Galeazzo Sanseverino, that the said duchess graciously pleads my cause
with His Excellency the Duke, I beg of her to accept this book,
dedicated to her by her humble servant." The same grateful sentiments
inspired the lyric which followed, in which the poet implored the
duchess to use her well-known influence with her lord, and incline his
will to look favourably upon her servant's prayer--

"Donna beata! e Spirito pudico!
Deh! fa benigna a questa mia richiesta
La voglia del tuo Sposo Lodovico.
Io so ben quel che dico!
Tanta e la tua virtu che cio che vuoi
Dello invitto cuor disponer puoi."[24]

An ardent lover of Petrarch, to whose poems these of the Milanese poet
were often compared by his admirers, Gaspare Visconti took the lead in a
lively poetic contest with Bramante on the respective merits of Dante
and Petrarch, The discussion was carried on during many weeks, in the
presence of the duchess and her courtiers in the beautiful gardens of
Vigevano, or in those fair pleasure-houses by the running streams in the
park at Pavia, where Beatrice and her ladies spent the long summer days.
Gaspare found animated supporters in his friends Calmeta and Niccolo da
Correggio, who was himself an enthusiastic admirer of Petrarch, and on
one occasion journeyed twenty-five miles from Correggio over the worst
roads in the world to see the remote village of Rosena, where the Tuscan
poet had composed some of his finest _canzoni_. On the other hand,
Bramante had the duke and duchess on his side. We know how, at the end
of a long day's work, Lodovico loved to listen to the reading of the
"Divina Commedia" in his wife's boudoir, and ponder the meaning of that
great vision of heaven and hell. And when the catastrophe of Novara had
crushed his last hopes, and he was borne a captive into the strange
land, the only favour he asked of his victors was the loan of a volume
of Dante, "_per studiare_"--in order that he might study the divine
poet's words. One of Gaspare's sonnets on the subject, which was
afterwards printed, bears this inscription: "These verses were not
written with any pretence of deciding between the merits of these two
great men, but solely to answer Bramante, who is a violent partisan of
Dante."

Another poetic tourney, in which both the great architect and his friend
Visconti were the chief combatants, turned on Bramante's supposed
poverty and the complaints with which he filled the air, calling on all
the gods in