Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola

CHAPTER 1.

FROM THE BIRTH OF SAVONAROLA TO HIS BECOMING A MONK

I

(1493—1440)

THE Savonarola were originally of Paduan descent. The first of the family mentioned by the chroniclers was Antonio Savonarola, a valiant warrior, who, about the year 1256, defended the city against the tyrant, Ezzelino. In memory of this event one of the gates of Padua was named Porta Savonarola, and still bears the same designation. In the middle of the fifteenth century a branch of the family removed to Ferrara at the request of its lord, one of the then sovereign House of Este.

Niccolo III was a lover of letters and the arts, a patron of learning, and, taking pride in attracting distinguished men to his Court, invited Michele Savonarola to attend on his person. This Savonarola was a physician of high repute in the Paduan school, was very learned, fervently pious, and extremely charitable in bestowing his services on the poor. His name has been transmitted to posterity not only by numerous valuable works, but also by his affection for his grandson, Girolamo Savonarola, who was afterwards to achieve a worldwide celebrity.

    Settling in Ferrara in 1440, he taught with success in the University, and won much honour and rich reward in his capacity of physician to the Court. Pope Nicholas made him a Knight of Jerusalem, and the successors of Marquis Nicholas III added to his lands and revenues, and even invested him with a small fief. Lionello, the immediate successor of Nicholas, retained him as medical attendant, increased his salary, and exempted him from all other duties, in order to leave him leisure to write.

    Of Michele's son Niccolo little is known. It appears that he studied medicine and school lore; but no writings remain to record his name. He dawdled through life as a hanger-on at the Court, and squandered the fortune gained by his father's talents and industry.

    His wife Elena, one of the illustrious Mantuan family of Bonacossi, seems to have been a woman of lofty temper and almost masculine firmness. The chroniclers have little to say of her, but that little testifies to the nobility of her character. Certainly, the letters of her son Girolamo, who in the worst and most painful moments of his life seems to have turned to her as his best and surest confidante, not only confirm the report of her virtues, but serve to enforce the repeated observation that one of the most constant and unchanging affections of great minds is a love, almost amounting to worship, for their maternal parent.

    Girolamo Savonarola, the subject of this biography, came into the world on September 21st, 1452, third of the seven children to whom Niccolo and Elena gave birth. These children were: Ognibene, afterwards a soldier; Bartolommeo, of unknown profession; Girolamo; Marco, who, as Fra Maurelio, received the monastic robe in St. Mark's from his brother's hands in 1497; and Alberto, who took his Doctor's degree April 20, 1491, and became a distinguished physician; Beatrice, who remained at home unmarried, and Chiara, who, on becoming a widow, returned to live at home with her brother Alberto.

Savonarola’s biographers tell marvellous tales of him even in his earliest infancy; but every one knows how little faith can be lent to similar accounts. It is easier to believe that he was by no means an attractive child; for he was neither pretty nor playful, but already serious and subdued. Probably no one foresaw the destiny that awaited him. Nevertheless, the eldest son, Ognibene, having adopted a military career, and the second, who was probably a youth of scanty parts, devoting himself to the care of the paternal estate, all the hopes of the family were concentrated on Girolamo, even in his boyhood; and it was their dream to see him become a great physician. The Savonarola naturally held the medical profession in the highest esteem, as the source of the dignity and honour of their house. Accordingly the grandfather, Michele, gave his tenderest care to Girolamo. With the patience and simple directness gained by long years and experience, this wise old scientist devoted himself to the development of his grandson's intellect, the careful unfolding of its budding thoughts and ideas. Such a training was undoubtedly the best of schools, and the boy soon rewarded his grandsire's devotion by showing a true passion for study. So great was his ardour for books that even those beyond his comprehension were eagerly seized upon and ransacked for hidden treasures.

