Mary Hollingsworth

Having founded the bank that became the most powerful in Europe in the 15th century, the Medici gained political power in Florence, ruling the city during its cultural heyday and becoming its hereditary dukes. Among their number were no fewer than three popes, and a powerful and influential queen of France. Their patronage of the arts facilitated an explosion of Florentine art and architecture. Michelangelo, Donatello, Fra Angelico and Leonardo da Vinci are among the artists with which they were associated. Thus runs the 'received view' of the Medici dukes of Florence. Mary Hollingsworth argues that this sanitized version – that they were wise rulers and enlightened patrons of the arts, fathers of the Renaissance – is a fiction devised by later generations who reinvented their past to create a myth that now has the status of historical fact. In truth, the Medici were as devious and immoral as the infamous Borgias, tyrants loathed in the city they illegally made their own and which they beggared in their lust for power.

The Medici

Having founded the bank that became the most powerful in Europe in the fifteenth century, the Medici gained massive political power in Florence, raising the city to a peak of cultural achievement and becoming its hereditary dukes. Among their number were no fewer than three popes and a powerful and influential queen of France. The author argues, however, that the idea that the Medici were enlightened rulers of the Renaissance is a fiction that has now acquired the status of historical fact. In truth, the Medici were as devious and immoral as the Borgias-- tyrants loathed in the city they illegally made their own. In this dynamic new history, Hollingsworth retells the story of the family Medici and brings a fresh and exhilarating new perspective to light.

The Hidden History of the Medici Dynasty

The Family Medici

A fresh telling of the rise and fall of the House of Medici, the family that dominated political and cultural life in Florence for three centuries.

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This work describes art patronage in 16th-century Italy. For example, it was the time when Julius II and Bramante embarked upon rebuilding St Peter's; Paul III commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Last Judgement; and Sixtus V and Domenico Fontana transformed the urban fabric of Rome. Other great projects included Borromeo and Pellegrino Tibaldi introducing the ideals of the Counter-Reformation in an ambitious programme of religious architecture in Milan; the centre of Venice being dramatically remodelled by the city's government and Jacopo Sansovino; wealthy Venetian patricians building beautiful villas in the Veneto from designs by Pallado, and commissioning their altarpieces and portraits from artists of the calibre of Titian and Tintoretto. At the same time, Giulio Romano built and decorated the Palazzo del Te for Federigo Gonzaga and, perhaps in the most famous partnership of all, Vasari gave visual expression to Cosimo I's ambition in an enormous programme of building and embellishment that established Florence as a centre of artistic excellence.

Patronage in Sixteenth-century Italy

A vivid history of the lives and times of the aristocratic elite whose patronage created the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was an era of dramatic political, religious, and cultural change in the Italian peninsula, witnessing major innovations in the visual arts, literature, music, and science. The Princes of the Renaissance charts these developments in a sequence of eleven chapters, each of which is devoted to two or three princely characters with a cast of minor ones—from Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, to Cosimo I de' Medici, Duke of Florence, and from Isabella d'Este of Mantua to Lucrezia Borgia. Many of these princes were related by blood or marriage, creating a web of alliances that held Renaissance society together—but whose tensions could spark feuds that threatened to tear it apart. A vivid depiction of the lives and times of the aristocratic elite whose patronage created the art and architecture of the Renaissance, The Princes of the Renaissance is a narrative that is as rigorous and definitively researched as it is accessible and entertaining. Perhaps most importantly, Mary Hollingsworth sets the aesthetic achievements of these aristocratic patrons in the context of the volatile, ever-shifting politics of an age of change and innovation.

The Hidden Powers Behind an Artistic Revolution

The Princes of the Renaissance

The Borgias have become a byword for pride, lust, cruelty, avarice, splendour and venomous intrigue. An inspiration for many works of fiction, most famously Mario Puzo's The Godfather, they have aroused abomination and fascination in almost equal measure, while their patronage of the arts created some of the great masterpieces of the Renaissance. From the powerful, merciless Rodrigo Borgia, better known as Pope Alexander VI, to the beautiful Lucrezia and the debauched and murderous Cesare, Mary Hollingsworth's account of the dynasty's dramatic rise from its Spanish roots to the heights of Renaissance society forms a compelling tale of brutality, incest, unparalleled corruption and extortionate greed.

