Therefore, if this work has any merit, no small part of it is due to Signor Foucard's obligingness.
I also met with unfailing courtesy and assistance in other places--Nepi, Pesaro, and Ferrara.

To Signor Cesare Guasti, of the state archives of Florence, I am indebted for careful copies of important letters of Lorenzo Pucci, which he had made for me.
The material of which I finally found myself in possession is not complete, but it is abundant and new.
The original records will serve as defense against those who endeavor to discover a malicious motive in this work.

No such interpretation is worthy of further notice, because the book itself will make my intention perfectly clear, which was simply that of the conscientious writer of history.

I have substituted history for romance.
In the work I have attached more importance to the period during which Lucretia lived in Rome than to the time she spent in Ferrara, because the latter has already been described, though not in detail, while the former has remained purely legendary.

As I had to base my work entirely on original information, I endeavored to treat the subject in such a way as to present a picture truly characteristic of the age, and animated by concrete descriptions of its striking personalities..