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To his personal encouragement and magnificent liberality we owe the grandest monuments of Lombard architecture, and the finest development of Milanese painting, the façade of the Certosa and the cupola of Sta. Maria delle Grazie, the frescoes and altar-pieces of the Brera and the Ambrosiana.
There can be little doubt that we have a portrait of this lamented princess in the beautiful picture of the Ambrosiana, which, long supposed to be the work of Leonardo, is now recognized by the best critics as that of Ambrogio de Predis.
For this purpose he sent learned men into every part of Europe, with instructions to buy whatever of value they might be fortunate enough to discover, and to copy such writings as their owners might be unwilling to part with. The Biblioteca Ambrosiana is worth a visit, were it only to see the first public library established in Europe.
These letters, especially those addressed to an "anonymous friend," by which designation he clearly meant Lucretia, are inspired by friendship, and display a tender confidence. Lucretia's letters to Bembo are preserved in the Ambrosiana in Milan, where they and the lock of blond hair near them are examined by every one who visits the famous library.
He laboured in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, and succeeded in exhuming from darkness and dust the treasures which neglect and superstition had buried there. I saw, too, in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, fragments of the version of the Bible made in the middle of the fourth century, by Ulfila, bishop of the Mæsogoths. The labours of the bishop underwent a strange dispersion.
He resisted the proposals of purchase that poured in from foreign Courts; our James I. is said to have offered three thousand gold doubloons for the great volume of designs; and on Arcanati's death the whole collection was transferred by his widow to the Ambrosiana. Some changes had been made in the distribution of the papers since Mazenta so easily acquired his thirteen books.
The morning of my last day in Milan was passed in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. This justly renowned library was founded in 1609 by Cardinal Borromeo, the cousin of that Borromeo whose mummy lies so gorgeously enshrined in the subterranean chapel of the Duomo. This prelate was at vast care and expense to bring together in this library the most precious manuscripts extant.
Biblioteca Ambrosiana A Lamp in a Sepulchre The Palimpsests Labours of the Monks in the Cause of Knowledge Cardinal Mai He recovers many valuable Manuscripts of the Ancients which the Monks had Mutilated Ulfila's Bible The War against Knowledge The Brazent Serpent at Sant' Ambrogio Passport Office Last Visit to the Duomo and the Arco Della Pace The Alps apostrophized Dinner at a Restaurant Leave Milan Procession of the Alps Treviglio The River Adda The Postilion Evening, with dreamy, decaying Borgos Caravaggio Supper at Chiari Brescia Arnold of Brescia.
See also, Izaak Walton, Compleat Angler. Oppianus, De Venatione, Piscatione et Aucupio. Zouch, Life of Iz. Walton. Salmon Fisheries. Parliamentary Reports. Annual. "Blackwood's Magazine, an important landmark in English angling literature." See Noctes AmbrosianA|. H. W. Beecher, N. Y. Independent, 1853.
For we have here, there can be little doubt, the portrait of Lodovico's daughter, by the hand of a Milanese painter, in all probability, as Morelli divined, the court-painter of the ducal house, Ambrogio de Predis. And the German critic, Dr. Müller-Walde, is probably right in his conjecture that the companion picture in the Ambrosiana is the portrait of Bianca's husband, Galeazzo di Sanseverino.
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