Boccaccio, the Ferrarese Ambassador, remarks: 'The Pope eats only of one dish.

It is, therefore, disagreeable to have to dine with him.' In this respect he may be favorably contrasted with the Roman prelates of the age of Leo.

His relations to Vannozza Catanei, the titular wife first of Giorgio de Croce, and then of Carlo Canale, and to Giulia Farnese,[2] surnamed La Bella, the titular wife of Orsino Orsini, were open and acknowledged.

These two sultanas ruled him during the greater portion of his career, conniving meanwhile at the harem, which, after truly Oriental fashion, he maintained in the Vatican.

An incident which happened during the French invasion of 1494 brings the domestic circumstances of a Pope of the Renaissance vividly before us.