VIDA Y ESCRITOS LIFE AND WRITINGS

to cherish the friendship of the learned Pontano and the no less celebrated wits Serafin del Águila and Jacopo Sannazaro, the father of Italian bucolic poetry 21: his preference for historical tasks spurred him to establish relationships with all men distinguished in arms, noting everything he saw and committing it now to memory, now to the pen. Oviedo therefore did not waste a single day during his stay in Italy; and to make his tasks more fruitful, he gave himself to the study of the Tuscan language, enriched by so many and such illustrious writers, seeking at the same time and acquiring the books that best suited his purpose, some of which he kept until the last years of his life 22.

Three years had passed since the death of Prince Don Juan without stability or a sure path, having enlisted now in the Spanish banners, now in the service of the Duke of Milan, now in the palace of the Marquis Francisco de Gonzaga, when the jubilee was published in 1500, he turned back toward Rome with the intention of earning, as a Catholic, the indulgences granted to the faithful by the Supreme Pontiff. He met there Don Antonio de Acuña, who was serving then in the chamber of Alexander VI, and who figured so prominently twenty years later in the communities of Castile 23; he witnessed the disagreements and bloody clashes that occurred between the Swiss of the Duke Valentin Valentino and the Spanish bodies that served in the Pope's guard 24; he attended the famous duel of Ferrer de Lorca and the castellan of Arche, where one of those challenges, frequently narrated in the books of the Amadises and Esplandians, was faithfully reproduced 25; and depositing all these facts in his curious diaries, he departed for Naples, once Lent had finished. Upon arriving at this court, he requested to enter the service of King Don Fadrique, by whom he was well received and treated, believing with this to repair the unforgettable loss of the Prince of Castile.

"But as (he says) other labors were awaiting me, reserved for my meager luck, it followed that the following year that good king lost his kingdom, with Spain and France dividing it 26."

For centuries, the Kingdom of Naples had been the target of French politics, which had always found an insurmountable barrier in the effort of the Spaniards. Now, King Don Fernando and Louis XII coveted its possession, each alleging a privileged right; and fearful of becoming involved in new wars, or recognizing the need to unite their forces against the Turk, the formidable enemy of Christendom, they resolved, while establishing peace, that the Abruzzo and the Campania would remain for the one of France with the title of King of Naples, and the Catholic King would be called Duke of Apulia with the lordship of Calabria. Despoiled in such a manner, the unfortunate Don Fadrique did not lack counselors who urged him toward revenge, proposing that he bring to his aid against the Christians, who so vilified him, the feared armadas of the Turk; but that unhappy prince rejected an

indignant attempt of that kind, declaring that he held the crown for nothing if it had to be recovered at such an infamous price 27. Resigned to his misfortune, Don Fadrique finally gathered the Royal family in the chamber of the widowed Queen, and with tears and sobs manifested his pain and misfortune, tenderly saying goodbye to everyone.