X PKEFACE. 



parity between her age and that of Fazio. If her age at 

 Jerome's birth was, as he says, thirty -seven, the disparity 

 was of nineteen years. He adds, however, that she died on 

 the 26th of July, 1537, at the age of seventy ; and if the age 

 so given be accurate, she must have been thirty-four years 

 old when he was born, and twenty-two years younger than 

 Fazio. She was the widow of Antonio Alberio ; and of her 

 three children that died of plague soon after Jerome's birth, 

 Alberio was the father. They all died within forty days ; two 

 of them, within a week after their mother dreamt that they 

 had gone to heaven. On the same authority, it may be 

 added that Fazio and Clara had another child, a son, which 

 diecl at birth. 



A remark upon a trivial point is suggested by the word 

 Clara that has just been used. There are few people men- 

 tioned in this narrative whose names would not admit of 

 being written in more ways than one. I have had to make 

 my choice in nomenclature among Latin forms, Latin Ita- 

 lianised, old or impure Italian, modern Italian, and Italian 

 Englished. In speaking of men not Italians there was often 

 a like difficulty. Yery much wishing to avoid pedantry, 

 and putting that wish foremost, I have endeavoured to use 

 in each case a form that would suit the temper of the book 

 without vexing the reader. 



