In this society of polished dilettanti
such documents were valued rather for their literary merits than for
their political significance; and the pungent lines in which the Duke's
panaceas were hit off (the Belverde figuring among them as a Lenten
diet, a dinner of herbs, and a wonder-working bone) caused a flutter of
professional envy in the episcopal circle.
The Bishop received company every evening; and Odo soon found that, as
Gamba had said, it was the best company in Pianura. His lordship lived
in great state in the Gothic palace adjoining the Cathedral. The gloomy
vaulted rooms of the original structure had been abandoned to the small
fry of the episcopal retinue. In the chambers around the courtyard his
lordship drove a thriving trade in wines from his vineyards, while his
clients awaited his pleasure in the armoury, where the panoplies of his
fighting predecessors still rusted on the walls. Behind this facade a
later prelate had built a vast wing overlooking a garden which descended
by easy terraces to the Piana. In the high-studded apartments of this
wing the Bishop held his court and lived the life of a wealthy secular
nobleman. His days were agreeably divided between hunting, inspecting
his estates, receiving the visits of antiquarians, artists and literati,
and superintending the embellishments of his gardens, then the most
famous in North Italy; while his evenings were given to the more private
diversions which his age and looks still justified.
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