He had far too proud a sense of his own
position as a ruler for that. But intercourse with learned men,
interest in antiquarian matters, and the passion for elegant Latin
correspondence were necessities for the princes of that age. What
bitter complaints are those of Duke Alfonso, competent as he was in
practical matters, that his weakliness in youth had forced him to seek
recreation in manual pursuits only! or was this merely an excuse to
keep the humanists at a distance? A nature like his was not
intelligible even to contemporaries.
Even the most insignificant despots of Romagna found it hard to do
without one or two men of letters about them. The tutor and secretary
were often one and the same person, who sometimes, indeed, acted as a
kind of court factotum. We are apt to treat the small scale of these
courts as a reason for dismissing them with a too ready contempt,
forgetting that the highest spiritual things are not precisely matters
of measurement.
Life and manners at the court of Rimini must have been a singular
spectacle under the bold pagan Condottiere Sigismondo Malatesta. He had
a number of scholars around him, some of whom he provided for
liberally, even giving them landed estates, while others earned at
least a livelihood as officers in his army. In his citadl -- 'arx
Sismundea' -- they used to hold discussions, often of a very venomous
kind, in the presence of the 'rex', as they termed him.
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