La grande fiamma: Lettere 1503-1517

by Pietro Bembo, Lucrezia Borgia

If history remembers Lucrezia Borgia at all, it is as a woman of extravagant vices whose name has become synonymous with political intrigue and poison. Cardinal Bembo is remembered primarily as the namesake of a popular typeface. But as this book of letters reveals, there was real substance, and real faces, to both of them. Borgia, a child bride who was ruthlessly exploited for political advantage by her three husbands, proved to be a girl of surprising resilience and cunning, anything but a monster. Pietro Bembo, the learned and (as demonstrated here) surpassingly gentle scholar, was the perfect product of the Renaissance. The covert love affair they conducted over sixteen years under the nose of Borgia s ruthless brother, Cesare, was as dangerous as it was impassioned and their letters, which provide a unique record of life during the Italian Renaissance, are a testament both to a relationship of rare beauty and to a feudal society of strict boundaries, dark dynastic drives, boundless political ambition, and extraordinary gallantry. Set in (what else?) Monotype Bembo, illustrated with the charming and delicate wood engravings of Shirley Smith, this elegant paperback will be a memorable gift for modern lovers.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Historical, Poetry, Renaissance

140 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Pietro Bembo was an Italian scholar, poet, literary theorist, member of the Knights Hospitaller and a cardinal. He was an influential figure in the development of the Italian language, specifically Tuscan, as a literary medium, codifying the language for standard modern usage. His writings assisted in the 16th-century revival of interest in the works of Petrarch. Bembo's ideas were also decisive in the formation of the most important secular musical form of the 16th century, the madrigal.

On Wikipedia
On Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani

Reviews

[Hannah Trower · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous. Truly Lord Byron was correct in calling them the prettiest love letters in the world, though I still think he was really creepy to steal a lock of Lucrezia's hair. (Also note that it's Pietro Bembo, not Rembo, Goodreads). Beautiful poetry, moving letters, relatable moments of pain and grief and melancholy in between formalized declarations of love and eternal servitude. Can't recommend enough to those who are as devoted to the love between Lucrezia Borgia and Pietro Bembo as I am. Also potentially useful to those interested in the period more generally. Might be of interest to those who just like love letters but don't have a dog in this fight! Wish there was an ebook version.

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

"[...] Therefore I have changed my plan, resolving to go to a little villa of mine for two months so that I may finish those things wich I began for you. If during this period you chance to find your ears are ringing it will be because I am communing with all those dark things and horrors and tears of yours, or else writing pages about you that will still be read a century after we are gone; and this, if it be owing to no perfection they may have, shall be due to the high renown of your name which they bear before them, and which of itself is a companion to eternity."

😭😭😭😭😭

[Jo Walton]

If we're rating love letters by "pretty" I'd vote for Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning's above these. But these are pretty nifty and I'm glad I've read them.

[شمس]

Today what Bembo may have considered almost as great a trophy is displayed in the Ambrosiana in a kind of gold and crystal monstrance, though he himself kept it inside a folded sheet of vellum secured with a ribbon: a long lock of fair hair, which no one has ever seriously doubted he obtained from Lucrezia. Some idea of how much this prize may have been coveted can be gained from the first of Bembo’s sonnets included in this volume, generally assumed to have been written for Lucrezia. That curling tress of blond hair now exhibited like a holy relic is not entirely complete. In 1816 Byron visited the Ambrosiana and was shown Lucrezia’s letters and found them ‘the prettiest love letters in the world’;l he committed some of them to memory since he was not allowed to make copies, and when the librarian was out of the room stole one long strand from that lock of hair, ‘the prettiest and fairest imaginable’.
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Tomorrow I shall be in Venice and after two days there, as I promised your Ladyship, I shall come back to see once more my own dear half without whom I am not merely incomplete but nothing at all, she being not simply one half of me but everything I am and can ever hope to be. —Pietro to ‘f.f.', Noniano 25 October 1503

I cannot help wishing for her letters now that seeing her and speaking with her, formerly two such strong and cherished pillars sustaining my life, have been dislodged and taken from me. The third still stands and always shall, for nothing save that which is the extreme end of all things could ever deprive me of itL: I mean the thought, the memory, of her who encircles my heart each day, each night, every hour, wheresoever I am, whatever may condition. —Pietro to ‘Madonna L.d.S.', Venice, Good Friday, 5 April 1504
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Cursed be the numberless occupations of men that will not let them live as they would wish . . . —Pietro to Lucrezia, Venice 10 November 1504

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Some very pretty love letters exchanged between Pietro Bembo and Luzrezia Borgia.

