[1] The Panormita; author, by the way, of the shameless
    ‘Hermaphroditus.’  This fact is significant.  The moral sense was
    extinct when such a pupil was intrusted to such a tutor.

[2] For the following details I am principally indebted to ’The Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino,’ by James Dennistoun; 3 vols., Longmans, 1851.  Vespasiano’s Life of Duke Frederick (Vite di uomini illustri, pp. 72-112) is one of the most charming literary portraits extant.  It has, moreover, all the value of a personal memoir, for Vespasiano had lived in close relation with the Duke as his librarian.

    [3] See the testimony of Francesco di Giorgio; Dennistoun, vol.
    i. p. 259.  The sack of Volterra was, however, a blot upon his
    humanity.

While a boy, Federigo had been educated in the school of Vittorino da Feltre at Mantua.  Gian Francesco Gonzaga invited that eminent scholar to his court in 1425 for the education of his sons and daughter, assembling round him subordinate teachers in grammar, mathematics, music, painting, dancing, riding, and all noble exercises.  The system supervised by Vittorino included not only the acquisition of scholarship, but also training in manly sports and the cultivation of the moral character.  Many of the noblest Italians were his pupils.  Ghiberto da Correggio, Battista Pallavicini, Taddeo Manfredi of Faenza, Gabbriello da Cremona, Francesco da Castiglione, Niccolo Perrotti, together with the Count of Montefeltro, lived in Vittorino’s house, associating with the poorer students whom the benevolent philosopher instructed for the love of learning.  Ambrogio Camaldolese in a letter to Niccolo Niccoli gives this animated picture of the Mantuan school:  ’I went again to visit Vittorino and to see his Greek books.  He came to meet me with the children of the prince, two sons and a daughter of seven years.  The eldest boy is eleven, the younger five.  There are also other children of about ten, sons of nobles, as well as other pupils.  He teaches them Greek, and they can write that language well.  I saw a translation from Saint Chrysostom made by one of them which pleased me much.’  And again a few years later:  ’He brought me Giovanni Lucido, son of the Marquis, a boy of about fourteen, whom he has educated, and who then recited two hundred lines composed by him upon the shows with which the Emperor was received in Mantua.  The verses were most beautiful, but the sweetness and elegance of his recitation made them still more graceful.  He also showed me two propositions added by him to Euclid, which prove how eminent he promises to be in mathematical studies.  There was also a little daughter of the Marquis, of about ten, who writes Greek beautifully; and many other pupils, some of noble birth, attended them.’  The medal struck by Pisanello in honor of Vittorino da Feltre bears the ensign of a pelican feeding her young from a wound in her own breast—­a symbol of the master’s