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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Although the Este family had traditionally supported numerous monastic foundations, Borso d'Este's patronage of the Carthusian order is notable in that it introduced a new religious community into Ferrara. The history of the establishment, development, and decoration of the Charterhouse of Ferrara is indicative of the taste, artistic and religious views, and political exigencies which shaped the religious patronage of Borso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio. At the same time, the specific examples of Borso's monastic patronage are illustrative of the fundamental assumptions underlying fifteenth-century aristocratic support of religious foundations.
On April 23,1452, Borso d'Este laid the cornerstone for the Certosa on a site not far from the Este villa of Belfiore and the Dominican Monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli. By spring 1461, the Monastery was habitable, though not yet complete.
The research for this article was supported by a grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. I should like to thank the Foundation for its generous assistance, and Professors Egon Verheyen and Werner Gundersheimer for their scholarly advice.
1 Curiously enough, this date does not appear in any of the major chronicles of the city. It is, however, reported by Guarini, Marc Antonio, Compendio historico dell'origine, accrescimento, e prerogative delle chiese, e luoghi pij della città e diocesi di Ferrara (Ferrara, 1621), p. 164.Google Scholar Guarini also gives a brief description of the foundation ceremony and states that though the cornerstone was laid on April 23, Borso's initial proposal to the mother house dated a month earlier.
2 Archivio di Stato, Archivio Estense, Modena (hereafter AEM), Notai camerale, v, Liber instrumentorum rogatorum per ohm D. Philippum Benededei, 1450-61, fols. 79-84.
3 King, Archdale A., Liturgies of the Religious Orders (London, 1955), p. 31.Google Scholar
4 From the deed of gift it is not clear if this palace was constructed by Borso on the land before the work on the Monastery was begun and simply not completed by 1461 or if it was begun simultaneously with the other monastic buildings.
5 The monastic complex was accepted on behalf of the Order by Don Filippino da Milano, Prior of the Certosa of Galuzzo, Visitor for Tuscany and future Prior of the Certosa of Ferrara; and Don Ugo, Prior of the Certosa of Siena, on behalf of the ailing Prior of the Order in Bologna. Borso himself presented the keys and the deed of gift. The consecratory Mass was sung by the Bishop of Forli, assisted by Lorenzo Acciaiuoli, Bishop of Arezzo, and Rainaldo Maria d'Este, Commendatore of the abbey at Pomposa.
6 The delay may have been caused by Borso's request for special privileges for the Monastery. This idea is supported by a letter which Borso wrote to Jacomo Trotti, his ambassador in Rome, on October 23, 1468 (AEM, Ambasciatori esteri, Roma, busta 1a). The relevant section reads as follows: ‘… Il non si pare che la Beata sua habia a fare difficulta de concederene per omnia quello a dimandiamo per la Certosa, perche non lo facemo senon a fine de mettere bone et pacifico governo in quello monastero. Nui maxime che no li havemo passione. Preterea Nui che havemo spexo tanti dinari in quello Monastero et datoli una tanta dota, non dovemo havere qualche superiorita in quello loco et che se nui non lhavessemo facto quello ordine non haveria pure riducto, ni intrata alcuna in questo paese. Siche ragionevolemente la sua Beata ni ha accompiacere come adimandemo, et in provederai che lhabiamo ad ogni modo… .’
7 In addition to these physical improvements, Borso also had the Via degli Angeli, the road which ran from the Castelvecchio to the Monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, lined with poplar trees. The project was financed by a special fine of 35,000 ducats levied against the Jewish community of Ferrara, one of the few instances of unjust treatment of the Jews under the Este.
In addition to supporting these ‘family’ monasteries, Borso contributed sizable sums to the Franciscans when they undertook to build a chapel dedicated to San Bernardino in the Church of Santo Spirito in 1454. He donated money for the roofing of the Servite monastery, contributed to the abacus schools of both San Francesco and San Domenico, contributed 200 lire to the monks of San Paolo for repairs to their monastery, and underwrote a meeting of the capitulary of the Heironimite Order in San Andrea in 1451. All of these donations, except for the last which is mentioned in the Diario ferrarese, edited by Giuseppe Pardi, in Muratori, Ludovico Antonio, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, 2nd ed., vol. 24, pt. 7 (Bologna, 1926), p. 33 Google Scholar, are recorded in the ducal accounts, as are more regular contributions of 10 or 20 lire per annum to almost all of the major Ferrarese monastic foundations.
