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A Florentine prelate's real estate in Rome between 1480 and 1524: the residential and speculative property of Cardinal Francesco Soderini1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

K.J.P. Lowe
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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 59 , November 1991 , pp. 259 - 282
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Copyright © British School at Rome 1991

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Footnotes

1

This is based on a paper given to Nicolai Rubinstein's seminar on Italian history at the Institute of Historical Research in London. I am grateful to various members of the seminar for their suggestions and criticisms. I would also like to thank David Chambers and Amanda Lillie for their help, and Conte Luciano Soderini for allowing access to the Soderini archive.

References

2 One of the main difficulties is that there is very little comparative material. For example, it would be useful to conduct a study of how Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici responded to similar housing problems in the late fifteenth century and early sixteenth century. See for preliminary information Frommel, C., Der Römische Palastbau der Hochrenaissance, II (Tübingen, 1973), 224 and 227Google Scholar; Guide rionali di Roma. S. Eustachio, parte secunda, ed. Ridolfini, C. Pericoli (Rome, 1984), 74, 76 and 78Google Scholar; and Albertini, F., De mirabilibus novae urbis Romae, ed. Schmarsow, A. (Heilbronn, 1886), 27Google Scholar.

3 For more information see Lowe, K. J. P., Francesco Soderini (1453–1524), Florentine Patrician and Cardinal (Ph. D., London, 1985)Google Scholar.

4 Chambers, D. S., ‘The Housing Problems of Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXXIX (1976), 21–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 For information on Soderini's finances, see Lowe, ‘Francesco Soderini’, 250–4.

6 Florence, Archivio di Stato, hereafter ASF, MAP, XXXVII, 688.

7 The chapter of Cortesi's work relating to the ideal palace for the cardinal is printed in both Latin and English with a commentary in Weil-Garris, K. and D'Amico, J., The Renaissance Cardinal's Ideal Palace, Studies in Italian Art History I (Rome, 1980), 45–123Google Scholar; p. 71 mentions the siting of the palace.

8 Sanuto, M., Idiarii, ed. Fulin, R. (Venice, 1879–1903), XXXIV, 226Google Scholar.

9 See Rome, (the private) Archivio Soderini, hereafter Arch. Sod., I, 200r.

10 The ground rents for the two properties were one ducat and one and a half ducats. See Rome, Arch. Sod., I, 200r and XLII, 28r.

11 Biblioteca Vaticana, hereafter BV, Arch. Cap. S. P., Arm. 41–2, Censuali 12 (1484), 20v.

12 Rome, Arch. Sod., XLII, 29r.

13 BV, Arch. Cap. S. P., Arm. 41–2, Censuali 14 (1490), 11v, and for one example, ibid., Censuali 15 (1495), 8r. One of the entries for one of these properties is mentioned in Frommel, , Der Römische Palastbau, II, 213Google Scholar.

14 In the censuali for 1490 the entries for Soderini's two standard properties are separated by the entry for the house which used to be leased to the queen of Cyprus.

15 Rome, Arch. Sod., I, 201r.

16 Ibid., 202r.

17 Ibid., 201v.

18 Ibid., 201r.

19 BV, Arch. Cap. S. P., Arm. 41–2, Censuali 13 (1485), 49v.

20 Rome, Arch. Sod., I, 204r.

21 BV, Arch. Cap. S. P., Arm. 41–2, Censuali 14 (1490), 11v. For information about the sacred keys see Pecchiai, P., ‘I segni sulle case di Roma nel medio evo’, Archivi, ser. II, 18 (1951), 230 and 241Google Scholar.

22 For example, BV, Arch. Cap. S. P., Arm. 41–2, Censuali 20 (1503), 16v.

23 Rome, Archivio di Stato, hereafter ASR, Ospedale di S. Spirito 1444, 166v.

24 Ibid., 153v.

25 Burchard, J., ‘Liber notarum’, Rerum Italicarum scriptores, XXXII, I, II (Città di Castello, 1911–1913), 340Google Scholar.

