The Wedding Feast of Roberto Malatesta and Isabetta da Montefeltro: Ceremony and Power

DANIEL BORNSTEIN

When Roberto Malatesta, lord of Rimini, married Isabetta da Montefeltro in June of 1475, the wedding festivities fully justified Roberto's appellation, the Magnificent The bridal party entered Rimini through the Arch ofAugus- tus, "a marvelous ancient arch, one of the most beautiful in Italy, which was prepared and arranged like a triumphal arch. On it stood learned men dressed like the fine old Romans, and at the entrance of the illustrious Duke of and the illustrious lady they recited verses, receiving that duke and lady worthily." 1 After passing through this arch, which had provided Leon Battista Alberti with the proportions of the façade of the Tempio 2 Malatestiano, the bridal party proceeded through a whole series of trium- phal arches, erected especially for this occasion on the pattern of the Arch of Augustus and all surmounted by togaed speakers declaiming verses in celebration of the great men and women of antiquity. This grand entrance was followed by eight days of festivities, which were said to have cost a total of 35,000 ducats; the processions, dances, dinners, jousts, and a great mock battle in the piazza were all recorded in minute detail by the chronicler Broglio di Tartaglia da Lavello.3 The rich detail of Broglio's description provides information that could be exploited in many different ways. The reproduction of the Roman Arch of Augustus in both the architecture of Alberti and the temporary construc- tions that greeted the bridal procession demonstrates the continuing exten- sion of the classical revival to wider audiences. The juxtaposition of these classical elements with the mock-feudal jousts and battles reveals the mul- tiplicity of cultural models available in the late fifteenth century. Signs of regional diversity and reputation can be discerned in the pay given the various workers, cooks, and entertainers: Florentines predominate among 4 the engineers, while, among the cooks, two Bolognese head the list The large number and high pay of the Ferrarese performers gives more proof -

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if any more were needed - of the cultural pre-eminence of the Este among 5 the princely courts of the Po valley. Duke Ercole d'Este's five pipers and trombonists were given 40 ducats; no other patron contributed as many 6 pipers, though a few were equally well rewarded. Duchess Leonora's two drummers received six ducats, while Lorenzo the Magnificent's only got five; her two harp players received eight ducats, compared to only two ducats for a local harpist Even the Duke's buffoon, Scocola, received 18 ducats, more than the other four buffoons combined. The Ferrarese lute player Pietro Bono and his companions received 25 ducats, while no other lutist received 7 more than four ducats. As an improviser - that is, one of those "poet- musicians whose reputations were based neither on their compositions nor on the brilliance of their instrumental technique, but rather on their ability to declaim improvised poems while accompanying themselves on the lute or the lira da braccio" - Pietro Bono was closer in skill and in status to the 8 humanists than to mere musicians. And the humanists were by far the best paid entertainers at the wedding. A certain maestro Antonio da Firenze was given 28 ducats for an impromptu speech, and that "noble knight and scholar and great poet" Mario Filelfo received the princely sum of fifty gold ducats and ûvc braccia of fine cloth for delivering the wedding oration - a resound- 9 ing demonstration of the financial rewards of a good humanist education.

Yet all these observations, however interesting, do not touch on the essen- tial message of these festivities: power. 10 Power was an elusive commodity in fifteenth-century Rimini. The Malatesta had ruled Rimini since the end of the thirteenth century, and their rule was strenghtened in the course of the fourteenth century; Malatesta Guastafamiglia and his brother Galeotto were formally granted plenitudo potestatis by the commune in 1334, and they assumed the papal vicariate in 1355. Their rule was never seriously challenged by any rebellion; as PJ. Jones notes, for many years the Malatesta signoria was the most settled and secure 11 of the despotisms of the Romagna. In interstate affairs, however, the Malatesta were less fortunate, and in the fifteenth century their authority was severely eroded by conflicts with the neighbouring signori and with their nominal papal overlords. Roberto's father, Sigismondo, ruled Rimini during the ruinous years of the mid-fifteenth century, presiding over a disaster lar- gely of his own making. Sigismondo depended on the money he earned as a condottiere, and in this era of increasingly stable relations between mer- cenaries and employers his propensity for switching sides soon cost him the support of those states, like Florence and Milan, which thought a dull but Renaissance et Réforme / 103

reliable captain was preferable to a brilliant but unreliable one; worse, it 12 earned him the lasting enmity of King Alfonso of Naples. His explosive temper kept him at a steady disadvantage in his rivalry with his neighbour, Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino. And his fierce assertion of his territorial prerogatives against the claims of the papacy brought him into bitter conflict with the implacable Pius II. These troubles came to a head in the early 1460's, when Pius II condemned Sigismondo to hell, burned him in effigy as a sign of the torments that awaited him in the next world, and 13 proclaimed a crusade against him in this world. The crusade ended in a thorough defeat for Sigismondo: the peace treaty of 1463 stripped the Malatesta of most of their holdings, leaving only Rimini to Sigismondo and nearby Cesena to his brother Domenico Novello - and both of these cities were to revert to the direct rule of the Church on the deaths of their present 14 rulers. When Domenico Novello died two years later, Roberto tried to rob the Church of its due by seizing Cesena for the Malatesta, but this attempt failed. Less than three weeks after his uncle's death, Roberto surrendered Cesena to a papal army commanded by Federigo da Montefeltro, and the 15 Malatesta signoria of Cesena ended.

