collection Alfonso d'Este / 1505

1
I posted the text below at another place, but it seems appropriate to give it an own place ...

In the text I noted a considerable confusion about the date of death of Ercole d'Este, which in variants is given to have happened in January 1505 or at 15th of June 1505. For the January event I found at least four different dates, nonetheless it seems, that January is correct, as the relating texts appear as more serious sources than the promoters of the 15th of June date.

As "Taroch" is noted first in a Ferrarese document for 30th of June 1505, the document refers in any case to a date, when Alfonso d'Este had become already duke of Ferrara. In regard to other card productions in Ferrara and elsewhere (especially the Leonello production in February 1442) it seems logical to assume, that the card production in June 1505 accompanied Alfonso's installation as new duke.

So it seems of interest, to know about the life of Alfonso around this time as precisely as possible ... which seems not an easy task in the moment, considering that already the determination of the death date of Ercole d'Este included a lot of confusion.
And ... there had been some rather scandalous conditions in this time.
1505: two "first" Taraux-Tarocchi notes in one year, in Avignon and Ferrara ... this looks like a coordinated action.

Ercole d'Este (duke of Ferrara) died 15th of June ... in 1505.
It was already earlier a custom to edit a new card deck with a new ruler.

So there is an explanation for the Tarocchi note in 1505 in Ferrara.

QUANDO SI INIZIA A PARLARE DI "TAROCCO": FERRARA 1505 by Adriano Franceschini
Ferrara 1505 (2 notes)

reported in: QUANDO SI INIZIA A PARLARE DI "TAROCCO": FERRARA 1505 by Adriano Franceschini

Archivio di Stato di Modena, Camera ducale Estense, Guardaroba, 126, Conto di debiti e crediti, II semestre 1505
c. 93r, 30 giugno:
«Conto de merzaria de Guardaroba de' havere... E de' havere adì ultimo dito [giugno] per pare dexedoto de carte videlicet pare oto de tarochi e pare dexe fra schartini e carte de ronfa, quali fono portati a Viguenza, vene di Guradaroba al 3+, a c. 65 ... pare 18»

c. 96r, 26 dicembre: «E de' havere adì ditto per quindexe para de schartini e tarochi fo mandati a Viguenza per el Signore; vene di Guardaroba a 3+, a c. 68....[para] n. 15»
http://trionfi.com/0/p/23/

The first note is from 30th of June, so 15 days after the death of Ercole ... an accident is hardly imaginable.

A more complete version was in an informing letter to Trionfi.com:
"QUANDO SI INIZIA A PARLARE DI "TAROCCO": FERRARA 1505
di Adriano Franceschini

La comparsa in Europa delle carte da gioco nel tardo
Trecento portò a radicali novità nelle pratiche
ludiche. La corte estense in Ferrara fu uno dei luoghi
nei quali le carte ebbero speciale fortuna e la città
si trovò ad avere un ruolo primario nella produzione e
diffusione in particolare dei tarocchi,
sistematicamente indicati nella documentazione più
risalente come "trionfi", col nome che poi venne
piuttosto riservato alle figure che nel mazzo avevano
la funzione di briscola o atout. Quanto all'apparire
del termine "tarocchi" in luogo di "trionfi" per
indicare il gioco, per quel che finora si sa occorre
attendere il secolo XVI. Curiosamente allo stesso anno
1505 risalgono le prime apparizioni finora note del
termine in Italia e in Francia: a Ferrara ed Avignone
(DEPAULIS 2003, p. ..; ORTALLI 1996, p. 190 e nota
75).

Per la Francia il riferimento è a un atto notarile
steso ad Avignone il 26 dicembre 1505, accuratamente
preso in esame e illustrato da Thierry Depaulis in un
recentissimo saggio. Nel documento si tratta di «carte
di Lione» e di «carte volgarmente chiamate tarocchi»;
esattamente: «quatuor duodenis quartarum vulgo
appelatarum taraux» (DEPAULIS 2003, p. ...). Quanto
all'Italia, il termine tarochi compare per la prima
volta in un registro di conti della corte estense
relativo al secondo semestre 1505, in un'annotazione
datata al 30 giugno; ricompare poi una seconda volta
nello stesso registro al 26 dicembre con riferimento
ad alcuni mazzi (para) di carte inviati nella
residenza estense di Voghenza. Sono complessivamente
33 mazzi e il loro numero torna a riprova (se ce ne
fosse bisogno) di quanto si giocasse negli ambienti
della corte ferrarese (FRANCESCHINI 1996).

Le due note ferraresi del 1505 sono già state oggetto
di segnalazione (ORTALLI, 1996, p. 190 e nota 75), ma
si ritiene opportuno proporle nella loro stesura
completa. Il registro che le contiene è conservato
presso l'Archivio di Stato di Modena; il periodo
(ultimi sei mesi del 1505) ci riporta alla signoria di
Alfonso I d'Este, da non molto subentrato al padre
Ercole I morto il 26 gennaio dello stesso 1505. Vale
la pena precisare che nelle note di spesa qui sotto
trascritte si nominano, oltre al tarocco, altri due
giochi di carte: la ronfa e gli schartini. La «ronfa»
era un gioco che ebbe fortuna non soltanto in Italia
(MEHL 1990, p. 173; PARLETT 1991, p. 90; DUMMETT 1993,
pp. 161-163); quanto agli «scartini» che nel 1505
Alfonso I si faceva mandare a Voghenza, si trattava di
carte (e di un gioco) già familiari al padre Ercole I
che delle «carte da scartino» se le era fatte spedire
a Milano nel novembre 1494 (ORTALLI 1996, p. 191; sul
gioco cfr. DUMMETT 1980, pp. 426-427). Si precisa che
che l'annotazione «Guardaroba al 3+» contenuta in
entrambe le registrazioni sotto trascritte rimanda a
un registro dello stesso fondo archivistico segnato
con tre croci «+++». In attesa di possibili, ulteriori
recuperi documentari, le registrazioni estensi sono la
prima testimonianza di mazzi di carte indicati come
«tarocchi».


Archivio di Stato di Modena
Camera ducale Estense, Guardaroba, 126, Conto di
debiti e crediti, II semestre 1505

c. 93r, 30 giugno:
«Conto de merzaria de Guardaroba de' havere...
E de' havere adì ultimo dito [giugno] per pare
dexedoto de carte videlicet pare oto de tarochi e pare
dexe fra schartini e carte de ronfa, quali fono
portati a Viguenza, vene di Guradaroba al 3+, a c.
65..........................................................
pare 18»

c. 96r, 26 dicembre:
«E de' havere adì ditto per quindexe para de schartini
e tarochi fo mandati a Viguenza per el Signore; vene
di Guardaroba a 3+, a c.
68......................[para] n. 15»
Ortalli wrote "26 gennaio dello stesso 1505" in his information, but various wikipedias state 15th of June 1505 and also genealogy.euweb.cz, which notes also a burial date 3rd of July 1505, so there's likely a typo in the text. Or?

