The Ugly Renaissance (66 page)

The basis of the Vatican Library:
See Grafton,
Rome Reborn
, 3–46.

Although Aeneas noted that he began more projects:
Pius II,
Commentaries
, I.28, 1:139.

“turning the city upside down”:
Vasari,
Lives
, 1:209.

So, too, the Borgo, running adjacent to the Vatican:
See Magnuson, “Project of Nicholas V for Rebuilding the Borgo Leonino in Rome.”

As princes of the Church:
As one historian has recently put it, “The magnificence that was required of cardinals must … be seen as part of a coherent, long-term program for bringing the image of Rome into line with its new function as the capital of the Papal State as well as the capital of Christendom … The creation of a constellation of satellite courts was thus meant to contribute to the splendor of the papal court, whose real and symbolic dimensions had been notably increased.” Fragnito, “Cardinals’ Courts in Sixteenth-Century Rome,” 37–38.

Sixtus IV sponsored the construction:
On Sixtus IV’s legendarily lavish contributions to the remodeling of Renaissance Rome, see Benzi,
Sisto IV renovator urbis
; Benzi,
Sisto IV: Le arti a Roma nel primo rinascimento
; Blondin, “Power Made Visible”; Miglio et al.,
Un Pontificato ed una città
; Egmont,
Sixtus IV and Men of Letters
.

His successor, Innocent VIII, commissioned Antonio Pollaiuolo:
Vasari,
Lives
, 2:76.

“ ‘Well, what about this chapel?’ ”:
Vasari,
Lives
, 1:361.

“probably the most splendid”:
Partner,
Renaissance Rome
, 118.

Shortly after the death of Callixtus III:
Ibid.

By the same token, no self-respecting cardinal:
Fragnito, “Cardinals’ Courts in Sixteenth-Century Rome,” 40.

“The dwelling of a cardinal”:
From
Supernae dispositionis arbitrio
(1514), in Alberigo et al.,
Conciliorum oecumenicorum decreta
, 618–19, trans. in Fragnito, “Cardinals’ Courts in Sixteenth-Century Rome,” 33.

But at the lower end of the scale:
On curial hospitality, see Byatt, “Concept of Hospitality in a Cardinal’s Household in Renaissance Rome.”

The Belvedere Courtyard:
Partner,
Renaissance Rome
, 119.

Cardinal Pietro Riario held a vast banquet:
Dickie,
Delizia!
, 65.

it has been estimated that the incomes:
Partner,
Renaissance Rome
, 137.

Francesco Priscianese estimated:
Ibid., 138.

Cardinal Ferdinando Gonzaga reckoned:
Fragnito, “Cardinals’
Courts in Sixteenth-Century Rome,” 42n51.

perpetually short of cash:
See Chambers, “Economic Predicament of Renaissance Cardinals.”

“There [are] some who are very poor”:
Fragnito, “Cardinals’ Courts in Sixteenth-Century Rome,” 41n50.

“an expert seeker of worldly preferment”:
Pius II,
Commentaries
, I.34, 1:173.

Aeneas went on to describe:
Ibid., II.8, 1:239.

“faith in Christ flourishes no longer”:
Fonte,
Letters to Friends
, II.4.7, p. 81.

“whirlpool of vice”:
Ibid., II.5.5–6, p. 87.

“Nowadays rulers are so corrupted”:
Castiglione,
Book of the Courtier
, IV, 288.

Gluttony was, as Bartolomeo della Fonte observed:
Fonte,
Letters to Friends
, II.5.5–6, p. 87.

“wished to seem devout”:
Pius II,
Secret Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope
, VII, XII, 218, 356–57.

“It was his custom”:
Cellini,
Autobiography
, 228.

“through your chambers young girls”:
Petrarch,
Canzoniere
, poem 136, lines 1–11, in
Petrarch’s Lyric Poems
, 280.

one of Aeneas’s most well-read works:
Morrall, “Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pius II),
Historia de Duobus Amantibus
.”

“He was fond of women”:
Pius II,
Secret Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope
, XII, 357.

So endemic was sodomy:
Partner,
Renaissance Rome
, 203.

“At the beginning of his pontificate”:
Aldrich and Wotherspoon,
Who’s Who in Gay and Lesbian History
, 264.

Sixtus IV was reputed to have given:
See Jordan,
Silence of Sodom
, 118.

“Why, Pasquino, you’re armed”:
Cesareo,
Pasquino e Pasquinate nella Roma di Leone X
, 168–69, trans. in Partner,
Renaissance Rome
, 204. This pasquinade was probably composed in around 1512.

