Niccolò Ridolfi and the Cardinal's Court: Politics, Patronage and Service in Sixteenth-Century Italy

Description

Niccolò Ridolfi (1501–50), was a Florentine cardinal, nephew and cousin to the Medici popes Leo X and Clement VII, and he owed his status and wealth to their patronage. He remained actively engaged in Florentine politics, above all during the years of crisis that saw the Florentine state change from republic to duchy. A widely respected patron and scholar throughout his life, his sudden death during the conclave of 1549–50 led to allegations of poison that an autopsy appears to confirm. This book examines Cardinal Ridolfi and his court in order to understand the extent to which cardinalate courts played a key part in Rome’s resurgence and acted as hubs of knowledge located on the fault lines of politics and reform in church and state, hospitable spaces that can be analysed in the context of entanglements in Florentine and Roman cultural and political patronage, and intersections between the princely court and a more professional and complex knowledge and practice of household management in the consumer and service economy of early modern Rome. Based on an array of archival sources and on three treatises whose authors were closely linked to Ridolfi’s court, this monograph explores these multidisciplinary intersections to allow the more traditional fields of church and political history to be approached from different angles. Niccolò Ridolfi and the Cardinal's Court will appeal to all those interested in the organisation of these elite establishments and their place in sixteenth-century Roman society, the life and patronage of Niccolò Ridolfi in the context of the Florentine exiles who desired a return to republicanism, and the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Selective Genealogy of the Ridolfi Selective Genealogy of the Medici and Strozzi List of Figures and Credits List of Tables List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements A Note on Dates and Money Timeline of Significant Events Prologue Introduction PART I 1. A Florentine Ottimati Family 2. The Accumulation of Wealth 3. Sack, Siege and Republican Fervour PART II 4. The Cardinal’s Court in Rome: Models and Practice 5. Serving the Household 6. Household Expenditure: Provisioning and Consumption 7. Travel and Ceremony PART III 8. The Cardinal’s Patronage 9. Reform and the “Entrata” into Vicenza 10. Exile and the Household 11. The Conclave of 1549 Conclusion Appendix: Realdo Colombo’s Autopsy of Ridolfi and the Trial against Giovan Francesco Lottini Bibliography Index