There appears twice the date 26th of December, once for Avignon and a second time for Ferrara ...

Ross, is this correct according your informations?

... I hope, that this isn't another confusion.

Well ..

http://books.google.com/books?id=xRyPFL ... io&f=false

... confirms 26th of January - see page 446, note 28. According this Alfonso had been on a journey to France and England and hastened to arrive home, when he heard of the illness of his father.

Frizzi had 17th of January 1505.

Alfonso traveled April 1504 - August 1504 (so didn't come late to the death of his father), and had been "visiting reigning princes: Louis XII in France, Henry VII in England, and Archduke Charles in Brussels, and was recalled prematurely to Ferrara because of his father "

I would say, that the state is "somehow not settled" ... further research needed.

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The son Alfonso d'Este went politically with France. The double appearance of the words Taraux and Taroch in one year should somehow relate to the political alliance.

Perhaps Alfonso collected the word in France during his journey. Perhaps Avignon used the word, as Alfonso used it.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: collection Alfonso d'Este / 1505

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Some material to the question, what happened 1505 in Ferrara:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alfonso d'Este (1476 - 1439)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonso_I_ ... of_Ferrara

Image


1491 married to
Anna Sforza (1476 - 1497)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Sforza
Anna Sforza got the Sphera manuscript of ca. 1470 for the wedding. As it contains some material (planets and children of planets) similar to Tarot cards (especially the magician), it's occasionally topic in the discussions.

Image


It's a suspicion, that the Sola-Busca Tarocchi was made at the occasion of the wedding ... this was researched
http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t= ... sola+busca

Image


1502 married to
Lucrezia Borgia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucrezia_Borgia
The wedding activities are described at ..
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20804/20 ... 0804-h.htm
and the description had been a topic at ...
http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p= ... ost1286867

Brothers:

Cardinal Ippolito d'Este I (1479 - 1520)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ippolito_d%27Este
Ippolito appears in a Trionfi document of 1492
http://trionfi.com/0/e/42/
Ippolito spend a lot of his time in Hungary.

Image


Giulio d'Este (1478 – 1561) - half-brother
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giulio_d%27Este ... english
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giulio_d%27Este ... Italian, more details
http://www.prefettura.it/ferrara/index. ... _sito=1182 ... Palazzo Giulio d'Este

Image


Prison of Giulio d'Este (with chess-globe ?)
http://www.ferraraterraeacqua.it/sito?l ... scheda=162

Ferrante d'Este (1477 - 1540)
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrante_d%27Este

Image


http://www.castelloestense.it/ita/caste ... ta-pt.html#
The "Torre de Leoni" (where Giulio and Ferrante spend their life after the scandal of 1506) is the biggest tower in the right-bottom corner.

Musicians

Don Rainaldo (otherwise unknown)
... a singer or musician, with whom the Ippolito/Giulio conflict started 1504. Not known by a real name.

Josquin des Prez, who left Ferrara in April 1504, likely cause the plague (did he leave Ferrara together with Alfonso ?). Alfonso's journey is said to have been done April 13 to August 8, 1504.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josquin_des_Prez

Image


Jacob Obrecht, who came after Josquin had left Ferrara and died from the plague in July 1505 (was he hired by Alfonso, when Alfonso visited Burgund in 1504 ?)
http://www.answers.com/topic/jacob-obrecht

Antoine Longueval
Image

http://books.google.com/books?id=_Cc9AA ... nd&f=false

Other Persons:

Angela Borgia Lanzol
... a relative of the Borgia, lady-in-waiting to Lucrezia Borgia, reason for the final conflict between Ippolito/Giulio (around December 1505)

http://books.google.com/books?id=NfXLJ4 ... 22&f=false
According Ferdinand Gregorovius Angela Borgia was considered as a possible wife for Francesco Maria della Rovere (* 1490), but this later duke of Urbino married 1508 Eleanore Gonzaga.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_ ... lla_Rovere

The attack on Giulio's eyes took place at 3rd of November 1505 (according Gregorovius).

Image


According http://www.kleio.org/en/history/famtree ... ffio4.html
identified as Angela Borgia, according others a new "Leonard da Vinci picture", see ...
viewtopic.php?t=367&f=11

Felice della Rovere
http://books.google.com/books?id=5ax0rU ... navlinks_s
... see especially page 54

Another daughter of a pope, not so well known as Lucrezia Borgia.

Image


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felice_della_Rovere

In autumn 1504 Pope Julius considered to marry his daughter Felice della Rovere with one of the d'Este sons.

Image


In this matter it's of interest, that Giulano de Rovere (= Pope Julius) had been godfather to Ferrante.

Additionally to this marriage consideration I found this note...

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404700789.html
In 1503, Rodrigo [Borgia, pope Alexander VI.] died, along with many of Cesare's plans. Since Lucrezia had not yet borne any children for Alfonso, the king of France suggested to Ercole that he should seek an annulment of the marriage. The idea was discarded because both Ercole and his son Alfonso were by this time fond of Lucrezia; in addition, they did not want to repay her dowry.
Niccolo da Correggio (1450 - 1508)
His biography allows some insights, what Alfonso made at specific times.
http://www.condottieridiventura.it/cond ... ICCOLO.htm
There is a strange journey to Greece in 1506.

*******************

Blois
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blois
In 1429, Joan of Arc made Blois her base of operations for the relief of Orleans. After his captivity in England, Charles of Orleans in 1440 took up his residence in the château, where in 1462 his son, afterwards Louis XII, was born. In the 16th century Blois was often the resort of the French court. The Treaty of Blois, which temporarily halted the Italian Wars, was signed there in 1504-1505.
Treaty of Blois
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Blois
1st Treaty of Blois, of September 22, 1504, which proposed a marriage between Charles of Luxembourg (the future Emperor Charles V) and Claude of France, daughter of Louis XII. The marriage was eventually cancelled, however.
Surrounding conditions:

Spain and France had attacked Naples in alliance in 1501.