When Sigismondo died on October 9, 1468, he left a dominion reduced to a single city, ravaged by prolonged warfare, and burdened by heavy taxa- tion and a faltering economy. One thing he did not leave was an undisputed heir although he had fathered at least a dozen bastards, his only two legitimate sons - one by each of his first two wives - had both died in infan- 16 cy. Yet there were claimants who were ready to fight for this meager in- heritance, with one another and with the Church (to which Rimini was now supposed to revert). The main contenders were two of Sigismondo's bastards, Roberto and Sallustio. The two may have been full brothers, born to the same mistress; in any case, they were legitimized by Nicholas V on the same date (August 31, 1450). Sallustio, however, was closely tied to his father's third and final wife, Isotta degli Atti, whom he named his adoptive mother on August 1, 1462. And it was Isotta and Sallustio who assumed power on the death of Sigismondo, while Roberto was away at Pontecorvo on papal service. The power struggle in Rimini was of more than local interest Rimini was part of the Papal State, and ever since the end of the Great Schism the popes had striven to assert their authority over their fractious subjects; moreover, the terms of the treaty of 1463 offered Pope Paul II a legal device for im- plementing that authority. But Venice, too, was interested in expanding its 104 / Renaissance and Reformation

influence in this region: in 1463 Domenico Novello sold Cervia and its profitable saltworks to Venice, and in the last years of Sigismondo's life 17 Rimini itself slid ever closer to becoming a Venetian protectorate. Sigis- mondo entered Venetian service after his defeat by Pius II; and a Venetian garrison was placed in Rimini, ostensibly to safeguard Sigismondo's state while he was away fighting for Venice. Florence, on the other hand, hoped to preserve a relatively independent outlet onto the Adriatic, and so joined with Naples and Milan in opposing Venetian expansion in the Romagna. Each of these powers backed a particular local client and manoeuvered to establish that client's rule in Rimini. The Venetians, recognizing that their garrison was not strong enough to seize Rimini for themselves, decided to back Isotta and Sallustio. For one thing, it looked as if they had the upper hand: Isotta came from a prominent local family and had many relatives and friends in the city; she was well-liked and respected; she held the fortress; and she and Sallustio had been named Sigismondo's heirs. For another, it looked as if they would be tractable clients: Sallustio was a weak sort who, though full-grown, remained under the tutelage of his adoptive mother; and 18 she, though competent and experienced, was still "just a woman." Roberto, who was away from Rimini on papal service at the time of his father's death, apparently sought the support of Paul II, his godfather, by promising to take Rimini from Isotta and Sallustio in order to return it to the Church; and there are those who believe that Paul believed him and 19 backed him. Other reports say that Isotta herself invited him to share 20 power. More plausible than either of these suggestions that Roberto's com- petitors for power helped him to attain it, is Broglio's report that a group of Riminese notables who had served Sigismondo invited Roberto to return 21 home and supported his claims. In any case, he returned to Rimini on Oc- tober 20, less than two weeks after his father's death, and joined Isotta and Sallustio in the fortress. They made a show of unity, but, as one chronicler says, "each one looked to his own interests and pondered how to obtain that 22 state and remain in power."

It was Roberto who emerged victorious from this contest. His victory was due partly to the firm backing of his father's old enemy, Federigo da Mon- tefeltro. Federigo had fought Sigismondo's territorial ambitions and foiled Roberto's attempt to hold on to Cesena, but now he was troubled by the dis- solution of the Malatesta dominion and feared that the extension of papal authority in the region would threaten his own . Accord- ingly, he personally aided Roberto, and in his capacity as Captain of the Renaissance et Réforme / 105

League of Florence, Naples, and Milan he arranged that the League, too, support Malatesta.23 The League was interested in thwarting both papal and Venetian claims, and so agreed to hire both Roberto and Sallustio as con- dottieri, offering at the same time to protect them from outside aggression. Though Galeazzo Maria Sforza proved unwilling to commit Milanese for-

ces, both Naples and Florence sent troops and on August 30, 1469, Federigo and Roberto defeated the papal army which was besieging Rimini. The actions of Federigo and the League, however, benefited both claimants to power; Roberto's triumph over his rivals ultimately depended on his own

virtu. Even while Paul II was preparing his attack on Rimini, Roberto moved against his internal enemies and forced Isotta to abandon the fortress to 24 him. With his male rivals he was less benign. He had Sallustio murdered in August 1470, less than a year after the defeat of the papal army. And a few months later, in November, he ordered the assassination of another of Sigismondo's bastards, Valerio. Valerio had chosen to pursue ecclesiastical rather than political office and did his best to avoid crossing Roberto, but

even this quiet life did not preserve him from Roberto's ruthless efforts to 25 eliminate all potential rivals and consolidate his power. The stages of Roberto's victory were marked by the progress of his mar- riage alliance with the Montefeltro of Urbino. In April, 1471, just a few months after Roberto's elimination of his last potential rival within the Malatesta family, Duke Federigo of Urbino announced the betrothal of his young daughter Isabetta to the now undisputed lord of Rimini. And when the wedding was finally celebrated in 1475, much of the ceremony was

designed to honour the father of the bride. The first of the chief seneschals (scalchi maggiori) was Antonio da Montefeltro; another was Piero degli Ubal- 26 dini, one of Federigo's followers. All the triumphal arches along the route of the entrance procession "declared the fame and glory of the Duke of Ur- 27 bino as he passed." The highest paid of the cooks, receiving 50% more than even the Bolognese chefs, were the cooks of the Duke of Urbino. When Roberto was judged the best knight at the joust (entirely on his own merits, 29 without any consideration of his rank and position, according to Broglio ),

he divided his prize and distributed it among the other outstanding knights.

He gave half of it to a man at arms of the of Mantua; the other half he presented to two followers of the Duke of Urbino, Piero degli Ubal-

dini and "il Cornachia." He did this, Broglio says, because he recognized

that these men had carried themselves well - and also to honour his il- 30 lustrious father-in-law. 106 / Renaissance and Reformation

It is hard to imagine that these calculated gestures of honour and respect outweighed the dishonour conveyed by other aspects of Roberto's behaviour.

On July 5, just ten days after the wedding, Roberto celebrated Elisabetta 31 Aldovrandini's delivery of his son. He continued his long-standing re- lationship with his favourite mistress, who bore him another son in 1480, and he fathered various other bastards by various other mistresses, includ- ing one with whom he carried on so scandalously that he infuriated some

of the leading families of Rimini. But there is no indication that this be- haviour provoked any trouble between Roberto and his father-in-law: the niceties of etiquette clearly mattered less than the realities of power, and Federigo chose to notice only those gestures that acknowledged the fun- damental mutuality of his interests and Roberto's.

