One Hundred Liberal and Ingenious Games

BOOK.

How those fables are to be understood, where Jove transformed himself into a Swan for Leda,
and into gold for Danae,
Because Paris, being made judge of the beauty of the three Goddesses, wished to see them naked. This refers to the "Judgment of Paris," a famous myth where the Trojan prince Paris had to choose the fairest among Juno, Venus, and Minerva.
Whether the beauty of Women would be a subject worthy of discussion in the Council of the Gods.
Whether Love is the greatest and most powerful of all the Gods.
That with verses or words one should praise she who shall be judged most beautiful in the Council of the Gods.
What favor, if one were able, should be asked of the Council of the Gods.
What the reasons are that the Gods love each other, love us, and are loved by us.
How Love is the Lord of men and Gods.
Which is more to be feared: the Club of Hercules, the Sword of Mars, or the Bow of Love. original: "Amore"; here referring to Cupid/Eros, the god of desire.
This is everything I have thought to tell you regarding the Game of the Council of the Gods, which you will not disdain to accept with a kind spirit. Now we come to the Game of the Angels.

GAME OF THE ANGELS. V.

An ornate square woodcut initial letter 'B' is decorated with figures in a landscape setting; one figure sits near a tree on the left, while another stands near a structure on the right.
MOST KIND Ladies, if Angels, by virtue of possessing a share of the divine, are of such beauty as is spoken of, and of a kind that cannot be worthily recounted by human tongue or grasped by the power of the intellect; and if of all things made, or yet to be made, none resembles them more or feels more of the divine than you, most beautiful and angelic ladies, how can you not be most precious things, worthy of every honor? Who would not notice your lovely beauty, your adorned grace, and who would not love the noble manners of your womanly virtue? Even that simple little Hermit original: "Romitello"; a reference to the story of Filippo Balducci's son in the Introduction to the Fourth Day of Boccaccio's Decameron. The boy was raised in total isolation and, upon seeing women for the first time, was told they were "geese," yet he immediately preferred them to everything else he had seen., a youth without experience of whom Boccaccio makes mention in his stories to your praise—raised upon a wild and solitary mountain, and within the confines of a tiny cell without any other company. Comparing you to painted Angels, he desired you alone as a thing to be loved, so