Early on in her biography, Caroline P Murphy lets us in on the activities of a maestro di casa in Italy in the middle of the last millenia. On the one hand, she relates, Bernardino de Cupis married a woman who had given birth to a baby, fathered by a cardinal of the church. On the other, Bernardino ran a huge house that was not his own. He was a first class servant in Rome, running the household affairs of cardinal Girolamo Bossa who was cousin to Giuliano della Rovere - the future pope Julius II - and who was also made cardinal by their uncle, pope Sixtus IV.
Unlike Cardinal Borja, who kept all his children in his own household, Giuliano della Rovere allowed his only daughter to be raised in the home of a servant to his cousin, so long as he married her mother. But this servant acting as stepfather to young Felice was no mere servant and had more duties than many. This is where Murphy turns to an excellent near contemporary source to give a quick look around and provide quite a revealing view into what the duties of a maestro di casa were. Lucky for us as it's almost relatable on a human scale. A maestro di casa was like a major domo, something like the Mr Carson character on the popular pbs series Downton Abbey, but with architectural ambitions.
Murphy refers to a handbook published in 1598 by Cesare Evitascandalo that details 380 points of reference for such a maestro. She lists there was both the organizational structure of a big house that such a maestro should maintain and how to deal with each post in his chain, and also, that he had requirements to fulfill for each of the sesonal and religious festivals. Including, of course, down to what clothes the cardinal should wear on what day. And "... what to do when the cook is drunk." But he had more specific duties to his master in addition to being head of the house. True, she says, he was in charge of gaining and storing and using all foodstuffs, even for horses. But he also needed to know someone who could explain who was involved when foul deeds fell out as they occurred around the notable personages in the court and around the offices in Rome. He also had to be able to speak for his master when he was out, and to stand by his word as, and when, he knew his master would. And in the way that he would. Discretion and loyalty were valuable tools.
Murphy tells us he grew up in Montefalco, a small Franciscan town, due north, perched in the mountains of Umbria . He had a good enough education, she notes, to get a job as a top-level bureaucrat in Rome, who she says, ran the place. He had settled in Rome by 1462. "The bureaucrats were the men who ran Rome; they had all the connections they needed to receive tips, advice and bribes that allowed them a more than comfortable existence." [p. 15] But, for he and his peers, not so much power as to attract 'rivals seeking to topple them.'
Bernardino de Cupis followed his master's lead. Since the cardinal, Girolamo Basso liked magnificent displays in architecture and monuments, so did he and he spent money on making these constructions possible. They were beautifying the city under Sixtus IV and while Innocent VIII was pope (1484-92), cardinal Giuliano della Rovere was one of the most active cardinals in the college setting up other city works.
When Bernardino agreed to marry Lucrezia the mother of little Felice, he was paid a dowry that went into the house Bernardino was building, on the Piazza Navona. This is where Felice likely grew up. He had the opportunity because of his place and awareness of the city - and the pope's recent bull allowing 'investors' - to easily buy up a number of properties for rennovation and for himself, built a new landmark that would be praised by Francesco Albertini in the next century. [p, 17]
Murphy explains he was also called away in the 1480's, to lands that cardinal Girolamo was bishop in the northeastern coastal region of Italy, called the Marche. Time and again he would serve so well they gave Bernardino high praise for his services. [p, 16]
__________________________________________
notes and pagination from Caroline P Murphy: The Pope's Daughter: the Extraordinary Life of Felice della Rovere ; Oxford University Press, New York, 2005
No comments:
Post a Comment