Although now lost, one scene showed:
On the decoration of the bathroom, see Jones and Penny,
Raphael
, 192–93.

Among the fruit and foliage:
Ibid., 184–85.

Aeneas himself seems to have regarded the whole affair:
Pius II,
Commentaries
, I.36, 1:179: “It was common talk that Aeneas of Siena would be pope. No one was held in higher esteem.”

“the richer and more influential members”:
Ibid.

“Cardinal Prospero Colonna decided to seize”:
Ibid., 1:197.

the simony practiced in 1492 by Rodrigo Borgia:
Guicciardini’s account of the 1492 conclave gives a sense of the scale of Borgia’s simony: “In [Innocent VIII’s] place was elected Rodrigo Borgia of Valencia, the nephew of Pope Callixtus, who rose to this eminence with the favour of Signor Lodovico [Sforza] and Monsignor Ascanio [Sforza], who as a reward was made Vice-Chancellor. But his principal means to this end was simony, because with money, offices, benefices, promises, and all his powers and resources he suborned and bought the votes of the cardinals and the college: a hideous and abominable thing, and a most apt beginning to his future deplorable proceedings and behaviour.” Guicciardini,
Storie fiorentine
, X, in
History of Italy and History of Florence
, 13.

Although popes had made a habit:
The earliest cardinal-nephews seem to have
been created during the pontificate of Benedict VIII (1012–24). Until the papacy’s return to Rome, the most nepotistic pope was undoubtedly Clement VI (1342–52), who raised no fewer than eleven of his relatives to the cardinalate, including six on a single day.

Callixtus III had followed suit:
Pius II,
Commentaries
, II.7, 1:235.

“a man of very base and vile condition”:
Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories
, 7.23, p. 301.

the della Rovere family owed its prominence:
See Verstegen, ed.,
Patronage and Dynasty
.

So extreme did this become that even Machiavelli:
Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories
, 7.23, p. 301: “He had in his household Piero and Girolamo, who, according to what everyone believed, were his sons … to Girolamo he gave the city of Forlì and took it away from Antonio Ordelaffi, whose ancestors had for a long time been the princes of that city. This ambitious mode of proceeding made him more esteemed by the princes of Italy, and each tried to make him his friend; and this was why the duke of Milan gave Caterina, his natural daughter, to Girolamo and, for her dowry, the city of Imola, which he had taken in spoil from Taddeo degli Alidosi.”

“neither sincerity nor shame”:
Francesco Guicciardini,
Storia d’Italia
, I.2, in
History of Italy and History of Florence
, 90.

After elevating Siena:
It is worth noting that after Pius’s election the Piccolomini family supplied every one of Siena’s archbishops for the next 139 years (1458–1597). A further two members of the clan occupied the see between 1628 and 1671.

he made his cousin Gregorio Lolli:
Indeed, Pius became so mistrustful of various members of the papal household that he refused to grant access to anyone but Gregorio Lolli and Jacopo Ammannati Piccolomini. See Pius II,
Commentaries
, II.6, 1:233.

when Cardinal Raffaele Riario built a new palace:
On the Palazzo della Cancelleria, see M. D. Davis, “ ‘Opus Isodomum’ at the Palazzo della Cancelleria.”

the new Saint Peter’s Basilica was completed:
The inscription beneath the lantern reads, “S. Petri gloriae Sixtus P.P. V. A. M. D. XC. Pontif. V” (To the glory of Saint Peter, Pope Sixtus V, in the year 1590, in the fifth year of his pontifical reign). The facade inscription reads, “In honorem principis apost. Paulus V Burghesius Romanus Pont. Max. an. MDCXII Pont. VII” (In honor of the prince of the apostles, Paul V Borghese, in the year 1612, in the seventh year of his pontificate).

The Borgia Apartments, which were decorated:
Vasari,
Lives
, 2:82–83.

As part of his broader scheme:
See Adams, “Acquisition of Pienza”; Adams, “Construction of Pienza (1459–1464) and the Consequences of
Renovatio
.” On Pius’s decision, see Pius II,
Commentaries
, II.20, 281–82.

commissioned Pinturicchio to paint:
See Vasari,
Lives
, 2:81: “And in a very large picture over the door of the library … Pinturicchio painted the coronation of Pius III with many portraits from life, and with these words written below: ‘Pius III Senensis, Pii II nepos, MDIII Septembris XXI apertis electus suffragiis, octavo Otobris coronatus est’ [Pius III of Siena, nephew of Pius II, after being duly elected on September 21, 1503, was crowned on October 8].”