It followed military engagements between France and Spain, which ended in favor of Spain in January 1504

Frederick IV (April 19, 1452 – November 9, 1504), sometimes known as Frederick I or Federico d'Aragona, was the last King of Naples of the House of Trastámara, ruling from 1496 to 1501 - died relatively short after the treaty of Blois.
This is contradicted by the more plausible date of death in 9th of September 1504:
Thus, by a last terrible blow, never to rise again, fell this branch of the house of Aragon, which had now reigned for sixty-five years. Frederic, its head, demanded and obtained a safe-conduct to pass into France, where Louis XII gave him the duchy of Anjou and 30,000 ducats a year, an condition that he should never quit the kingdom; and there, in fact, he died, an the 9th of September 1504.
In this case the treaty of Blois was made after France had lost her prisoner, who might have served to help against the Spnish Naples interests.

Isabella I, Spanish Queen, (22 April 1451 – 26 November 1504) died relative short after the first treaty of Blois

http://books.google.com/books?id=Tza8Qq ... 04&f=false
Image


Image

Image


http://books.google.com/books?id=G4qCRa ... 04&f=false
Image


Cardinals since December 1, 1505
http://www2.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios1505.htm

September - November 1506: Pope Julius attacks the Bentivoglio in Bologna. The Bentivoglio escape to Ferrara.

*****************
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: collection Alfonso d'Este / 1505

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From the perspective to research the production of Taroch cards at 30th of June 1505 the Ferrarese activities around this date are of interest, second to this the French-Ferrarese interaction before and around this time, as we've a Taraux card production in Avignon in the same year and this seems to be a related action.

The Ferrarese situation is determined by the death of Ercole in January 1505 and Alfonso becoming the next duke of Ferrara. If Ercole hadn't died, Alfonso wouldn't have made cards - this might be regarded as relative sure.

As usual in dynasty changes there had been accompanying trouble between the possible heirs. Ercole, who had got the title in 1471, still in 1476 had trouble with Niccolo, the son of Leonello. Niccolo attempted a rebellion and was killed.
Another Ferrarese conflict at a similar opportunity appeared in 1388 and it saw Obizzo IV. and his mother Beatrice beheaded, after the death of the long reigning Niccolo II "lo Zoppo" (reigned 1361 - 1388).
Similar trouble appeared also at the political changes in Milan, for instance the period of the Ambrosian republic 1447-1450.

In Alfonso's case the political change was preceded by the death of the dominant Borgia pope Alexander VI. in 1503. The situation caused a French suggestion, that the assumed heir of Ferrara Alfonso should divorce from Lucrezia Borgia, whom he had married with some skeptical feelings, but great dowry, in 1502. This was rejected and it's said, that the Este didn't desire to give back the big dowry. The new pope Julius II developed in 1504 the idea, that his own daughter should marry Ferrante d'Este, Alfonso's brother (Julius was godfather of him), and Ferrante should get Reggio and Modena, a major part of the d'Este state (Alfonso was in this time at longer journey, France, Burgundy, England) ... or Ippolito should give up his position as cardinal and marry his daughter. Julius had made the diagnosis, that the heir Alfonso had an orientation towards Venice and he wished to counterbalance this, but actually he likely wished simply to increase his own influence. Since Sixtus IV. the Rovere/Riario family was a well known player for political influence (2 popes, 7 cardinals in 15th century, 7 cardinals in 16th century and also other functions).
Both suggestions were also refused, but the proposed ideas naturally stirred up Ferrante d'Este's hopes of a good position in the future. Soon after this duke Ercole died really. Alfonso got the government ... but there were three brothers.
The first trouble happened between Ippolito and Giulio, an illegitimate son of Ercole, and it seems to have started already before Ercole's death.

Angela Borgia
By Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (1891)
http://books.google.com/books?id=lYFUmz ... &q&f=false
This well known poetical work has details about Giulio, which I didn't found confirmed elsewhere. According this Giulio had been send to serve in Venice in militaric function. Also he was involved in a murderous scandal with some dead people and set in prison (having murdered the husband of a beloved woman), but released, when Lucrezia was married to Alfonso. Might be well researched or just poetical imagination to fill the real drama with some background.

The first object of desire between Ippolito and Giulio was a musician (or singer ?) Don Raynaldo, which Ippolito wished to have for himself and Giulio also. I've difficulties to get the details correct ... either Giulio was partly arrested or only the musician (somehow involved the strange Giovanni Boiardo, a relative to our Tarocchi poem poet Matteo Maria Boiardo, who had probably poisoned M.M Boiardo's heir and the wife and other children of Boiardo driven from Scandiano; perhaps only a Palazzo of Boiardo in Ferrara played a role). At least it seems clear, that Giulio attempted to take back the musician in May 1505 from Boiardo, so relatively near to the Taroch card document at 30th of June 1505. It seems, that Alfonso interacted in the conflict in favor of Ippolito.
In the general situation Ippolito was of great importance, as he was a cardinal and of great influence, and Giulio was of less importance, only a half-brother, though honored with the possession of a nice palazzo.

Generally it's stated, that Alfonso didn't care too much about the courtly life (his interests were ceramic and canons since already early youth) and his wife Lucrezia Borgia dominated the scene. She had become the praised object of various poets, between them Pietro Bembo, who occasionally is assumed to have been her secret lover. If we search for the central person of the "Taroch document June 1505" we likely have to look at Lucrezia Borgia.

The second conflict between Giulio and Ippolito became the young beauty Angela Borgia (a distant relative), who had accompanied Lucrezia Borgia to Ferrara. She said something about the "nice eyes" of Giulio to Ippolito likely to discourage erotic advances of the cardinal and Ippolito took this as a reason to attack with the help of some useful men Giulio and his nice eyes at 3rd of November 1505, leaving Giulio half blinded.
Alfonso created "peace" between the both.
In the follow-up Ferrante, the other disappointed brother, and Giulio associated to attack and kill Alfonso. This is said to have been attempted rather stupid, and one source declares it happened 4 times (?) and I think it took place August 1506 - it's difficult to get clear dates - and at least Giulio tried to get shelter in Mantova (sister Isabella) after it. Nonetheless Alfonso got him and both were sentenced to death, but in the moment before execution Alfonso changed his mind and took them as prisoners in the torre de Leoni, where they stayed, Ferrante till his death 1540 and Giulio was released in 1559, two years before his natural death in rather high age. It's said, true or untrue, that it was forbidden to d'Este family members to have contact to them all these years - well, they lived near the kitchen and somehow near below the court capella. A rather strange arrangement.

