I detected a small sentence in ...

http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/ca ... 185795.pdf
page 7

... according which the mathematician Paolo Toscanelli had become tutor to Borso in 1431. Aurispa became tutor of Meliaduse in 1427 and Guarino to Leonello in 1429.

This function is not mentioned in the usual biography of Toscanelli. But it is noted ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_dal_Pozzo_Toscanelli

Toscanelli lived most of his life in Florence, with occasional excursions to Todi and Rome. He is said to have entered into correspondence with scholars around Europe, but his writings have yet to be thoroughly researched.

An uncorroborated story links Toscanelli's attendance at a Chinese delegation to the Pope in 1432, when many Chinese inventions were discussed, with a flood of drawings made around the same year by the artist-engineer Taccola (1382 - c.1453), which were later developed by Brunelleschi and Leonardo da Vinci. In a 1474 letter of Toscanelli to Columbus, the authenticity of which has been a matter of disagreement among scholars, Toscanelli mentions the visit of men from Cathay (China) during the reign of Pope Eugenius IV (1431-1447):

"Also in the time of Eugenius one of them [of Cathay] came to Eugenius, who affirmed their great kindness towards Christians, and I had a long conversation with him on many subjects, about the magnitude of their rivers in length and breath, and on the multitude of cities on th banks of rivers. He said that on one river there were near 200 cities with marble bridges great in length and breadth, and everywhere adorned with columns. This country is worth seeking by the Latins, not only because great wealth may be obtained from it, gold and silver, all sorts of gems, and spices, which never reach us; but also on account of its learned me, philosophers, and expert astrologers, and by what skill and art so powerful and magnificient a province is governed, as well as how their wars are conducted."

– Extract of the First Letter of Paolo Toscanelli to Columbus.

It has been suggested that the man in question may have been Niccolo da Conti, who was returning from the east and is known to have met with Pope Eugenius in 1444. In a second letter, Toscanelli further describes these men as extremely learned and willing to share their knowledge:

"The said voyage is not only possible, but it is true, and certain to be honourable and to yield incalculable profit, and very great fame among all Christians. But you cannot know this perfectly save through experience and practice, as I have had in the form of the most copious and good and true information from distinguished men of great learning who have come from the said parts, here in the court of Rome, and from others being merchants who have had business for a long time in those parts, men of high authority."

– Extract of the First Letter of Paolo Toscanelli to Columbus.

Well, this is currently a hot discussed topic at the link below. If this delegation met Toscanelli really in 1432, it could possibly mean, that the delegation crossed Ferrara?

http://www.gavinmenzies.net/

Notes to celebrations in Ferrara in Borso's time:

with help of
Music in Renaissance Ferrara 1400-1505: The Creation of a Musical Center in ... By Lewis Lockwood (2nd edition 2009), p. 96/97
http://books.google.com/books?id=7FfFTg ... te&f=false

1452 Emperor visit
1453 Modena, Trionfi for duke title
1454 or 1455, marriage Beatrice d'Este and Tristano Sforza
1457 visit Galeazzo Maria
1459, 9-day visit of Pope Pius II
1461, June, possession of the Certosa for the Carthusians
1461, visit Galeazzo Maria and Lodovico Gonzaga
1462, Ercole becomes governor in Modena
1462, joust in May
1464, joust in May
1465, Ippolita in Ferrara (?)
1467, September, palio festivity in honor of Filippo Maria Sforza (?)
1468, September, palio festivity in honor of Filippo Maria Sforza(?)
1468, marriage Bianca Maria d'Este and Galeotto Pico della Mirandola
1468, December and 1469, February, visit of the Emperor
1469, funeral Lodovico Casella
1471, journey to Rome, duke title Ferrara

A play with a missing virtue ... is arranged in the Palazzo Schifanoia, and the missing virtue is not, as it aseems to be arranged in Tarot, Prudentia, but Iustititia. This is NOT done in the famous and often discussed Hall of the Monthes, but in a smaller room, Hall of the Stuccoes also called Hall of the virtues and in a reception room. As idea is given, that the room wouldn't be complete without the owner Borso and Borso would represent the otherwise missing Justice.

It's difficult to get something about it, but I found this article:

http://books.google.com/books?id=54cYuI ... te&f=false
p. 340 ff.
Art in Renaissance Italy, by John T. Paoletti, Gary M. Radke

According the text this was constructed in 1467, so two years after the Medici in Florence had their 7 palle reduced to 6 palle in May 1465, a time, when Lorenzo de Medici visited Borso in Ferrara, before he went to Milan (and possibly brought the six additional cards of the PMB - including some virtues)

****

A similar action happened a few years later, when in Florentine a commission of 7 virtues was painted, but the 7th, Fortitudo, was made by the young artist Botticelli, the six other, by Pollaiuolo. Botticelli's Fortitudo, quite differnt from Pallaiuolo's traditional motifs, became a great success.



This gives some details ...
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZA4u8N ... do&f=false
... though I'm confused about the real number of the made virtues, well, it are 7 totally and it seems 6 by Pollaiuolo (one article told, it are only 5 by Pollaiuolo).

http://www.kunst-fuer-alle.de/english/a ... /index.htm
this shows 3 for Pollaiuolo: Prudentia - Temperantia - Faith

http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/Sandro/3 ... glish.html
This shows a good description and one more: Iustitia

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26911776@N ... otostream/
Here's hope and ...



This story is told:

In December 1469, the Court of the Mercanzia in Florence, located on the Piazza della Signoria, opposite the Palace, became aware that the Court had to be completely restored, taking advantage of the "Christmas vacancy" as they used to say at the time. The courtroom itself had to be completely redone, as did the furniture. It was at that time that the seven Magistrates - there were six magistrates and a revolving presiding magistrate - decided that they wanted large chairs with high backs covered with images of the Virtues. They then had to choose the artist, and they chose Pollaiuolo, not Antonio, the great one, but his brother Piero, who spent Christmas and New Year's sketching the Virtues, which were preserved and which we shall see later. These are very good paintings, but still done in a very traditional style, very much the style of the first half of the Quatrocento. ...
As it happened, one of the Mercanzia seven was a person called Rudelai; every time Pollaiuolo delivered a Virtue, his face became longer and longer, as he considered them ugly. He took it upon himself to order the seventh and last Virtue from an artist in whom he trusted called Sandro Botticelli, whom nobody had heard of.
...
Rudelai was so happy with his choice that he talked about it all over Florence, and all of Florence came. But what made things even better - and this would have worked just as well in the 20th century - Pollaiuolo was so enraged that he launched an interpellation. At the outset, people tended to agree with him, if only because of the contract but disagreed with him once they had seen the works. As the luckless artists had told his story to the world, everybody talked about, everybody knew about it and all of Florence came to see the work Alessandro dei Filipepi, known as Botticelli - so young, so thin and so pale. That's how it all began.

extracted from http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/Sandro/3 ... glish.html

Well, a nice story, but another version tells it in the way, that Pollaiuolo didn't came along with the pictures, though they were promised to be ready. And another tells, that Botticelli painted 2.

Perhaps it was intention: They had 6 constant members at the Court of the Mercanzia and one presiding changing member, so why not commission 6 pictures from one artist and the 7th from another? With that we would have a similar symbolical game with the virtues, as we see it at the court of Borso and we possibly also can observe it with the 6 palle of the Medici (and then it proceeded with a missing Prudentia in Tarot).

Well, Botticelli became a great painter and possibly this triggered the true story to develop more funny details.