Hi Mike,
Thanks for giving your impressions from Ady and grappling with my Bolognese interpretation. My impressions are very different from how you present Ady. Except for archival materials, the sources are available - chronicles and histories, as well as more up-to-date histories. See below - starting with Terpstra's summary - for some examples pertaining to our case - mostly the same sources as Ady.
Briefly - Eugene never regained Bologna for the Church; the peace of 1442 was on paper only, the Bolognese did not want to surrender to Papal rule again (now that Piccinino was working for the Pope). Attempts by Papal/Milanese armies to regain the city after Annibale's escape in 1443 were all failures. The city did not reach an effective agreement with the Papacy until 1447 - only under a new Pope, Nicholas V.
The Bolognese loved their liberty more than anything, and worked with whomever seemed to guarantee it best against the greater enemy - in our time, this is first Duke against Papal rule, and then native son (Bentivoglio) against Duke/Pope.
There are plenty of "Caesarean" examples from this time in Bologna. Overreaching tyrant, or betrayed hero - either can be found. In fact this is the very dichotomy of Caesar which always made him a subject of debate, as much then as now.
For Caesar - the fun part of my interpretation of the sequence is seeing the middle section as a Triumphator who is betrayed. Whether this is just (vainglorious tyrant) or unjust (betrayed hero) is a matter to argue about. If you put the invention in Bologna, at a certain time, as I am doing here, you tend to look for relevant figures. How you interpret the other cards between the Triumphator and Traitor is also part of the game.
For the Star, this is both a reaction to the World figure, who is obviously not Christ (in any Southern design), and also to the iconography of the BAR (and the later versions) Star, which is highly unusual if intending to depict the Three Kings. But interpreting the final part of the sequence as apocalyptic is not unique to me.
mikeh wrote:
"Four days later the government issued a decree in which they accused the murdered man of trying to bring the city under the rule of a tyrant, and hailed Annibale as the vindicator of Bolognese liberty. In recognition of his services they conferred on him the right of entry into all councils and magistracies of the commune with the same privileges as were enjoyed by their elected members." (p. 20. Sources: Archivo di Stato, Bologna, Liber Fantini, f. 84. Decree of decem Reformatores status libertatis, 8 Feb. 1440.)
Foscarari is another good candidate for the Caesar-example, especially if you consider Brutus and Cassius to have been liberators, as many republican-minded interpreters did at the time (and an opinion Poggio most famously resurrected in 1435 in his argument for Scipio over Caesar).
He wouldn't be my preference though - that would be Piccinino (father, son or father/son as would-be tyrants). Under the shadow of Visconti, of course.
After all this, and what Huck and Ross have written, there occur to me several objections to Ross's theory that the tarot was invented by someone in Bologna 1439-1441, during the city's brief freedom from the Papacy.
(1) That time was too tumultuous, and too short, for any new game to take hold. From March of 1442 on, Bologna was back in the orbit of the Papacy.
I don't think we can judge the probability of a game being invented or taking hold from a priori consderations. It happened, and it happened at a certain time and place. Evidence is evidence, there is no way to judge if extant evidence should be probable or not. There is no "right time" for a game to be invented, as far as circumstances go. A politically or religiously tumultous time is no less probable to a game's invention than a peaceful time. In fact it was held that dice and chess were invented during famine and/or wartime. They did not regard games as the products of a leisure-society, but only of leisure-time during normal hard times.
Life carried on as normal despite the way it looks to us - business was conducted, laws were made, taxes were collected, poetry, music, and festivals were performed, the University had its students and teachers. People were not paralyzed with fear, dying by the thousands, and the city destitute for 3-5 straight years, whatever the drama of some political actions.
So - Bologna 1439-1441 is as good a time as any for the game to have been invented.
(2) Even games aren't invented in a vacuum. They come out of prior conditions, especially prior games, which also enable the new ones to take hold. In contrast to Milan and Ferrara, we know of no such, nor do the conditions seem favorable, due to tumult and papal severity. It seems more likely that during the 1441 wedding celebrations tarot would have come into Bologna from outside, and not the other way around. Even then, due to the brevity of Bologna's independence, it would not have taken hold on the popular level. There was no strong sponsor countervailing the Church and, for a time, the Piccinino.
What "papal severity" do you know of that would have prevented the Bolognese from playing games? There is none, of course. LIKE Milan and Ferrara, the evidence of cardplaying goes back in Bologna quite a few decades, even earlier than Milan or Ferrara in fact, to 1405.