Before this happened in 1506, Alfonso had made a longer journey together with Niccolo da Correggio to Greece - it seems, that they had given another aim, when they departed and it's somehow interpreted as a spy action. This journey is mentioned in Nicolo Corregio's biographical details at condotieridiventura.it

What happened next? Pope Julius attacked Bologna, the Bentivoglio family took their escape to Ferrara, at least for some time (successful Bologna is taken in November 1506). But then, surprising activity, Pope Julius arranged the marriage of an Alexander VI daughter with an own nephew ....
Later, after Alfonso ascended the ducal throne, the relations between the Pope and Lucretia must have become more friendly. She kept up a lively correspondence with Giulia Farnese, and doubtless received from her the news of the betrothal of her daughter to a member of the Pope's family.

The betrothal took place in the Vatican, in the presence of Julius II, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, and the mother of the young bride. This was one of the greatest triumphs of Giulia's romantic life—she had overcome the opposition of another pope, and one who had been the enemy of Alexander VI, and the man who had ruined Cæsar. She, the adulteress, who had been branded by the satirists of Rome and of all Italy as mistress of Alexander VI, now appeared in the Vatican as one of the most respectable women of the Roman aristocracy, "the illustrious Donna Giulia de Farnesio," Orsini's widow, for the purpose of betrothing the daughter of Alexander and herself to the Pope's nephew, thereby receiving absolution for the sins of her youth. She was still a beautiful and fascinating woman, and at most not more than thirty years of age.

http://www.third-millennium-library.com ... /2-29.html

What was going on? Cesare Borgia, at his best time the great fear of all Italy, had escaped from Castle of La Mota, Medina del Campo (interestingly the place, where the Spanish Isabella died) and was on his way to become possibly an active factor again ... life didn't love this story and he died at a siege in March 1507. In December 1506 pope Julius wasn't informed about this deadly outcome. Lucrezia in Ferrara had attempted variously with letters to urge the freedom of Cesare.
Did Ferrante and Giulio work only at own impulse? Hardly believable, Julius had earlier shown his interest in Ferrante. Why Alfonso did prefer to disappear on a journey ... had he knowledge about a possible attack? It's not illogical to disappear to get time to gather some information about the participating traitors. A participation of pope Julius later stayed in the process "under the carpet", but Alfonso was able in the outcome to present his prisoners as witnesses of the plot of Julius - in the case, that it became necessary.

Well, that's only speculation ... nothing real, but Julius became surprisingly cooperative in December 1506, and he later even used Ippolito to keep Bologna under control. Since December 1506 Alfonso became a factor on the battlefield, increasing in his importance. At the condottieridiventura.it page I counted his personal participation in 6 battles, and he even became the deciding element in some of them. His cannons were praised.

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Another murderous event in 1508 in Ferrara is possibly of interest: the victim had been Ercole Strozzi, son of Titus Strozzi (uncle of Matteo Maria Boiardo) - by Ferdinand Gregorovius
http://www.third-millennium-library.com ... /2-31.html
Alfonso's hopes of having an heir had twice been disappointed by miscarriages, but April 4, 1508, his wife bore him a son, who was baptized with the name of his grandfather.

Ercole Strozzi regarded the birth of this heir to the throne as the fulfilment of his prophesy. In a genethliakon he flatters the duchess with the hope that the deeds of her brother Cæsar and of her father Alexander would be an incentive to her son—both would remind him of Camillus and the Scipios as well as of the heroes of Greece.

Only a few weeks after this the genial poet met with a terrible end. His devotion to Lucretia was doubtless merely that of a court gallant and poet celebrating the beauty of his patroness. The real object of his affections was Barbara Torelli, the youthful widow of Ercole Bentivoglio, who gave him the preference over another nobleman. Strozzi married her in May, 1508.

Thirteen days later, on the morning of June 6th, the poet's dead body was found near the Este palace, which is now known as the Pareschi, wrapped in his mantle, some of his hair torn out by the roots, and wounded in two and twenty places. All Ferrara was in an uproar, for she owed her fame to Strozzi, one of the most imaginative poets of his time, the pet of everybody, the friend of Bembo and Ariosto, the favorite of the duchess and of the entire court. On his father's death he had succeeded to his position as chief of the twelve judges of Ferrara. He was still in the flower of his youth, being only twenty-seven years old.
"... wounded in two and twenty places" ... why 22? Ritual murdering? Any relation to 22 Tarot cards?
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: collection Alfonso d'Este / 1505

4


A coin design for Alfonso d'Este (backside) according ...
http://www.moneymuseum.com/moneymuseum/ ... i=31&ps=10

front: http://www.moneymuseum.com/imgs/xcoins/ ... 3059_2.jpg

The motto is explained here:
http://books.google.de/books?id=Ig9GdB5 ... do&f=false

There's a lionhead and there are flies, and the whole refers to a Samson quote. The date is not clear, but I think it refers to the war with Venice since 1508. Here are some other objects with the same motto:
https://www.google.de/search?q=de%20for ... tQbgvIDYAg

At least one of them is similar of the Fortitudo card of PMB ... the card has no flies, but possibly also Venice was addressed with the lion?
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: collection Alfonso d'Este / 1505

5
Adding to the medal of Alfonso, which was noted in the previous post:

I stumbled about this note:
When the death of Leo X. saved the house of Este from inevitable
ruin, Alfonso could not refrain from expressing his joy, and caused a
medal to be struck representing a man liberating a lamb from the
claws of a lion, with the motto, Ex ore leonis, " Out of the lion's
mouth." Fearing, however, the odium they might excite, Alfonso
suppressed the medals.
This is another Alfonso medal with lion, and it was directed against Pope Leo X.
I looked for the medal, but I didn't find it, perhaps due to the condition, that it was suppressed by Alfonso.

Alfonso referred to the following:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_X
He [Leo X] finally accepted Charles V of Spain as inevitable, and the election of Charles (28 June 1519) revealed Leo's desertion of his French alliance.

Leo was now eager to unite Ferrara, Parma and Piacenza to the States of the Church (The Papal States). An attempt late in 1519 to seize Ferrara failed, and the pope recognized the need for foreign aid. In May 1521 a treaty of alliance was signed at Rome between him and the emperor. Milan and Genoa were to be taken from France and restored to the Empire, and Parma and Piacenza were to be given to the Church on the expulsion of the French. The expense of enlisting 10,000 Swiss was to be borne equally by pope and emperor. Charles V took Florence and the Medici family under his protection and promised to punish all enemies of the Catholic faith. Leo agreed to invest Charles V with the Kingdom of Naples, to crown him Holy Roman Emperor, and to aid in a war against Venice. It was provided that England and the Swiss might also join the league. Henry VIII announced his adherence in August 1521. Francis I had already begun war with Charles V in Navarre, and in Italy, too, the French made the first hostile movement on 23 June 1521. Leo at once announced that he would excommunicate the king of France and release his subjects from their allegiance unless Francis I laid down his arms and surrendered Parma and Piacenza to the Church. The pope lived to hear the joyful news of the capture of Milan from the French and of the occupation by papal troops of the long-coveted provinces (November 1521).

