Nicholas Machiavelli (Machiavelli, Nicholas)
1 October, 1506
Cesena

LETTER XXV.

Magnificent Signori, etc.: —

On the 28th, I wrote two letters to your Lordships from Urbino, the last of which you will find enclosed herewith. On the following day the Pope left here according to previous arrangements, and went to Macerata, whilst myself with seven eighths of the court went to San Marino, and leaving there yesterday morning I arrived last night, at the twenty-second hour,

at Cesena. The Pope lodged last night at San Marino, and will stay to-night at Santo Arcangiolo, and to-morrow evening he will make his entry here.

Yesterday evening I found the six Bolognese ambassadors here, who are going again to the Pope, and are eagerly looked for by the court. They left here to meet the Pope, and lodged last night at Santo Arcangiolo, where the Pope is to arrive to-day, and where they will find the old Bolognese ambassadors and Messer Giovanni’s secretary, who were to await them there. These ambassadors had scarcely alighted from their horses and gone to their lodgings when a mounted messenger came to them from Messer Giovanni Bentivogli, who informed them that the father of Messer Giovanni Gonzadini, a Bolognese and Datary to the Pope, had been assassinated by some of his particular enemies; and that he had been sent to inform them of this occurrence, so that, on account of the son and the rank which he holds in the Pope’s service, they might promptly look to their safety. So soon, therefore, as the old ambassadors and the new ones heard this news, they hastily remounted, and, leaving all their effects behind, went off, taking the road to Rimini. When their flight became known, they were pursued by the men of Santo Arcangiolo, and three of them were captured, namely, the two old ambassadors and one of the new, but the other five escaped and are now at Rimini. The three that were taken are confined in the castle of Santo Arcangiolo, and the effects of all of them have been sequestered. It is said that the Pope has sent to recall these ambassadors, assuring them of their safety that is to say those who are at Rimini; but the three who are shut up in the castle have not been set free, nor have their effects been released. So bad a beginning is likely to give rise to other similar troubles.

On the 28th there arrived at Urbino a certain Messer Agostino Semenza,Respecting this Messer Agostino, the Annals of Cremona, by L. Cavitelli, may be consulted. He is there spoken of as “Augustinus Somentius,” etc.^* a native of Cremona, and brother of that Paolo Semenza who was formerly secretary of the Duke of Milan whilst at Florence. It is said that this individual is secretary to the Emperor, and that he has now been sent by him to the Pope, and that he has many letters of credence for some of the cardinals and others. He reports the coming of the Emperor as positively certain. I do not know any particulars of what he says,

not having as yet conversed with him; but I will endeavor to have a talk with him, and will then inform your Lordships of what I learn from him. I understand that he says that the Emperor sends two ambassadors to the Pope, namely, the Cardinal of Brixen,This was Melchior Cops, or Copis, a German who, being Bishop of Brixen, or Bressanone, was made Cardinal by Alexander VI. in the year 1503. Having been sent to Rome as ambassador of the Emperor Maximilian, he died there in the month of May, 1509, and was buried in the church of Ara Cœli.^* and Casimir, Marquis of Brandenburg, who have no other commission than to announce the Emperor’s coming, and have nothing to ask of the Pope. Nor have I anything else to write to your Lordships except to recommend myself to you, quæ felices valeant.

Servus
Niccolo Machiavelli,

Secret. apud Papam.
Cesena, 1 October, 1506.