortunate in all that he wished to do or to say.* To this we may add that when he was elected a member of the Academy at Ferrara he was called by the rule of contrary, so often adopted in those learned coteries, " Hortensius Tranquillus." The date of his death remains unknown. After the letter in the ' Cataloghi ' to Lucrezia Gon- zaga of December 20th, 1552, nothing fresh ap- peared from his industrious pen. In all probability he died in the following year. When in 1553 the ' Rime di diversi nobillissimi et eccellentissimi autori in lode della illustrissima Sig. Donna Lu- crezia Gonzaga ' appeared, the name of Lando is not among the eighty eulogists, and as he lost no opportunity of singing her praises his absence from this crowd of adulators confirms the supposition of his death before the publication of that book. The charge of heresy does not appear to rest on any solid foundation. Ortensio remained a member of the Church of Rome. " Hortensius Tranquillus, alias Hieremias, alias Landus," the entry in the Tridentine Index, is probably an error. There were two other Landi, Geremias and Bassanio, some of whose writings have been attributed to Ortensio. f On this matter Salvatore Bongi, to whose re- searches we owe nearly all that is accurately known of Lando, points out that his orthodoxy was never assailed in his lifetime, that he was the friend of * ' Cataloghi,' p. 343. f Geremias was an Augustinian friar who abjured the Roman faith. This has led. some to suppose that Ortensio had been in a religious ordei', and possibly the fact that he places some auto- biographical statements in the mouth of a hermit may have strengthened this idea,. OKTENSIO LANDO. 37 Muzio, the heretic hunter, and that he passed freely in or out of the States where heterodoxy was a civil offence. Lando's genius is essentially humorous and parodoxical. His faculty for seeing the other side of things, and his readiness to challenge the most settled convictions of mankind, were accompanied by an equal readiness to refute his own conclusions. Thus the advocate of intellectual topsy-turvy was also the defender of the conventional. In reality Ortensio, with all his dialectal skill and wealth of illustration, is an inveterate joker, and we feel that in his most elaborate disquisitions he is, with how- ever grave a face, only laughing in his sleeve. The same spirit of paradox is found in his life as in his books. His fate combined the disadvantages of noble birth, and of mediocre if not lowly station. He wandered hither and thither in search of un- attained ideals. He ate the bread of dependence, and repaid his protectors by adulation too boundless to be sincere, and yet was ready to sacrifice all at the bidding of an irascible and imperious temper. Steeped in erudition, he mocks at learning. He has a prodigious memory for all the knowledge that was current in his own day, yet where it should have been most useful he is often slipshod. He is care- less of finish, and neglects that beauty of form, that perfect expression, without which literature can have no permanence. Herein we may have the secret of his failure to command a more than ephemeral reputation. Ortensio Lando is an interesting figure for the student, but he belongs to the byways and not to the highways of literature. He is the author 38 ORTENSIO LANDO. of balf a century of books ; all of them are clever, brilliant, audacious, and learned, and all have passed out of the memory of the world. " Habent sua fata libelli," says Terentianus a forgotten poet and oblivion is the fate from which not one of the many books of Hortensius Tranquillus has escaped. JC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 000655419