The Ghost Of Girolamo Riario

Romagna five centuries earlier

Faenza Market in early 1488. A fencing master approached a wealthy farmer from Forlì surrounded by friends in the middle of the square. The master want delivering them a book of black prophecies to be reported in Forlì ⁹

The fencing master arrived in front of the farmer and his friends and asked aloud:

“Sir, I need a favour from you”.

“Who are you?” answers the farmer.

“My name is Cesare Scrimidore¹⁰ from Faenza and I am a long-time friend of Leon Cobello¹¹, painter and chronicler of your town of Forlivio¹²”.

“I know it's a your friend, and I want delivering him something through you that I owed him for a long time. We will both very grateful if you do that.”

“Yes. I know the chronicler Leone Cobelli. Tell me what this is at all”, replied the farmer.

“He begged me to give him this book personally, which was given to me by a soothsayer friar minor of St. Francis, and since I don't have the opportunity to go to Forlivio, I ask you to give it for me”, said the swordsman.

“All right. Who should I tell him you are?” replied the peasant.

“Say him I am a swordsman from Faenza and I send him a book by an astrologer friar so that you know what kind of destiny is written of your lord Girolamo Riario and your lands in the heaven and in the stars”.

“But what heavenly destiny written in the stars are you talking about, sword master?” spoke a scribe of the peasant present at the speech.

“Sir, don't tense or argue with me about things decided and willed from the heights and heavenly spheres. It is all written in this book and no one can say otherwise¹³”.

“Reach over Sir Leon Cobello, give him this book and tell him that this is the destiny of what will happen to your lord and city and he will know what to do about it”, replied the swordsman threateningly.

“I don’t wish to discuss with you in front of everyone, but know that many of the people of Forlì already know what is happening in our lands and our Count Girolamo Riario. And they don't need soothsayers nor astrologers to know what is happening in our lands¹⁴”, replied the scribe.

“Maybe You are talking about things you do not know. You must know that this book was written ten years ago by an astrologer of these lands and tells of things that have already happened and others that have yet to happen in the government of your city until the year one thousand five hundred”.

“So what? There are many prophecies in those lands runned across by invisibles Count Riario's enemies”.

“And that confirm the things that are still destined to happen there, willed by God and celestial mechanics¹⁵”, replied the fencing master.

“If you say it was written ten years ago, so tell me who wrote it? Who is the soothsayer who gave it to you?” asked the scribe.

“That is not for you to know”.

“So I bet it was the astrologer Girolamo Manfredi, friar and healer astrologer, related in its name to your lords of Faenza, friends of Florence and enemies of Riario¹⁶”, replied the scribe.

“This too is not given you to know, but what the matter?” replied the swordsman.

“The matter is: who has paid this astrologer friar to make this book? Astrologers and horoscopes cost a lot and someone rich must have paid for them”, asked the scribe even more critically.

“I don't know what's your problem, and I'm not want argue about it with you. But if you mean to say that I am a ciurmadore¹⁷and you want to pass the truth on to the tournament,¹⁸ I will be well disposed to it”, replied the swordsman.

“I am a scribe and I do not intend to say that you are a swindler, nor do I intend to hold on you or pass with you at tournament, I just wanted to know how things were to take note for me and my citizens”, the scribe lowered his tone.

“Then let the Master Leon Cobello do this and let's end our discussion here that is better in this way”, concluded the fencing teacher with the scribe.

“You”, ordered the fencer at the farmer:

“Take and keep this book. Just give it to Master Leon Cobello, and he'll know what to do with it. We'll both be grateful for what you do for us”.

“All right, let's not quarrel again about it”, said the farmer, taking the book, turning is back to secure it in his travel bag.

“Listen, what did you say your name is?” asked the farmer, turning back again to the swordsman, but the swordsman had already quietly walked away in the crowd of the marketplace.

“When he arrived in Forlì the farmer handed the book to the chronicler Leone Cobelli telling him everything, but Cobelli, as hard he tried to remember who the swordsman and the monk might be, said he couldn't remember anyone who had promised such a thing to him. In any case the chronicler Cobelli was also an astrologer and held those prophecies in great consideration”.

“And as soon some strange sign appeared in the sky, he wrote that they arrived from Faenza or had been seen above the convent of the local Franciscan friars”, the witness concluded the explanation of his story.

The researcher had listened attentively him and asked:

“In a nutshell, do you mean say that this book was written by Riario's murderers to prepare the Forlians for his death and make the people believe that Riario was predestined to die?”

