64 The Banquet 



while the spectators may have been accommodated as groundlings 

 below. Two tables were spread, one for the men, and one for the 

 women, there being fifty-seven guests in all.^^ 



details of ornament, but of these I make no account, nor of such praise as 

 Piu belli cani non fu mai veduto. 



Sismondi, Fr. (7. 21, note 2), has no warrant in the chroniclers (except 

 AHprando) for saying : 'La cour etait distribute a plusieurs tables, selon 

 le rang des personnages.' 



^^So Cron. Monf. The other three chroniclers seem to be confused. 

 Corio mentions as being at the first table Lionel, Amedeo, and Despenser, 

 with many other barons, besides the Bishop of Novara, Matteo and 

 Lodovico (see pp. 109 if.), sons of Bernabo, Petrarch, and other Pisan 

 citizens; Annal. Med.: Lionel, Amedeo, the Bishop of Novara and another 

 Bishop, Marco (not Matteo; Marco was Petrarch's godson, and the 

 latter wrote a Latin poem on his baptism) and Lodovico, Petrarch, with 

 many other knights and nobles of Pisa and other cities; Frag.: Lionel, 

 Amedeo, Despenser, and many other barons, [ ] and Lodovico, 



Petrarch, and certain other knights and gentlemen of Pisa and other 

 cities. The name of the other sen of Bernabo seems to be accidentally 

 omitted in Frag. 



At the second table were seated Bernabo's wife, a Scaliger of Verona, 

 by compliment called Regina, with many other ladies (Corio: 'honorable 

 matrons'). At this point the difficulty begins. Corio says: 'honorande 

 matrone per taglieri cinquanta'; ^»«a/. Med.: 'cum multis dominabus, 

 quae deferebant per quinquaginta incisoria infrascripta cibaria'; Frag.: 

 'con altre donne per taglieri cinquanta.' Giulini (5. 512) renders: 'con 

 molte delle principali dame, le quali portavano in tavola i piatti alia 

 prima mensa, cioe per ciascuna portata cinquanta piatti, detti dall' annalista 

 incisoria, e dal Corio taglieri, perch e vi si tagliavano sopra le vivande.' 

 This I interpret to mean : There were fifty guests at each table, and each 

 course was presented to the men of the first table by the ladies of the 

 second, a lady to each dish (literally, trencher). This seems to me unlikely, 

 for the following reasons: (i) Each course was double, consisting of fish 

 and flesh, and there were eighteen courses, so that the task would have 

 been none of the lightest; (2) one can hardly think of Regina della 

 Scala being thus occupied for a good part of a summer's day; (3) there 

 would have been little opportunity for the ladies to partake of the ban- 

 quet; (4) the Milanese annalist expressly says that Despenser served the 

 first table, assisted by many other magnates; (5) the Fragment says 

 that fish and flesh were served for the Duke's table, and for the table 

 where was seated Madonna Regina. 



There remains the question of the total number of guests. Were there 

 (i) fifty-seven guests in all, as Cron. Monf. says, or (2) fifty guests at 

 each table, or (3) fifty-seven at the first, and fifty at the second? I incline 

 to (2). It is not likely that space was lacking, since at the nuptial feast 

 following the return of Galeazzo I and Beatrice d'Este from Modena, 

 where they had been married on June 24, 1300 (the journey from Milan 



