successfully against the Spaniards, and contributed a great deal both towards raising the siege of Naples, and to the victory which was gained over the troops of Braccio near Aquila, in 1425, where that general was killed. After the death of queen Joan, in 1435, he espoused the interests of the duke of Anjou, to whom she had left her crown, and by his courage and abilities ably supported that unfortunate prince. He made himself master of several places in Ancona, from which he was driven by pope Eugenius IV., who defeated and excommunicated him; but he soon re-established his affairs by a victory. His reputation was now so great, that the pope, the Venetians, and the Florentines, chose him for their general against the duke of Milan. Sforza had already conducted Venetian armies against that prince, though he had espoused his daughter. The duke dying in 1447, the inhabitants of Milan invited Sforza, his son-in-law, to lead them against that duke. But, after some exertions in their favour, he turned his arms against themselves, laid siege to Milan, and obliged them to receive him as duke, notwithstanding the rights of Charles, duke of Orleans, the son of Valentine Milan. In 1464, Lewis XI., who hated Orleans, gave up to Sforza the rights which the crown of France had over Genoa, and even put into his hands Savona, a town belonging to that republic. The duke of Milan soon after made himself master of Genoa. He died in 1466, with the reputation of a man who was willing to sell his blood to the best purchaser, and who was not too scrupulous an observer of his word. His second wife was Blanche Maria, natural daughter of Philip Marie, duke of Milan. She bore him Galeas Marie, and Ludovic Marie, dukes of Milan; Philip Marie, count of Pavia, Sforza Marie, duke of Bari, Ascanius Marie, bishop of Pavia and Cremona, and a cardinal. He was taken prisoner by the troops of Lewis XII., and confined for some time in the tower of Bourges. He was a cunning man, and deceived cardinal d'Amboise when that prelate aspired at the papacy. His daughters were Hippolyta, married to Alphonso, king of Arragon, afterwards king of Naples, and Elizabeth, married to William, marquis of Montferrat. He had also several natural children.

GALEAS MARIE SFORZA, son of Francis, succeeded his father as duke of Milan; but his debaucheries caused the people to revolt, and he was assassinated ten years after, in 1476. His son, John Galeas Marie, was for a little time under the guardianship of his mother, but the government was seized by his uncle, Ludovic Marie, a monster of iniquity; who, by slow poison, cut him off in 1494.

ISABELLA of ARRAGON, daughter of Alphonso, duke of Calabria, the son of Ferdinand, king of Naples. In 1489 she was married to John Galeazzo Sforza, then but young,

under the guardianship of his uncle, Lewis Sforza, who on seeing Isabella conceived a passion for her. The lovers having been married only by proxy, Lewis contrived to keep them asunder, and declared his passion to Isabella, but was repulsed by her, and she exhorted her husband to shake off his uncle's yoke. Lewis's love turned into hatred, and he married Alphonsina, daughter to the duke of Ferrara, a woman of an ambitious and intriguing spirit, and by their contrivance John Galeazzo was poisoned. Lewis then assumed the sovereign power, and Isabella fled for refuge to Naples, which was soon after taken by the French, and she had to lament the loss of all her family. She then retired to a small town in the kingdom of Naples, which had been assigned her for a dower, and died in 1524. She left a daughter, who married Sigismund, king of Poland.

CATHERINE SFORZA, natural daughter of Galeas Marie, was a celebrated heroine. She married Riario, prince of Forli, who was assassinated by Francis Ursus, who had revolted against her husband. Falling with her children into the hands of the enemy, she escaped to Rimini, still attached to her person, and defended it with such bravery against her enemies, who threatened to put to death her children if she did not surrender, that at last she restored herself to sovereign power. She afterwards married John de Medicis, and again in 1500, defended Forli against the duke of Valentinois. When obliged to surrender, she was confined in the castle of St. Angelo, but soon after was liberated. She died soon after.

FRANCIS MINUTOLI, nephew to the bishop, did such signal services to the republic of Pisa, that he was admitted into the number of its noble families in the year 1496.

