The Pope's Daughter: The Extraordinary Life of Felice Della Rovere (31 page)

Statio also gave reports on Francesca’s purchases: ‘Madonna Francesca has found two
canne
and two
palmi
of Venetian
pavonazo
[highly sought after peacock-coloured silk].’
⁷
Another message from Statio reads, ‘I received your mandate from the
11
June which authorizes Madonna Francesca to obtain silk for the boys’ caps and the silk for Madonna Carlotta. This morning the aforesaid Madonna will undertake to acquire what your ladyship specified in your memo.’ Sometimes Felice’s mother assisted too; Statio informed Felice in another letter that ‘I am sending you three
canne
of the dark cloth (
panno perso
) and I believe you will be well satisfied with it, as it was acquired by Madonna Lucrezia and Madonna Francesca, who made comparisons, and found it to be the best. It cost
8
ducats and it was all paid for by Madonna Lucrezia and Francesca.’
8

If Francesca’s job for Felice was to seek out the best fabrics at the best prices, then Gian Domenico’s was to do everything and anything where his ecclesiastical position and influence would be of use. For example, as cardinal, he could bring to Leo Church-related requests from Felice that it might be inappropriate for her to make herself. On
9
August
1520
, Gian Domenico wrote to his half-sister, ‘Gian Jacopo your vassal came here to see us, saying that you wished for an indulgence to be granted to the church of Santa Maria del Fiore in Bracciano. We have sent the request to His Holiness and when he authorizes it I shall have it expedited to Bracciano.’
⁹
Absolutely indifferent to the protests against indulgences by Luther, the northern heretic, and his growing band of followers, Felice intended her request to be for the benefit of the community of Bracciano. An indulgence awarded to those visiting Bracciano’s church meant more travellers would stop at the little town on their way to Rome from the north and boost its

economy. It might be noted that Gian Domenico wrote of
when
, and not
if
, Leo would grant Felice’s request.

A more personal matter of Felice’s that demanded her brother’s assistance was with regard to her palace at Trinità dei Monti. As Orsini regent, Felice rarely expressed interest in the acquisition of new objects, and she was by no means a typical patron of the time. While by necessity she spent a lot of money on good-quality textiles, she did not, as Isabella d’Este did, purchase elaborate glassware or maiolica. Felice was satisfied with crockery and utensils of the most ordinary and serviceable kind, as is indicated by a letter from her servant Alexander, in August
1524
, in which he informs her that he is sending ‘a quantity of white beakers,
18
saucers,
11
dishes,
2
large plates,
2
half-plates,
2
candlesticks, a jug and a salt cellar’.
¹⁰
This type of pottery was of the plainest sort to be found in sixteenth-century Italy, with a simple white glaze and perhaps some decorative lines in green and blue. The disparate pieces suggest they were to replace ones that had been broken, perhaps by her children, as the wares were being sent to Vicovaro.

Only occasionally did Felice acquire anything for herself of a more frivolous nature after she assumed the Orsini regency. A rare moment of personal indulgence came with a letter sent from Naples in
1518
from Elizabetta di Mare, who was related to the Savelli, the Roman noble family. Having learned of Felice’s request for ‘a fan made of peacock feathers’, she was bringing one with her to Rome.
¹¹
This exotic fan was still at the castle of Bracciano at the end of the sixteenth century, clearly still deemed a rare and beautiful object. Felice liked fans, the only form of ventilation available at this time. Later she paid one golden ducat for one fashioned by a Roman craftsman from black feathers.

What mattered most to Felice were her residences, because of their immense intrinsic value – financial, social and political. She might not have restored Palo herself, as she had no immediate need of the castle after the death of her husband and in fact the Pope had done it for her, but there were certain matters at the Trinità Palace that needed to be resolved, not the least of which was access. Today, the Pincian Hill, on which the church and convent of Trinità dei Monti and Felice’s palace, which partly comprises the present-day Villa Malta, are situated is entirely urban, connected to the city by a dense network of roads. But in
1520
these were among the few inhabited buildings, built on land that was otherwise wilderness or used for vineyards. The hilly topography made the palace difficult to reach, even for those on sure-footed mules. The grand Spanish Steps leading up to the hill were not constructed until the eighteenth century. Until then, what is now the most popular route to the Pincian Hill, Rome’s most glamorous steps, was just a slope and it was frequently very muddy.

Felice needed a new road built to make access to her palace easier from the city below. One direct route would have been to run a road in front of her property, down the hill. This route, however, would cut across the grounds of the convent of Trinità dei Monti, and the friars objected to such a proposal. Felice decided that if the matter were to be dealt with as quickly as possible, she needed to avail herself of an influence respected not only by the friars but also by the
maestri di strada
, the officers of public works in Rome, who could have the ultimate power of veto over her plans for a road. While she herself was absent from the city in the summer of
1520
, she called on the College of Cardinals. Her brother, Gian Domenico, the Cardinal of Trani, brought in further clerical support to help his sister realize her ambition, and subsequently sent her the following detailed report on
27
June:

Dearest sister. This morning, the Cardinal Reverend of S.T. [possibly San Teodoro] and Monsignor the Reverend of Quattro Santi [Lorenzo Pucci] and I met to go over our differences with the convent of Trinità. We went up to the Trinità to see the place where you want the street. There we met the
maestri di strada
and the Reverend Phantano di Senis, the tutor of the heirs of Maestro Felice di Brancha [who had owned the vineyard behind Felice’s property] and with the other master builders we really looked the place over.