Again, tumult in City Hall is no reason not to play games in a tavern. A fight in the north of the city is no reason some students in the Faculty of Law downtown would not be playing cards, or even inventing a new game.
On the "transfer" of the game, you have to recall that Marchione Burdochio, from Bologna, had a tarot deck on hand - that is, for retail sale in Ferrara - just over a year after this wedding. My supposition is that he had it from Bologna - which implies that the Bolognese were already making them in a much cheaper way than the luxury cards. But if Bologna first was exposed to the game in May 1441, in a luxury form, it was a very quick progression to retail-level cards by July 1442.
"Countervailing the Church" is the whole population of Bologna, the
Arti, the guilds, and the University. The people may have loved Albergati, but they didn't love Eugene, nor direct Papal rule in general. The Galliera represented Papal tyranny more than another other kind of tyranny. It must have been destroyed and rebuilt 4 or 5 times between 1400 and 1450.
(3) The "Caesar story" that Ross postulates for the sequence does not fit Bolognese values at the time. Caesar's victory enabled the destruction of the Republic, whereas Bologna was trying to secure one, for which the Bentivoglio were the symbol. Caesar would not have been considered a hero who failed due to imprudence, but as an enemy of the Republic who failed due to self-aggrandizement. Later that same moral was probably used against the Bentivoglio. Given the actual occasions for triumphal cars in Bologna, the Chariot card most likely would have looked then more like that of the Cary-Yale or the Catania (the "Allesandro Sforza," as Ross says it's sometimes called,
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=334&start=70#p5301), i.e. female on top and male with the horses, suitable to a bride's entry into a city, as opposed a scene of martial triumph.
Caesar can be used many ways, and was. This may be my fault, since you seem to have misunderstood me. My basic position is that the middle sequence is a "warning to would-be tyrants". That's not a very flattering view of Julius Caesar, but it fit in enough with republican values that the Florentines chose him precisely - and ONLY him - to deliver this very message to Alfonso during his triumph in Naples in 1443. Bolognese values and Florentine values were very similar in this respect, which makes Caesar perfectly appropriate for this lesson. However, Bologna's dramatic condition at this time provides a few living examples that would have been very clear - particularly Antongaleazzo Bentivoglio (if it is a "hero" Caesar who is betrayed), Niccolò or Francesco Piccinino (if it is a rueful warning about the fate of tyrants), or even Annibale Bentivoglio (assuming it is not one of his partisans who invented it). Of course it could just be the sentiment against tyrants or the vainglory of those who would rule a free people... lots of choices, but more clear and dramatic than Florence at this time.
(4) Bologna was doggedly loyal to Eugenius IV, despite the harsh rule 1435-1438. Even when independent of the Papacy, it rejected Felix’s overtures (Ady, p. 38, citing Longhi, Niccolo Piccinino a Bologna, Atti vol. xxiv p. 506). This loyalty of the citizens to the Papacy is something the rulers of Bologna always had to contend with (Ady pp. 13, 17, 52 and elsewhere). So it is unlikely that the "two popes and two emperors" or "four papi" rule would have been created with the “western schism” in mind. The uniting of Rome and Constantinople under Rome is more in line with Church policy, and is a natural interpretation of the Star card as well.
I don't think Church policy would have much to say about what a game could look like in Bologna in 1438-1441. More to the point, I think the term "doggedly loyal" is a great overstatement, as you can see from some of the documents below. In fact they voiced support for Felix in August 1440 - for purely political reasons.
Eugene had no more power in Bologna after 1438 - ever. Even the Bishop he named for Bologna after Albergati died - Tommaso Parentucelli (1445) - dared not enter Bologna. It would not be until Eugene was dead and Parentucelli became Pope - Nicholas V (1447), that the ruling Sante Bentivoglio and the Papacy made a lasting accord that had real political consequences.
In short, there was no
particular love for the Papacy in Bologna - it was a marriage of convenience, and they as often rejected it as accepted it -
especially during the time of the Western Schism, and up to 1447. It all depended on the degree of liberty they preserved. It had to be shared equally with the people. Papal rule was as likely to be abusive as Ducal rule, and we see a dramatic instance of how this politic worked during our time of interest, when the Bolognese chose Ducal rule to protect them from Papal rule, whereas it was usually the other way around. In the end, they found a strong partner in "first citizens" the Bentivoglio, under whom the Church's influence was mitigated for 60 years.