This political bond between father-in-law and son-in-law is only one of many relationships of power delineated by the ceremonial surrounding the wedding. Most guests brought wedding gifts such as silver goblets, jewelry, and brocades - luxury goods the high price and skilled workmanship of which testified to the wealth and discerning taste of both donor and recipient 32 - and those lords who could not attend the festivities sent similar gifts.

Roberto's subjects, however, presented him with gifts of a very different sort:

Count Roberto of Montevecchio sent cattle for the wedding feast; the Mar-

chese dal Monte sent cattle for the feast; the town of Meldola sent fodder

and poultry; "and all the towns subject to the illustrious lord messer Rober- 33 to did likewise." In Rimini, his subjects gave cash: the cathedral canons gave 100 lire bolognesi, and the city itself gave its lord 3000 lire bolognesi?*

Broglio's list of the wedding guests is divided not into peers and subjects, like his list of gifts, but into those who attended the ceremony in person and 35 those who sent representatives - and he gives pride of place to the latter.

These, after all, were the representatives of the great powers of Italy: the am- bassador of his holiness the Pope, the ambassador of his majesty King Fer- dinand of Naples, the ambassadors of the Signoria of Venice, the , the Duke of Ferrara, and a score of lesser powers. None of the

ambassadors are named; what counts is not who they are, but whom they represent Those guests who actually attended, in contrast, were very much members of Roberto's class: minor lords and distinguished professional sol- diers like Giulio da , Piero Gentile da Varano, Pierantonio Colon- na, and Giovan Francesco da Pian di Meleto.

At the joust and the wedding feast and at mass, all these guests were seated 36 "sicondo il grado loro," according to their rank. The rank order is specified Renaissance et Réforme / 107

only at the wedding feast, where once again the minor lords who attended in person had to give place to the representatives of the major powers: the first guests to the right of the bride and groom were the papal ambassador, the Venetian ambassadors, and the Pope's nephew, Giovanni della Rovere; the first guests to the left were the ambassador of King Ferdinand of Naples, 37 the Florentine ambassador, and the ambassador of the Duke of Ferrara. As the waiters served quails and sweetbreads, roast kid, capons in white sauce, pheasants, ducks, veal, fish roasted in orange sauce, fruit, marzipan, pastries, and elaborate sugar castles, Roberto sat flanked on one side by his current employers - the League of Florence and Naples - and on the other 38 side by the employers whose service he was to enter the very next year. If the seating arrangement at the wedding feast locates Roberto's position in the interstate politics of Italy, the lodgings arranged for the major guests map the internal power structure of Rimini. Previous efforts to define Rimini's ruling elite have been frustrated by the paucity of material that has survived from the fifteenth century: little of the communal archive and vir- 39 tually nothing of the signorial archive has escaped destruction. The avail- able documentation, moreover, has been subjected to conflicting interpretations. P J. Jones stresses the merging of the old families of Riminese notables with more recent arrivals, and of both with the Malatesta, to the extent that "the signoria might be represented as simply a system of family and property relationships in which the Malatesta occupied the centre of a wide class of vassals, feudatories and urban ottimati.^ Augusto Vasina, in contrast, draws a distinction between a "bureaucratic bourgeoisie" tied to the Malatesta court and a "civic milieu" which was "properly mercantile." According to Vasina, those persons who were connected with the court generally came from families that had recently arrived in Rimini; the Riminese notables played only a minor role in the Malatesta court, and the Malatesta themselves had few close private or public ties with urban 41 society. A solution to this debate can be found in Broglio's description of the accommodations prepared for the wedding guests, which defines with exceptional precision the ruling elite of Rimini. According to Broglio, the ambassadors and lords who came to the wed- ding were lodged in the palaces and great households of Rimini, where they were attended by seneschals and companions, cooks and butlers - and these seneschals were the noblest gentlemen and citizens of Rimini. Here, in

fact, in the persons of the hosts, seneschals, and companions to the distin-

guished guests, was the elite of local notables on which the Malatesta 108 / Renaissance and Reformation

depended. Some came from families long established in Rimini; others came from families that had moved to the city after the foundation of the

Malatesta signoria, drawn by the promise of profit and advancement; still 44 others were newly arrived courtiers. But all shared the same sort of profes- sional training and bureaucratic skills. These were the notaries and lawyers who staffed the Malatesta administration, the soldiers who captained Malatesta garrisons. The podestà of Rimini waited on King Ferdinand's am- bassador; the referendario and the vicar of the gabelle waited on the Mar- chese of Mantua; Roberto's secretary and master of the accounts waited on the Patriarch; the officer of the guard waited on the son of Roberto da San- severino; an infantry constable waited on Cristofano di Nardini; one of Roberto's counselors waited on the Florentine ambassadors and another waited on the Venetians. Some of these were old associates of the Malates- ta, men who had served Roberto's father. Several were among the group of leading citizens that had summoned Roberto to Rimini after his father's death and supported him in his struggle with Isotta and Sallustio: Matteo Belmonti, who waited on Roberto's brother-in-law Giulio da Camerino; Pietro Genari, who waited on the son of Roberto da Sanseverino. Niccolb Benzi, who waited on the Duke of Milan's ambassador, had served Roberto's father and acted for Roberto in arranging the agreement with the League that made his succession possible. Lorenzo Gambuto, who waited on the Patriarch, served both Roberto and his father and was one of the three men responsible for the wedding arrangements. Paolo Bianchelli, who hosted the lord of Matelica, had represented Sigismondo in negotiating the peace treaty of 1463. Such was the elite of Rimini - not a commercial elite, for Rimini had no industry of any significance and what commerce there was (mostly foodstuffs) was firmly in the hands of Venetian merchants, but a bureaucratic and professional elite of government functionaries, tied firmly to Roberto Malatesta. Even those who had not initially backed him were by now committed to his service. Francesco di messer Sante da San Clémente, for example, had been a cancelliere to Sigismondo; after his death, he served Sallustio in the same capacity and was a partisan of Sallustio and Isotta. But he soon switched his allegiance to Roberto, and in 1482 he was among those who accompanied Roberto to Rome for his final battle. Roberto made a special point of demonstrating his mastery over this elite to the Venetians, who had backed his rivals in the struggle for the succes- sion. He lodged the Venetian ambassadors in the house of their client, Isot- ta, who had died in July of 1474 - not without suspicion of being helped on Renaissance et Réforme / 109