8 King, , Liturgies, p. 6.Google Scholar
9 Ibid., p. 1.
10 Ibid.,p. 33.
11 Borso's affection for French romances is noted by Venturi, Adolfo, ‘L'arte a Ferrara nel periodo di Borso d'Este,’ Rivista storica italiana, 2 (1885), 692–693 Google Scholar, and Bertoni, Giulio, La Biblioteca Estense e la coltura ferrarese ai tempi del Duca Ercole I (1471-1505) (Turin, 1903), pp. 69–72.Google Scholar Bertoni (p. 87) also mentions the tradition that the Este had an ancestor in the circle of Charlemagne.
12 AEM, Camera ducale, Amministrazione finaziaria: Ferrara, Libro di Fabbriche (1461-64): Certosa, fols. 92v-93. All of these decorations were executed by Michele Ungaro.
13 The adoption was declared in an act dated February 18, 1442. In this same act the Duke of Milan designated Borso Signoria of Novara. Filippo Maria had previously settled the hegemony of the city and territory of Cremona on Borso. All of these favors, however, turned out to be ephemeral. In April 1443 the Duke suddenly changed his mind and rescinded all of the privileges and gifts he had settled upon Borso. The reason for this change of heart is not known.
14 Ferdinando Canonici, in Storia e descrizione dell'antica Certosa di Ferrara ora Campo-Santo (Rovigo, 1851), p. 31, states that the annual amount was to be 5,000 lire. However, in a letter which Borso wrote to his camerlenghi dated February 7, 1456, he stated that he had fixed the sum to be paid by each of the Saline at 250 lire per month ( AEM, , Camera ducale, Registro di mandati, 1456, fol. 19v Google Scholar), which is the amount which appears in the ducal account books as well.
15 As I shall prove in a future publication, these two aims also obtained in three other of Borso's major artistic commissions, the completion of the equestrian statue of Niccolò III, the seated ruler monument of Borso himself, and the Bibbia di Borso d'Este.
16 This work is a celebration of the rise of Borso d'Este from the time of his succession to the Marquisate until his investiture as Duke of Modena and Reggio by Frederick III in 1452. Included in the text is a variation on the speculum in which a catalogue of princely virtues is developed in the course of a debate among the chief citizens of Ferrara on the advent of Leonello's death. Borso's supporters point out that Borso's life and actions exemplify his participation in each of the virtues. There exist two copies of the manuscript, an Italian version in Ravenna, Biblioteca Classense, Codex 302, and a Latin version in Modena, Biblioteca Estense, Latin 215, a, w. 2,15.
17 Savonarola, De felici, Biblioteca Classense, fol. 19. ‘E prima diro dila prudentia di quello circa il culto divino che e la prima parte di la prudentia. Questui havendo idio in gran riverentia e la giesa sua come ognuomo estimar debbe per suo exercitio spiritual ogni zorno dice loffitio entegramente come se prette fosse, e cio e a tutti vui noto, che quello per nulla il lassarebbe. Apresso io revoco ala memoria vostra: Il grande alturio da lui dato a la fabrica dil monastiero dil corpo di cristo. Il gran suo subsidio facto a quel di sancto augustino, nei quali luochi suono uno centenaro e mezo di verzene che zorno e nocte pregano idio per il bene di questa nostra cipta.’
18 Ibid.,fol. 19v. ‘La Magnificentia suoa ben dimostra in le magnifiche sue spese che tuttavia fa, et anco questa tale come dicto e dimostro ne lo edificare di tal templi ai quali gie fece cussi magnifico subsidio … .’