“Something like that, but planned a little bit better. A similar book was indeed ordered ten years earlier by people of Florence who run around Lorenzo de' Medici and contained the way and manner in which Riario should be die”, replied the witness.

“Lorenzo de Medici? Lorenzo the Magnificent ordered it?” asked the researcher in amazement.

“Yes, himself”.

“What does he have to do with Riario?” asked the researcher.

“He has a lot to do with it. It was in fact a settlement between them”.

“What are you talking about?”

“I'm telling you what happened. It all began when Pope Sixtus IV and his nephew, Girolamo Riario, try to take over Florence and overthrow Lorenzo de' Medici and his brother Giuliano de Medici”.

“And then what append?”

“And then Riario and the Pope found nothing better than trying to assassinate both during a solemn mass in Florence Cathedral, where they lying down Giuliano de' Medici in a pool of blood, while Lorenzo the Magnificent was missed and managed to save himself locking himself in a sacristy”.

“Are you talking about the conspiracy of Pazzi?” asked the researcher.

“Just that. The Pope, Riario and his followers organized it in Rome during a mass in the cathedral of Florence”, replied the witness. Then he added:

“The impact, the outrage and resentment at what a Pope and his nephew had organized in a church during a public mass, was enormous even at the time. And the reaction and revenge of the Florentines and Lorenzo de' Medici was equally proportionate to what had happened, so much that he set up a company of assassins or ‘ucciditori’¹⁹ with the aim of making a list of the people involved to take revenge on the conspirators who had taken part in that assassination”.

“And what about Riario?” asked the researcher.

“Riario was at the top of that list of murderers”.

“And what was the difference between a company of assassins and a company of ‘ucciditori’?”

“Not to much. At the time, assassins were considered murderers in the service of someone, while the ‘ucciditori’ were secret avengers with the task of settling crimes and avenging the work of conspirators and murderers. But apart from these small details, more or less both did the same things and operated in very similar ways”, replied the witness.

“So that book of prophecies was true?”

“Only in part, because it was not born as a real book of prophecies but as a kind of mocking in macabre verses that mocked and narrated the end that Riario should have and the fate that would fall over Forli, immediately after his death”, replied the test.

“At the beginning, that book came from Florence and told facts and things that had to happen to Girolamo Riario and our city until 1500. They were more or less nothing else but the plans for revenge and the conquest of Forlì by Florence, disguised as verses and prophecies to take revenge for the conspiracy of the Pazzi in Florence”.

“What did that monk and that astrologer have to do with it?”

“Those Florentine verses were given to some friars of Florence and the surrounding area, as normal political propaganda of the time. So they would narrate and make well known to the people of those parts, the end that the enemies of Florence had to receive”.

“After a while these verse were also given to an astrologer followed and known in Romagna, so that he could read in the stars and explain scientifically to everyone what was about to happen to the Medici's assassins, because at that time astrology was considered by the people as science.

“Unbelievable”, replied the researcher.

“Not even that much. In truth, it was normal preparatory black propaganda, followed by the military conquest policy of the time”.

“And then what happened?” asked the researcher.

“Then, as the years went by and nothing of what the stars said was realized, someone ordered the Company of executors to realize what maybe was also written somewhere in the heavens, but for various reasons never happened on earth”, explained the witness.

“So what was Riario?” the researcher tried to ask.

“Girolamo Riario was the one who had organized the assassination of the Medici on behalf of his uncle Pope Sixtus IV”.

“And he was to take command of Florence, in place of Lorenzo the Magnificent, once he was assassinated. And that's why he ended up at the top of that company's list of killers or ucciditori if you prefer”, explained the witness.

“But why did Riario try to do such a thing?”

“For various reasons. One because he was Captain General of the Church²⁰ and the Pope had ordered him to take Florence”.

“The other, is that was interested in taking Florence and unite it with his lordships of Imola and Forlì and thus make a unique grand duchy adding Faenza, which stood between Imola and Forlì. at the time property of Florence”.

“That plan failed and only Giuliano de' Medici died, while Lorenzo the Magnificent saved himself from the attack of two priests assassin and you will soon understand the rest of the show”, replied the witness.

“Carry on”, nodded the researcher.

“Returning to the book of prophecies, before Riario's death mysterious inscriptions alluding something was found in Greek, on a column of the high altar of the church of San Mercuriale in Forlì and this made someone suspicious.”

“What was that inscription in the church alluding to?”

“According to many people of the time, they alluded to his death”.

