Fregoso, together with many others, one of whom was myself,
Vincenzo Calmeta, who for some years held the post of secretary to that
glorious and excellent lady. And besides those I have named there was
Benedetto da Cingoli, called Piceno, and many other youths of no small
promise, who daily offered her the first fruits of their genius. Nor was
Duchess Beatrice content with rewarding and honouring the poets of her
own court. On the contrary, she sent to all parts of Italy to inquire
for the compositions of elegant poets, and placed their books as sacred
and divine things on the shelves of her cabinet of study, and praised
and rewarded each writer according to his merit. In this manner, poetry
and literature in the vulgar tongue, which had degenerated and sunk into
forgetfulness after the days of Petrarch and Boccaccio, has been
restored to its former dignity, first by the protection of Lorenzo de'
Medici, and then by the influence of this rare lady, and others like
her, who are still living at the present time. But when Duchess Beatrice
died everything fell into ruin. That court, which had been a joyous
Paradise, became a dark and gloomy Inferno, and poets and artists were
forced to seek another road."

Calmeta himself was a prolific writer both of verse and prose, whose
translation of Ovid's _Ars amandi_, dedicated to Lodovico Moro, was
highly esteemed by his contemporaries, and whom Castiglione introduces
among the speakers of his _Cortigiano_. Like his friends Niccolo da
Correggio and Gaspare Visconti, Beatrice's secretary was a fervent
admirer of Petrarch, and wrote an elaborate commentary on the _Canzone_,
"_Mai non vo' piu cantar como io solea_," which he dedicated to Isabella
d'Este and sent her with a letter expressing his conviction that no one
before him had ever fully understood this profound and subtle poem.
Another of Beatrice's _proteges_ was Serafino, the famous improvisatore
of Aquila in the Abruzzi, a short and ugly little man, whom Cardinal
Bibbiena once laughingly compared to a carpet-bag (_valigia_)! But in
spite of his dwarfed stature and elfish appearance, Serafino sang his
own _strambotti_ and eclogues so well, and had so fascinating a way of
accompanying himself on the lute, that the Este and Gonzaga ladies all
entreated him for new verses, and literally wrangled over the man
himself! Like Calmeta and many others, however, after spending some time
at the courts of Mantua and Urbino, he came to Mil