History's Most Notorious Dynasty

The Borgias

Princes of the Renaissance

In this first comprehensive study of patrons in the Italian quattrocento, Mary Hollingsworth shows how the patron--rather than the artist--carefully controlled both subject and medium in artistic creation. In a competitive and violent age, she explains, image and ostentation were essential statements of the patron's power. As a result, perceived cost became more important than artistic quality (and buildings, bronze, or tapestry were considered more eloquent statements than cheaper marble or fresco). Artists in the early Renaissance were employed as craftsmen, Hollingsworth concludes, and only late in the century did their relations with patrons start to adopt a pattern we might recognize today. "Many readers, specialists and nonspecialists alike, will welcome this book as a reliable and straightforward introduction to an important and interesting subject."--Literary Review "A synthesis of the current state of knowledge about Renaissance patronage... The author is particularly well qualified to assess the amount of personal involvement of patrons, and she emphasizes the extent to which Lorenzo de Medici, Ercole d'Este, and Federigo da Montefeltro, as well as several Popes, can be considered their own 'architects.'"--Apollo

From 1400 to the Early Sixteenth Century

Patronage in Renaissance Italy

A vivid history of the lives and times of the aristocratic elite whose patronage created the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was an era of dramatic political, religious, and cultural change in the Italian peninsula, witnessing major innovations in the visual arts, literature, music, and science. Princes of the Renaissance charts these developments in a sequence of eleven chapters, each of which is devoted to two or three princely characters with a cast of minor ones—from Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, to Cosimo I de' Medici, Duke of Florence, and from Isabella d'Este of Mantua to Lucrezia Borgia. Many of these princes were related by blood or marriage, creating a web of alliances that held Renaissance society together—but whose tensions could spark feuds that threatened to tear it apart. A vivid depiction of the lives and times of the aristocratic elite whose patronage created the art and architecture of the Renaissance, Princes of the Renaissance is a narrative that is as rigorous and definitively researched as it is accessible and entertaining. Perhaps most importantly, Mary Hollingsworth sets the aesthetic achievements of these aristocratic patrons in the context of the volatile, ever-shifting politics of an age of change and innovation.

The Hidden Power Behind an Artistic Revolution

Intrigue, double-dealing and conspiracy in the Eternal City 'A fascinating narrative of the intermingling of secular and religious power' New Statesman 'Brings to life not only the political dimension, but the fascinating material detail' BBC History Magazine 'A highly enjoyable and thrilling read... Hollingsworth has peeled back the veil of secrecy surrounding papal conclaves' History Today 'Full of lively detail and colour' Literary Review August 1559. As the long hot Italian summer draws to its close, so does the life of a rigidly orthodox and profoundly unpopular pope. The harshly repressive papacy of Paul IV has seen the establishing of the Roman Inquisition and the Index of Prohibited Books, an unbending refusal to open dialogue with Protestants, and the ghettoization of Rome's Jews. On 5 September 1559, as the great doors of the Vatican's Sala Regia are ceremonially locked, the future of the Catholic Church - and the whole of Europe - hangs in the balance. Mary Hollingsworth offers a compelling and sedulously crafted reconstruction of the longest and most taxing of sixteenth-century papal elections. Its crisscrossing fault lines divided not only moderates from conservatives, but also the adherents of three national 'factions' with mutually incompatible interests. France and Spain were both looking to extend their power in Italy and beyond and had very different ideas of who the new pope should be - as did the Italian cardinals. Drawing on the detailed account books left by Ippolito d'Este, one of the participating cardinals, Conclave 1559 provides remarkable insights into the daily lives and concerns of the forty-seven men locked up for some four months in the Vatican.