    Unfortunately the grandfather soon died, between 1466 and 1468, and the boy was left to the sole guidance of his father, who began to instruct him in philosophy. In those days natural science was merely regarded as one of the chief branches of philosophy, and the latter, although used as a preliminary to the study of medicine, was, as we all know, purely scholastic. It is true that in some parts of Italy, and even in Ferrara, a faint glimmer of the dawning Platonic philosophy was beginning to appear, together with some faithful translations of Aristotle from the original Greek; but these things were considered to be daring innovations; and the young Savonarola had to study the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, and the Arabic commentaries on Aristotle. These were given to him as indispensable guides and introductions to the study of medicine; and it was strange to behold so young a boy plunged in this sea, or rather labyrinth, of confused syllogisms, and finding so much pleasure in the task as soon to become a very skilful disputant. The works of St. Thomas fascinated him to an almost inconceivable extent; he would be absorbed in meditating on them for whole days at a time, and could hardly be persuaded to turn his attention to studies better adapted to his medical training. Thus, while the natural tendency of his mind drew him in one direction, his parents urged him in another; and, though no one could foresee it, this was the beginning of the struggle that was afterwards to decide his future and crush the hopes of his kindred. Enamoured of truth, and as yet unconscious of his own powers, he was still filled with the joyous intoxication felt by the young when all nature seems to gaily beckon them across the threshold of life. He devoured the ancient writers, composed verses, and studied drawing and music.

    All particulars, however, of Savonarola's boyhood are unfortunately wanting. History seems to have purposely concealed from us by what process his nature was developed or his mind trained. We have no details of the progress of his studies, nor of the difficulties he had to encounter; no means of tracing the mental and spiritual growth of this man who was to play so prominent a part in the world's affairs. It may, perhaps, be taken for granted that his early days were marked by no facts sufficiently remarkable to be transmitted to posterity. Probably the true history of his youth consisted of private thoughts and secret impressions, such as could not be generally known. Therefore, to understand the state of his mind, we must study his material surroundings, inasmuch as he was at no time wholly absorbed in solitary meditation, but always felt drawn towards humanity and the people; always, indeed, preferring to share the life of his fellowmen, save when repelled by invincible disgust for their vices.

    The deserted aspect of modern Ferrara, with its lonely, grassgrown streets, makes it difficult for us to realize the former splendour of the capital of the House of Este. Then it was a city of 100,000 inhabitants, and its Court one of the most famous in Italy, was continually visited by princes, emperors, and popes, and the scene of interminable festivities. This was the Ferrara of Savonarola's childhood and youth. His family being attached to the Court, he must have heard continual mention of all these pageants and revellings, and received his earliest impressions from them. Accordingly it will be no digression from our subject to devote a few words to the Court of Ferrara.

 

The story of Niccolo III, Marquess of Ferrara

 

The Este became rulers of Ferrara (1240-1597) and of Modena (1288-1796) and long times also of Reggio. Probably of Lombard origin, they took their name from the castle of Este near Padua (which later - a little confusing - didn't belong to their dominions). Azzo d'Este II, 996-1097, lord of Este, was invested with Milan by the emperor. Azzo's son, Guelph d'Este IV or Welf IV, d. 1101, was adopted by his maternal uncle, Guelph III, whom he succeeded as duke of Carinthia. In 1070 he was made duke of Bavaria. The grandfather of Henry the Proud of Bavaria and Saxony, Guelph IV was the founder of the German line of the Guelphs, from whom the British royal family is descended. He died on a crusade in Cyprus. Another son of Azzo d'Este II continued the Italian line of the house; among his successors was Obizzo d'Este I, d. 1193. Obizzo and his grandson played an important part in the struggle of the Guelphs against Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I. He married the heiress of one of the two families contending for supremacy in Ferrara. One of the successors, Azzo d'Este VII, 1205-64, succeeded in becoming (1240) podestá of the city as the head of the triumphant Guelph party. Obizzo d'Este II, d. 1293, was made perpetual lord of Ferrara in 1264, lord of Modena in 1288, and lord of Reggio (now Reggio nell' Emilia ) in 1289. In the following years the d'Este had to endure some pressure, but the reignment in Ferrara was solidified under Niccolo II, Alberto and Niccolo III in the end of 14th and begin of 15th century.