A summary narrative of the political history of Bologna, 1420s to 1450s, from Nicolas Terpstra,
Lay Confraternities and Civic Religion in Renaissance Bologna (Cambridge University Press, 1995) pp. 32-34.
“After a year of rebellion (1428-1429), the city capitulated only to discover that it had lost the war and won the peace. Not wanting to incur again the ruinous cost of a siege, Martin V in August 1429 signed a treaty which left the rebels unpunished, the
sedici in office, the Bentivoglio in exile, and the Papal legate in limbo.
With victory over the Papacy secure, the Bolognese fell once more to fighting among themselves. In February 1430 ten patrician exiles returned, but by April there were fears of an uprising in the works. Niccolò Ariosti rose in the council of 600 to denounce Egano Lambertini, Nicolò Malvezzi, Bagarotto Bianchi, Filippo dalle Anelle, and Tommaso Montecalvi; over their protests of innocence, they were hustled from the chamber and immediately murdered. Fear once more gripped the city, muting all but a few objections; only Antonio Caccianemici, his brother Giacomo, and Antonio detto Negro protested the summary executions, and within a week they were beheaded on charges of treason.
The Papal legate fled the city and war resumed. Martin V’s death in February 1431 provided a pretext for peace negotiations which culminated in a new treaty signed by Eugenius IV in April (1431). Eugenius’ confirmation of the powers of the sedici in 1433 did not ease the tensions, and by the end of the year the Canetoli had once more launched a rebellion. Antongaleazzo Bentivoglio entered papal service and was rewarded with permission to return to the city after the rebellion sputtered out. His return in triumph on December 4 (1435), and the enthusiastic reception he received, made the Papal governor Daniele Scotti distinctly uneasy; Antongaleazzo was dead before Christmas , beheaded by papal guards as he was leaving the Communal Palace where he had celebrated mass at Scotti’s invitation. On the same day, Tommaso Zambeccari was seized and hanged from the windows of the Podestà’s palace.
“
The murder of two faction leaders set the Bolognese ever more firmly against Papal rule, and the itinerant Eugenius IV could remain there from April 1436 to January 1438 only by virtue of his armed guards. Upon his departure for the Council of Ferrara-Florence, the Bentivoglio faction negotiated with the Duke of Milan and then opened the city gates to his condottiere Niccolò Piccinino (21 May, 1438). This paved the way for the return of twenty-five year old Annibale Bentivoglio, Antongaleazzo’s eldest son who had been fighting as a mercenary in Naples. Sensing their own security under Milan’s protection of Annibale, the Bolognese began granting the young Bentivoglio tax concessions and membership in the city’s chief magistracies and councils. He in turn betrothed Donnina Visconti, kinswoman of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti, and prepared to assume signory over the city. Peninsular politics had brought events to this pass, and now intervened to change the situation drastically.
Visconti’s protection of Bologna was strategic in light of his struggle against Venice, Florence, and the Papacy; with the Peace of Cavriana in December 1441, the Duke of Milan abandoned Bologna and pledged to help the Papacy recover the city. The condottiere Niccolò Piccinino had ambitions of his own, and in March 1442 he returned to the city to claim it for the Papacy and, he hoped, for his own. Bologna’s helplessness before these larger powers was underscored when Piccinino lured Annibale out of the city and imprisoned him in a Parmese castle. The arrival of Piccinino’s son Francesco as Signore stirred Galeazzo Marescotti and other members of the Bentivoglio faction to stage a daring jail break. Under cover of darkness on June 5 (1443), Annibale was pulled by ropes over the city wall at the shrine of S. Maria del Baraccano, ironically confirming his grandfather’s fears that this was a strategic weak spot in the city’s defenses. More to the point, it was a deliberate act calculated to invoke the protection of the Madonna del Baraccano, and to underscore the close identification of the shrine with the Bentivoglio which had grown since Giovanni I had turned from walling it up to expanding its quarters. Annibale’s dramatic return was the signal for an uprising that threw out Piccinino.
