"It nephew, and heir, which runs in these terms: appears to me that I should fail in my duty, as a servant for twenty-one years together, towards the deserving memory of the illustrious lady, my Lady Donna Giulia de Gonzaga, your aunt, if I did not offer to condole with your Excellency on her death. "Her Illustrious Ladyship died, as you will have heard by letter from Magnifico Modignano, and from M. Federico Zanichelli, to-day, between the 21st and 22nd hour. She made an end in conformity with her most holy life, continuing throughout sensible to the latest instant when that sainted spirit left the body. Her Will has been opened, and, as you may have learnt from the before-mentioned Modignano and Zanichelli, your Excellency is left absolute heir of her property, deducting certain legacies, the Will being very different from another she had executed seven years ago." Perez adds to his letter a copy of the will from which I have transcribed this, and a statement of Donna Giulia's income, from which it appears that, deducting the legacies, there would remain for the heir 30,000 ducats of annual income. Affo concludes with these remarks: "This brief but true life of so famous a princess might perhaps have been graced with other details, if I had known what has been written upon the subject in another memoir which is preserved among the manuscripts of Dr. Giuseppe Valletta of Naples. (See Giornale de' Litterati, tom. xxiv. p. 92.) Yet I have succeeded in compiling this, omitting other eulogiums passed on Giulia by various writers, among whom I ought not to omit to mention Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, canto xlvi. st. 8, &c. Whoever will undertake to glean this field of literature will certainly not find it one barren of noble subjects; and the labour undertaken might become honourable." We can scarcely do less than recall this sentiment expressed by Affo, some eighty years ago, and by reprinting the ALFABETO CHRISTIANO we have endeavoured to contribute what was in our power towards the object he desired. |