In every fiber of his character he felt the influences of Italian decadence, even while he reacted against them.

His misfortunes resulted in great measure from his not having wholly discarded the traditions of the Renaissance, though his temperament and acquired habits made him in many points sympathetic to the Counter-Reformation.

At the same time, he was not a mediocrity, but the last of an illustrious race of nobly gifted men of genius.
Therefore he never patiently submitted to the humiliating conditions which his own conception of the Court, the Prince, the Church, and the Italian gentleman logically involved at that period.

He could not be contented with the paradise of mediocrities described by Balbi.

Yet he had not strength to live outside its pale.