“However the chronicler Leone Cobelli, took that book in verses that they had given him, wrote hesitantly about it and in fact talked about it doing, among other things, propaganda for the enemies”.

“But several suspected that it was a trick of the conspirators to disguise the murder they were preparing for he and bury Riario under a kind of damnatio memoriae,²¹” explained the witness.

“What is a damnatio memoriae?” asked the researcher.

Damnatio memoriae: The condemnation to be forgotten by history

“Have you ever wondered why you know a lot of things and facts about someone, while about others you only know some little things existed or happened but little or nothing is really well known about or what happened?” asked the witness.

“Yes, but I think it's due to the fact that in the place where he lived or where something happened, there were no good writers or reporters who decided to write the events. And so the memory of someone or something was lost”, replied the researcher.

“It may be almost true, but you said well at the end of your answer: in the end the memory of someone or something was lost”.

“Well, this is also possible for various reasons”.

“Yes, it is possible. But there are also some ways to make this succeed. It's almost impossible that something happen in one place and no one seeing nothing happen or forgetting all about, unless someone hard work to forget facts or make someone else forget everything”, replied the witness.

“I'm listening, continue your speech”.

“In contrast to events and characters from the past, of which we always know something, almost nothing is left about Riario and his exploits, including most of the official documents he wrote and signed”.

“Even the memories, sayings and tales that are usually handed down orally about someone, seem to be no longer present for Riario, while for his wife Caterina Sforza there are letters, written stories, sayings and memories that go on in time”.

“What's the cause?”

“Damnatio Memoriae, so the Latin people called it. It was a condemnation to be forgotten and removed from historical memory.”

“A practice that Romans and Egyptians had been doing for a long time and was used even after them to erase someone from history”, explained the witness.

“Basically every memory and thing the person had done in life was erased. Every writing he wrote, every image in which he was portrayed, every coat of arms and everything that remembered he. If the person had had coins minted with his name or image, it was forbidden to use them and they had to be handed over to be melted down or minted again in another form”.

“Even his properties were razed to the ground and stripped of all memory and that's what they did with Riario”.

“That was also what Caterina Sforza did in revenge for Riario's murderers when she took them and razed their houses and their property. So all memories and things about them would also disappear and they would be erased and forgotten from history too”.

“And where are these things written now?” asked the researcher.

“I have no idea where they are written now. But I can tell where they were written in the past”.

“Tell me”.

“The chronicler Leone Cobelli wrote some of them in his chronicles and, if you look at his original correspondence, you will see that some pages right in the spot that mention the facts of Caterina and Riario have been scratched and torn out”.

“Also another writer and chronicler from Forlì, very well known at the time, Guido Peppo, surnamed ‘della Stella’²², came to the same conclusions but now all of his writings no longer exist”.

“He had written many history books that told many facts and chronicles that happened in Romagna but all his writings disappeared, because he had been Riario's friend and his personal chronicler and perhaps for some other reason”, explained the witness.

“Who was this Guido Peppo, known as ‘della Stella’?”

“A writer and healer from Forlì, able to read and translate ancient Hebrew and Greek like few others in Italy”.

“Would a ghost have whispered all this in your ears?” asked the researcher.

“No, the first to tell me was my great-grandfather when I was eleven” replied the witness.

“Did your great-grandfather explain all these things to you when you were eleven?” asked again the researcher in disbelief.

“As strange as it seems to you, that's exactly what it is”.

Would you like to explain me who are you and what happened to you?

...asked more and more intrigued the researcher.

“My surname today is Plaxxxxx and the ancestors of my family in Riario's time were noble and in favour of the papacy, but back then we had another surname and we were called Paoxxxxx”.

“We had residences and offices in Imola and Forlì by papal concession, then some members of my family took part together with other Forlì families in the conspiracy against Riario and were considered traitors, while others of our family remained faithful”.

“And so my ancestors were forced to change the surname to Plaxxxxx. to separate us from the original family who had not betrayed the trust they had received and remained a family of nobles. Then with the passing of the centuries, we went from fallen nobles to administrators and city officials and gradually became simple employees and workers of various kinds here in Romagna”.

“Is that all?” asked the researcher.

“It may not seem like much to you, but I assure you that buried down in a forgotten and fallen family is a condemnation to amnesia for me”, explained the witness.

“That may be true, but you have tried to remember and keep many things alive, and you don't seem a forgetful guy to me”.

“Yes, but a lot of people of my family became forgetful from a long time ago. And will not enough for me to remember everything for redeem and regain our lost family memories.”