Ferrara underwent an amazing urban growth and its walls extended up to four times in length and vast areas of the Po delta were reclaimed; a golden age for art and culture was started, Ferrara might be called the Hollywood of 15th century, many cultural novelties were tried here first. Before this glamorous time in 15th century Nicolò II d'Este, called the lame (reigned 1361 - 1388), showed greater intellectual interests and definitively consolidated the power of the House of  Este. However, when the people of Ferrara was struck by famine, they rebelled in 1385 against their ruler so violently that Niccolò ordered the construction of the great Castello di San Michele. The solid building secured a relatively peaceful life in Ferrara in the next century, when other parts of northern Italy had to suffer longer wars. Ferrara became the peacemaker between Venetia and Milano, the main contrahents. Niccolò's successor was his brother and earlier co-ruler Alberto, who reigned in the city only for a few years, but is described as an remarkable man. He was interested in art and culture and started the University of Ferrrara in 1391, which established itself with some difficulties.

 

Time Line

 

1317 - 1352 Obizzo III Signore di Ferrara (1317-52) and Modena (1335-52)

1352 - 1361 Aldobrandino III, Signore di Modena, vicar of Ferrara (1352-61), son of Obizzo

1361 - 1388 Niccolo II, son of Obizzo

1388 Olbizzo IV., son of Aldobrandino, beheaded 1388

1388 - 1393 Alberto I, Signore di Ferrara, Modena e Reggio, illegitime son of Obizzo

1393 - 1441 Niccolo III, illegitime son of Alberto

 

Niccolo III d'Este was the illegitimate son of Alberto I, Signore di Ferrara, Modena and Reggio. Alberto married in 1388 Giovanna di Roberti, but it seems, that Niccolo stayed his only son - born before that marriage of his father by another woman.

Niccolo's mother was Isotta Albaresani. He was born in Ferrara 9.11.1383. In 1388, Niccolo II died and Alberto, the illegitimate brother, became the new Signore, although there must have been some resistance from the side of his nephew, Obizzo IV, son of the earlier regent Aldobrandino III d’Este, who claimed with some rights the throne for himself. Obizzo IV and his mother ended beheaded, and the whole story, which probably includes an usurpation of the throne, wasn't very well transmitted by Albert and his successors - as usual, history was written by the winners.

It seems that Niccolo and Alberto cooperated in the government since 1361 (death of the older brother Aldobrandino, who was father to Obizzo), so in the deciding situation of 1388 he had the better cards. Alberto proved as a good regent with much interest for culture and art. In 1392 he founded the University of Ferrara, which - with some difficulty at the beginning - established itself as a renowned centre of teaching and learning.

In 1393 Alberto died and placed the 10-years-old Niccolo, Marquis d’Este, Signore of Ferrara, Modena, Parma and Reggio, son and successor of Alberto, under the protection of the republics of Florence, Venice and Bologna, as well as that of the Signore of Padua. In fact these allies sent soldiers to Ferrara and to Modena to protect the young Marquis from the ambitions of his powerful neighbour, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Signore of Milan.

In 1394 one of his relatives, Azzo, a descendant of Francesco d'Este and general for Gian Galeazzo Visconti, tried to profit from the youth of Nicolas III and take his Estates; but with the Venitians, Bolognese and Florentines coming to his assistance, Azzo was defeated and made prisoner. Azzo descended from a side-path of the family, which till 1343 also carried the title "Signore da Ferrara", and assured of the secret assistance of Gian Galeazzo, had still on his side many noblemen of the estates of Ferrara and Modena, the Signores of Ravenna and Forli, and finally Giovanni Barbiano, a famous condottiere, whom the counsellors of Niccolo tried in vain to bring to their side, at last getting rid of him by assassination." However in April, 1395, Azzo d’Este is taken prisoner by Astorre Manfredi, Signore of Faënza. He is kept in the Rocca di Faënza. And ss a result of this, the internal problems of the Este dominions cease.

