Excerpt from Some Memorials of Renee of France, Duchess of Ferrara If I did enumerate those my surviving auxiliaries, I should be impelled to specify one, a friend of many years, who has gone into the work of research and revision of materials for me with a voluntary earnest ness, relieving my mind, while it has clearly gratified his own spirit. But he who has thus aided me, will be better pleased with the consciousness of having done so as a private friend, undesirous of publicity. My effort at authorship lays no claim to originality. It is but a compilation from various sources, some printed, some in manuscript, some old and familiar, others recently opened. Reference to the authorities which I have consulted and indicated will show at once the extent of my obligations to them, even where I may not fully have acknowledged it by the customary marks of quotation. I wish my confession of every omission of this kind, which may be discovered, to be understood in the amplest sense; for I should be indeed ashamed to incur the slightest imputation of that literary dishonesty which, availing itself of the labours of others, assumes the credit as its own. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.