he occupied when his brother Ludovico[1] was driven by the French from Milan.  I had dedicated the first two books of this decade to him, without mentioning many other treatises I had selected from my unedited memoirs.  Simultaneously with his overthrow I ceased to write, for, buffeted by the storm, he ceased to exhort me, while my fervour in making enquiries languished; but in the year 1500, when the Court was in residence at Granada, Ludovico, Cardinal of Aragon, and nephew of King Frederick, who had accompanied the Queen of Naples, sister of King Frederick, to Grenada, sent me letters addressed to me by the King himself, urging me to select the necessary documents and to continue the first two books addressed to Ascanio.  The King and the Cardinal already possessed the writings I had formerly addressed to Ascanio.  You are aware that I was ill at the time, yet, unwilling to refuse, I resolved to continue.  Amongst the great mass of material furnished me at my request by the discoverers, I selected such deeds as were most worthy to be recorded.  Since you now desire to include my complete works amongst the numerous volumes in your library, I have determined to add to those of my former writings by taking up the narrative of the principal events between the years 1500 and 1510, and, God giving me life, I shall one day treat them more fully.

[Note 1:  His downfall was greeted with rejoicing throughout Italy.  In Venice the joy-bells rang and the children danced and sang a canzone in Piazza San Marco

  Ora il Moro fa la danza
   Viva San Marco e il re di Franzia.

Milan fell a prey to Louis XII., and all northern Italy passed under the French yoke.  The Pope rewarded the bearer of the news with a present of one hundred ducats, and at once seized Cardinal Ascanio’s palace with its art treasures.  The Cardinal was captured near Rivolta by the Venetians, who delivered him to the French.  He was kept in the citadel of Bourges until 1502, when he was released at the request of the Cardinal d’Amboise to take his place in the conclave which elected Pius III.  He died in 1505; and his former enemy, Guiliano della Rovere, reigning as Pope Julius II., erected the magnificent monument to his memory which still stands in Santa Maria del Popolo.]

To complete the decade, I had written a book which remained unfinished, treating of the superstitions of the islanders; this new book, which will be called the tenth and last, I wish to dedicate to you, without rewriting my work or sending you my draft.  Therefore, if on reading the ninth book you come across promises which are not realised, do not be astonished; it is not necessary to be always consistent.[2]

[Note 2:  Non semper oportet stare pollicitis.]