Having fallen ill with malaria, Pope Leo X died on 1 December 1521 ...
I found this article, mainly concerned with Leo's bad diplomacy during the emperor election 1519.
http://www.cristoraul.com/ENGLISH/Histo ... CTION.html
There was one outlet, however, possible for the Pope’s Leo and energy, the enlargement of the Papal States. By the death of his nephew Lorenzo, the Duchy of Urbino, together with Pesaro and Sinigaglia, reverted to the Pope. This increased Leo's desire to win Ferrara, on which Julius II had cast hungry eyes. Ferrara was to be the price which Francis I was to pay for the Pope's friendship. But Leo had other friends as well, and did not let slip any opportunity. In December, 1519, he invested 10,000 ducats in an attempt to seize Ferrara by surprise. Alessandro Fregoso, Bishop of Ventimiglia, was an exile from Genoa, living at Bologna, Leo furnished him with money to raise troops, ostensibly to aid him to return to Genoa; but really for a dash on Ferrara, where the duke was lying sick, and his city was ill defended. The plot was discovered by the Marquis of Mantua, and when Fregoso saw that his intention was suspected he disbanded his troops.
Also here:
http://books.google.de/books?id=NdMYzO0 ... 19&f=false
Alfonso gave notice to the pope, that he knew about the plot, but pretended not to know about the pope's involvement. So Leo could save his face and turn to other objects.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: collection Alfonso d'Este / 1505

6
Ah, yes, Alfonso. I wrote about him at http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page.aspx?id=317. So I'll quote myself.

About Lucrezia:
That Lucrezia was familiar with the game with the 22 special cards is almost a given. There is also the fact of the death of the messenger between her and her secret would-be lover Francesco Gonzaga, her brother-in-law: the messenger, Ercole Strozzi was killed on June 6, 1508, with 22 stab wounds (Bellonci, Life and Times of Lucrezia Borgia, p. 271, repeated by Sarah Badford in Lucrezia Borgia, p. 282). The murderer was never found; the biographers interpret the murder as a warning from the Estensi, either Duke Alfonso or Cardinal Ippolito, about the fate of adulterers. After that, Francesco appears to have broken off the correspondence.
There may be an intimation in the 22 stab wounds about someone's fate:
That the Estensi used cards for sortilege is indicated in vol. 2 of Julia Cartwright's 1923 Isabella d'Este (at http://www.archive.org/stream/isabellad ... j_djvu.txt). On p. 205 she cites a description by Paolo Giovio, Bishop of Nocera (p. 59f), of Isabella's rooms in Mantua, completed 1522 (quoted by "Huck" at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=432&p=10778&hilit=lotto#p10778; on the same web-page he documents from Cartwright's books the Estensi love for cards):
These four little rooms which Isabella kept for her private use still retain much of their original decoration —...the finely carved wood-work, the azure and gilding of the ceiling, the delicately inlaid panelling of the walls, and the doors of richly coloured marbles. Here, between intarsiatura views of cities and palaces, we recognise her favourite devices and mottoes, the musical notes and rests, and the words Nev spe nec metu which supplied Equicola with a subject for his treatise, the altar supporting a lyre, the candelabra with the letters U.T.S., which Paolo Giovio interprets as Unum sufficit in tenehris, and the Lotto cards with the mystic number XXVII, vinti sette, signifying that she had vanquished all her foes, which motto, adds the Bishop of Nocera, "seems allowable in so great a princess"
... "Lotto" is Italian for "fate," like the English "lot." In this connection there is an Allegory of Fortune by the Ferrara court painter Dosso Dossi showing Fortune grasping after some papers held by a youth who is about to put them in an urn; it is described and shown at http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/art ... artobj=943. The description interprets the papers as lottery tickets, adding that a similar bundle was a favorite device of Isabella's, indicating the vicissitudes of fortune. Such papers were used in a game of chance, according to Humfrey and Lucca (p. 215). Also, lots were drawn in some places to determine who would serve in civic office, at a time when elections were viewed as corrupt (http://www.bingomagic.co.za/history_of_bingo.html). In any case, the papers are much like Isabella's "cards of fate"... It appears likely that the 22 stab wounds had something to do with the fate of someone besides the victim.
On music, there's William F. Prizer's "Music in Ferrara and Mantua at the Time of Dosso Dossi", (in Dosso's Fate, ed. Ciammitti et al, pp. 295f).
He says that Alfonso was in Savoy in 1502, where he hired his principal music copyist. He adds that 1502 is when he married Lucrezia Borgia. Lucrezia enjoyed frattole, hiring from Mantua at least three composers in that genre; Alfonso preferred French music. I mention frottole because that's what Alione's poem was, the one with the word "taroch" in it.
Why use the poets' word "taroch" for cards? One theory is, to distinguish it from scartino, which had a trump suit and similar play but with ordinary cards:
Scartino, the game with the new discard rule (allowing the dealer to discard a few of his cards at the beginning of play and take the undealt remainder in exchange), was also played there and, you will notice, mentioned in the same sentence with tarochi. Also, the game with rules similar to tarocchi but with an ordinary deck, Triumphs, may have been introduced from Spain (as Andrea hypothesizes) via Naples and Alfonso's sister Beatrice, who grew up there.
On Alfonso and art, 1505 and before:
Joseph Manca, in "What is Ferrarese about Bellini's Feast of the Gods?" in Joseph Manca, ed., Titian 500, p. 303) writes:
«As early as 1494 Alfonso showed interest in the work of painters in Ferrara. A ferrarese courtier reported to Isabella in Mantua in May of that year that Alfonso had diverted the court painter Roberti from making a portrait of his father, Duke Ercole I, b occupying the artist on another project and that Alfonso "sempre li sta sopra," that is, stood over Roberti's shoulder watching him as he worked (Footnote 12: The important passages of the document are cited in Giuseppe Campori, Artisti degli Estensi: I pittori [Modena, 1875], 49). Alfonso himself was an amateur paitner, as is recorded by several early biographers and documents.[Footnote 13 has numerous documents]»
Alfonso had a reputation, before becoming Duke, of being "pocho savio," hardly wise ("Dosso's Public: The Este Court at Ferrara," by Andrea Bayer, in Dosso Dossi: Court Painter in Renaissance Ferrara, ed. Humfrey and Lucco, p. 27):
«In 1494 he and painter Ercole de'Roberti angered Alfonso's father by some unacceptable nighttime behavior, while in 1497 rumors of his wandering nude through the city streets traveled as far as Venice. On that occasion Marin Sanudo noted that the Ferrarese found him "poco savio," hardly wise. In a letter written in 1501, when Alfonso was twenty-five, his sister Isabella d'Este, the marchesa of Mantua, was still lamenting his crude behavior (footnote . Many people thought that he spent too much time with artisans, whom he invited to share his table. He was characerized as coarse and cantakerous... »