Ippolito D'Este and the Papal Election of 1559

Conclave 1559

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“A riveting portrait of the day-to-day life of a wealthy, worldly Renaissance prince” as he pursues power and influence in the Catholic church (USA Today). The second son of Alfonso d’Este and Lucretia Borgia, the Duke and Duchess of Ferrara, Ippolito d’Este was made the archbishop of Milan at the age of nine. But from the time of his father’s death in 1534, he set his ambitions on acquiring the powerful and coveted cardinal’s hat. But one did not become a sixteenth century prince of the church through piety and good works. Ippolito had a taste for gambling and women. He enjoyed hunting in the Loir valley and pursued his ambition with money, schmoozing, and the dark arts of politics. Working with Ippolito’s letters and ledgers, recently uncovered in an archive in Modena, Italy, Mary Hollingsworth has pieced together a fascinating and undeniably titillating tale of this Renaissance cardinal and his road to power and wealth in sixteenth century Europe. The ledgers document every aspect of Ippolito’s comings, goings, purchases, and debts. Out of these finely detailed records, Hollingsworth brings to life not only Ippolito, but his world. “In this brilliant piece of historical detective work and narrative reconstruction . . . the most unlikely bits and pieces—a scrap of velvet, a stray barrel of wine—can be made to tell stories that resonate far beyond the neat columns of a well-kept account book.” —The Guardian

Money, Ambition, and Everyday Life in the Court of a Borgia Prince

The Cardinal's Hat

Cheryl Rico

Mary Grace Eubank

Ginger Knight

A rhyming introduction to courtesy and manners through God's declaration of the Golden Rule.

A Bible Book about Courtesy

The King's Manners

Anna Kendall

Fred Kendall

Speaking of Love

Miles Pattenden

Arnold Witte

The first comprehensive overview of its subject in any language. Its thirty-five essays explain who cardinals were, what they did in Rome and beyond, for the Church and for wider society.

A Companion to the Early Modern Cardinal

Conspiracy, intrigue and faction fighting as the future of Europe hangs in the balance: Mary Hollingsworth tells the story of the papal conclave in 1559.

Ippolito d'Este and the Papal Election of 1559

"If you want to understand what's happening in the Vatican now, read this book. Gripping, lurid and fascinating, both scholarly and utterly readable, oozing with original academic research, its a minute-by-minute, day-by-day account of all the intrigues, maneouvres, deals, politics and scandals of a papal conclave." SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE, author of JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY A papal election is compelling theatre. It is a unique event, conducted with magnificent and arcane ceremonial in a format that has remained largely unchanged for centuries. The death of John Paul II in 2005 marked the start of a three-week media frenzy, with blanket coverage in the newspapers and on television, and armies of 'experts' interviewed to throw light on what was happening behind the locked doors of the Vatican. Another conclave is expected in the near future - and it will engender a similar fascination with what is one of the most unpredictable events in global politics. Conclaves have so often changed the course of history but their details remain shrouded in secrecy. Legend may have it that the Holy Ghost chooses the pope, but we can be sure a conclave is primarily about power: the cardinal who successfuly engineers two-thirds of the votes in his favour will become a leading figure on the world stage. In 1559, as in 2012, the papacy was in crisis, under attack for its reluctance to embrace the need to reform; the college of cardinals too was deeply divided between moderates and conservatives, as well as between personal rivalries and national factions; and a conclave was imminent. What is unique about the 1559 conclave, one of the most notorious in history, is that we are exceptionally well-informed about the political chicanery with which the electin was cnducted, thanks to the cardinals themselves who, having solemnly sworn to uphold the rules of secrecy governing the conclave, then proceeded to ignore them entirely. Indeed, the more unsavoury details of this papal election show just how badly the Church was in need of reform. Above all, thanks to the survival of the papers of cardinal Ippolito d'Este, we can also glimpse the daily lives of the cardinals incarcerated inside the Vatican - ceremonial and conspiracy, food parcels, beds and washing facilities. Above all, this book will shed light on the real business that takes place behind the sealed doors of a conclave, a drama as gripping then as now.

Mary Hollingsworth

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