26 Ibid., II, 191–2

27 Gnoli, U., Topografia e toponomastica di Roma medioevale e moderna (Rome, 1939), 4Google Scholar. Its straightness must have contrasted sharply with the medieval nature of other parts of the Borgo and of Rome. See Roma 1300–1875. L'arte degli anni santi, ed. Fagiolo, M. and Madonna, M. L. (Milan, 1984), 35Google Scholar.

28 Archivio Segreto Vaticano, hereafter AV, Reg. Vat. 874, 35v–37r. Some of this is published in Bullarium diplomatum et privilegiorum sanctorum Romanorum pontificum Taurinensis editio, ed. Tomasetti, A., V (Turin, 1860), 377–8Google Scholar. Compare this with the account given by de Roo, Peter, Material for a History of Pope Alexander VI (Bruges, 1924), IV, 483Google Scholar.

29 ASR, Ospedale di S. Spirito 218, 37v and 38r.

30 Madonna, M. L., ‘Una operazione urbanistica di Alessandro VI: la Via Alessandrina in Borgo’, in Le arti a Roma sotto Alessandro VI, ed. Calvesi, M. (Rome, 1981), 6Google Scholar, and Roma 1300–1875. La città degli anni santi. Atlante, ed. Fagiolo, M. and Madonna, M. L. (Milan, 1985), 130–1Google Scholar.

31 See Pecchiai, P. ‘Banchi e botteghe dinanzi alla Basilica Vaticana nei secoli XIV, XV e XVI’, Archivi, ser. II, 18 (1951), 81–123, especially 106–11Google Scholar.

32 Frommel, C., Ray, S. and Tafuri, M., Raffaello architetto (Milan, 1984), 157–64 and 197–216, especially 209Google Scholar.

33 Bologna, Archivio di Stato, hereafter ASBo, Notarile, Tommaso Grengoli, busta 18, filza 13 (1506–18), 10 February 1511, unpaginated. Soderini composed this will in 1511 when he was in Bologna with the papal court.

34 The Via Sacra took the name of Borgo Vecchio in the early sixteenth century to distinguish it from the parallel Via Alessandrina or Borgo Nuovo. See Gnoli, Topografia, 38, 40.

35 See ASBo, Notarile, Tommaso Grengoli, busta 18, filza 13 (1506–18), 10 February 1511, unpaginated.

36 Ibid.

37 Volterra, Biblioteca Guarnacci MS. 6204, 93v.

38 Ibid., 92v.

39 Ibid., 104r.

40 Ibid., 95r.

41 Preyer, B., ‘The “chasa overo palagio” of Alberti di Zanobi: A Florentine palace of about 1400 and its later remodeling’, Art Bulletin, LXV (1983), 392Google Scholar.

42 Goldthwaite, R., The Building of Renaissance Florence (Baltimore, 1980), 13–4Google Scholar and Goldthwaite, R., ‘The Florentine palace as domestic architecture’, American Historical Review, 77 (1972), 981, 983, 994CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 Rubinstein, N., ‘Palazzi pubblici e palazzi privati al tempo di Brunelleschi’, in Filippo Brunelleschi: La sua opera e il suo tempo (Florence, 1980), 29Google Scholar.

44 Lillie, A., Florentine Villas in the Fifteenth Century: A Study of the Strozzi and Sassetti Country Properties, (Ph. D., London, 1987), 329Google Scholar.

45 Vita di Filippo Strozzi il Vecchio, ed. Bini, G. and Bigazzi, P. (Florence, 1851), 25Google Scholar and Gaye, G., Carteggio inedito d'artisti dei secoli XIV, XV, XVI, I (Florence, 1839), 355Google Scholar.

46 Frommel, , Römische Palastbau, I, 90–1Google Scholar.

47 See Razzi, S., Vita di Piero Soderini (Padua, 1737), 151Google Scholar.

48 Rome, Arch. Sod., II, 18v.

49 Tomei, P., ‘Le case in serie nell'edilizia romana dal '400 al '700’, Palladio, II (1938), 83–6Google Scholar and Tomei, P., L'architettura a Roma nel Quattrocento (Rome, 1942), 265–7Google Scholar.

50 Sinding-Larsen, S., ‘A tale of two cities: Florentine and Roman visual context for fifteenth-century palaces’, Institutum Romanum Norvegiae: Ada ad archaeologiam et artium hisloriam pertinentia, VI (1975), 197Google Scholar.

