Stefano Porcari
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
Porcari was born into a wealthy family of Rome. He received a humanist education and became an admirer of the ancient
After his return to Italy in 1430, he held several positions in Italian communes such as the
The new pope,
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
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
- 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
- ISBN 9789004043701
- ISBN 9789042913080