330 



THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



of Massa, and was created Duke of Giuliano. A letter exists giving an account of the festivities 

 and of the wedding presents, which included a picture by Raffaele d'Urhino. The letter gives a 

 glowing description of Donna Veronica, but a contemporary declares that " Donna Veronica 

 was endowed with but small beauty, but had a most violent and imperious temper and a jealous 



disposition. Her 

 husband, poor man, 

 had small joy of 

 her." The Duke 

 was handsome, 

 gallant and accom- 

 plished, and, as an 

 anonymous account 

 in the Marencel- 

 liana library in 

 Florence has it, 

 ' was driven to 

 seek for comfort 

 elsewhere." Mrs. 

 Ross, in her learned 

 book on Florentine 

 villas, to which I 

 am indebted for 

 many particulars, 

 has translated this 

 manuscript, which 

 had never before 

 been published, and 

 it tells the events 

 of the tragedy most 

 graphically. 



There was an 

 old gentleman in 

 Florence, Giustino 

 Canacci (to give the 

 story shortly), who, 

 being near seventy 

 and having several 

 grown-up children, 

 took, as his second 

 wife, Caterina, the 

 young daughter of 

 a dyer, who w 7 as 

 popularly called 

 " the fair Cherub," 

 from her silken 

 gold hair and her 

 exquisite colour- 

 * ing. Her husband 



342. FOUNTAIN OF JOVE. bein g <<the Ugliest, 



most tiresome, 



and the dirtiest man in Florence," it was scarcely to be wondered at that Caterina had 

 first one lover and then another. She finally made the acquaintance of the Duke, who fell 

 violently in love with her and used to visit her frequently. He could not prevent his 

 infidelity reaching the ears of the Duchess, who was bitterly jealous. She tried to poison 