51 Weil-Garris, and D'Amico, , Ideal Palace, 73Google Scholar.

52 The ground-plan is folded in four and being used at present as a cover for the Soderini bundle of documents in ASF, Mediceo 6409.

53 See the entry in the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, ed. Placzek, A. (New York, 1982), 207–8Google Scholar, and Ronchini, A., ‘Nanni di Baccio Bigio’, Atti e memorie delle RR deputazioni di storia patria per le provincie modensi e parmensi, VIII (1876)Google Scholar.

54 ASF, Mediceo 6409, unpaginated.

55 According to both Armellini, M., Le chiese di Roma, ed. Cecchelli, C. (Rome, 1942–1950), II, 962Google Scholar and Huelsen, C., Le chiese di Roma nel medioevo (Florence, 1927), 539Google Scholar, S. Maria della Purità was founded during the papacy of Clement VII between the years 1523 and 1530. It is clearly marked on the plan. It is possible that the tenth house from the 1511 will was in the place where the Madonna della Purità was later built. It seems certain that Soderini owned the whole block of land and the area would not have been left empty.

56 Gnoli, U., Alberghi ed osterie di Roma nella Rinascenza (Rome, 1942)Google Scholar offers a wealth of information but lists no osteria in Borgo Sant'Angelo. The majority of osterie in the Borgo are in Borgo Vecchio. Adinolfi, P., La portica di S. Pietro (Rome, 1859), 127Google Scholar cites a pair near Piazza San Pietro, one of which had the sign of a man with a carafe in his hand, the other the sign of a bishop.

57 ASF, Mediceo 6409, Soderini bundle, second document, 1r.

58 Ibid., 8v.

59 Ibid., 12v and 13r.

60 This part of the Soderini bundle is unpaginated.

61 Albertini, , De mirabilibus, 31Google Scholar.

62 This is recorded in Rome, Arch. Sod., II, 405r and II, 42r and v.

63 There are two copies of the relevant document in the Soderini archive in Rome. The first, II, 439r, states that Soderini had paid 4,415 ducats; the second, II, 456r, that he had paid 4,600 ducats.

64 Rome, Arch. Sod., II, 456r.

65 Ibid., 458r.

66 BV, Arch. Cap. S. P., Arm. 41–2, Censuali 33 (1527), 137v, and Gnoli, D., ‘Censimento di Roma sotto Clemente VII’, Archivio della reale società Romana di storia patria, 17 (1894), 452Google Scholar.

67 It is not known why Ehrle wrote this, for no obviously Florentine features are discernible or identifiable in or from any of the plans, schematic drawings, prints or records that have survived. One suggestion, that the palace had rustication, is possible but is nowhere documented.

68 Ehrle, F., Dalle carte e dai disegni di Virgilio Spada, Memorie II, Atti della pontificia accademia Romana di archeologia, III (Rome, 1927), 60–1Google Scholar.

69 Rossi, A., ‘Nuovi documenti su Bramante’, Archivio storico dell'arte, I (1888), 135Google Scholar.

70 Cartocci did a series of drawings of the Borgo in a book entitled La spina dei Borghi (Rome, 1938)Google Scholar with a text by Ceccarius.

71 Nibby, A., Roma nell'anno 1838, II (Rome, 1841), 781Google Scholar.

72 Eubel, C., Hierarchia catholica medii aevi (Munster, 1901–1968), II, 71Google Scholar.

73 See Magnuson, T., Studies in Roman Quattrocento Architecture (Rome, 1958), 313–27Google Scholar. Magnuson relied heavily on Tomei, P., L'architettura a Roma nel quattrocento (Rome, 1942)Google Scholar.

74 For information about della Rovere's building works at this palace, see Brown, D. T., Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, Patron of Architecture, 1471–1503 (M. Phil., London, 1988), chapter 4Google Scholar.

75 See Rizo, A. Vanegas, ‘Il palazzo cardinalizio della Rovere ai SS. Apostoli a Roma’, Quaderni dell'istituto di storia dell'architettura, XIV (1977–1978), 3–12Google Scholar, and Gatti, I. L., ‘Il palazzo della Rovere ed il convento dei Santi Apostoli in Roma attraverso i secoli’, Miscellanea Francescana, 79 (1979), 408–9Google Scholar.