It also threw Bologna into war with both Milan and the Papacy. Annibale immediately set to work building bridges outside and inside the city, negotiating an alliance with Florence and Venice, and insisting that his old enemies the Canetoli be brought into government and that other exiles be allowed to return. A united commune defeated the armies of the Papacy and Milan in a bloody battle on August 14, before once again turning on itself. Annibale tried to bind the factions together through kinship ties, arranging his sister’s marriage to Giacomo Canetoli and standing as godfather to the son of the prominent Canetolisto Francesco Ghisilieri. Returning with Ghisilieri from the baptism on June 24, 1445, Annibale was set upon by Baldassare Canetoli and murdered; the assassins also murdered three of the four Marescotti brothers, narrowly missing Galeazzo. The Anziani and Gonfaloniere di Giustizia initially fled before the well-organized conspiracy, but they and the Bentivoleschi were rallied by Galeazzo Marescotti to resist. A pitched battle raged through the city’s streets, but by nightfall the Canetoli had fled.
Forays by Milanese and Papal troops over the next two years were repulsed with the help of Florence and Venice, and in the absence of a local Bentivoglio willing to hazard the signory, the faction reached to Florence for Annibale’s cousin, Sante. After some hesitation, the twenty-three year old Sante arrived in Bologna in November 1446; he would prove to be the only one of the five Bentivoglio who ruled the city in some form or other through the Quattrocento to die a natural death in his own bed in Bologna. Sante’s relations with Cosimo de Medici cemented the Florentine alliance. His good fortune in the election of Albergati’s long-time secretary Tommaso Parentucelli as Pope Nicholas V secured a Concordat with the Papacy in 1447. His marriage to Ginevra Sforza sealed the peace with Milan in 1454. The Canetoli, Pepoli, Fantuzzi, Zambeccari, and Vizzani were less easy to subdue. In 1448, Baldassare Canetoli was beheaded on the spot where he had assassinated Annibale, and three years later Francesco Ghisilieri was hanged in the ruins of his destroyed palace. His execution followed by a few days the defeat of the last major assault on the city by the anti-Bentivoglio factions. The peace of Lodi in 1454 robbed these factions of their necessary outside support, and a relative calm settled over Bologna for the next three decades.
“This brief account of Bologna’s politics from the 1420s through the early 1450s underscores the difficulties facing Nicolò Albergati as he sought a hearing for his program of religious reforms.”
Sorbelli
Corpus 3 (RIS XVIII p. I, v. IV)
http://www.archive.org/details/rerumita ... 13murauoft
p. 82 – Peace established with Pope Eugene (27 September 1435).
83 – Bolognese send ambassadors to bring Pope from Florence to Bologna (7 November 1435).
84 – Antonio Bentivoglio’s murder (23 December 1435); Baldessare da Offida, podestà, is a cruel tyrant.
85 – Pope Eugene arrives (18 April 1436)
86 – Offida, working for Pope Eugene, plans to capture Francesco Sforza (September, 1436)
87 – Offida’s plot is discovered; he is captured and dies in prison.
88-89 – Emperor Sigmund dies in December 1437; Pope Eugene honors him in San Petronio, 8 January 1438.
89 – Eugene leaves secretly for Ferrara at “hore 12” in the morning on 23 January 1438 for Ferrara. The scandal of the promise of the Council in Bolonga and the tax imposed to bring the Emperor of Constantiople (A “uno e mezo per corba”; B “soldi uno, dinari sie per corbe”) – A “which was very displeasing to the citizens of Bologna”; B “which was very displeasing to most of the citizens of Bologna”.
89-92 – Nicolo Piccinino arrives, Bentivoglio partisans let him enter on 20 May 1438, to cries of “Long live the people, and the Duke of Milan!” The city gives Piccinino the standard of the Commune (2 June). A fourteen-day battle for control of Bologna from papal and anti-Bentivoglio partisans rages.
93 – Eugene leaves Ferrara for Florence (16 January), avoiding the direct route of Bologna; sending his household by water to the east, and going himself by Modena and thence south, accompanied by Leonello d’Este and soldiers.
95-96 – Emperor John Paleologus arrives in Bologna, 31 August, stays 3 days. Another explanation of the cost and how much it displeased the Bolognese that the council was not held there.
96 – Council of Basel’s deposition of Pope Eugene posted on doors of St. Peter and St. Petronio, declaring him deprived of all ecclesiastical office and a schismatic, simonist, and heretic (21 July 1439).
97 – Felix (V) created Pope by Council of Basel. A – “Et in quello tempo era papa Eugenio quarto che steva a Fiorenza, ma havea pocho credito”; B- “Sì che in questo tempo erano dui papi, zoé era papa Euzenio, che demorava in quel tempo in Fiorenza.”
