10/16 Alexander took the greatest pleasure in making the arrangements for setting up his daughter's establishment. Her happiness--or, what to him was the same thing, her greatness--meant much to him. He loved her passionately, superlatively, as the Ferrarese ambassador wrote his master.[26] On the ambassador's suggestion the Duke of Ferrara sent as a wedding gift a pair of large silver hand basins with the accompanying vessels, all of the finest workmanship. Two residences were proposed for the young pair; the palace of S.Maria in Portico and the one near the castle of S.Angelo, which had belonged to the Cardinal Domenicus Porta of Aleria, who died February 4, 1493. The former, in which Lucretia was already living, was chosen. |