76 A parchment copy of the notarial document which was drawn up in Savona by Jacopo Giordano is in Rome, Archivio SS. Apostoli, pergamena B VIII, 359b. A note giving the salient facts about the transfer is in Rome, Archivio Colonna, Arch. III BB XX 114.

77 See Brown, ‘Cardinal Giuliano’, 94–100 and Gatti, , ‘Il palazzo della Rovere’, 416–23Google Scholar.

78 Coppi, A., Memorie Colonnesi (Rome, 1855), 251Google Scholar. Unfortunately his source for this, Rome, Archivio Colonna, VI, I, no. 114, is now missing from the archives so that no more information can be gleaned.

79 Brown, , ‘Cardinal Giuliano’, 121Google Scholar.

80 This is at least what is stated should happen in a document of 19 March 1512 in Rome, Archivio Colonna, Arch. III BB VI 42, but this is a restatement of an earlier agreement (presumably the 1506 one). A bull of Leo X's confirmed the transfer of the palace from the Franciscans to Marcantonio Colonna. See Rome, Archivio Colonna, Arch. III BB VI 43. It is noticeable that Julius has been expunged from this account.

81 It is not clear whether Soderini understood that the palace at SS. Apostoli would ultimately be taken away from him, although with hindsight it seems obvious.

82 Eubel, , Hierarchia, III, 67Google Scholar.

83 Albertini, , De mirabilibus, 20Google Scholar.

84 Ibid., 54.

85 Codice topografico della città di Roma, ed. Valentini, R. and Zucchetti, G., IV (Rome, 1953), 458Google Scholar.

86 BL, Add. MSS. 8441, 294v–295r.

87 ASR, Ospedale di Santo Spirito 218, 38r and Rome, Arch. Sod., I, 467r.

88 Ibid., 39r

89 Volterra, Biblioteca Guarnacci MS. 6204, 92r.

90 Ibid., 103v.

91 Ibid., 103v.

92 Ibid., 103v.

93 Ibid., 92v.

94 Rossi, ‘Nuovi documenti’, 136.

95 Espistolario di Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena, ed. Moncallero, G. (Florence, 1955–1965), I, 432Google Scholar.

96 AV, Reg. Vat. 1089, 163r–164r. I would like to thank Deborah Brown for bringing this document to my attention.

97 Ibid., 163r–164r.

98 Chambers, ‘The Housing Problems’, 21.

99 Sanuto, , I diarii, XXIX, 328Google Scholar. Why this should only have been recorded three years later is a mystery but it could be that only at this point did Prospero take it over.

100 A copy of part of this contract survives in ASF, C. Strozz., II, 134, 169r. A copy of the whole is in Rome, Arch. Sod., XXXIX, 3v–17r.

101 Rome, Arch. Sod., XXXIX, 9r and v.

102 Ibid., 4r.

103 He was Soderini's procurator for the sale.

104 Rome, Arch. Sod., XXXIX, 4r and v.

105 See Frutaz, A., Le piante di Roma, II (Rome, 1962), tavola 159Google Scholar.

106 Milone, M. Festa, ‘Palazzo Riario-Altemps’, Quaderni dell'istituto di storia dell'archiettura, XXIV (1977–1978), 39Google Scholar.

107 ASR, Notari dell'AC 6209, 207r.

108 It is commonly accepted that the fifteenth-century Palazzo Altemps was commissioned by him. See, for example, Tomei, P., ‘Contributi d'archivio: un'elenco dei palazzi di Roma del tempo di Clemente VIII’, Palladio, III (1939), 222Google Scholar.

109 One example is Gnoli, U., ‘Facciate graffite e dipinte in Roma’, Il Vasari, VIII (1936–1937), fasc. III–IV, 103Google Scholar.

110 Egidii, P., Necrologi e libri affini della provincia Romana, II (Rome, 1914), e.g. 479–81Google Scholar.

111 Adinolfi, P., La Torre de Sanguigni (Rome, 1863), 40Google Scholar. See also Amadei, E., Le torri di Roma (Rome, 1969), 56Google Scholar.