The source for the story about his wandering nude is I diarii di Marino Sanuto [Sanudo], ed. Rinaldo Fulin et al, 58 vols. [Venice, 1879-1903], vol. 1 (1879), col. 706, notice for 6 August 1497, as quoted by Manca, n. 23, p. 312:
«Item, che pochi zorni fa, che don Alfonso fece in Ferara cossa assa' liziera, che andoe nudo per nudo per Ferara, con alcuni zoveni in compagnia, di mezo zorno, adeo per Ferara era reputa pocho savio»
The incident is also mentioned. Manca says, by Bertoni in L'Orlando furioso e la renascenza a Ferrara, 1919, p. 254, and Felisatti in Storia di Ferrara, 1986, p. 157. The letter by Isabella is on p. 470 in Michele Catalano, Vita di Ludovico Ariosto: Riconstruita su nuovi documenti, vol. 1, Biblioteca dell "Archivum Romanicum." Series 1, Storia, letteraturea, paleografia, vol. 15, Geneva, 1930. On p. 301 Catalano also gives "an almost slapstick anecdote describing how Alfonso embarrassed some women during a ball at the palace," according to Bayer.
And further:
Sheard writes (p. 333):
Apparently as the first act of independent art-related activity after his father's death a few weeks earlier, on 1 April 1505, Alfonso wrote to his ambassador in Milan, Gerolamo Seregni, directing him to acquire the Bacchus by Leonardo da Vinci
Sheard (p.356, note 114) cites Carlo Pedretti Documenti e memorie riguardanti Leonardo da Vinci a Bologna e in Emilia (Bologna 1953, p. 153) and his Leonardo da Vinci inedito. Tre saggi (Florence 1968, 14-15). Pedretti in turn cites documents in the Archivio di Stato, Modena, first published by Giuseppe Campori in 1865. The wording in Pedretti 1953, from Campori is as follows:
1505 1 aprile - Il Duca di Ferrara esprime al suo ambasciatore a Milano il desiderio di avere Bacco dipinto da Leonardo.
Here is Ambassador Seregni's reply, saying that is was impossible to have the Bacchus, because the work had been promised to the Cardinal of Rohan:
1505, 17 aprile - Girolamo Seregni, ambasciatore estense a Milano, risponde al duca Alfonso I che gli è impossibile avere il Bacco dipinto da Leonardo perché il proprietario, Antonio Maria Pallavicino lo ha già promesso al Cardinale di Rohan.
This "Cardinal di Rohan" was French and an erstwhile friend of the Sforza for many years (Lubkin, A Renaissance Court, p. 224, in Google Books). Pallavicino was at that time governor of Bergamo for the French occupiers. Sheard says.

The main problem with this information is that according to most authorities, the painting known today as Bacchus--the only painting of Leonardo's known by that title--would then have been called St. John the Baptist, as the title Bacchus wasn't given until the late 17th century after some overpainting of ivy and and a panther skin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacchus_%28Leonardo%29).
One possibility is that Alfonso thought there was a painting of Bacchus based on a drawing that Leonardo made, now called Young Bacchus and in the Academia Gallery in Venice. (Carles Lewis Hind, The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/leonard ... /drawings/).
Alfonso might have known about it from his sister Isabella. Hind notes that this Bacchus is "clothed in a costume, just peeping from the sketch, of a similar material to the dress of Isabella d’Este." But since this drawing is in Venice rather than the Louvre, it probably didn't go to Cardinal Rohan. Either there was some confusion, there is a lost painting that no one ever mentioned again, or even, the painting described in early 17th century France as of St. John the Baptist really was Bacchus in 1505.
Image

The result of Alfonso's desire for paintings on Bacchic themes is summed up by Charles Hope ("Titians and his Patrons", in Titian, Prince of Painters, ed. Susanna Biadene, p. 80):
Alfonso was one of those rare patrons with a real taste for painting and a shrewd judgment of artistic quality. The pictures he commissioned - re-creations of the kind of masterpieces admired in antiquity - had no close precedents in Venice; he acquired them purely for his own pleasure and sought the services of the best painters in Italy, first Giovannni Bellini, then Raphael and Fra' Bartolomeo, and finally Titian

That's enough for now.

Re: collection Alfonso d'Este / 1505

7
hi MikeH

The "22 stabs" might have different reasons. One possibility is, that somebody invented this story, perhaps to accuse Alfonso, who had connected himself to the Tarochi cards and with this to the 22. Second, it were just 22 stabs in an accidental manner. Well, and the 3rd, that it had ritualistic reasons, perhaps with a connection to the Tarochi cards or another of the mystical reasons, why one might have had a preference for this number 22. Mafia murders of the modern sort often used "symbolic deaths" for their victims, one might see this as an Italian custom.
Naturally, usual historians are not Tarot historians ... they don't note this possibility.

Looking through your article:
http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page.aspx?id=317

Ercole I. died with security in January, not in June 1505.

Gianfrancesco Pico had been in Strassbourg, had contact to publishers and was welcomed there (his books were published there) and in this time appeared a version of the Maintzer Kartenlosbuch there. So his observation might have been done in Strassbourg. He had to spend some time in Germany, as it was too dangerous for him to live in Italy, cause his close connection to the Savonarolists. Mirandola had fallen in other hands for this.
It's difficult to assume, that there is no causal relation between the Maintzer Losbuch with playing card pictures is the "first" cartomancy book (1505) and Gianfrancesco is the "first" cartomancy observer (1506/07) and additionally the meeting in Strassburg (was it 1504/1505 ?).
Either Gianfrancesco influenced the Strassburg producer just by giving the idea, that one could do such a work, or he got his information from the Strasbourg ... this would be the simple solution.
I wrote about this, likely you finds it with the search engines.