45 her way by poison. And he assigned to them as companion messer Alber- to Petrucci da Mondavio. Alberto was no stranger to Venice: he had been sent there by Sigismondo in 1464 to arrange a condotta for Roberto. But more important, Alberto was one of Roberto's counselors, and several elements of the wedding ceremonial displayed the especially good favour he enjoyed. At the wedding feast, he was one of the two seneschals at the head table, where he waited on the papal and Venetian ambassadors; after that feast he was knighted by his lord, from whom he received many pieces of cloth of gold 46 and other gifts. By these gestures Roberto declared to the Venetian ambas- sadors that he had won Rimini despite their opposition, that he was now in complete control of the city, and that he had charged one of his most trusted associates with keeping them under surveillance. Having sketched the networks of power - the relationships between prince and prince, mercenary and masters, lord and subjects - that gave meaning and force to the elaborate ceremony of Roberto's wedding, I would like to make two concluding observations. The first is that Roberto was thorough- ly fluent in the symbolic language of honour, but sometimes used it to con- vey dishonour. We have seen how Roberto's numerous small gestures of respect towards his father-in-law were vitiated by his blatant neglect of his wife and just as blatant attachment to his mistress. We have also seen that this did not affect the good working relations between son-in-law and father- in-law. Roberto Malatesta stripped away pleasant appearances and forced people to confront what Machiavelli called the effective reality of things; and in this case, the effective reality was that Federigo's interests were tight- ly bound to those of Roberto, no matter how badly Roberto treated Federigo's daughter. Roberto's private life was as nasty and brutal as his father's, but because he understood the realities of power and dealt in practical terms with others who understood power, he proved (in the words of PJ. Jones) 47 "as apt in attracting favor as his father was in losing it"

One singularly nasty incident from Roberto's private life will demonstrate his willingness to dispense with the niceties of polite behaviour and use dishonour to reveal power. Roberto was carrying on an affair with Lisabet- ta di Antonnio degli Atti, the niece of his father's widow Isotta. She was mar- ried to Niccol golanti, a member of a prominent old Riminese family. Roberto purportedly had her husband murdered out of jealousy, but then he provided for the bereaved widow by arranging her marriage to another local notable, Adimaro degli Adimari. It was only after he had arranged this marriage that Roberto formerly and legally claimed Lisabetta's son 110 / Renaissance and Reformation

Troilo as his by having the boy legitimized - thereby publicly dishonouring 48 not just one but three leading families.

This action was particularly charged because - and here is my second ob- servation - the effective reality of fifteenth-century Rimini was that true power resided in precisely that class of notables which Roberto offended by this action. It was members of this professional and bureaucratic elite that urged Roberto to come home after his father's death, backed him in the ensuing power struggle, and administered the state he won, both when he was in Rimini and during his frequent extended absences in the military service of his various employers. They prospered under his rule, benefiting at home from his stable rule and abroad from the opportunities opened to them by his adept foreign policy, and so were willing to tolerate the frequent exces- ses of his private life. But when he was succeeded by his bastard son Pan- dolfo, an arrogant and dissolute youth, the Riminese notables quickly realized that they could dispense entirely with this tyrant: after all, they were the ones who actually ran the state for him. Moreover, incorporation in a larger political entity, such as the Papal State, could offer expanded oppor- tunities for their administrative expertise, as their fellow notables in Cesena had learned in 1465 when that city passed from the rule of the Malatesta to 49 the direct rule of the Church. Some of them, indeed, had already capital- ized on such opportunities: Roberto degli Orsi, the poet, courtier, and lawyer who waited on the Duke of Milan's ambassador to Roberto Malatesta's wed- ding, enjoyed a long and successful career as podestà or capitano of towns 50 all over northern and central Italy, but primarily in the Papal State. His administrative career made him seem as much a servant of the papacy as of the Malatesta. And so when Pandolfo Malatesta heedlessly offended these notables "in their property, their honour, and their persons," they moved to 51 rid themselves of this obnoxious tyrant. Their first attempt, a plot by the Adimari and Belmonti, ended in failure, but in 1500 the arrival of 's papal army outside the walls of Rimini gave them all the leverage they needed. It was then a simple matter for these men, whose influential presence had been so clearly delineated by the ceremony surrounding Rober- to Malatesta's wedding, to dispense with the ceremonial trappings of the Malatesta court, surrender their city to papal authority, and in the name of that new ruler continue to administer their city.

University of California, San Diego Renaissance et Réforme /111

Notes

" Italia, il 1 . . . uno maraviglioso archo anticho di bellezza di belli che ssiano inn quale fo aparato e ordenato como archo triunphale. Sopra el quale vi furono posti homeni sperti vestiti in forma delli antichi e boni romani, li quali all'intrata dello ill.o duca d'Orbino e délia ill.a madonna dissero in versi, recievendo lo il.o signore duca e lia ill.a madonna de- gdeniamente." Gaspare Broglio di Tartaglia da Lavello, Cronaca universale, Biblioteca Civica

Gamalunga, Rimini, manuscript SC-MS. 1161 (formerly D III 48), f. 265v. Except where in- dicated, all of my references to this manuscript follow the modern numeration. 2 Rudolf Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism, revised ed. (New York: Norton, 1971), pp. 37-8; Joan Gadol, Leon Battista Alberti: Universal Man of the Early Renais- sance (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969), pp. 95-8.