In 1397, Niccolo III, at less than fourteen years of age, married in 1397 Gigliolà, daughter of Francesco II da Carrara, Signore of Padua; he was bound by this most intimately to the cause of the Guelfs, of which Carrara was one of the most staunch defenders, and because of this he was called upon in 1403 to help divide the possessions which Gian Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, had conquered and which his death had left defenseless. But, although he scored several victories over the Milanese armies, he was not able to make any stable conquests. Repulsed in the month of May 1404, before Reggio, which he had wanted to surprise, and soon after engaged in a dangerous war with the Venetians, in the defense of his father-in-law Francesco da Carrara, he lost on this occasion the Polesine de Rovigo, which he had previously engaged to the Republic of Venice for the security of a debt.”

In 1403, Niccolo joined the league formed against the Duke of Milan (duke Gian Galeazzo had died in 1402 and there were constant fights for the regency in Milan around this time, the new Duke was his eldest son Giovanni Maria), and Pope Boniface IX declared him Captain General of Church's Army.

1405: Niccolo gets his first illegitimate son, Ugo; his first marriage is now 7 years old and childless. Niccolo will get many illegitimate children from then and will have two other wives with some children, totally around 20 are known by name. Some say, that there were more and some say, that there were much more (the highest number I have seen was nearly 300). Niccolo became the subject of a humorous rhyme: "On this and the other side of Po, everywhere are the sons of Niccolo".

1405: Niccolo signs a treaty ceding all holdings around Este to Venice. Este and the castles in the vicinity had been ceded previously to the Signore of Padua; they also were conquered by the Venetians, seeing to it that the house of Este was entirely deprived of its long-held possessions. Niccolo III was obliged to renounce them, by his peace treaty with the Republic on the 27 March, 1405.

1407: Niccolo tried to take the town of Reggio, which from earlier belonged to the Ferrarese state, but he was repulsed by Ottoboni Terzo, who, in the pretext of going to the assistance of the Duke of Milan, held the place after having been rendered master of it. Niccolo joined with Giovanni Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, and other princes to stop the brigandage which Ottoboni never stopped practising in Lombardy.

1409: Ottoboni was killed the 27th of May 1409 by Muzio Attendola (also called Sforza Cotignola), the father of Francesco Sforza, personally, at that time general of the Marquis Niccolo d'Este, the story (here shortened and translated) of this is given by Klaus Schelle, "Die Sforza":

Muzio Attendola was active together with Condottieri Tartaglia (normal name: Angelo Lavello) against Pisa and was successful in 1406, Pisa became then part of the Florentian state (very important for the Florentian trade on sea). With his 250 horses (which indicates at that time a condottieri of minor importance) he then was hired by Niccolo, especially against Ottobuono Terzo, who must be regarded as a despot of rather worse dimensions. In November 1408 a cousin of Muzio, Michele Attendola, was captured with some men by Terzo, tortured and imprisoned under very bad conditions - contradicting with this behaviour the common conditions between mercenaries of the time. A few months later it was possible for the prisoners to escape. In 1409 it was arranged to talk about peace, the delegations approached each other without weapons - under them also Ottobuono Terzo and at the other side Muzio and Michele Attendola, the latter both filled with rather bad feelings against Terzo. Muzio had full armour, pretending, that he never was without it. His horse started to jump, running from one side to the other, and seemed obviously out of control, when Sforza suddenly appeared beneath Terzo with a drawn sword in his hand, raming the steel in the body of the despot. Michele with a knife was immediately above Terzo, doing the rest of the bloody work, and a hidden troop of soldiers arrived from the background attacking with success the rest of Terzo's delegation. The corpse of Terzo was taken to Modena, where emigrants of Parma and Reggio, which had in the past suffered enough by Ottobuono, tore up the corpse with their teeth.

As result of his success against Ottobuono Terzo Niccolo III was rendered master of Parma and Reggio .

