Stefano Porcari
(1391
[1]
- 9 January 1453) was an Italian politician and humanist from Rome, known as the leader of a rebellion against
Pope Nicholas V
and the Papal secular authority in Rome.
[2]
Biography
[
edit
]
Palazzo della Signoria (Palazzo Vecchio), Florence
Porcari was born into a wealthy family of Rome. He received a humanist education and became an admirer of the ancient
Roman Republic
. Porcari trained as a lawyer, and in 1427 and 1428 was elected
capitano del popolo
of
Florence
under the protection of Pope
Martin V
. There he met the humanist scholar
Leonardo Bruni
and the
Camaldolese
monk
Ambrose Traversari
. While in Florence, it was Porcari's habit, during public celebrations, to give speeches from a balcony on the
Palazzo della Signoria
, exhorting the people to honor justice, as the foundation of the
commune
. He then traveled to
France
and
Germany
.
[3]
After his return to Italy in 1430, he held several positions in Italian communes such as the
podesta
of
Bologna
(1432),
Siena
(1434),
Orvieto
(1435) and was also governor of the fortress of
Trani
. He came back to Rome under the rule of
Pope Eugenius IV
. When the latter died and before the new pope was elected, he repeatedly addressed the populace to overthrow the papal rule, and to replace them by one based on the ancient Roman republic.
The new pope,
Nicholas V
, pardoned him,
[4]
but kept him away from Rome with several assignments.
However, his participation in other plots (including one connected with the crowning of
Frederick III
in Rome), and an inflammatory speech in the
Piazza Navona
against the government, led the pope to exile him to Bologna.
Roberto Cessi
suggests that if this was taken as anything more than a criticism of the local city administrators, he would have been dealt with more harshly.
[5]
In late December 1452 Porcari was able to escape and return to Rome. Here he organized an insurrection whose result would be the proclamation of the Republic and, for Porcari, the title of tribune, the same held by
Cola di Rienzo
in the 14th century. The action was set for the Feast of the Epiphany, 6 January 1453, and would be backed by some three hundred mercenaries.
[3]
George of Trebizond
claimed to have become aware of the conspiracy, through a disaffected priest, nearly a year before and attempted to warn Pope Nicholas.
[6]
Nicholas V, warned by Cardinal
Basilios Bessarion
that Porcari had disappeared, ordered investigations. Porcari had planned to arrest Nicholas at
Old St. Peter's Basilica
and kill members of the
curia
. Among the co-conspirators were
Stefano Infessura
and members of the Orsini. The conspirators were captured, including Porcari, who had tried to take shelter in the house of prince
Latino Orsini
. He was subsequently tried and hanged at
Castel Sant'Angelo
on 9 January 1453.
[7]
Of Porcari's literary works, sixteen
concioni
(discourses) have survived. The description of his revolt was provided by
Leon Battista Alberti
in the epistle
De porcario coniuratione
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
D'Elia, Anthony F. (2007). "Stefano Porcari's Conspiracy against Pope Nicholas V in 1453 and Republican Culture in Papal Rome".
Journal of the History of Ideas
.
68
(2): 207?231.
doi
:
10.1353/jhi.2007.0013
.
ISSN
0022-5037
.
JSTOR
30136016
.
S2CID
154868583
.
- ^
D&, Anthony F.; apos; Elia (2007-04-01).
"Stefano Porcari's conspiracy against Pope Nicholas V in 1453 and republican culture in Papal Rome"
.
Journal of the History of Ideas
. Retrieved
2019-12-31
.
- ^
a
b
Ferdinand Gregorovius
,
History of Rome in the Middle Ages
.
- ^
Baynes, Thomas Spencer (1898).
The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature
. A. and C. Black.
- ^
Cessi, Roberto
.
Saggi romani
, Vol. 1, Ed. di Storia e Letteratura, 1956, p. 56
- ^
Monfasani, John.
George of Trebizond: A Biography and a Study of His Rhetoric and Logic
, BRILL, 1976, p. 83
ISBN
9789004043701
- ^
Vanderjagt, Arjo. "The Case of Stefano porcari and the Christian Tradition",
Antiquity Renewed: Late Classical and Early Modern Themes", (Vm Schmidt, Z. R. W. M. von Martels, Victor Michael Schmidt eds.), Peeters Publishers, 2003, p. 63 et seq
ISBN
9789042913080
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