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In the same century Burchard, the faithful secretary of Pope Alexander VI, describes in his invaluable diary how four race horses were brought to two mares in a court of the Vatican, the horses clamorously fighting for the possession of the mares and eventually mounting them, while the Pope and his daughter Lucrezia looked on from a window "cum magno risu et delectatione."

Quae singula cum ad horam pascant vana delectatione sensus corporeos, miseriam tamen inserunt piae menti, quod tot et tanti homines, neglecta prorsus animi salute, his diabolicis operationibus se dederunt in toto. Nam certo non ita sine daemonum consolatione et familiaritate praemissa confingi dicerem.

Cum meminissem, amice optime, quanta, cum vnam ageremus, delectatione afficerere in legendis Geographicis scriptis Homeri, Strabonis, Aristotelis, Plinij, Dionis et reliquorum, laetatus sum eo quod incidissem in hunc nuncium, qui tibi has literas tradit, quem tibi commendatum esse valde cupio, quique dudum Arusburgi hic ad Ossellam fluuium appulit.

Mea quidem sententia haud scio an nulla beatior possit esse, neque solum officio, quod hominum generi universo cultura agrorum est salutaris, sed et delectatione quam dixi, et saturitate copiaque rerum omnium, quae ad victum hominum, ad cultum etiam deorum pertinent, ut, quoniam haec quidam desiderant, in gratiam iam cum voluptate redeamus.