Callixtus, of course, refused point-blank:
Guicciardini,
Storia d’Italia
, I.3, in
History of Italy and History of Florence
, 94; Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories
, 6.36, pp. 272–73.

While Alfonso’s son, Ferrante, wanted the pope to consent:
Pius II,
Commentaries
, II.3, 5, 1:218–23, 226–29.

In a lightning campaign, he had captured:
Ibid., II.4,
1:222–29.

Valla had used his philological expertise:
Valla,
De falso credita et ementita Constantini donatione
; Valla,
Treatise of Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of Constantine
.

the so-called Sala di Costantino:
See Jones and Penny,
Raphael
, 239–45. The frescoes in this room were only completed after Raphael’s death and during the reign of Julius II’s successor, Leo X.

The message was pointedly emphasized:
For a helpful introduction to the decorative scheme in the Stanza d’Eliodoro, see ibid., 113–32.

“the futility of the force”:
Ibid., 118.

Perhaps motivated by a vestigial sense:
Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories
, 6.14, 32, pp. 244, 267; Pius II,
Commentaries
, I.18–20, 1:78–99.

as when Callixtus III sent Giovanni Ventimiglia:
Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories
, 6.34, p. 269.

Pius II sent his own nephew, Cardinal Niccolò Forteguerri:
Pius II,
Secret Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope
, XII, 353.

Sixtus IV ordered the rebellious:
Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories
, 7.31, pp. 309–10.

“a poison such that”:
Pius II,
Secret Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope
, XI, 305–6.

Acting as a lightning rod:
For the liveliest account of the Pazzi conspiracy, see Martines,
April Blood
. On the secret deal with Federico da Montefeltro, see Simonetta,
Montefeltro Conspiracy
.

Kicking off more than sixty years of warfare:
Guicciardini opines that Alexander VI was, in fact, “full of violent hatred for the name of France.” Guicciardini,
Storia d’Italia
, I.17; in
History of Italy and History of Florence
, 181.

“never did anything”:
Machiavelli,
Prince
, chap. 18, p. 55.

Machiavelli observed that Alexander:
Machiavelli,
Florentine Histories
, 1.30, p. 42.

Sixtus IV—who seems to have shown:
See Weiss,
Medals of Pope Sixtus IV
.

“When [Julius] saw the right hand”:
Vasari,
Lives
, 1:349.

Julius commissioned Giancristoforo Romano:
Weiss, “Medals of Pope Julius II.”

10. F
ILIPPO AND THE
P
IRATES

Although he took his vows:
For biographical treatments of the artist, see Marchini,
Filippo Lippi
; Oertel,
Fra Filippo Lippi
.

“he never spent any time”:
Vasari,
Lives
, 1:214.

“In response to the praises”:
Ibid., 1:215.

Filippo’s wanderlust:
What follows is based on Vasari,
Lives
, 1:215.

Carried across the Mediterranean:
Particularly toward the end of the Renaissance, this was certainly not an unusual phenomenon. See R. C. Davis,
Christian Slaves, Muslim Martyrs
.

“Since neither drawing nor painting”:
Vasari,
Lives
, 1:215.

“tails full a palm in length”:
Polo,
Travels
, 256, 272–73, 258.

The legend of Prester John:
See Slessarev,
Prester John
.

Idrisi, a twelfth-century geographer:
Abulafia,
Discovery of Mankind
, 24.

Sir John Mandeville:
Ibid., 25; Mandeville,
Travels of John Mandeville
.

the rediscovery of classical literature exposed Italians:
In the early fourteenth century, for example, Petrarch made a valiant—if doomed—effort to learn Greek under the tutelage of Leontius Pilatus, and his endeavors were later followed—equally
unsuccessfully—by Coluccio Salutati. Thanks to closer links with the ailing Byzantine Empire and, later, to an exodus of scholars from the East, however, matters suddenly became rather easier. The arrival of such eminent personages as John Argyropoulos, Manuel Chrysoloras, Teodoro Gaza, and Cardinal Bessarion made it possible for Salutati’s intellectual heirs—particularly
Leonardo Bruni,
Marsilio Ficino, and
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola—to study Greek literature for the first time at first hand. Pertusi,
Leonzio Pilato tra Petrarca e Boccaccio
; Ullman,
Humanism of Coluccio Salutati
, 118–24; Witt,
Hercules at the Crossroads
, esp. 252–53, 302–9; Monfasani,
Byzantine Scholars in Renaissance Italy
; Harris,
Greek Émigrés in the West
.