3 The first folio describing the wedding (old numeration f. 292) is missing. Broglio's descrip-

tion covers ff. 264r-272v. This passage was omitted from both of the partial editions of the chronicle: Cronaca universale di Broglia di Tartaglia da Lavello, éd. A. F. Massera, in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, new edition, 16, part 2 (Bologna: Nicola Zanichelli, 1922), pp. 183-92; and Gaspare Broglio Trataglia, Cronaca malatestiana del secolo XV (dalla Cronaca universale), ed. Antonio G. Luciano (Rimini: Bruno Ghigi, 1982). Extensive portions of it are quoted in Luigi Tonini, Storia civile e sacra riminese, 9 vols. (Rimini, 1848-1882; reprint Rimini: Bruno

Ghigi, 1971), vol. 5: Rimini nella signoria de' Malatesti, part 1, pp. 351-72, and part 2, pp. 269- 74.

4 Broglio, Cronaca universale, ff. 264v-265r. 5 On Ferrara as a cultural center, see Werner L. Gundersheimer, Ferrara: The Style ofa Renais- sance Despotism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973), and Lewis Lockwood, Music in Renaissance Ferrara, 1400-1505: The Creation of a Musican Center in the Fifteenth Century (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984).

6 Broglio, Cronaca universale, f. 264v.

7 Broglio, Cronaca universale, f. 265r. 8 Howard M. Brown, Music in the Renaissance (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1976), p. 95.

9 "Oratori e giente che dissero inproviso, doni facti alii dicti, principiando prima dal nobile cavalieri e doctore e gran poeta di misser Mario figliolu del Fileffo: ducati 50 oro tucti. Item, piii ave braccia cinque di zitanino nero. E llui fo quello che disse l'oratione al sposalitio. A maestro Antonio da Fiorenza che disse inmproviso, ave ducati 28 d'oro." Broglio, Cronaca

universale, f. 265r.

10 The following account is based on P J. Jones, The Malatesta of Rimini and the Papal State: A Political History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974).

11 PJ. Jones, "The End of Malatesta Rule in Rimini," in Italian Renaissance Studies: A Tribute to the late Cecilia M. Ady, ed. E. F. Jacob (London: Faber and Faber, 1960), p. 230. 12 Michael Mallett, Mercenaries and their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy (London: The Bodley Head, 1974), p. 104.

13 Pius II, Memoirs ofA Renaissance Pope: The Commentaries ofPius II, trans. Florence A. Gragg, ed. Leona C. Gabel (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1959), pp. 184-85, 232.

14 Giovanni Soranzo, Pio lie la politico italiana nella lotta contro i Malatesti (1457-4463) (Padova:

Fratelli Drucker, 191 1), pp. 403-05, 444-55. 15 Ian Robertson, 'The Return of Cesena to the Direct Dominion of the Church after the Death of Malatesta Novello," Studi Romagnoli, 16(1965): 124-25. 16 See the genealogies of the Malatesta of Rimini compiled by Luigi Passerini and published as dispense 159 (Milano, 1869), 161 (Milano, 1869), and 162 (Milano, 1870) of Pompeo Litta's Celebri famiglie italiane. Tavola XIV lists the children of Sigismondo. 17 See Giovanni Soranzo, "La cessione di Cervia e delle sue saline a Venezia nel 1463," La Romagna, 6 (1909): 201-19; and Soranzo, "Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta in Morea e le 112 / Renaissance and Reformation

vicende del suo dominio,".<4//i e memorie delta R Deputazione di Storia patria per Ieprovincie

18 "Et a madonna Isotta era remasto el stato e la fortezza in mano, et era assai amata in quel- la terra de Arimino, che è dignissima cita. Et molti aucellaviano a quello stato, chi per una via, chi per un'altra et quella donna, che era secondo donna assai prudente, havea assai pratiche et inter cetera cum la Signuria de Venetia la quale, perfino che T signore Sigis- simondo andb in Morea [he was rumored to have died there in 1465, while on Venetian service], havea preso cura de quella terra; et cussi per guardia de quella ce erano alcune fantarie de la Signuria la quale, non havendola o non possendola avere per loro, seriano stati et erano contenu' stesse in mano de quella donna, piii presto che in mano de altri." Pierantonio Paltroni, Commentari della vita et gesti dell'illustrissimo Federico Duca d'Urbino, ed. Walter Tommasoli (Urbino: Accademia Raffaello, 1966), pp. 237-38. Paltroni also says (p. 238) that there was no rebellion in favour of the Church "perche pur la Casa de li Malates- ti ce haveva de li amici, legitimi o non legitimi fossero li figlioli del signore Sigissimondo; ultra ci adonna Isotta, che era de Arimino, havea pure li parenti et anco amici assai in lo populo."

19 See Tonini, Storia civile e sacra riminese, vol. 5, part 1, p. 328. Broglio presents a plausibly imagined discussion between Roberto and Paul II, in which Roberto accepts whatever con- ditions he must in order to obtain Paul's assistance, but with no intention of fulfilling his

promises. See Cronaca universale, ff. 256r-257r.

20 Isotta wrote to Roberto, seeking his support, and Roberto took this letter to Paul II, seek- ing to win his support, according to Giacomo Ammannati Piccolomini, Epistolae & Com-

mentarii Iacobi Picolomini Cardinalis Papiensis (Milano: Alessandro Minuziano, 1506), f. 375r. This report is accepted by Augusto Campana in his entry "Isotta degli Atti," Dizionario biografico degli italiani, vol. 4 (Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1962), p. 552.

