Architecture of Power: Imola During the Signoria of Girolamo Riario (1473–1488)

chapter 9 Architecture of Power: Imola during the Signoria of Girolamo Riario (1473–1488)

Stefano Zaggia

In September 1473 the duke of Milan, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, and Cardinal Pietro Riario, nephew of Pope Sixtus iv, signed a marriage contract between the duke’s natural daughter Caterina and the cardinal’s brother Girolamo Riario. The duke of Milan thus agreed to hand over to the pope’s nephew the governance of the city of Imola in Emilia-Romagna (under Milanese protector- ate since the 1420s), in exchange for the sum of 40,000 ducats.1 It was the first step towards the creation of a dynastic princedom in the hands of the Riario family. The pact arranged by the young cardinal, Pietro, paved the way for the career of his brother, who a few years later was to become one of the protago- nists of the Italian political scene, as recounted by Ian Robertson: “the prema- ture death of Pietro in January 1474 left Girolamo in his stead as the dominant figure at the Papal court”.2 “He who has count Girolamo on his side has the pope on his side”: this is how a Venetian ambassador around 1478 described the powerful position Girolamo Riario came to have.3 He was not the only one to use such words. Giovan Pietro Arrivabene’s comparison made in 1477 was more expressive still: “Count Girolamo has so much authority that he can dispose at leisure of the will of the Pope, just as I can use this pen”.4 The key role Sixtus iv’s nephew played in the affairs of the pontifical state, at a time when the temporal authority of the pope had become critical in all political events, was known throughout Italy. Count Girolamo, for better or worse, was one of the most powerful men on the political and military scene in Europe for almost a decade, from 1474 until the death of Pope Sixtus iv in 1484.

1 Ian Robertson, “The Signoria of Girolamo Riario in Imola”, Historical Studies 15 (1971): 88–117 (91–92). 2 Ibid., p. 91. 3 “Qui habent comitem Hieronymum habent pontificem”: Acta in Consilio secreto in Castello portae Jovis Mediolani, ed. Alfio Rosario Natale (Milan: Giuffrè, 1963–1969), vol. 3, 99. 4 “L’è tanta la autorictate del conte [Girolamo Riario], che tanto può rivoltare a suo modo tuta la voluntate del papa, quanto io condurre questo calamo per questa carta”: letter quoted in David S. Chambers, “Giovanni Pietro Arrivabene (1439–1504): Humanistic Secretary and Bishop”, Aevum 58 (1984): 397–438 (409).

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When Girolamo Riario received the apostolic vicariate, the city of Imola underwent rapid transformation in just a few years, which deeply altered its image and the urban structure inherited from the past. The fortification and construction works carried out by the prince were constantly at the forefront, but private citizens promoted to high-salaried posts by their prince also built new palaces.5 Starting with the cathedral, churches and the main convents were also renovated. As part of this radical transformation and exaltation of the city’s magnificence, a new piazza was to be built; though only partially completed, it was supposed to play a central role in transforming the prince’s residence into a palace. It should be noted that an analysis of this case is par- ticularly difficult, given the extreme scarcity of documents and the substantial transformations undergone by the buildings.

The Medieval Piazza and the Public Buildings

The backbone of the urban system in Imola had always consisted of the main road system established at the time of the foundation of the castrum, known as Forum Cornelii. During the Middle Ages the presence of official buildings and areas intended for commerce is attested in the area of what was almost certainly the site of the ancient forum.6 At first, the space inside the church of San Lorenzo was used as a meeting place for civic assemblies – it had always served this purpose, being separated, since the second half of the 12th century, from the episcopal jurisdiction.7 The open space on the east side of the church, described in medieval documents as the campus or platea of San Lorenzo, gradually acquired a central role in the community and was often used for municipal purposes.8 It was a space of assembly which appeared disorganized and irregular (and so it remained for centuries): the church of San Lorenzo,

5 Fausto Mancini, Urbanistica rinascimentale a Imola. Da Girolamo Riario a Leonardo da Vinci (Imola: Cassa di Risparmio di Imola, 1979), vol. i, 61–63; vol. ii, 190–191; Stefano Zaggia, Una piazza per la città del Principe. Strategie urbane e architettura a Imola durante la Signoria di Girolamo Riario (Rome: Officina edizioni, 1999), 60–70; Richard Schofield, “Girolamo Riario a Imola. Ipotesi di Ricerca”, in Francesco di Giorgio alla corte di Federico da Montefeltro, ed. Francesco Paolo Fiore (Florence: Olschki, 2004), 595–642 (629–635). 6 Jacopo Ortalli, “L’impronta romana sul territorio”, in La storia di Imola, dai primi insedia menti all’ancient régime, ed. Massimo Montanari (Imola: La Mandragora, 2001), 71–88. 7 Andrea Padovani, “La pieve di S. Lorenzo e le origini dell’identità comunale”, in Imola, il comune, le piazze, eds. Massimo Montanari and Tiziana Lazzari (Imola: La Mandragora, 2003), 27–43. 8 Ibid., 59–62.