Generally Gianfrancesco wrote with his books of early 16th century more for German Latin readers than for Italians ... see the publication locations.
http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=gianfr ... ort_yr_asc
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: collection Alfonso d'Este / 1505

8
Huck wrote:hi MikeH

The "22 stabs" might have different reasons. One possibility is, that somebody invented this story, perhaps to accuse Alfonso, who had connected himself to the Tarochi cards and with this to the 22. Second, it were just 22 stabs in an accidental manner. Well, and the 3rd, that it had ritualistic reasons, perhaps with a connection to the Tarochi cards or another of the mystical reasons, why one might have had a preference for this number 22. Mafia murders of the modern sort often used "symbolic deaths" for their victims, one might see this as an Italian custom.
Naturally, usual historians are not Tarot historians ... they don't note this possibility.

Looking through your article:
http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page.aspx?id=317

Ercole I. died with security in January, not in June 1505.
I will look again in the sources I quoted about the 22 stab wounds, for more information.

And January is what I meant to be agreeing with in my article. Somehow a "not" got in the relevant sentence. I will have Andrea correct it.

I did not understand how Gianfrancesco is meant to connect to either my article or your posts here. Was he supposed to?

Re: collection Alfonso d'Este / 1505

9
mikeh wrote: I will look again in the sources I quoted about the 22 stab wounds, for more information.

And January is what I meant to be agreeing with in my article. Somehow a "not" got in the relevant sentence. I will have Andrea correct it.

I did not understand how Gianfrancesco is meant to connect to either my article or your posts here. Was he supposed to?
I think, it's difficult to find more about the 22 stab wounds, but in the past I've seen 22 children of "Francesco Sforza" and "22 won battles" by Francesco Sforza and "none was lost", and found, that this looked as if rather badly counted.

For Gianfrancesco Pico you wrote:
http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page.aspx?id=317
The biographers do not comment on the significance of 22. However Gianfrancesco Pico, the more famous Pico's nephew, writing in 1507, says "sortium multa sunt genera"--there are many kinds of lots-- including "in figuris chartaceo ludo pictis," which I think means "games with figures pictured on paper" (http://www.geocities.ws/anytarot/picocards.html; I think that this reference was found by Ross Caldwell). "Lots" here has the sense in which one draws lots out of an urn, to decide who will do what (e.g. Esther 14:26, http://www.sacredbible.org/studybible/OT-19_Esther.htm). Sortilege, as it was called, was a well-established practice with dice, dominoes, etc. There were books to look up what fortunes corresponded to what number; 21 was the number of combinations of two dice. Pico is saying that cards with figures on them were used in a similar way. There are in fact extant cards with dominoes on them, i.e. two dice; a Sun-Moon card is at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=321&p=9503. This is not a tarot card; but Christie's auction house shows one tarot Sun card with the same style of sun; their expert estimates the card (with a Star and a Knight of Cups) to be Lombard, 15th century (for discussion see viewtopic.php?f=23&t=402&p=4972&hilit=auction#p4972). The Sun-Moon with the domino is one of five cards from the German Liber Chronicarum of 1493 reproduced on pp. 38-39 of Il Castello dei Tarocchi (ed. Andrea Vitali, in his essay "La Scala Mistica dei Tarocchi"); the others do not resemble tarot cards. I'd guess, since they all have dominoes that combine two dice faces, there were probably 21 in that set. For 22, there might have been a "null" card as well, the Fool, called "null" in the late 15th century "Steele Sermon"; there was also a "null" roll in dice games. The correspondence between tarot and dice has been discussed thoroughly by Ross Caldwell at
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=321&start=10#p4011).
Well, the most important point about Gianfrancesco is, that he lost Mirandola for a period of 8 years between 1502
1510 ...

http://books.google.de/books?id=aJRzeu8 ... la&f=false
also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Bernardino

... cause he was a Savonarolist, as his more famous uncle Giovanni. Also a Savonarolists had been for a shorter time Ercole d'Este himself. He had lost his wife Eleanore in 1493 and in 1497 his daughter Beatrice in Milan and his daughter-in-law Anna Sforza ... 1497 was a year, in which he prohibited card playing in Ferrara ('ve read so somewhere, don't ask me where) which had seen so much card playing and Tarocchi cards. This was parallel or following to the playing card burnings by Savonarola accompanying the carnival in Florence.
When Savonarola became close of being executed, Ercole retired from his position (I don't know, how and if

Ercole's interest had been to get a new Ferrarese saint, and he thought Savonarola would become one. After this escapade Ercole collected women with stigmata at her hands, again hoping, that they would become saints. This became a longer period.
We have this oldest list with Tarot card names ...

http://trionfi.com/0/p/17/

Ron Decker ...
... between 1991 and 2001 the curator of the United States Playing Card Company, which owns the manuscript, reached the following information: "The manuscript pages have many different watermarks. All of them date from around 1500 and come from places near Ferrara. The order of the Tarot trumps, as given in the manuscript, is the Ferrarese order. The author was definitely a monk. One of the sermons is about the stigmata of St. Francis, so I think it likely that the monk was a Franciscan. I do not know on what basis others have declared the author to have been a Dominican."
Well, "around 1500" and "around Ferrara" means this time with Ercole, who collected women with stigmata at her hands, and with Giovanni Pico de Mirandola collecting Savonarolists.
Ercole had to give way to the pressure of Pope Alexander, who wanted Alfonso, widower since 2 December 1497 (his wife had given birth to a child which died immediately after being baptized; you gave the story that Alfonso ran naked through Ferrara ... "1497 rumors of his wandering nude through the city streets "; was this before or after the deaths of his child and wife ? A man who had just lost an "expected heir" or a daughter and his young wife has usually some rights to be confused, drunken or whatever).

In the time, when the Borgias had still the power, everybody was nervous about what happened next (even a husband of Lucrezia Borgia couldn't feel secure).
When Pope Alexander died and Julius became Pope, Julius desired, that Ferrante and not Alfonso should become heir of Ferrara (cause Alfonso was married to Lucrezia, and Julius still feared the Borgia influence). So Alfonso wasn't secure again. And naturally Julius was interested in a bad picture of Alfonso. Well, and when Alfonso was duke, his brothers rebelled, and this likely happened on the background, that Julius still desired Ferrante as ruler and, btw., had plans for Bologna in his pocket, which realized end of 1506.

