Thursday, January 16, 2014

Felice della Rovere's Birth and Early Years: 1483-92


One way to tell the story of the advancement of Cardinal Rodrigo Borja to the papal seat in 1492 would be to tell it thru the lens of one of Borja's chief antagonists, Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere. The two men were similar in a number of ways, however, as both of them had illegitimate children as cardinals, both had been appointed cardinal by an uncle who was pope and, both would be pope at the end of their lives. The one would follow the other, and both would be blamed for fomenting disunity inside and encouraging one form of foreign invasion or another from outside the region, into Italy itself.

That view of Giuliano dellla Rovere is deftly told in Caroline P Murphy's recent biography of Felice della Rovere, The Pope's Daughter. An Oxford publication from 2005, the author had to do more detective work in sketching the contours of this woman's life, 'teasing out' likely occurrences and consequences from available materials. For instance, Murphy says that we can guess - probably correctly - that young Felice was sent to Savona some time after or around the time vice-chancellor cardinal Rodrigo became the second Borja pope in Italy. For one thing, she argues, it was common for people in positions of power to have their children taken as hostages, in those times, in Rome [p. 30]. And this new pope Alexander VI - our cardinal Borja - was one that Felice's father, Giuliano could plausibly guess, was not above such extortion. Murphy also explains how later in life, the warmth between an older Felice with her actual mother and siblings testifies strongly to an earlier time spent with them, presumably in Rome in the years after Felice's birth.

Indeed Felice's mother Lucrezia Normanni was a Roman woman, who grew up in and had family from the Trastevere neighborhood just south of the Tiber in Rome. Knowing this, when paired with the knowledge that the Genoese and Savonans lived also in Trastevere, makes likely a meeting between cardinal della Rovere and Lucrezia here, around the likely time of Felice's birth.
Like many people in Rome, Lucrezia was from an old family, noble in name but not in recent prestige or wealth. Murphy says it is possible that her family encouraged her to tarry with the pope's nephew somehow after Giuliano's return from France - again, probably 1483, the supposed year of Felice's birth. Maybe, Murphy says, Lucrezia felt compelled by this promising cardinal somehow. We simply don't know if they had a lasting relationship or not, nor pin for certain the year of Felice's birth [p.10].

What we do know is that the young mother was married to one Bernardino de Cupis, the maestro de casa - a kind of head butler - to one of Giuliano's cousin cardinals, Girolamo Basso della Rovere. This was actually quite common, but still significant in that the mother was not shamed or ignored, that the baby was not sent to a local orphanage. Rodrigo Borja, for instance, the vice-chancellor in Rome at the time had a number of illegitimate children . But they were taken from the mother and raised in his own household, with the famous former mistress Vannozza. Not only was this young girl Felice, raised in another, though nearby home, but she was raised with the knowledge that she was in fact Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere's daughter. Maestro de Cupis lived in a grand palazzo on the Piazza Navona in Rome just across from the giant clerical hub of Sant Agnes in Agone [p. 17].

The center of Rome was where young Felice would grow up, in the great house of a secular servant of the church. Bustling streets she could see from the windows, people coming and going, sometimes of great importance in the great hall or at the great doorway. It was a time of great growth and dynamism in this neighborhood as popes and their servants tried to outdo each other in refurbishing the ancient city that had more recently seen centuries of disrepair.
Her protector and her father were busy men. Being a cardinal and running the household of one were both complicated affairs. But there were other children, Lucrezia had a daughter and son about Felice's age and they grew up together. Cardinal della Rovere had been given the very wealthy bishopric of Pisa and Ostia, to benefit from, and also made a chief adviser to pope Innocent VIII to attend to, and he was frequently out of town. Even the master of his cousin's house could be wealthy and learn to show his wealth both grandly and tastefully. But despite it all, the marriage between Lucrezia and Maestro de Cupis seemed amicable. On his death, Bernardino would leave her a sizable gift, which was also not so common.
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notes and pagination from Caroline P Murphy:  The Pope's Daughter: the Extraordinary Life of Felice della Rovere ; Oxford University Press, New York, 2005


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