The first book to emerge from the Material Renaissance project:
The Cardinal's Hat
Mary Hollingsworth
Profile Books
ISBN 186197 750 6
May 2004
Price £18.99
Hardback
An extraordinarily detailed account of the daily life and political
ambitions of a Renaissance potentate, drawn from a hitherto unpublished
archive of original documents. A tale of gambling, hunting, family feuds,
power agendas and private conflict in Renaissance Italy.
Son of Lucretia Borgia and brother of the Duke of Ferrara, Ippolito d’Este
became Archbishop of Milan at the age of 9 but had to wait another twenty
years before he acquired his coveted cardinal’s hat. This honour was the
route to power and wealth in sixteenth-century Europe – it had little to do
with piety.
Ippolito was no devout cleric: he enjoyed gambling, hunting, tennis and
women. This is the story of the five years it took to achieve his ambition,
a story involving family squabbles and private feuds, and the political
agendas of the Pope, the Emperor and the King of France.
Ippolito spent much of this period at the French court, sampling the
sophistication of Paris, the luxuries of Fontainebleau, the pleasures of
hunting in the Loire valley, the excitement of battle in Picardy, the
glamour of an international peace conference at Nice, and the extreme
discomforts of mountain travel.
The Cardinal’s Hat is based entirely on the account books and letters
preserved in the archives at Modena, through which Ippolito emerges across
the centuries with remarkable clarity. The documents also provide glimpses
into the lives of ordinary people, not just his cooks and stable boys, but
shopkeepers, builders, bargemen, peasants and even beggars. Above all, they
provide a unique insight into life in sixteenth-century Europe.
Click below to buy this title from amazon.co.uk
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Dr Mary Hollingsworth is the author of Patronage in Renaissance Italy and
Patronage in Sixteenth-century Italy. She is an academic and was until
recently, lecturer in Art History at UEA. Alongside Professors from
Universities of Sussex, Warwick, Venice, Edinburgh and Manchester she is
currently working on the Material Renaissance Research Project funded by
the Getty Grant Programme.
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