Francesco Sforza (b.1401) was from that time on educated at the court of the d'Este till 1412. He must have known Niccolo d'Este well (perhaps in the role of a second father) and also Leonello (b.1407) as a child.

1411: Niccolo successfully battles Marquis Roland Palavicino for control of Borgo San-Donnino.

April 6-July 6, 1412-3: Marquis Niccolo III is on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Sometime between May 15-19, at Mass at the Holy Sepulcher, Niccolo dubbed five knights of his retinue, including Feltrino Boiardo.

In 1414, the Marquis and a party that included Feltrino went to St. Anthony at Vienna and also met the King of France in Paris. Marchese Manfredo del Carretto di Cera captured them in Piedmont and offered to sell them to the Duke of Milan, as Milan had not yet recovered Parma from Niccolo D'Este's military seizure in 1409. The Count of Savoy forced di Cera to surrender the captives, and had di Cera beheaded. After this adventure Niccolo's unsteady life becomes much calmer.

1416: Niccolo's wife Gigliolà da Carrara dies of the plague, leaving no children.

1418: Niccolo marries Parisina Malatesta, daughter of Andrea Malatesta. He will have three children with her.

1420, November: When Filippo Maria, Duke of Milan, began to force submission from the petty tyrants who had divided his father’s possessions, and to avenge himself on those who had abused him in his youth, Niccolo III feared that this powerful prince would demand account of him for the latest conquests he had made and, without waiting for hostilities, in the month of November 1420, he ceded to the Duke of Milan Parma and San-Donnino, while in return the Duke confirmed on him the rulership of Reggio.

1423: Feltrino Boiardo ceded Rubiera to Niccolo and received Scandiano instead with other smaller townlets and the title Count.

The story of Ugo and Parisina.

In April 1418, Niccolo took another wife—that heroine of romantic poetry, Madonna Parisina de Malatesta, the daughter of Andrea de Malatesta and Lucezia delgli Ordelaffi — and brought her in triumph from Ravenna to Ferarra.

The Marchesana Parisina bore her husband one son, who lived only for a few weeks and two twin daughters, Ginevra and Lucia. The documents still preserved in the Carchivio di Stato at Modena show her to have been an ideal great lady of the Middle Ages. We find her a diligent housewife, keeping strict account of the linen, taking care that the attendants are properly attired. She was exceedingly generous to the poor, bountiful to the churches and convents. To her donzelle, her maids-in-waiting, she was particularly kind and generous, finding them suitable husbands, providing each on her marriage with a dowry, with her corredo or trousseau, and with these richly decorated cofani or wedding chests that formed such a feature in the bride’s equipment in Italy and of which the panels are among the treasures of our museums and picture-galleries today. A certain Pellegrina, daughter of a trusted servant of the Marquis, one Giacomo Rubino known as Zoese, appears to have been specially favoured by her and treated with the utmost generiousity on the occasion of her marriage at the beginning of 1423.

Parisina was a lover of horses and had a notable stable; she sent them to race for palio at Verona, Modena, Bologna, Milan and Mantua; and especially in 1422 and 1423 her favourite jockey, Giovanni da Rimini, wearing her colours of red and white, carried off victory after victory. Also she took pleasure in hunting and hawking. We find her sending to foreign cities for choice perfumes, for rich embroideries and personal ornaments, for rare birds in cages. But of her moral qualities and mental endowments we know next to nothing. She loved music, especially the harp, upon which she had her little daughters taught to play. We read of Fra Maginardo, her chaplain, buying a psaltery for her, and of a cartalaro Bartommeo selling her an office book of the Madonna covered with black velvet. If she read at all in books of a lighter character, the literary fashion of her husband’s court would have led her to dwell upon the passion of Guenevere and Lancelot, the guilty loves of Tristam and Iseult. And for her, like the other Romagnole spirit whom Dante met in the Hell of the Lovers, there came a day when she ‘read no more’.