21 "Ell'e vera cosa che dipoi la morte del signore misser Sigismondo, como v' arrato, la m.ca

madonna Isotta piglio il diminio della città d'Arimino, dove vedendo alcuni nobili della dicta città che la prefata dicta madonna Isotta non faciva alcuna mentione di ridure dicta

citta d'Arimine sotto il primogienito del prefato signore misser Sigismondo (il quale era lo

ill.o signore Roberto), non parse loro di conportare che tale rigimento li signioregiasse per piii cagione: prima, considerato non cosa lecita d'essere governati da una donna; seconda, che piii varii casi devessero acadere, dubitando di non pervenire sotto la Signoria di Venetia per qualche contracto conseguisse per la dicta madonna; terza, che anque el papa non facesse pensieri di metterla sotto santa chiesia in modo che dicta città stana sempre in tribulatione. E oltra le dicte parte, se levarieno di sotto el governo de la ca' di Malatesti; e

per dicta cagione se restrensero alcuni nobili insieme, li quali erano stati intimi servidori

del ill.o signore misser Sigismondo. Il primo moto concetto se prencipio in dui, li quali dipoi el comonicarolli altri: l'uno fo el m.co misser Alberto da Mondavio, ched era in quel- lo tempo podestà; secondo, lo spettabile gientilomo di Mateo di misser Belmonte. Custui era stato già camorieri del prefato signore, homo di grande animo e bellicose Questi dui ristretti insieme sopra tal caso con diliberatione in tucto di levare la libertade di mano di la m.ca madonna Isotta e di non stare piii sotto tale rigimento, con diliberatione di man- dare per lo ill.o signore Roberto e totalmente rimettere dicta città nelle mano di sua sig- noria, como primogienito apertenente a tale stato. El m.co misser Alberto vi mandb uno suo parente chiamato el cavalieri, e Mateo di misser Belmonte vi mandô uno gientilomo gran partegiano del prefato signore chiamato Piero di Lazarino. E fatto questo comonicarô tale volontade con lo spettabile gientilomo di Piero di Gienari, consiglieri, e con lo spet- tabile gientilomo di Ramondo, proprio de la casa di Malatesti, e con lo strenuo homo del

Castellano da Castello, fameglio caro del prefato signore, li quali tucti concordanti inn una volontade riplicando al ill.o signore Roberto che 11a sua venuta fosse con expeditione, che li darieno la dicta città, e che non dubitasse d'alcuna cosa, che liberamente venisse. [Added in margin: E al ditto acordo vi fo colloro lo spettabile homo di Niccolb di Benzo, camorieri già stato del prefato signore.] [Added in later hand: E Francescho Gianotto già suo colet- traii] Et avuto lo ill.o signore tale aviso non vi perde tempo alcuno per conseguire el ricor-

do dato, il quale era tucta la sua speranza." Broglia, Cronaca universale, f. 257r. Renaissance et Réforme / 113

22 "Ciascheuno pcnsava cl facto suo, et pensava la via de obtenere quello stato et de restare in quello dominio." Paltroni, Commentari, p. 239.

23 Walter Tomma soli, Momenti e figure délia politico dell'equilibrio (Federico da Monteféltro e l'impresa di Rimini) (Urbino: Argalia Editore, 1968). 24 "Interim Roberto, dubitando de la compagnia de madonna Isotta, honestamente la excluse, et cavolla del castello et prese el libero dominio in se." Paltroni, Commentari, p. 240. 25 Cesare Clementini, Raccolto istorico délia fondazione di Rimino e dell'origine e vite de'Malate- sti, 2 vols. (Rimini, 1617-1627; reprint Bologna: Forni, 1969), 2:479-81, 508-11.

26 Broglio, Cronaca universale, f. 267v.

27 Broglio recorded two of these speeches (ff. 268v-269r), but then apparently lost interest and cut short his account "Per abreviare, tucti li archi triunphali al passore del ill.o duca d' Or-

bino laudar a fama e la gloria di sua signoria." Cronaca universale, f. 269r. 28 The Bolognese received four ducats; maestro Giovanni and maestro Piero, Federigo's cooks,

received six. Broglio, Cronaca universale, f. 264v.

". 29 . . nonn avendo in cib riguardo alcuno ne al prefato signore misser Roberto ne ad al- cuno altro di dignità nobile ma solamente diterminando la giustitia della ragione per loro

honore." Broglio, Cronaca universale, f. 272r. 30 "Or questi sopradicti a chi lo ex.so signore usb enignità, nararo a voi ligitori cheT prefato signore conprese che apresso di sua signoria se fossero degniamente portati, et anque per honorare lo ill.mo suo socero, chè pur in verita che vi furono anque delli suoi proprii che

non feciero men bene." Broglio, Cronaca universale, f. 272r. Roberto sought the prize "non cupido d'avaritia, ma splendidissimo di dignità e suo honore" (f. 272r): the point was not

having it, but winning it and then giving it away. For some modern case studies of the operation of this "economy of ostentation," see the special issue of Tiers Monde, 9 (1968), numéro 33, devoted to "L'économie ostentatoire: Études sur l'économie du prestige et du don"

31 Clementini, Raccolto istorico, 2:539.

32 Broglio, Cronaca universale, f. 27 lr.

33 "... e ssimilemente feciero tucti li castelli sottoposti allô ill.o signore misser Roberto."

Broglio, Cronaca universal, f. 27 lr.

34 Broglio, Cronaca universale, f. 27 lr. 35 Broglio, Cronaca universale, 267v.

36 Broglio, Cronaca universale, ff. 27 lv (joust), 270r (feast), and 269r (mass).

37 Broglio, Cronaca universale, f. 269v.

38 The "lista délie vivande che furono date al pasto" appears on f. 269v; the shopping list of

"spesa facta per le nozze" is given on f. 264r. 39 Augusto Campana, "Vicende e problemi degli studi malatestiani," Studi Romagnoli, 2 (1951):13.

40 Jones, "The End of the Malatesta Rule," pp. 242-43. 41 Augusto Vasina, "La società riminese nel tardo medioevo," in his Romagna médiévale (Raven- na: Longo, 1970), pp. 267-68, 272.

42 "Tucti li nobili palagi e magnie case della città furono conpartite sicondo li gradi delli gran signori e anbasciarie, le quale ordenate con tucte quelle solenità [added in margin: e aparati] apartenente alii prefati signori, como poi scalchi e sottoscalchi e ceci e credentieri; et simile- mente le fameglie loro hordenate e servite. Li scalchi furono li piii nobili gientilomini e cit-

tadini della città." Broglio, Cronaca universale, f. 265v. 43 See the Appendix.