I'd also like to add this hardcover edition is very nice indeed, made with laid, watermarked paper, possible letterpress, and includes some nice wood engravings.
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Preface
He cut an unusual figure at court, dressing with an extravagant flair that astounded even the fashion-conscious Ferrarese . . .

. . . and from these well-lettered patriarchs both had acquired exceptional aptitude for classical studies; both were accomplished poets who did not separate the pursuit of letters from the pursuit of ladies, each taking a lively interest in the other’s adventures, and each with a gift for moderating sensuality with wit which made them admirably suited to the refined gallantries of court life.

. . . whereas Bembo in spite of all his urbanity had a genuine need for the studious quiet he created for himself in the countryside.

his expensive taste and rich imagination in matters of dress . . .

As fo Bembo, he was now a leading member of the cycle of classical scholars which his old friend Aldus Manutius, the famous scholar-printer, had gathered about him in Venice; recently he had given Aldus editorial assistance with a mew series of popular editions in italic type, initiating a very successful run of Italian works with his carefully corrected text of Petrarch’s Rime.

The many letters he wrote in 1500 and 1501 to Maria reveal a very genuine respect for women and an equally strong need for. Female attention and sympathy; but just as obviously they betray a self-gratifying temptation to turn life into literature, so that each letter is at once about the power of live and the lover’s power with words.

Style as everything to Bembo, who always scrupulously revised and refined his writings, including his correspondence. More than the intuitive accuracy of a true plot, he had the impeccable precision of a humane philologist, and all his work lies midway between invention and convention, modulated passion, sweet reason.

The letters to Lucrezia, because they were undoubtedly born of genuine passion but one which needed to be carefully controlled by force of circumstances, show the best of Bembo, idealisation rather than mere standardisation of thought and feeling.

. . . where he was one of the most popular and cultured ornaments of that brilliant little court whose social ideals and intellectual concerns were immortalised by his close friend Count Baldessar Castiglione in The Book of the Courtier.
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The Letters
Whereat two hands lovely beyond compare
Gathering the loosened tresses to her nape
Entangled him within, and bound them taut.

. . . my spirit is not as meagre and petty as is my lot. —Pietro to Lucrezia, Ostellato, 8 June 1503

I had and have and hope always to have that which I wanted and want and shall want without end, and am content with it. —Pietro to ‘f.f.’, Ostellato late June, 1503

I seem to be all aflame and turned to fire. —Pietro to Lucrezia, Ostellato, 29 June 1503

I forget that by their nature women feel the heat less than men are wont to do. —Pietro to Lucrezia, Ostellato, 29 June 1503

I shall not deny that for each spark of yours untold Etnas are raging in my breast. —Pietro to f.f., Ferrara, 14 July 1503

My heart kisses your Ladyship’s hand which so soon I shall come to kiss with these lips that are forever forming your name. —Pietro to f.f., Ferrara, 18 July 1503

I never dared hope to be granted such happiness. —Pietro to Lucrezia, Ostellato 24 July 1503

And as for what comfort I would offer, I know not what else to say but to ask you to recall that Time soothes and lessens all our tribulations . . . —Pietro to Lucrezia, Ostellato 22 August 1503

As long as there is life in me my cruel fate will never prevent the fire in which f.f. and my destiny have placed me from being the highest and brightest blaze that in our time ever set a lover’s heart alight. —Pietro to ’f.f.', Ostellato 5 October 1503

With my heart I kiss my Ladyship’s hand, since I cannot with my lips. —Pietro to Lucrezia, Venice 18 October 1503

I say you must know the first hour I saw you that you penetrated my mind to such a degree that never afterwards have you been able to quit it through any cause. —Pietro to ‘Madonna N.’, Venice 10 February 1505

. . . I had on choice but to confine the flames of my love wholly within my afflicted burning heart. —Pietro to ‘Madonna N.’, Venice 10 February 1505

