Fletcher, Stella (1991) Venetian cardinals at the Papal Court during the pontificates of Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII : 1471-1492. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The histories of particular cities and states within that myriad-faceted
slice of civilisation, the Renaissance in Italy, have received
more scholarly attention than have the diplomatic, ecclesiastical and
cultural connections between them. This study is part of a balance-redressing
process. Senior clerics traversed frontiers, owing
allegiance to their native state, their benefices and, above all, to
the Papacy. The purpose of this exploration of the curial careers of
four later quattrocento Venetian cardinals is essentially twofold : to
account for relations between Venice and the Papacy with reference to
individuals who were at once Venetian patricians and princes of the
Church; and to examine the cardinals' responses to this situation in
terms of political, ecclesiastical and cultural patronage. Where did
their loyalty lie? To Venice, with its perennial suspicion of the
Church and peculiar notion of the characteristics of a Venetian
cardinal? Or to the Pope, expressing overt hostility towards the
Republic in the War of Ferrara and placing it under an interdict?
Chapter one sets Merco Barbo, Pietro Foscari, Giovanni Michiel and
Giovanni Battista Zeno in a Venetian context. Chapters two and three
chart relations between the two powers, from the exposure of Cardinal
Zeno's involvement in a scheme to transmit Venetian state secrets to
Rome in exchange for ecclesiastical preferment, through to Ermolao
Barbaro's controversial appointment to the patriarchate of Aquileia,
via the short-lived Papal-Venetian league negotiated by Cardinal
Foscari in 1480. The fourth chapter considers their proximity to the
Supreme Pontiff and how their material fortunes varied under popes
Sixtus and Innocent, after which an assessment of the nature, extent
and effectiveness of their patronage is divided between chapters five
and six, focussing pa.rticularly on Venetian connections. Despite
diverging careers, it is concluded that all were bound by variations
of the Venetian inheritance.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BX Christian Denominations D History General and Old World > DG Italy
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Cardinals -- Venice -- History -- To 1500, Papacy -- History -- 1447-1565, Catholic Church. Pope (1471-1484 : Sixtus IV), Catholic Church. Pope (1484-1492 : Innocent VIII), Papal courts -- History -- To 1500
Official Date:	1991
Dates:	Date Event 1991 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of History
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Mallett, Michael Edward
Extent:	v, 391 p.
Language:	eng

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