Niccolo III brought up his younger sons with considerable rigidness and parsimony. Borso and Meliaduse, when studying at Bologna and Padua, were even kept short of clothes to wear. When the plague threatened Ferarra in the summer of 1424, their father sent Meiaduse to Modena and Borso to Argenta, with the strictest provisions about the number of servants and attendants that they might have about them, with a rigid charge to the camarlingo of each town, in whose charge they were put, not to let them have friends to dine.

But for Ugo there seems to have been no restrictions of any kind, and the registers of the Court expenses in these very years show Niccolo and Parisina rivaling each other in caring for his wants and pleasures, in providing him with clothes and money, horses and hawks, -even a harp—the latter, of course, being Parisina’s gift.

In these years, Leonello was away from Ferarra, having been sent in 1422, under the care of Nanni Strozzi, to study the art of war at Perugia under the famous condottiere, Braccio da Montone.

All contemporary evidence concerning the tragedy that deprived the Marchese Niccolo of his wife and heir apparant appears to have been destroyed, and it is not easy to distinguish between fact and fiction in the story that has been handed down to us. All that is certain is that in the course of some journey that they took together - possibly to Ravenna, the city of Francesca and Samaritana - Ugo became the lover of his stepmother. One of Parisina's maids, who had been beaten by her mistriss, betrayed the secret to Giacomo Rubino (= Zoese) - that very same whose daughter had been treated with such generousity and affection by the Marchesana - and Giacomo brought the Marquis to a place, where, himself unseen, he was the witness to his own dishonour. His vengence was prompt and terrible. On the night between May 20 and May 21, 1425, the guilty pair was arrested in the Corte Vecchia, and conveyed thence to the Castello. There are two horrible dungeons shown in the Castello, beneath the Tower of the Lions. One, a little highter than the other, has a direct communication to the outer air of the court, and at times admits a faint gleam of day. The other is on the level of the moat; its floor is usually covered with muddy water; it receives air and faint light through a long aperture with treble barriers of iron bars. The tradition has it that into these ghastly cells the delicately nurtured young lady and her princely young paramour were thrown; but it has been recently pointed out that the only two records that can in any sense be regarded as contemporary both agree that the place of their imprisonment was the so-called Torre Marchesana, the tower in which at the present time the great clock is placed. Either way, their imprisonment was brief. The Marquis refused to admit either wife or son to his presence again and the intercession of his most trusted advisors, Ugguccione de Contrari and Alberto della Sala, proved unavailing. On the night of May 21, Ugo and Parisina died by the headsman axes in the Torre Marchesana.

Ugo perished first. Then Parisina was led to her death by that same Giacomo Rubino by whom she had been betrayed. Thinking that she was going to be thrown into an oubliette or trabocchetto, she kept asking if she had yet reached the place. She asked after her lover, and hearing that he was already dead, exclaimed: “Then I no more wish to live.” When she came to the block, she laid aside her ornaments, and with her own hands, prepared her neck for the stroke. The same night their bodies were brought to San Francesco and quietly buried there. Aldobrandino Rangoni, who had been Ugo’s friend and accomplice, suffered the same doom at Modena.

All that night the unhappy father and husband paced up and down the halls and passages of his place in desperate grief, now gnawing his scepter with his teeth, now calling passionately upon the name of his dead son or crying out for his own death. It is stated by Ferrese historians and chroniclers that on the following day, he sent a written report of the tragedy to all the Courts of Italy, and that on the receipt of the news, the Doge of Venice put off State tournament that was to have been held in the Piazza di San Marco. No trace of such document has ever been found, either in the archives of Modena or in those of Venice, or any other of the States with which Niccolo was in close relations. The Marquis is said, by one of those half-mad perversions of justice habitual to Italian despots of that age, to have ordered the execution of several noble Ferrarese ladies who were notoriously serving their husbands as Parisina had served him—“In order that his wife should not be the only on to suffer,” as Fra Paolo has it. One, Laodamia de Romei, the wife of one of the judges, “who was known to him” appears to have been publicly beheaded, but after her, the edict went no further.