caring to deprive them of so eminent a reputation, kept silence, and
admired them with mute stupefaction. It was said to me in Rome by many
great lords, some of whom were my friends, that the work of which I have
been speaking was, in their opinion of marvellous excellence and genuine
antiquity; whereupon, emboldened by their praises, I revealed that I had
made them. As they would not believe it, and as I wished to prove that I
had spoken truth, I was obliged to bring evidence and to make new
drawings of the vases; for my word alone was not enough, inasmuch as
Maestro Giacomo had cunningly insisted upon carrying off the old
drawings with him. By this little job I earned a fair amount of money.

Note 1. Giacomo Berengario da Carpi was, in fact, a great physician,
surgeon, and student of anatomy. He is said to have been the first to
use mercury in the cure of syphilis, a disease which was devastating
Italy after the year 1495. He amassed a large fortune, which, when he
died at Ferrara about 1530, he bequeathed to the Duke there.

Note 2. See below, Book II. Chap. viii., for a full account of this
incident at Ferrara.



XXIX

THE PLAGUE went dragging on for many months, but I had as yet managed to
keep it at bay; for though several of my comrades were dead, I survived
in health and freedom. Now it chanced one evening that an intimate
comrade of mine brought home to supper a Bolognese prostitute named
Faustina. She was a very fine woman, but about thirty years of age; and
she had with her a little serving-girl of thirteen or fourteen. Faustina