The earliest days of Giuliano della Rovere are obscure. He was born on December 15, but it's not certain which year. He was from a small town north-west of Genoa, Albissola where his obscure father Rafaello, and his mother Theodora reared him. His uncle, a Franciscan friar was the first to emerge from obscurity as, over the course of thirty years, became Minister General of the Order near the age of fifty, in 1462. Young Giuliano was probably sixteen. His mother, Caroline Murphy tells us, may have been Greek and thereby, plausibly, part of the great exodus from Constantinople in those years. It's odd that even for such famous popes as Francesco and Giuliano would become, we don't know for sure.
The uncle Francesco was an excellent preacher and quickly found himself in Rome, and made a cardinal, by Pope Paul II in 1467. When the pope died, four years later, Hibbert tell us that Rodrigo Borja had a hand in swaying the college of cardinals in their selection, on August 25 of the very same Francesco della Rovere. In turn, he quickly appointed his first set of cardinals, and young Giuliano and his cousin Pietro was among them.
Francesco was known as erudite, devoted to the virgin, even a bit austere, but as pope Sixtus IV he would accomplish much in his thirteen year tenure as pontiff. He had his favorites though. Notable was the elder cousin Pietro whom Francesco kept close in Rome. Francesco's favored sister Bianca had married a Riario, so her son Pietro Riario, in particular, was delighted at the opportunities that elevation from Liguria to the center of Rome could obtain. The fashion then was for great displays, a big party, big processions, marvelous shows, games and spectacles, and eventually buildings, as tastes and wealth grew. This is what Pietro found himself praised for. Giuliano was often sent out of town on various missions by the pope.
Giuliano as cardinal had been given the church of San Pietro in Vincoli to administer, but even here he knew he was a fifth wheel in the grand displayances of the city. After Giuliano had died, Michelangelo would finish his tomb there.
Instead, for a dozen years, Giuliano became one of the pope's chief fixers. He acted as judge and jury all over Italy. He settled rebellions, usurpations, disputed patrimony or estate problems, and came back and related it all to the pope. In February 1476, Giuliano was made Archbishop of Avignon, and was sent to France. There he spent over a year forging solid relations with the French court and helping to secure a lasting peace between the King of France and his cousin the brash Charles, Duke of Burgundy.
Pietro died in 1477, but not long after Giuliano returned to Rome, the pope selected seven more della Rovere cardinals. More cousins and a sixteen year old great nephew, Rafaello. So Giuliano returned in 1479, to France and spent three more years there.
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from pp 7-9 in Caroline P Murphy: The Pope's Daughter: the Extraordinary Life of Felice della Rovere ; Oxford University Press, New York, 2005
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