“Do you have many relatives?”

“I had many relatives. Now most of them have a surname similar to mine and they don't even know any more who they used to be and that we were relatives”, the witness laughed.

“Why don't try to explain or tell something to them” said the researcher.

“Come on. Most people wouldn't even know what I'm talked about, and a few others wouldn't even care to remember if it is true what they heard. Men create their own prisons and then forget themselves in”.

“Maybe you're right”, said the researcher, thinking about it for a moment. Then he added, “Please continue”.

“At the end of 1700 an ancestor of mine, with French Enlightenment ideas, became an official collaborator with the Jacobins of the Napoleonic government, then settled in Forli, and also wrote some reports and surveys on our population for their administrators”.

“He was apparently an esoteric masonic group with some Napoleonic officials in and began to study mesmerism²³ which had taken its roots in France at the time”.

“Carry on”, the researcher urged him.

“At night they used gathered together with Frenchmen in some rooms of the town hall and try to mesmerize many people to see what had happened in those places. And my enlightened ancestor also transcribed some things about what happened during those experiments”.

“Mesmerize”? The hypnotic practice discovered by Anton Mesmer?”

“Not really. Mesmerizing wasn't like hypnotizing and putting someone to sleep, but it was like magnetizing or tuning on, as we would say today, a person with someone or something”.

“Never heard of it before”, replied the researcher in amazement.

“Depends on how long time you means before. It existed in Mozart's time and only a century ago you would still have heard of this practice. Today it's no longer used, but back then it was used to mental connect a person with a place or another person”.

“You gives me some creeps just thinking about it. What happened anyway?” asked the researcher.

“It happened that some people mesmerized told what really happened in past and how some things had occurred in the centuries before, while others went over many details of what take place and told it like a heck.”

“Who were these people?”

“Some were Forli Jacobins in favour of the Napoleonic government that had settled for a short time in Forli, others were ordinary citizens and officials. And others were French military”.

“Carry on”.

“There were people who told many details, others who saw things that happened, others were a little reticent or frightened and told little or nothing”, explained the witness.

“And your great-grandfather would have told you all this when you were eleven?” asked the researcher.

“No. My great-grandfather was not yet born at that time, but he had heard from his father what had happened there and told me what they had done and what he still knew”.

“So your descendants told each other over and over the time what they knew and many of these things came from your ancestors in your hands?” asked the researcher.

“Pretty much, yes”.

“Tell me that”, said the researcher.

“After the Napoleonic government passed by, my Jacobin ancestor became an official of the municipality of Forli and died murdered by an his alleged illegitimate son in 1830”.

“Many years later another his nephews became custodian of the municipal warehouses which were then on the ground floor of the courtyard of the town hall. And he too, following in the footsteps of our ancestors, did esoteric research with other people in the late 1800s”.

“Did they only do esoteric research or did they something else too?” asked the researcher.

“They did something else too. So while they were there, they did some séances in the fortress of Ravaldino, that was the old fortress of Riario and Caterina Sforza, to which they had the access keys”, replied the witness.

“Séances in the late 1800s?”

“Sure. That was the heyday of those things all over the world”.

“That's true, but with all those mesmeric and séance sessions they did, what happened in the end?” asked curios the researcher.

“It happened that they tried to recall different people and not just Riario, to get him to tell them new things and many details”.

“Who did they recall?”

“Several people. One was Caterina Sforza, the others were some characters from Forli. Among other things, in the fortress of Ravaldino showed up the spirits of some French officers and Italian Jacobins who, eighty years before during the Napoleonic-Jacobin reign, had done mesmeric sessions inside that fortres, when they used as barracks for French soldiers”, explained the witness.

“Who were they?”

“French soldiers and some Forli officials from the Napoleonic era. The fact is that eighty years later, when the fashion for spiritualism arrived, other citizens towards the end of the 1800s, tried to summon people of all kinds to find out what had happened in past”.

“And these people who did the séances, eighty years after Napoleon's fall, who were they?” asked the researcher.

“I won't give you the names, but some of them were citizens. Others were former Garibaldians and Republicans. The keeper of the castle who took part in all this was my ancestor and, in 1957 when I was 11 years old, my great-grandfather told me a lot about what they knew and discovered then”.

“And what did they find out?”

“Many things about Riario and Caterina Sforza”, replied the witness.

“All right. Continue to tell me about Riario and Caterina Sforza then”, asked the researcher who was more and more raped and intrigued by the witness's account.