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Questions of Income and Expenditure in Renaissance Rome: a Case Study of Cardinal Francesco Armellini*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

K. J. P. Lowe
K. J. P. Lowe*
Affiliation:
University of Hong Kong
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Extract

In, a book of 1567 on the lives and actions of past popes and cardinals written by Girolamo Garimberto, in the section on avarice, is to be found this judgement on Cardinal Francesco Armellini (1470–1528). ‘He truly is to be considered rich who is content to live with what he has, while he who is unhappy with what he has accumulated may be considered poor; and measured in these terms one can say that Francesco Armellini was very poor indeed.’ Given his posthumous, and indeed his contemporary reputation, of which this passage is entirely typical, Francesco Armellini would appear to be an ideal figure through which to approach the general subject of the Church and wealth in this period.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 24: The Church and Wealth , 1987 , pp. 175 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1987

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Footnotes

*

I should like to thank Peter Lake without whom this article would not have been possible.

References

1 For the most up-to-date account of his life, see the article on Francesco Armellini Medici by G. De Caro in the Dizionario biografico degli Italiani (hereafter DBI), 4, pp. 234–7. For a discussion of the whole question of the cardinals’ wealth in this period see D. S. Chambers, The Economic Predicament of Renaissance Cardinals’, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 3 (1966).

2 Garimberto, H., La prima parte delle vite overofatti memorabili d’alcuni papi et di tutti i cardinali passati (Venice, 1567), p. 472 Google Scholar.

3 Baron, H., ‘Franciscan Poverty and Civic Wealth’, Speculum, 13 (1938), p. 1 Google Scholar.

4 Ibid., pp. 9–10, 22, 30.

5 For a general overview of the cardinals in this period, see B. McClung Hallman, Italian Cardinals, Reform and the Church as Property (1492–1563) (Berkeley, 1985).

6 See Lowe, K. J. P., ‘Francesco Soderini (1453–1524), Florentine Patrician and Cardinal’ (London PhX). thesis, 1985), esp. p. 105 Google Scholar.

7 DBl 4, p. 234.

8 Hofman, W. von, Forschungen zur Geschichte der Kurialen Behörden (Rome, 1914), 2, p. 118 Google Scholar.

9 Ibid., 2, p. 87.

10 DBI 4, p. 234.

11 M. Sanuto, I diarii, ed. R. Fulin (Bologna, 1879–1903), XXIV, 452.

12 Hallman, Italian Cardinals, pp. 9, 11–13 discusses the social class of early sixteenth-century cardinals and divides them into four groups: nobility, patriciate, new men, and humble men. New men for her are prelates who founded the fortunes of their families and established their heirs as part of the Italian ruling class, and humble men are those who only managed to achieve success for themselves but not for their kith and kin. I am using the term new man in its more orthodox sense, that is, someone of low birth who rose to prominence. This in itself of course created jealousies.

13 BL Additional MSS 8444, fols 44v-45r. On 5 and 7 December 1517 there are payments for the purchase and gilding of two small chalices ‘per 1’ordinatione dil cardinale’, Rome, Archivio di stato. Camerale 1, Appendice (hereafter ASR, Cam. I, App.) 16, fol. 112.

14 L. von Pastor, Storia dei papi, ed. A. Mercati and P. Cenci (Rome, 1955–64), 4, i, p. 348.

15 For different accounts of this rransaction and the reasons why it took place, see Cesareo, G. A., Pasquino e pasquinate nella Roma di Leone X (Rome, 1938), pp. 122–3 Google Scholar and Hofman, Forschungen, 2, p. 88.

16 Sanuto, Idiarii, XXXI, 106, 117, 404, 453. For the dates see Hofman, Forschungen, 2, p. 87.

17 Ibid., XXI, 453.

18 Armellini borrowed 50, 000 ducats from Strozzi allegedly to pay to become chamberlain. See Bullard, M., Filippo Strozzi and the Medici (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 105–6, 126 Google Scholar; Florence, Archivio di stato, Carte Strozziane, V, 1770, fol. 58; V, 101, fol. 96. I would like to thank Melissa Bullard for this information.

19 Delumeau, J., Vie économique et sociale de Rome dans la seconde moitiédu XVle siècle (Paris, 1957-9), 2, pp. 824, 828 Google Scholar.

20 Sanuto, I diarii, 24, pp. 91–2 and Relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti al Senato, ed. E. Alberi (Florence, 1839–63), ser. 2, 3, p. 54.

21 Sanuto, XXIII, 116.

22 Ibid., XLI, 283.

23 Ibid., XXX, 352.

24 Ibid., XXXII, 116.

25 Ibid., XXX, 351–2.

26 Ibid., XLI, 69, 82, 298.

27 Ibid., XXXIV, 198.

28 Ibid., XXXII, 230.

29 Ibid., XLI, 283; also reported in Alberi, Relazioni, p. 126.

30 Partner, P., ‘The “Budget” of the Roman Church in the Renaissance Period’, in Italian Renaissance Studies, ed. Jacob, E. F. (London, 1960), p. 267 Google Scholar. For the budget of 1480–1 see Bauer, C., ‘Studi per la storia delle finanze papali durante il pontificato di Sisto IV’, Archivio della realesocietà romana di storia patria, 50 (1927), esp. p. 341 Google Scholar.