And I would ask you to reflect that anyone can love when all fares well and all seems well-disposed, but if instead there are for ever a thousand harsh and conflicting things, a thousand separations, a thousand watchmen, a thousand barriers and a thousand walls, then not all can love, and if able to they may not so desire, or if they desire they do not persevere; and by this token it is rendered a much rarer thing, and being rare it is possessed of still greater beauty in itself, is more magnanimous and more admirable, and a far finer ambition, the mark of a great and exalted heart. —Pietro to ‘Madonna N.’, Venice 10 February 1505

Indeed I beseech you so to do, for since we can talk so little face to face please speak at length with me in letters and let me know what life you lead, and what thoughts are yours and in whom you confide, which things torment you and which console. And take good care not to be seen rising, because I know you are watched very closely. —Pietro to ‘Madonna N.’, Venice 10 February 1505

Nor shall I ever fear Fortune’s onslaugts or what further harms she may devise if I know I dwell in your thoughts and in your Ladyship’s love, for I desire no other happiness in this life but you, sweetest rest and haven for my storm-tossed soul. —Pietro to ‘Madonna N.’, Venice 10 February 1505

. . . so that your Ladyship may discover some consolation in reflecting that we are truly in great part ruled by the stars. —Messer Pietro Bembo to the Duchess of Ferrara, Venice 29 November 1505

. . . and so true is this that it is the greatest truth I know. —Messer Pietro Bembo to the Duchess of Ferrara, Rome 17 June 1513

Since I know that when something is expected the expectation is a great part of the pleasure because the hope of possessing that thing kindles our desire, picturing it to us seldom as it is and more often far more beautiful than it is, I proposed to delay replying to your letter until today, so that while awaiting some beautiful award for your very beautiful letters you might yourself be the cause of your own pleasure, being at one creditor and debtor. —The Duchess of Ferrara to Messer Pietro Bembo, Venice 29 November 1505

I know not which is better, to be great and a slave, or mean and free. This much I know: to be mean and a slave is the worst fare of all. —Messer Pietro Bembo to the Duchess of Ferrara, Rome 27 September 1514

At all events I hope one day to end these demeaning duties of mine and live a free man. —Messer Pietro Bembo to the Duchess of Ferrara, Bologna 18 December 1515

[P.J. Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

These letters are adulatory, emotionally effusive, poetic. But are they sincere? One wonders what Bembo's motives were. Was he fishing for court favors from the duchess? Or were these two really soul mates, as they claimed to be? On page 41, the editor says that "she made use of Bembo to expedite her interests." Were they using each other? In Letter XXX he asks her to give him a job. Is there genuine passion in these letters or only obligatory hyperbole? Is this true love or only self-serving flattery?

Lord Byron apparently believed in the sincerity of their motives. It was he who praised the letters as "the prettiest" in the world. But humorist Will Cuppy had doubts, noting that her poet friends tended to show up at mealtimes. These letters are up-close and personal glimpses into Renaissance Italy but were censored by their authors, who were restricted by their need for secrecy. Marital infidelity was punished by beheading, according to Este family tradition, so these letter writers had to be careful. Their self-censorship obscures some of their intentions.

The preface of thirty-eight pages is an excellent introduction to the letters—perhaps more readable than the letters themselves. Artfully illustrated.

[l · Rating 2 out of 5]

Admittedly, I have not read any other sets of medieval love letters but I really don't think that these are exceptional. The presentation and introduction are great though.

[Samantha M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never thought I’d say this, but Byron was right

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet little collection that would've been improved with having the historical background given in the introduction instead interspersed throughout the letters to make reflection on the historical events easier. The title makes a grand claim that I do not think it lives up to, largely because of the absence of so many of Lucrezia's letters. It is a shame they have not survived.

[H. Anne Stoj · Rating 4 out of 5]

These really are beautiful letters. When one thinks of the Borgias, love might not be the first thing that comes to mind. Poisonings, perhaps. However, the words exchanged between Lucrezia and Pietro are, to me, like reading Shakespeare's sonnets in a fashion. Just rather lovely.

[Monica]

What a sweet little find! Wish I had Showtime so I could keep up with the TV series!