DOC.10 Rome, May 8, 1527

Record of Rosso finding refuge during the Sack in the palazzo of Cardinal Andrea della Valle with 389 other persons including Jacopo Sansovino.

Florence, National Library, Capponi MS, CXXVII (1), De’ Successi di Roma, Tomo I (on the spine), fols. 7-14 (in a late XVIIth century hand).1

Instrumentum rogatum Romae tempore direptionis urbis 1527.  Per acta Niciae nunc Sabatucii notarii A.C.

Cum sit, quod exercitus Cesarae Majestatis vi ingrediens, homines in urbe existentes captivaverit et bona omnia sub sacco posuerit; pluresque homines pro corum slaute in domum reverendissimi in Christo patris et domini D. Andreae de Valle, sanctae religionis christianae cardinalis, confugerint; et in ipsa domo preservati fuerint cura et prudentia rever. dom. cardinalis, …

Ilinc est quod anno a navitate Dom. Nostri J. Christi millesimmo quingentesimo vigesimo septimo, Ind. XV, die vero octava mensis maii, dedente Clemente VII pontif. maximo,… Nomina autem et cognomina hominum et personarum sunt his infrascripti, videlicct:

There follows a list of the names of 390 persons, the second of which is:

Rossus de Rossis pictor.2

The seventh is:

Jacobus de S. Savino

Actum Romae in Palatio dicti reverendiss, D. cardinalis,…

Joannes Nicia, notarius.3



1 Gino Corti informed me that this document, now in the National Library in Florence, is listed in the printed Catalogo dei manoscritti posseduti dal Marchese Gino Capponi, Florence, Galileiana, 1845, 181: Codice CXXVII (1), cc.7-14: “Insturmentum rogatum Romae, tempore direptionis Urbis 1527, per acta Niciae.”  Although the original of this document was written in 1527, Corti suggested that additions were made to it, as in the one case of the listing of: “Bernardinus Caravajal, cum uno servitore.  Die 4 Martii 1532 fuit facta quictantia pro dicto Bernardino.”  On the publications of this document, see n. 3.

2 This form of Rosso’s name does not appear anywhere else in an Italian document, suggesting that it was given as a replacement for “Rosso fiorentino” (see Rosso’s signature in DOC.9) by the seventeenth century copyist who derived it from the name that Rosso assumed or was given in France.  Franklin, 1994, 134, 316, thought that its use here anticipates his name as it appears in France.  But I doubt that this is the case.  I might add that as we do not have the original document we do not actually know what name appeared in it.  It could have been “Roseo pitore” as in DOC.9a, which was interpreted by the copyist as Rosso Fiorentino, although that may not have been the case.

3 The partial transcript of this document was made from its publication in Buonaparte, Jacques, “Sac de Rome au temps du Pape Clément VII de Médicis, en 1527,” in Mailles, Jacques de, Le loyal serviteur, Paris, 1836, 185-215, where it is noted that it belongs to Gino Capponi.  It was earlier published in J. Bonaparte, Sac de Rome.  Ecrit en 1527, Florence, 1830, 81-91, with the name cited on p.83.  Gino Corti informed me that the text given by Jacques Buonaparte is correct, except for minor variants.  The document is cited in Frommel, 1973, II, 346, with reference to the 1830 publication.  The earliest publication of this account of the Sack, in Italian, seems to have been in Cologne, in 1756, but it may not have included this document, which does not appear in the French translation of the 1756 text published in Paris in 1809.  A transcription appears in A. Corvisieri, Documenti inediti sul sacco di Roma nel MDXXVII, Rome, 1973, 21-34.  It is also cited in Pastor, 1898-1953, IX (1914), 409 and n. 2.  It is mentioned in Franklin, 1994, 134, 316, 283, n. 53, who stated that the palazzo of Cardinal Andrea della Valle was in the Rione di San Eustachio.  See also Charles Davis, review of B. Boucher, The Sculpture of Jacopo Sansovino, in Kunstchronik, XLVI, 7, 1993, 347, who identified Bonaparte as Luigi Guicciardini, and notes the use of “uxor” to specify some of the women as an expedient identification in the extreme circumstances of the Sack, making one wonder how accurate other identifications may be.  The Palazzo della Valle, built by Andrea della Valle, is across from the church of S. Andrea della Valle at Corso Vittorio Emanuele, no. 101; on it, see Frommel, 1973, II, 336-354, III, Pls. 148-153.