44 For a list of those leading families which had long been established in Rimini, and a few of the newer ones, see Vasina, Romagna médiévale, p. 284, note 32. 114 / Renaissance and Reformation

". 45 . . non senza sospetto di veleno." Clementini, Raccolto istorico, 2:481. By page 511, Clementini's coy suspicion had changed to certainty: "Ne tarda poi molto a morir Isotta di febre lenta, aiutata da veleno."

46 Broglio, Cronaca universale, ff. 269v, 27 lr.

47 Jones, The Mala testa of Rimini, p. 241. 48 Litta, Celebrifamiglie italiane, Tavola XV (children of Roberto Malatesta), entry for Troilo. Certain features of this story are implausible. Nonetheless, since it derives from sources

among the Riminese notables, it may be taken as an indication of the sort of behaviour they thought that they could expect from Roberto. 49 Robertson, 'The Return of Cesena," pp. 140ff. 50 Angelo Battaglini, Delia corte letteraria di Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, in Basinio Basini, Basini Parmensis poetae opera praestantiora nunc primum édita et opportunis commentariis in- lustrata, 2 vols. (Rimini: Tipographia Albertiniana, 1794), 2:189-97.

51 The phrase is Caterina Sforza's, quoted by Jones, 'The End of Malatesta Rule," p. 248.

Appendix1

Scalchi dati e conpagni

alii ex.i e m.ci ambasciatori e

alii ill.i e m.ci signori 2 In primio, el nobile Zenzeverino e Giovanni di Mattiolo, gientilomo d'Armine,3 scalchi del ill.mo duca d'Orbino; in corte. Pandolfo de' Ghibaldini, gientilomo, scalcho dell'anbasciatore délia sacra maestà di re Ferdinando; suoi

compagni, el podestà e misser Giovanni Antonio; in casa di 4 Piero di Lazarano. 5 Guasparrino di Bianchelli, scalcho delli ambassatori della ill.ma Signoria di Venetia; conpagni, el m.co misser 6 Alberto, consegleri, e misser Giovan Francesco Capoinsacho; in casa di madonna Isotta. 7 Gasparre di misser Antonio da Gradara, gientilomo, scalcho del m.co ambassatore del ill.mo duca Galiazzo; 8 conpagni, li nobili misser Roberto del'Orsi e'l nobile 9 10 Nicolb di Benzo; in casa delli Agolanti. Ghismondino gientilomo delli Ghibaldi, scalcho delli ambassatore delli ex.si signori fiorentini; conpagni, el 11 spettabile Piero di Giennari, consiglieri, e llo 12 spettabile et lo ex.te maestro Antonio medicho; in casa 13 d'Andréa di Lolo. Antonio di misser Giovanni Antonio, scalcho dello m.co

ambassatore dello illmo duca di Ferrara; conpagni, li Renaissance et Réforme / 115

spettabili misser Gregorio e misser Giovanni di 14 15 Ricciardelli; in casa di monsignor misser Sagramorre.

Ser Julio del Foscho, scalcho dello ill.o signore marchese di Mantova; conpagni, el spettabile gientilomo di misser Ranieri, vicario di gabella, el nobile del 16 refrendario; in casa del Foscho di Gabriello.

Bernardo di Lanzelotto, scalcho dello ill.o signore

Julio da Camerino; conpagni, li spettabili gientilomini 17 18 Mateo di misser Belmonte e Boglione; in la casa rossa,

[erased: Piero da . . . ], scalcho el reverendissimo monsigniore el patriarcha; conpagni, li spettabili 19 gientilomini Malatesta da Fano e ser Laurenzo, maestro 20 délie intrate e secretario; in casa di Malatesta. Antonio da Montefiore, gientilomo,21 scalcho del m.co misser Cristofano di Nardini; conpagni, li spettabili gientilomini Rugiero e Marzo; in casa di Marzo di Pasti. 22 Giovanni di Sagramorre, gientilomo, scalcho del figliolu del ill.o capitano e signore Roberto da

Sanseverino; conpagni, li spettabili gientilomini Galeotto, officiale délia guardia, e Ramondo suo fratello, di casa di 23 Malatesti; in casa del dicto officiale. El degnio scudieri di Gergorio di Piero di Cola, scalcho délia m.ca madonna Genevra di Bentivogli; conpagni, li spettabili gientilomini Carlo di Benzo e Ugolino di 24 Riciardelli; in casa di Piero di Cola. Rafaello Conte, gientilomo, scalcho del m.co conte di

Pitigliano; conpagni, li spettabili gientilomini misser Obezo da Ravenna e Alexandra Capoinsacho; in casa di RafTaello Conte.25

Jacomo da Ssaferrato, scalcho délia ill.a madonna Margarita da Montone; in casa di Bartolomeo Grosso. Nicole Orathor, lo scalcho del m.co signore Giovan

Francescho da Gonzagha; conpagni, li spettabili gientilomini 26 misser Sorlione e ser Tomeo; in casa di misser Sorleone. Malatesta di Bianchelli, gientilomo, scalcho del m.co 27 signore di Matelica; conpagnio, ser Paulo; in casa sua. 1

116 / Renaissance and Reformation

Notes to Appendix

1 Broglio, Cronaca universale, ff. 267v-268r. The prosopographical information on the hosts and attendants who received and honoured the wedding guests is culled from: Broglio, Cronaca universale; Clementini, Raccolto istorico; Luigi Tonini, Storia civica e sacra riminese; Carlo Tonini, La coltura letteraria e scientifica in Rimini dal secolo XFV ai primordi del XLX,

