Sanudo Diaries: Losses, Advances, Proposals, April 15, 1520

What follows is a pretty quick announcement of the death of Raphael in

A summary of a letter dated 11April from Marcantonio Michiel to Antonio da Marsilio in Venice and passed on to Sanudo.

April 15, 1520 : Sanudo Diaries 28:424-5: "On the night between Good Friday and Holy Saturday, at three hours after sunset, Raphael of Urbino, that refined and superior painter, died. He is mourned by everyone, and especially by the learned more than the others, although most of all by painters and architects. Just as Ptolemy mapped the universe, so Raphael was compiling in one volume drawings of the ancient buildings of Rome, showing their proportions, forms, and ornamentation so clearly that one who had looked at the book could claim to have seen ancient Rome...."

Editor's footnote: "The notebook referred to here is no longer extant. That Raphael was deeply concerned about the antiquities of the city is attested to by a report he made to Pope Leo X in 1516-7, about one or two years after the pope had, in 1515, appointed him 'maestro della fabrica' of St Peter's and ordered him to oversee the preservation of ancient inscribed marbles". p 460

"Because the papal palace in these days is threatening to collapse, the pope has gone to stay in the apartments of Monsignor de Cibo. There are those that say it was not caused by the weight of the superimposed arcades but that it was an omen that its adorner [Raphael] would soon pass away. And truly one has been lost whose excellence was equal to the task, whose absence should be mourned and lamented by every sensitive spirit not only in simple and fleeting voices but in well-educated and lasting works, which, if I am not mistaken, are already being undertaken by myriad authors.

They say that Raphael left 16,000 ducats, of which 5,000 are in cash, to be distributed chiefly among his friends and servants. His house, which used to belong to Bramante and which he bought for 3,000 ducats, was left to the cardinal of Santa Maria in Portico [Bernardo Bibbiena]. A stately funeral procession brought him to the Rotunda [the Pantheon], where he was buried. His soul has certainly gone to contemplate those celestial halls that suffer in deterioration, but his memory and his name will long remain here on earth in the thoughts and minds of good and noble men.

Michelangelo has fallen ill in Florence, they say. Please tell our Catena [a succesful Venetian painter] to take care of himself because this seems to be the fate of great painters. God be with you".

All quotes from Sanudo Diaries from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll,  editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008