98-99 – Raffaele Foscarari’s murder (4 February 1440).
99 – Niccolò Piccinino enters Bologna in triumph (4 March 1440 – Ghirardacci adds (p. 61) that it was with 6000 soldiers).
99-101 – Patriarch of Constaniople’s death in Florence. Conspiracy of Tommaso da Logliano to restore Pope Eugene’s authority in Bologna. His discovery and beheading, 27 October 1440.
(Not noted in Chronicle, marriage of Annibale and Donnina, 7 May 1441.)
102 – 1441, 5 August, news of peace between Milan and Venice; 14 August, “se levò le offexe a Bologna fra lo papa Eugenio et lo commun de Bologna.”
106-107 – Niccolò Albergati dies in Siena, 9 May 1443; news reaches Bologna 11 May; he is buried in the Certosa of Florence. Bologna holds three days of mourning.
108-115 – Annibale’s escape from captivity (4-5 June, 1443).
114 – League between Venice, Florence and Bologna against attempts of Piccinino to retake Bologna (12 July 1443 – the Florentines sent 800 cavalry and soldiers).
115-119 – The Bolognese, led by Annibale, repel invasion attempts.
119 – Bologna joins a league with Venice, Florence, Milan and Genoa against the predations of the troops of Alfonso of Aragon in Bolognese territory (18 October, 1443) (part of a wider battle of Alfonso (troops commanded by Piccinino) and Sforza).
119 – Annibale receives the “dazio de le cartexelle” for five years.
120 – Sforza decisively defeats Piccinino (Fossombrone; 12 November 1443).
121 – Letter of Vladislav I on the defeat of the Turks (9 November, 1443).
125-129 – Death of Annibale (24 June, 1445) – A “Death of Annibale Bentivoglio betrayed by Francesco Ghisilieri his compadre”.
(Not noted in Chronicle – Eugene names Tommaso Parentucelli Bishop of Bologna, June 27 or 28, 1445. Tommaso had studied in Bologna and was Albergati’s longtime secretary).
139 – B – deformed male child born to a blasphemer, who said if his wife gave birth to another girl he would choke her and bash her head against a wall; seen as an ironic miracle (31 December, 1446).
139 – Pope Eugene appoints Tommaso Parentucelli cardinal (21 December 1446).
139 – Pope Eugene dies, 22 February 1447 (news reaches Bologna 26 February).
140 – Tommaso Parentucelli made Pope (Nicholas V - 5 March, 1447); news reaches Bologna 9 March). Bolognese send ambassadors.
142 – 12 July - “Peace is concluded between Pope Nicholas V and the Bolognese”.
A couple of things from Ghirardacci
http://www.archive.org/details/rerumita ... 31murauoft
1439 – Francesco Piccinino arrives in Bologna with 300 cavalry. It is believed that he has come to take possession of the city (18 February), which was a most easy thing to do, since the two most powerful men in the city, Annibale Bentivoglio and Battista Canetoli, hated each other so much.
1445 – The Duke of Milan gives seven hundred ducats to Baldassare Cantetoli for having killed Annibale Bentivoglio, which greatly increases the hatred of the Bolognese against Visconti.
1446 – January 2, “In Bologna there are shown hanged by the feet as traitors on the wall of the Palace of the Notaries depictions of: Galeotto, Gaspare, Lodovico, Baldassare, all the Canetoli, Nicolò Santi, Delfino Attinconti (Delfini), Lodovico dale Correggie, Lodovico Griffoni”.
Tommaso Parentucelli (1397-1455)
“On the death of[NIccolò Albergati] he (Tommaso) was appointed to succeed him in the See of Bologna [28 June, 1445], but was unable to take possession owing to the troubled state of the city. This led to his being entrusted by Pope Eugene with important diplomatic missions in Italy and Germany, which he carried out with such success that he obtained as his reward a cardinal's hat (Dec., 1446). Early next year (23 Feb.) Eugene died, and Parentucelli was elected in his place, taking as his name Nicholas in memory of his obligations to Niccolò Albergati (6 March, 1447).”
(Thomas Scannell, “Pope Nicholas V”
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 29 Dec. 2009 <
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11058a.htm>.
