Silvio Passerini (1469 – 20 April 1529) was an Italian cardinal.

Biography

Born in Cortona, Passerini was taken under the wing of the powerful Florentine

Medici The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mu ...

family, after his father, Rosado, was imprisoned for too openly supporting the Medici cause during one of the reversals of power in 15th‑century

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

. Silvio was raised and educated at the court of

Lorenzo de' Medici Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492) was an Italian statesman, banker, ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic and the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Also known as Lorenzo ...

and became very close to Lorenzo's son

Giovanni Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

whom he followed even to the battlefront where they fought side by side in France and were both made prisoners. As papal commissioner and envoy for

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and pa ...

and

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

, Passerini amassed a considerable fortune. When Giovanni became

Pope Leo X Pope Leo X ( it, Leone X; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521. Born into the prominent political an ...

in 1513, Silvio Passerini became cardinal-bishop of Cortona, with a diocese enlarged at the expense of the

archdiocese of Florence The Archdiocese of Florence ( la, Archidioecesis Florentina) is a metropolitan see of the Catholic Church in Italy.

and the

diocese of Arezzo The Italian Catholic diocese of Arezzo-Cortona-Sansepolcro has existed since 1986. In that year the historic diocese of Arezzo was combined with the diocese of Cortona and the diocese of Sansepolcro, the enlarged diocese being suffragan of the a ...

. He was made regent of Alessandro de' Medici, probably Giovanni's son, as lord of Florence in Giovanni's stead. A great period of wealth and power ensued: the papal historian

Pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

noted 55 benefices for Cardinal Passerini recorded in Leo's official register. In Cortona, Cardinal Passerini directed his diocese from the ''Palazzone'' on the height above Cortona. Originally the 12th-century ''Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo'', who represented the "tribune della plebe" (the "tribunes of the people"), in 1514 the palace gave way to Cardinal Passerini, who rebuilt it in Renaissance taste c. 1521‑27, and left it, as the ''Palazzone Passerini'', to his heirs (the last of whom donated it, in 1968, to the

Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa The Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (commonly known in Italy as "la Normale") is a public university in Pisa and Florence, Tuscany, Italy, currently attended by about 600 undergraduate and postgraduate (PhD) students. It was founded in 1810 w ...

, which now uses it to host prominent international meetings of mathematical researchers). It is richly frescoed with events of classical Roman history. While frescoing its chapel, the painter

Luca Signorelli Luca Signorelli ( – 16 October 1523) was an Italian Renaissance painter from Cortona in Tuscany, who was noted in particular for his ability as a draftsman and his use of foreshortening. His massive frescos of the ''Last Judgment'' (1499–15 ...

fell from the scaffolding and died. Many of the other frescoes are the work of

Il Papacello Tommaso Barnabei (sometimes as Tommaso Bernabei), also known as ''Maso Papacello'' (c. 1500 in Rome or Cortona – 18 May 1559 in Cortona), was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. He was a pupil of Luca Signorelli, and aided Giulio Romano ...

and his assistants. The Cardinal was a great Renaissance patron. He built three more personal villas: one in the commune of

Bettolle Bettolle is a ''frazione'' of Sinalunga, in the province of Siena, Tuscany, Italy. Of ancient origin, it was settled by the Etruscans, as attested by the numerous archaeological findings. In the Middle Ages it was a possession of the abbots of ...

, one in

Petrignano Petrignano is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Assisi in the Province of Perugia, Umbria, central Italy. It stands at an elevation of 212 metres above sea level on the right bank of the Chiascio The Chiascio is a river of Umbria, central Italy ...

and the third in Piazzano, the closest to his official residence. He recognized the talent of the sixteen-year-old

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...

of Arezzo and supported him to study in Florence. At Florence he commissioned a tapestry from cartoons by Andrea del Sarto and Raffaellino del Garbo, which is conserved in the diocesan museum at Cortona. With the young Alessandro and Ippolito de' Medici in tow, he attended the first performance of

Niccolò Machiavelli Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli ( , , ; 3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527), occasionally rendered in English as Nicholas Machiavel ( , ; see below), was an Italian diplomat, author, philosopher and historian who lived during the Renaissance. ...

's comedy ''

La Mandragola ''The Mandrake'' (Italian: ''La Mandragola'' ) is a satirical play by Italian Renaissance philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli. Although the five-act comedy was published in 1524 and first performed in the carnival season of 1526, Machiavelli likel ...

'', Vasari related. When the Medici fell in 1527, Silvio Passerini's loyalty toward them also forced him to flee from Florence and Cortona. He died at

Città di Castello Città di Castello (); "Castle Town") is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Perugia, in the northern part of Umbria. It is situated on a slope of the Apennines, on the flood plain along the upper part of the river Tiber. The city is north of ...

. His body was later transferred to Rome and buried at his

titular Titular may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Title character in a narrative work, the character referred to in its title Religion * Titular (Catholicism), a cardinal who holds a titulus, one of the main churches of Rome ** Titular bisho ...

parish,

San Lorenzo in Lucina The Minor Basilica of St. Lawrence in Lucina ( it, Basilica Minore di San Lorenzo in Lucina or simply it, San Lorenzo in Lucina; la, S. Laurentii in Lucina) is a Roman Catholic parish, titular church, and minor basilica in central Rome, Italy. ...

References

External links

Passerini's ''Palazzone'' at Cortona
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Passerini, Silvio 1469 births 1529 deaths People from Cortona 16th-century Italian cardinals Bishops of Cortona 16th-century Italian Roman Catholic bishops