artolomeo Cartari, from
Venice, June 25, July 28, and August 2, 1501. Archives of Modena.

[101] Ercole's letter to Pozzi in Ferrara, August 25, 1501. Maximilian's
letters are not in the Este archives but in Vienna.

[102] The instrument was drawn by Beneimbene.

[103] Cardinal Ferrari to Ercole, Rome, August 27, 1501.

[104] Ducal Records, September 1, 1501.

[105] The letter is reproduced in Zucchetti's Lucrezia Borgia, Duchessa
di Ferrara, Milan, 1869.

[106] Ed altre cose che egli disse per maggiormente magnificare il
fatto. Matteo Canale to the Duke of Ferrara, Rome, September 11, 1501.

[107] Quale mi pare gia essere optima Ferrarese. Despatch from Rome,
September 15th.

[108] Che voleva havessimo veduto che la Duchessa non era zoppa.
Saraceni to Ercole, Rome, September 16th.

[109] Rome, September 23d, Saraceni.

[110] Despatch, September 25th.

[111] To this Ercole replied in reassuring terms. Letter to his orators
in Rome, September 18, 1501.

[112] Despatch of Matteo Canale to Ercole, Rome, September 18, 1501.

[113] Both bulls are in the archives of Modena. The first is a copy, the
second an original. The lead seal is wanting, but the red and yellow
silk by which it was attached is still preserved. I first discovered the
facts in a manuscript in the Barberiniana in Rome.

[114] Mandate of the Pope regarding certain taxes, dated July 21, 1502:
Nobili Infanti Johanni Borgia, nostro secundum carnem nepoti; and in
another brief, dated June 12, 1502, Dil filii nobilis infantis Johannis
Borgia ducis Nepesini delecti filii nobilis viri Caesaris Borgia de
Francia, etc. Archives of Modena.

[115] Geradi to Ercole, Rome, September 28th.

[116] Datum in civitate Hispali, January 7, 1502. Yo el rey. Archives of
Modena. In Liber Arrendamentorum Terrarum ad Illmos Dnos Rodericum Bor.
de Aragonia Sermoneti, et Jo. de bor., Nepesin. Duces infantes
spectantium et alearq. scripturar. status eorundem tangentium. Biselli,
1502.

CHAPTER XXI

THE EVE OF THE WEDDING

Lucretia was impatient to leave Rome, which, she remarked to the
ambassador of Ferrara, seemed to her like a prison; the duke himself was
no less anxious to conclude the transaction. The preparation of the new
bull of investiture, however, was delayed, and the cession of Cento and
Pievi could not be effected without the consent of Cardinal Giuliano
della Rovere, Archbishop of Bologna, who was then living in France.
Ercole, therefore, p