Selections from Michele Longhi’s documentation for “Niccolò Piccinino in Bologna” –
Atti e memorie della r. Deputazione di storia patria per le province di Romagna, ser. 3, vol. xxv (Bologna, 1907), pp. 283-377.
http://www.archive.org/details/attiememorie00marcgoog (Atti e memorie xxiv (1906))
http://www.archive.org/details/attiememorie16romagoog (Atti e memorie xxv (1907))
or
http://www.archive.org/details/3attieme ... 25depuuoft
I, iii (July, 1443?) – Letter of the Bolognese to the Cardinals in which they explain the reasons for the rebellion of 1438-1443 (pp. 286-287).
III, i (July 2, 1439) – Letter of the Synod of Basel to the Anziani and the Commune of Bologna (pp. 327-329). Announces the deposition of Eugene.
III, iv (August 18, 1440) – Letter of the Bolognese to the College of Cardinals (in Florence) explaining the reasons for rebelling against Pope Eugene (pp. 332-333). Explains the mess the papal regime made in governing the city.
III, vi (August 18, 1440) – Letter from the Bolognese to the Commune of Florence for not giving help to the Pope (pp. 334-335). Complains about the “cruel regime” of papal rule. Also says that they are not abandoning Eugene and supporting Felix for religious reasons, but political necessity. They say they are embarrassed to be known as the first Italians to abandon obedience to the former Pope, but “Necessitas legem non habet” (Necessity knows no law).
III, v (August 20, 1440) – Letter to the Anziani of Bologna from the Priors of Florence (pp. 333-334).
III, iii (August 23, 1440) – Letter of the Cardinals in Florence to the Bolognese (pp. 330-332).
III, viii (November 5, 1440) – Letter of Felix V to the Bolognese (pp. 336-337). Gives his blessings to the city, mentions the “adversary of the faith Gabriele Condulmario, formerly Eugene”, now deposed by the Holy general council in Basel, and asks for political support and money.
III, xii (30 November, 1441) - Letter of Nicolò Piccinino to his secretary about the fear of the Bolognese to go back under the Pope (pp. 341-342).
III, xi (December 1, 1441) – Letter of Nicolò Piccinino to the Anziani and Sixteen Riformatori (pp. 340-341). Asks them not to fear going back to obedience of Eugene.
III, xiii (December 8, 1441) – Letter of Nicolò Piccinino to the 16 Riformatori exhorting them not to fear the chapter that establishes the restitution of Bologna to the Pope (p. 343). Piccinino personally guarantees not to abandon them to papal reprisals.
IV, vii (October 22, 1442) – Letter of Filippo Maria Visconti in which he offers to act as intermediary for the release of Annibale Bentivoglio, Gaspare and Achille Malvezzi (pp. 362-363).
IV, viii (October 23, 1442) – Letter of Filippo Maria Visconti to the Bolognese in which he claims to have charged his chancellor with the release of Annibale Bentivoglio and companions (pp. 363-364).
V, ix (November 2, 1442) – Nicolò Piccinino accused of wanting to consign Bologna to the Pope and to bring Battista Canedolo back from exile. The reasons for which he imprisoned Annibale and company. Letter of Nicolò Piccinino to the Anziani and Conf. of Justice and to the 16 Riformatori on the capture of Annibale (pp. 364-366).
Longhi’s summary of his study of Piccinino in Bologna:
“It seems that the Government of Piccinino should not be considered at last as much a princedom than a true tyranny. But, judging from the sources from which such an opinion derives, which attest still to the liberty which we have seen enjoyed before Francesco Piccinino came to Bologna, we ought to say that, at least for the period before the capture of Annibale, the city continued always free. Servitude began but with the entrance of Francesco, with his insidious permanence in the middle of the citizens. It began when Filippo Maria, after the peace of Cavriana, rather than restore the city to the Pope, tortured it:
she was tormented and utterly destroyed (as quoted in a letter of the Bolognese to the Cardinals around 1445). This is the judgment concerning the Government of Piccinino, of the protection of the Duke of Milan, that the Bolognese make in a letter to the Cardinals. A judgment which is in perfect accord with the curse with which a chronicler accompanied the parting of Francesco Piccinino: “
may it please God that he that leaves in this hour not return to these parts.” It is the intimate curse of a people that, by the mouth of a public writer, expressed its judgment on a government at first beneficent and liberal, becoming afterwards tyrannical and insupportable.” (
Atti e memorie xxv, pp. 282-283)