31 On Filippo Strozzi and his career see Bullard, Filippo Strozzi. The depositor general was the papal banker who handled all the cash transactions of the Camera. Melissa Bullard very kindly informed me that Armellini had initially opposed Strozzi’s appointment as depositor, Florence, Archivio di stato, MAP, 108, 148, although later they worked very closely together.

32 Partner, P., Renaissance Rome 1500–1559 (Berkeley, 1976), p. 147 Google Scholar.

33 Hofman, Forschungen, 2, p. 88.

34 As an example, for England see Stone, L., ‘The Fruits of Office: the Case of Robert Cecil First Earl of Salisbury, 1596–1612’, in Essays in the Economic and Social History of Tudor and Stuart England, ed. Fisher, F.J. (Cambridge, 1961)Google Scholar.

35 Garimberto, La prima parte, p. 473.

36 Domenichi, L., Facétie molli et burle (Venice, 1584), pp. 240–1 Google Scholar.

37 Cesareo, Pasquino, p. 42.

38 Rossi, V., Pasquinate di Pietro Aretino ed anonime per il conclave e l’elezione di Adriano VI (Palermo/Turin, 1891), p. 66 Google Scholar.

39 Ibid., pp. 67–8.

40 Percopo, E., ‘Di Anton Lelio romano e di alcune pasquinate contro Leon X’, Giornale storico della letteratura italiana, 27 (1896), p. 82 Google Scholar.

41 Bertani, C., ‘Identificazioni di personaggi delle “satire” di Ludovico Ariosto’, Giornale storico della letteratura italiana, 102 (1933), p. 2 Google Scholar.

42 D. Gnoli, ‘Descriptio Urbis o censimento della popolazione di Roma avanti il sacco borbonico’, Archivio della reale società romana di storia patria, 17(1894), p. 451.

43 Cesareo, Pasquino, pp. 126–8.

44 Ibid., p. 42.

45 Ibid., p. 121.

46 Rossi, Pasquinate, p. 26.

47 Ibid., p. 167.

48 Bertani, ‘identificazioni’, p. 7.

49 Eubel, C., Hierarchia catholica medii aeri (Münster, 1901-13), 3, p. 225 Google Scholar.

50 Sanuto, I diarii, XXXV, 244.

51 Eubel, Hierarchia, 3, p. 225.

52 Ibid., p. 327.

53 ASR, Cam. I, App. 15, 16, 17 and 18. For a discussion of volume 15, see Rodocanachi, E., Rome au temps de Jules II et de Léon (Paris, 1012), pp. 74–7 Google Scholar.

54 See, for example, ASR, Cam. 1, App. 16, fols 116r, 117v.

55 ASR, Cam. I, App. 16, fol. 117r.

56 Armellini’s palace was being built at this time and there are references to its construction all through the account books as there are references to the chapel which must have been a part of it. See also Frommel, C., Der Römisene Palaslbau der Hochrenaissance (Tubingen, 1973), 2, p. 35 Google Scholar.

57 ASR, Cam. I, App. 16, fol. 89r.

58 ASR, Cam. I, App. 15, fol. 111v.

59 See, for example, ASR, Cam. I, App. 17, fols 13r-80r.

60 ASR, Cam. I, App. 18, fol. 14r. Two of them were called Delia Stella and Della Chiave. For more information and possible identification see Gnoli, U., Alberghi ed osterie di Roma nella rinascenza (Rome, 1942), pp. 65–6, 99, 138 Google Scholar.

61 Examples are in ASR, Cam. 1, App. 15, fol. 110v; 18, fol. 110v.

62 ASR, Cam. I, App. 16, fols 6r-7r-v, 8r-v for the years 1517–18.

63 ASR, Cam. I, App. 16, fol. 7v; 18, fol. 2r.

64 ASR, Cam. I, App. 18, fol. 108r.

65 ASR, Cam. I, App. 17, fols 120r-31r for the expenses of the stable for 1523–4. “For instance, ASR, Cam. 1, App. 15, fol. 114r.

67 See ASR, Cam. I, App. 15, fols 76r-92v to receive an idea of the astonishing variety and richness of die food consumed.

68 See references in ASR, Cam. 1, App. 16, fol. 108v; 18, fol. 112V.

69 ASR, Cam. I, App. 16, fol. 116r.

70 See n. 56 above.

71 Biblioteca Vaticana, Reg. lat. 386, fols 175r-7r, undated letter and sketches sent by Giovanbattista del Caporale to Francesco Armellini.

72 ASR, Cam. I, App. 15, fol. 183r.

73 Armellini, M., Le chiese di Roma, ed. Cecchelli, C. (Rome, 1942), 2, pp. 791–2 Google Scholar, and Frommel, C., Baldassare Peruzzi als Maler und Zeichner (Vienna, 1967-8), pp. 121–3 Google Scholar.

74 ASR, Cam. I, App. 16, fols 113r, 109r.

75 See Scilla, S., Breve notizia delle monete pontificie antiche e moderne (Rome, 1715), pp. 31–7 Google Scholar.

76 P. Cortesi, De cardinalatu (In Castra Cortesio, 1510).

77 Lowe, ‘Franceso Soderini’, pt IV, v.

78 See, for example, Armellini, Le chiese, 2, p. 791.

79 Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Diversa Cameralia 82, fol. 32v.