19 Gilbert, Felix, Niccolò Machiavelli e la vita culturale del suo tempo (Bologna, 1964), pp. 121–122.Google Scholar
20 Archivio di Stato, Archivio comunale (hereafter ASR), Carteggio di Anziani, busta containing 1464-65. ‘… Altre siate nui habbiamo significato a V. Exa il grande affano nel qual sie trovata tuta questa Cita per le scomunicho et censure nele quale se troviamo per casone de questi datii on sia additione: segondo che de continuo ni e stato obiecto per questo clero al tempo dele confessione et communione et perche a queste pascha siamo stati rischaldati anche molto piu del usate: per il che ne siamo state et siamo in grande agonia pensando al periculo dele anime nostre oltra che li corpi che haveriamo la sepulture dele Bestia: havevamo deliberato … mandare ad Celestitudine. Ma accaderie al Sp. Cavalero et dotore M° Jacomo di zobolli presente latore de transferisse a quelle, nui gli habiamo facto intendere questa nostra grande fatiga et tuto il facto, et tuto quello nui bisognarie per la comune salute… .’
21 Ibid., busta containing 1469. ‘… Havemo visto quello ni replicari per la vostra seconda circa la partita de quelli frati dela observantia de San Domenico, li quali se sono absentati per la nova sopravenuta de quelli altri mandati la oltre de commissione del loro Generale, per vigore de quelle bulle novellamente optenute de la Sta de nostra S. etc… . Et rispondemovi che se havemo facto instantia presso nostro S. che quella observantia sia sotto cura del Generale del Ordine et non del Vicario Generale, lo havemo facto per molti digni et honesti rispecti. Et quella cura havemo preso per questo nostro qui da Belfiore, quale havemo tanto excellentemente fabricato, ornato et magnificato a laude de Dio, de nostra Dona et del Glorioso Mr San Dominico, per haverne contente et piacere spirituale et goderni quella benedetta observantia, cum fructo del anima nostra et de questo nostro populo de fer., quella medema havemo preso per quello de Modena et per quello nostro de Regio, acio che tanto piu quello nostro fidelissimo populo ni ricevesse consolatione, quanto meglio quello ordine et convento fusse riducto a piu digni et excellenti termini. Et questo perche quello Vicario Generale male se accostava ale voglie nostre che sono state pero et sempre serano secondo Dio et come se conviene ad uno bono et catholico Sre. Il che cognescendo molto bene la Sta de nostro S. facilmente ha condesceso a nostri desiderij et hani per sua gratia satisfacto secondo li nostri justi et sancti appetiti de rimovere la cura de questa observantia de questi nostri luogi dal Vicario Generale et attribuirla al Generale del Ordine, superiore del tutto. Dilche anche vui doveti esser taciti et ben contenti et persuadervi che in questo come in ogni altra nostra cossa, etiam siamo forzate accostarse atute quelle parte siano secondo Dio, et juxta il rito de bona et digna observantia… .’
22 The history of the conflict between Borso and the Ferrarese bishop, which occurred in 1457, is sketched by Pardi, Giuseppe, ‘Borso d'Este, Duca di Ferrara, Modena e Reggio,’ Studi Storici, ed. Crivellucci, Amedeo, 15 (1906), 15.Google Scholar Pius II gives his own version of the conflict in his Commentari. Aeneas Sylvius Piccolornini, Commentari, tr. and ed. Gragg, Florence A. and Gabel, Leona, Smith College Studies in History, 22 (1936-37), 182–183.Google Scholar
23 Frizzi, Antonio, Memorie per la storia di Ferrara, 4 (Ferrara, 1796), 40, as well as others.Google Scholar
24 AEM, Camera ducale, Amministrazione finaziaria: Ferrara, Libro di Fabbriche (1461-64): Certosa, fol. 31, records the loan of a text of the lives of the three saints, and fols. 92v-93 record the payments to Michele Ungaro for materials and labor for the total decoration of the apartments.
25 AEM, Cancelleria ducale estense: Carteggio di referendari, consiglieri, segretari ecc., busta 2A. Letter from Giovanni Compagni to Borso dated July 24, 1469.
26 AEM, Notai camerale, v, fol. 79.