112 See for example Cecchelli, C., I Margani, i Capocci, i Sanguigni, i Mellini (Rome, 1949), 28Google Scholar.

113 Rome, Arch. Sod., XXXIX, 25r.

114 ASF, C. Strozz., II, 134, 169v–170r.

115 An outline of the contract is in Rome, Arch. Sod., XXII, 29v–30r.

116 Sanuto, , I diarii, XXXIV, 221Google Scholar.

117 See Staglia de Actis' testimony of 5 February 1526 in Rome, Arch. Sod., III, 242r and v.

118 Rome, Arch. Sod., III, 186r–189v.

119 Rome, Arch. Sod., II, 148r.

120 Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MSS. Vitt. Eman. 309, 105.

121 Frutaz, , Le piante, II, tavola 201Google Scholar.

122 ASR, Notari dell'AC 6029, 207r.

123 Adinolfi, , La Torre, 46Google Scholar.

124 Vasari, G., Le vite, ed. Milanesi, G., V (Florence, 1880), 147Google Scholar.

125 Amadei, , Le torri, 56Google Scholar.

126 Milone, , ‘Palazzo Riario-Altemps’, 14–18Google Scholar. For the inventory of 1523, see ASR, Notari dell'AC 410, 122r–128r and Lowe, ‘Francesco Soderini’, 358–73.

127 Volterra, Biblioteca Guarnacci, MS. 6204, not paginated but between 84v and 85r, i.e. 84 bis r: ‘Cardinalis…noster in surburbio nostro S.ti P. emit oedes (sic), quae fuerunt Calagrani, Innocentii cubicularii, continentes Theodorine oedes. Habent supra se ortos celebres iminentes templo beati Michaelis in quibus sunt cenacula, porticus et cubicula quocumque magno principe digna, sedes vero ample admodum sunt, non tam ad habitandum magnifice quam idoneae, sed parvo sumptu cardinalis commode habitabat cum universa familia’.

128 Krautheimer, R., Rome: Profile of a City, 312–1308 (Princeton, 1980), 313Google Scholar.

129 See Zapperi's, R. entry on Calagrano in the Dizionario biografico degli Italiani (Rome, 1960–), XVI, 403–5Google Scholar, von Hofmann, W., Forschungen zur Geschichte der Kurialen Behörden von Schisma bis zur Reformation (Rome, 1914), II, 182Google Scholar and Eubel, , Hierarchia, II, 216Google Scholar.

130 Krautheimer, , Rome, 82 and 117–8Google Scholar.

131 Krautheimer, R., Corbett, S., Frankl, W., Corpus Basilicarum christianarum Romae, III (Rome, 1967), 125Google Scholar; see also Huelsen, , Le chiese, 388Google Scholar.

132 Armellini, , Le chiese, II, p. 1386Google Scholar.

133 Machiavelli, N., Lettere, ed. Gaeta, F. (Milan, 1961), 297–8Google Scholar.

134 Coffin, D., The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome (Princeton, 1979), 69Google Scholar.

135 Rome, Arch. Sod., XII, 19v and 33r; Arch. Sod., II, 286r; ASR, Notari dell'AC 7155, 61r.

136 Mantua, Archivio di Stato, AG, b. 858, 19 May 1508, Cardinal Sigismondo Gonzaga to Marquis Francesco.

137 Rome, Arch. Sod., II, 148v. This vigna is marked on Bufalini's map of 1551. See Frutaz, , Le piante, II, tavola 195Google Scholar.

138 Volterra, Biblioteca Guarnacci MS. 6204, 103v and 93r.

139 Coffin, , The Villa, 245Google Scholar.

140 Rome, Arch. Sod., III, 186r–189v.

141 See Lowe, ‘Francesco Soderini’, 354 and Carocci, G., I dintorni di Firenze, II (Florence, 1907), 431Google Scholar.

142 Menotti, M., Documenti inediti sulla famiglia e la corte di Alessandro VI (Rome, 1917), 303–5Google Scholar, and Carocci, , I dintorni, II, 222 and 229Google Scholar.

143 Rome, Arch. Sod., II, 148r.