BONA, an Italian peasant, in the Valteline. While this young woman was tending her sheep, she was met by Peter Brunora, a Parmesan officer of note, who, remarking her vivacity and noble mien, took her with him as his mistress. He delighted to be accompanied by her to the chase, and all manly diversions. She went with him to serve the great Sforza against Alphonso, king of Naples, his first master. He afterwards entered again into the service of the latter; but, being one of those roving spirits by which the age of chivalry is characterized, he sought again to return to Sforza, was discovered in the attempt, and sent to prison. Resolute to deliver him, Bona engaged the princes of Italy, the king of France, the duke of Burgundy, and the Venetians, to give her letters to Alphonso, soliciting his freedom. At such solicitations he was obliged to grant him his liberty, which he not only obtained through the means of Bona, but the command of the Venetian troops, with 20,000 ducats.

Considering the obligations she had conferred upon him,

Brunora married her, and she ever afterwards combated with him. She learned the art of war to perfection, which appeared on many occasions, where she displayed equal valour and prudence. In fact, the Venetians confided jointly to this heroic pair the defence of Negropont against the Turks, who were kept quiet by the fame of their valour. On the death of Brunora, Bona, returning to Venice, died on the way, leaving two children, in 1466.

JANE HACHETTE, a heroine of Beauvais, in Picardy, who headed a body of women in an assault against the Bourguignons, who besieged her native place in 1472. They repulsed the enemy, took the colours from the hand of a soldier, who was about to plant them on the walls, and threw him headlong from it. In commemoration of this action, an annual procession takes place at Beauvais on the 10th of July, in which the women march at the head of the men.

AUNERY D'AMBOISE, brother to the cardinal, was famous for the naval victory which he obtained over the sultan of Egypt in 1510. He died in his 78th year, in 1512.

BERNARDO RUCELLAI, was born of a noble family at Florence, in 1449. At the age of seventeen he married Nannina, daughter of Piero, and sister of the illustrious Lorenzo de Medici, which gave him great influence, and raised him to the highest posts in the republic. In 1480 he was appointed to the office of gonfalonier of justice; and four years afterwards he went as ambassador to the state of Genoa. In 1494 he was deputed, in the same quality, to Ferdinand, king of Naples, and afterwards to Charles VII., king of France. With his public employments he joined that cultivation of polite literature, which was frequent among the Florentines in the age of the Medici. He was intimately acquainted with Marsiglio Ficino, of whose academy he was at first one of the chief ornaments, and afterwards the firmest support. After the death of Lorenzo he was the munificent patron and protector of the Platonic academy, for the use of which he erected a sumptuous edifice, with fine gardens and groves, furnished with monuments of antiquity, serving as well for ornament as instruction. In the revolutions which followed the subversion of the Medici interest, Rucellai incurred the charges of ambition and inconstancy, by favouring sometimes one party and sometimes another; but, according to Mr. Roscoe, his crime, in the eyes of the Florentine historians of the succeeding century, was "an ardent love of liberty, which he preferred to the claims of kindred, and the expectations of personal aggrandizement." On the accession of Leo X., he declined the office which his countrymen would have conferred upon him, of going as public orator to congratulate the pontiff, foreseeing, probably, in his elevation, the ruin of the liberties of Florence. He died in 1514, and was buried in the church of St.

Maria Novella, the front of which, begun by his father, was finished by him with great magnificence. His works are, 1. De Urbe Romana. 2. De Bello Pisano. 3. De Bello Italico. 4. De Magistratibus Romanis. 5. Trionfo della Calunnia. This last is a poem.

JAMES PAZZI, a banker of Florence. He headed the faction which opposed the Medici, and conspired to cut off the two brothers, Julian and Laurent, and to seize upon the sovereign power. The elevation of the host, in 1478, was the signal for this murderous action, and at the moment of this solemn ceremony, Julian was stabbed to the heart by a brother of Pazzi, but Laurent escaped with a slight wound. The popularity of the Medicis, and the atrocity of the deed, armed the people in their favour, and the conspirators were seized, and punished with death. The house of Pazzi was afterwards allied to the Medici's by marriage.

