INTRODUCTION xxxvii

Charles V at Peschiera

TTo the widespread fame of the poem Syphihis was due an
incident that occurred eleven years after its publication, and
is reckoned by the biographers who relate it as not the least of
the laurels of Fracastorius. When Charles V, the most power—
ful monarch in the world, was travelling from Germany through
North Italy, on his way to Genoa to embark on his fruitless
expedition against Algiers, he came to Peschiera in the summer
of 1541. With the crowd of sightseers who had gathered to see
the Emperor pass, stood Fracastorius, but a little apart, as was
characteristic, and moreover he detested Charles V. It was
very hot, and the Emperor rode without deigning to glance to
the right or left, till Cardinal Madrucci who rode with him,
pointed out Fracastorius.  Charles halted, gazed at him earnest—
ly, made a gesture to show that he recognized him, and rode on
his way. 'This look? from the disdainful monarch was greatly
exaggerated by the poet's descendants who, according to Manara,
set up a tablet in the villa at Incaffi to commemorate a visit
from Charles V. 'This would have outraged the feelings of
Fracastorius, as may be judged by a poem which he wrote in
1552, not long before his death. Charles had been repulsed in
May of that year, by an insignificant enemy, Maurice of Saxony,
had had to flee! over the Brenner pass by night, and his fortune
was evidently on the wane. Fracastorius addresses 23 Latin
hexameters to this "terror of the world'', and pours out at last
his hatred for the enemy of the Pope, the oppressor of Italy,
over whom one might now safely exult.

The Council of Trent

In 1547 Fracastorius was involved in an affair in which all
Europe, cleries and laymen alike, took a passionate interest,
and which arose out of the intrigues of the Farnese Pope, Paul III,
and the Emperor Charles V over the famous Counecil of Trent.
"The Pope feared the results of any such Synod, unnecessarily

 

are a compound of the inspired air with the most subtile portion
of the blood . . . — of fiery potency, the lucid vapor of the blood?,
and so on. Van Helmont, in the 17th cent. says there is a specifie
ferment in the heart to generate vital spirits from the blood.

:Vesalius may have fled with Charles, whose body—physician
he became in 1546.