to marry within one year.
Giovanni Sforza, however, was not yet certain of his victory; December
9th the Mantuan agent Fioravante Brognolo, wrote the Marchese Gonzaga,
"The affairs of the illustrious nobleman, Giovanni of Pesaro, are still
undecided; it looks to me as if the Spanish nobleman to whom his
Highness's niece was promised would not give her up. He has a great
following in Spain, consequently the Pope is inclined to let things take
their own course for a time, and not force them to a conclusion."[21]
Even as late as February, 1493, there was talk of a marriage of Lucretia
with the Spanish Conde de Prada, and not until this project was
relinquished was she betrothed to Giovanni Sforza.[22]

In the meantime Sforza had returned to Pesaro, whence he sent his proxy,
Nicolo de Savano, to Rome to conclude the marriage contract. The Count
of Aversa surrendered his advantage and suffered his grief to be
assuaged by the payment to him of three thousand ducats. Thereupon,
February 2, 1493, the betrothal of Sforza and Lucretia was formally
ratified in the Vatican, in the presence of the Milanese ambassador and
the intimate friends and servants of Alexander, Juan Lopez, Juan
Casanova, Pedro Caranza, and Juan Marades. The Pope's daughter, who was
to be taken home by her husband within one year, received a dowry of
thirty-one thousand ducats.

When the news of this event reached Pesaro, the fortunate Sforza gave a
grand celebration in his palace. "They danced in the great hall, and the
couples, hand in hand, issued from the castle, led by Monsignor Scaltes,
the Pope's plenipotentiary, and the people in their joy joined in and
danced away the hours in the streets of the city."[23]

FOOTNOTES:

[17] Cum simonia et mille ribalderie et inhonestate si e venduto il
Pontificato che e cose ignominiosa et detestabile. Despatch of Giacomo
Trotti, Ambassador of Ferrara in Milan, to the Duke Ercole, August 28,
1492, in the archives of Modena.

[18] These stanzas were written by Hieronymus Porcius, who printed them
in Hieronym. Porcius Patritius Romanus Rotae Primarius Auditor....
Commentarius; a rare publication of Eucharius Silber, Rome, September
18, 1493. The stanzas of Michele Ferno of Milan conclude:

Borgia stirps: bos: atque Ceres transcendit Olympo,
Cantabunt nomen saecula cuncta suum;

which turned out to be a true prophecy. See Michael Fernus Historia nova
Alexandri VI ab Innocentii obitu VIII; an equally rare pu