GIANFRANCESCO PICO, prince of Mirandolo, nephew of Giovanni Pico, being son of his brother Galeotto, was born in 1470. He studied at Ferrara, and manifested an early attachment to literature. After his father's death, he succeeded to the sovereignty of Mirandola, an elevation which proved the source of many troubles. His brother Lodovico, who had married a daughter of general Trivulzio, was his rival, and, by the assistance of a third brother, he expelled Gianfrancesco in 1502. Pope Julius II. restored him in 1511, but he was again dethroned; and, on the 15th of October, 1533, Galeotto nephew of Lodovico, with a band of armed men, surprised Mirandola, and entering the chamber of Gianfrancesco, put him and one of his sons to death, and then imprisoned his wife and younger son. He was probably much better fitted for a private than a public station. In the midst of all the changes of fortune, religion and letters were his chief solace. He was in habits of correspondence with all the eminent literary characters of his time, many of whom held him in the highest estimation. He wrote many works, but that by which he is most celebrated is a life of his uncle, containing much curious information respecting that extraordinary man. He also composed a life and apology of the famous Savonarola.

ALBERTO PIO, prince of Carpi, son of Leonello, lord of Carpi, by a sister of the celebrated Giovanni Pico of Mirandola, was born about the year 1475, and first studied in the university of Ferrara, under Pomponazzo. He pursued his studies with great ardour at Carpi, whither he had invited several learned men, among whom he distinguished Aldo Manuzio as his particular instructor. After his father's death, he, with his brother Leonello, had a common dominion in the territories of Carpi, with Giberto and other sons of Marco, another branch of the same family. This divided authority produced dissensions, which, 1494 to 1500, occasioned a bloody

civil war. After a time Alberto connected himself with the French party, and in 1510 he visited the court of Lewis XII., and was dispatched by him on a mission to pope Julius II., and some circumstances now occurred which led him to believe that it was his interest to quit the French party, and to join that of the Imperial, the latter being the stronger in Italy, which he did not hesitate to say was the motive by which he was governed in his political alliances. He resided a long time at Rome as the emperor's ambassador at the papal court, and was singularly esteemed by Leo X., who conferred upon him several castles in Romagna. In the subsequent wars his principality was frequently taken by different parties, and Alberto was possessed and dispossessed of the sovereignty. He again adopted the French interest, which occasioned the final loss of Carpi, that was transferred by Charles V., to Alfonso, duke of Ferrara. He was at Rome during its sack in that year; and took refuge with Clement VII., in the castle of St. Angelo. Being afterwards delegated by the pontiff to Francis king of France, he was very handsomely received by that monarch, and died at his court in 1531, in the 56th year of his age. Notwithstanding the vicissitudes of his life, and his various political occupations, Alberto did not cease the cultivation of letters, he was a zealous adherent to the see of Rome, and gave all the opposition in his power to the doctrines of the reformers. At this time Erasmus made a considerable figure in the world, and Alberto spoke pretty freely of the tendency of his various publications, and what he said was reported with much aggravation to that celebrated man. In consequence he wrote, in October 1525, a letter to Alberto, acquainting him in a friendly manner with what he had heard, and subjoining a short defence of himself. To this Alberto replied in a long epistle, which, with Erasmus's letter, was afterwards published at Paris. This led to further discussion on both sides, and in one of his letters, Alberto launched out into examination of all the works and opinions of Erasmus, and of those of Luther, and the other innovators of the time. He died, while the work was printing, at Paris, but it appeared in the same year under the title of Albertii Pii, &c. tres et viginti libri in locos lucubrationum variorum D. Erasmi Rotter." This work is highly commended by Tiraboschi, who says "it has none of the scholastic barbarism, but is written with erudition, force, and not without elegance." It should be observed, that he was supposed to have been assisted by Sepulveda, and other learned men whom he kept in his house. His works have been collected and published in folio at Paris, and also at Venice.

CÆSAR BORGIA, a man of distinguished eminence among the votaries of steady and remorseless ambition, was the second son of cardinal Roderigo, afterwards pope Alexander VI., by his mistress, the artful Vanozza. Being destined