vol. 1 (Rimini: Danesi, 1884); and Angelo Battaglini, Delia corte letteraria di Sigismondo Pan- dolfo Malatesta, and Francesco Gaetano Battaglini, Delia vita e de'fatti di Sigismondo Pan- dolfo Malatesta, both in Basinio Basini, Basini Parmensis poetae opera praestantiora nunc primum édita et opportunis commentariis inlustrata, vol. 2 (Rimini: Tipographia Albertiniana, 1794). 2 "Zenzeverino" was the nickname of Cristoforo di Giovanni Bracciforte da Piacenza. He was a condottiere, and distinguished himself in the joust at Roberto's wedding, where he fought by Roberto's side. He was made a citizen of Rimini, and his descendants married into the local nobility, such as the Agolanti family. The line died out around 1600. 3 Giovanni di Mattiolo got carried away in the mock battle at Roberto's wedding and threatened to spoil the festivities by fighting too seriously. A Guasparro di Francesco Mazoli was among the hundred gentlemen who comprised the council established by Julius II in 1509 to govern Rimini for the Church. 4 Pietro di Lazarino was part of the group that supported Roberto's succession; he was chosen by Matteo di messer Belmonte to convey to Roberto their invitation to return home. His son, Lazarino di Pietro Lazarini, was a member of the council of 1509; so too was a cer- tain "Francesco di Giovanni Antonio, hora Monticoli," who may have been the son of this messer Giovanni Antonio. 5 Guasparro di Pietro Bianchelli was a member of the council of 1509. 6 Alberto Petrucci di Mondavio was thepodestà who supported Roberto's succession. He had served Roberto's father, Sigismondo, and in 1464 was responible for arranging the terms of the contract by which Venice hired Roberto. He was knighted by Roberto after the wedding feast 7 Gasparre di messer Antonio degli Andarelli came from a family that had moved to Rimini and prospered in the service of the Malatesta. His grandfather, Giacomo di Fosco, came to Rimini from nearby Gradara; his father, the lawyer messer Antonio, was Sigismondo's vicar general in 1434. Gasparre himself offended Sigismondo, who confiscated his goods, but they were restored to him on August 20, 1460, on the petition of Sigismondo's brother, Domenico Novello. 8 Roberto deli'Orsi was a lawyer, a courtier, and an accomplished poet in both Latin and the vernacular. He studied at Ferrara and took degrees in canon and civil law from the univer- sity of Perugia. He had a long and successful career as podesta or capitano of various cities in northern and central Italy: Assisi (1464), Todi (1470), Cremona, and so on. Ludovico di Pandolfo Orsi and Annibale di Pandolfo Orsi were members of the council of 1509. 9 Niccolô Benci was a particularly close companion to Sigismondo Malatesta (his "confiden- tissimo e savio cameriere," according to Broglio). He was part of the group that supported Roberto's succession, and he acted on Roberto's behalf in the agreement with the League (February 4, 1469) which secured Roberto's position. The Benci were well established in Rimini by the fifteenth century, and they maintained their position after the fall of the Malatesta. Four of the Benci were members of the council of 1509: Galeotto di Pietro, Giovanni di Andrea, Benzo di Costantino, and Giorgio di Pietro.

10 The Agolanti family was a relative newcomer to Rimini; it was linked to the Malatesta by marriage. Two of the Agolanti were members of the council of 1509; Giulio di Pietr'Antonio and Bartolomeo di Tomasso.

1 Pietro di Giovanni de' Gennari was originally from Pesaro, but he served three generation of the Malatesta in Rimini: Sigismondo, Roberto, and Pandolfo. He was part of the group Renaissance et Réforme / 117

that supported Roberto's succession. He evidently made his way into the ranks of the Riminese notables, since his son Sigismondo was a member of the council of 1509.

12 Maestro Antonio is possibly Antonio Cicchini, a doctor and later a professor of medicine at Padua, where he died in 1494.

13 Andrea di Lolo is probably a member of the Perleoni family, an old Riminese family. Giacomo Perleoni served the Malatesta as a legal consultant 14 Giovanni Ricciardelli was a jurist and the author of memoirs concerning the leading families of Rimini The Ricciardelli certainly had a place among them, since four of them served on the council of 1509: Giacomo di Tomasso, Andrea di Giovanni, Rinaldo di Ramberto, and Pietro di Ugolino. 15 The Sacra mori were relative newcomers to Rimini, and several ofthem served in the Malates- ta administration. Monsignor Sagramorre was the Bishop of Parma. 16 Gabriello and Giulio del Fosco were apparently, like the Andarelli, descendents of Giacomo di Fosco da Gradara. 17 Matteo di messer Belmonte was a member of an old Riminese family, one that had served several generations of the Malatesta. He was one of the leaders of the group that supported Roberto's succession. After the expulsion of the Malatesta, Matteo's family continued to prosper in Rimini: two of his sons, Ludovico and Pandolfo, were members of the council of 1509. 18 Baglione Baglioni was a condottiere in the service of the Malatesta. 19 Malatesta da Fano was from a cadet branch of the family. 20 Lorenzo Gambuto served Sigismondo as chancellor and secretary; he was the emissary who arranged the terms of the peace treaty with Pius II in 1463, and in 1466 he managed to win Venetian support for Sigismondo. He served Roberto, too, in various administrative capacities; he was one of the three men entrusted with the wedding arrangements. The coun- cil of 1509 included his son, Roberto di Lorenzo Gambuto. 21 Antonio da Montefiore served the Malatesta as an infantry constable. He guarded the door of the castle in the mock battle at Roberto's wedding. 22 Giovanni di Antonio Sagramori was a member of the council of 1509.

23 Galeotto di Almerico and Raimondo di Almerico were descendents of Gaspare, an il- legitimate son of Sigismondo Malatesta's brother Galeotto. Raimondo was part of the group that supported Roberto's succession. He fought at Roberto's side in the joust at the wed- ding, and his performance was singled out for praise. Roberto named Raimondo and Galeot- to regents for his son Pandolfo, together with Lisabetta AldovrandinL Raimondo's son Girolamo was a member of the council of 1509. 24 Ugolono's son Pietro was one of the four Ricciardelli on the council of 1509. 25 Raffaello Conte fought at Roberto's side at the joust at the wedding. 26 Messer Sorleone was probably Sorleone Faetani, whose family numbered among the old Riminese notables. His son Francesco was a member of the council of 1509.

27 Paolo dei Bianchelli was one of the representatives who negotiated peace with Pius II in 1463. As noted above, a Guasparro di Pietro Bianchelli was a member of the council of 1509.