There are three ways of building the street, and three possibilities. If the street is made as a wide road, the
maestri
say that it will cost more. And Phantano de Senis says that Maestro Felice’s heirs would not be happy with blocking up the vineyard to make a public route, so you would need to compensate them for the damage. Making the street towards the cow pasture would cost less than going though the vineyard. The
maestri
say that would cost
200
ducats.

The third way is to buy the vineyard from the heirs of Maestro Felice, whose price is
2000
ducats. The friars say they would pay
800
and you would pay the rest, which is more because you would have the part that has a beautiful fountain. So your price would be
1
,
200
ducats, which would get you the vineyard and you could then have the exit and the street where you wanted. It is true that the vineyard is a bit dear, but it is worth it for the convenience. Certainly your ladyship is much obliged to the Reverend of S.T. and Santi Quattro Coronati who have acted with the greatest love and affection towards you as if they were your own brothers. And because in the vineyard there are certainly ancient walls, the Reverend di Santi Quattro Coronati thoughtfully mentioned that you could make some barns out of the ruins at little expense. As to the price, I told them that your ladyship is at present ill supplied with cash; in fact you do not have a penny. Phantano says that with regard to the price he can wait six months and perhaps more...
12

Three days after Gian Domenico’s meeting at the Trinità, the ever efficient lawyer Prospero d’Aquasparta wrote to Felice, ‘Monsignor Trani and also Cardinal Orsini have communicated to me the difference you have had with the friars of the Trinità over the entrance to your garden, and that finally on Sunday they went there to adjudicate. Although I am not notarizing the sale of the garden it will pass through my hands. At this hour I have sent for the notary who will process the sale, and who will inform me of everything.’
¹³

Thanks to a team of industrious cardinals working on her behalf, led by her half-brother, Felice got what she wanted. The Bufalini Map of Rome of
1557
indicates that the road to Felice’s palace was indeed built using the vineyard she purchased from the heirs of Maestro Felice di Brancha. A winding road exits the property to the east.

Like Palo, the Trinità dei Monti Palace came to have its own cachet with the curia. In
1518
, Leo X’s younger cousin, Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, had begun the construction of the Villa Medici, now the Villa Madama, located out to the north-west of Rome on Monte Mario, by the Milvian Bridge. The villa was designed by Raphael, inspired by Pliny’s description of his villa in his
Natural History
. In doing so, architect and patron relaunched a passion for the suburban Roman villa beloved by the ancient Roman emperors and their acolytes. In due course, his own family would also build on the Pincian Hill but, in the meantime, there were other members of Leo’s family who envied Felice’s possession of the Trinità Palace. In June
1524
, Leo’s nephew, Cardinal Giovanni Salviati, wrote to Felice, addressing her familiarly as his ‘sister’. He told her that ‘having resolved not to leave Rome this summer in order to take care of certain matters, I have been thinking of being accommodated in some delightful place that was remote from other dwellings in Rome, where I could go for pleasure and recreation in these times where there is the threat of plague, and I have been seeing in my mind your beautiful rooms at the Trinità. I thought I would request accommodation there, given your absence, seeing that I am addressing someone of your humanity and courtesy, and for the good friendship which exists between us.’
¹⁴
His request came as no surprise to Felice, for Salviati had already approached his fellow cardinal Gian Domenico a few days earlier regarding his interest in the palace. Gian Domenico immediately alerted Felice, telling her that he had assured Giovanni ‘the rooms were well furnished’.
¹⁵
The Cardinal would pay rent, and Felice had a constant need of cash, so both she and Gian Domenico were anxious that the influential Florentine cardinal might take on the Trinità Palace as a summer let.

Although Gian Domenico wrote that he had stressed Felice’s lack of ready cash to those selling the
vigna
only two weeks earlier, he had secured her a loan of
2000
ducats with an interest rate of
13
per cent, money perhaps already earmarked for other plans.
¹⁶
The Italian elite was always notoriously short of money, and they constantly traded loans between themselves to cover any temporary embarrassments. Felice always welcomed any opportunities to make more money. She was neither avaricious nor miserly because she always spent very quickly any money she had on household needs, clothing or servants’ wages. Despite her initial reluctance to use Monte Giordano as her primary seat of governance in Rome, it was important for Felice’s own self-image as governor that she repair the shabby state into which it had fallen. In January
1519
, Statio wrote to tell her that ‘Antonio Puccino and I have been measuring up the outer door of the antechamber, and getting in the wood for the loggia, and to make up the doors and windows’.
¹⁷
Felice’s
1519
account book also mentions an expense of
40
ducats for making ‘the window in the sala grande’.
¹⁸
In some small way, Felice was attempting to restore the image of Monte Giordano as it had been back in the fifteenth century, under the patronage of Cardinal Giordano, or at the very least to make it cleaner and tidier.

Felice also chose to part with those Orsini residences she felt were more financial liabilities than assets. She was willing to hand over the palace Gian Giordano had built at Blois to King Francis I, as she saw that it served little purpose to keep it in the family. In
1520
she also sold a fifteenth-century Orsini palace in Naples to the Count of Nola. The matter of cash had begun to press hard on her, because she now had the matter of dowries to concern her.