**********

We have also , that Filippo Mari Visconti behaved "strange", but what we realistically have, is, that Filippo Maria Visconti was one of very few Visconti, who died in bed.
If Alfonso was also "strange", then it might be well, that somebody made these stories up, or that Alfonso was simply cautious, and avoided too much social nearness.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: collection Alfonso d'Este / 1505

10
Huck wrote,
1497 rumors of his wandering nude through the city streets "; was this before or after the deaths of his child and wife ? A man who had just lost an "expected heir" or a daughter and his young wife has usually some rights to be confused, drunken or whatever).
The date for this diary entry is 6 August 1497. His wife died on 2 December 1497, the child right after being baptised.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Sforza.

On the 22 stab wounds, there seems to be enough documentation that none of the historians writing about the incident disputes it, although they do disagree about who and why. They also don't theorize why 22; so it could just be that they don't find it important.

Sarah Bradford has several pages on the murder (282-289), but perhaps I can quote the main points. First, on the murder itself:
On the morning of the 6th [of June], Ercole Strozzi's body was found in the middle of the roadat the corner of the church of San Francesco, with twenty-two stab wounds in his body and his hair pulled out. His crutch lay beside him and he was wearing spurs, having ridden out on his mule to take a little resh air and been ambushed by persons unknown. Despite his horrific wounds there was no blood on the ground.: clearly he had been killed somewhere else and his body dumped by San Francesco. It was an obvious act of terror, of the kind which Cesare Borgia would nto have hesitated to order, but why had it been committed? and by whom?
Bradford notes that Ercole's brothers Lorenzo and Guido Strozzi announced the death to Francesco Gonzaga and exhorted him to carry out a vendetta against the murderers. The widow, Barbara Torelli, also looked to him for protection. Bradford continues (p. 283
It is noticeable that the Strozzi did not turn to the lord of Ferrara who, in the circumstances, could have been expected to institute investigation and punishment of the death of a man who, as a former Giudice dei XII Savi, had been a prominent administrator, a close friend of Lucrezia and a renowned poet and man of letters. Nothing happened, just as nothing had emerged after the deaths of Gandia and Bisceglie. Ercole Strozzi's biographer Maria Wirtz cites a letter written twenty-four days after the murder by one Girolamo Camasco to Ippolito d'Este naming Masino del Forno as the author of of the crime. Seizing a victim by the hair was a signature of del Forno's operations, as had been noted in his violent arrest of Ippolito's chamberlain, Cestatello, the previous year. Masino del Forno was one of the most loyal and ruthless of the senior Este brothers' henchmen; if he was involved so were they, a fact which would explain the failure even to search for the killer. Two years later, in June 1510, Julius II openly accused Alfonso of the crime during an acrimonious interview with Alfonso's envoy, Carlo Ruini. Julius was a man of explosive temperament, deeply hostile to Alfonso at that time, but he was exceptionally well informed and only the Pope could have made such an accusation without fear of the consequences.
Wirtz's view (1906) was that Alfonso had Ercole Strozzi killed because he wanted Barbara Torelli for himself and was upset with Ercole Strozzi's marrying her. But Strozzi had told Alfonso about the marriage the previous September, Bradford argues; it is more likely that the murder had to do with Lucrezia:
Alfonso had never liked Ercole Strozzi and had removed him from office as soon as he could. But his most cogent reason for disliking Strozzi was the part he played as go-between in the romance between Lucrezia and Gonzaga. It may even have been a warning signal to Francesco. Although Alfonso, reserved and secretive as he was, never gave any sign that he knew of the clandestine correspondence between his wife and his brother-in-law, it is inconceivable that Ippolito's intelligence system would not have picked up on it. Did his sister Isabella know or suspect something? It is entirely possible. Ferrara at night was as lawless as any other Italian city of the tinme, but it is not credible that such a violent murder could be committed by an ordinary criminal and the evidence of it, the body, dumped pubicly in a main street in the city centre. Had it been any ordinary criminal, the Este would have been bound to pursue the case. They did not. Equally they could have arranged for Strozzi simply to disappear. The violent nature of the incident and the alleged involvement of Masino del Forno point directly to Ippolito and Alfonso, who were not only constantly at odds with Francesco Gonzaga but also jealous for Este honour, touching as it did on the wife of Alfonso, mother of the Este heir, and the husband of Isabella.
Bradford adds that another candidate for the murderer that has been advanced (by Luzio, though it is unclear in which of his books, 1912 or 1916) is the Bentivoglio, over a dispute with Barbara Torelli over some property related to her dowry--Barbara was the widow of Ercole di Sante Bentivoglio. Bradford argues if so that there was no reason not to go after them; they were stateless and under interdict. But neither the Estensi nor anyone else did so. Bradford notes that according to Luzio, Alfonso never let a crime go unpunished, whatever the consequences. But in this case, Bradford observes, he did nothing.

As for Francesco Gonzaga, not only did he not pursue the matter, but he began to distance himself from Ferrara and Lucrezia. Having said he would come to Ferrara to be godfather to Barbara's child, he sent a deputy instead. And when Lucrezia asked to see him, he said he was sick. She continued to write and also send messages "which could not be written" via a new go-between, Lorenzo Strozzi. "Gonzaga, however, remained in Mantua and Isabella visited Ferrara in November without him" (p. 288). After that, both Gonzaga and Alfonso were embroiled in war. At first they were on the same side, although Gonzaga was quickly captured by their enemy, Venice. Gonzaga later said that Lucrezia was the only one to write and support him, Bradford says (p. 293). Then the Pope allied with Venice against Ferrara, and Gonzaga was freed to lead the papal armies, his son kept in Rome to guarantee his father's loyalty. Fortunately Gonzaga was able to stall the attack on Ferrara (out of concern for Lucrezia, with whom he continued to correspond, among other things) until when he could stall no longer the Pope resolved the situation by dying.

The only other thing of interest in Bradford is that Venice managed to capture Masino del Forno, to the Pope's delight. Bradford says (p 304)
Julius, Sanudo reported, 'wanted him because he is the confidant and minister of the betrayals and assassinations of the Cardinal [of] Ferrara' (13). As the Archdeacon of Gabbioneta wrote to Gonzaga on 276 September 1510, the Pope wished to communicate to him things of capital importance but had expressly forbidden him tunder pain of excommunication to commit them to paper: 'then he said to me: I want to tell the Lord Marchese what those brothers-in-law of his wanted to do to him..." (14)
13. Luzio, Alessandro, Isabella d'Este di Fronte a Giulio II negli ultimi tre anni del suo pontifacto, Milan 1912, p. 213.
14. Ibid., p. 214.
Later (p. 319) Bradford says, citing Luzio p. 316, that Julius told Gonzaga that Alfonso had wanted him killed. But there is no elaboration, and in the context Julius's motive is clearly to spur him on against Ferrara.
cron