Paolo Giordano Orsini: Power, Crime, and Nobility in Late Renaissance Italy
Lord of San Polo dei Cavalieri, Cerveteri, Campagnano di Roma, Marcellina, Isola Farnese, Anguillara Sabazia, San Gregorio da Sassola, Saracinesco, Trevignano Romano, Castel Giuliano, Orvinio, Cantalupo in Sabina, Canale Monterano, Formello, Galeria, Sacrofano, and Palo. Posthumous son of Girolamo Orsini, brother-in-law of Marcantonio Colonna, and son-in-law of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo de’ Medici. On his mother’s side, he was the nephew of Pope Paul III (Paolo III), and on his father’s, of Pope Julius II (Giulio II). He was also the brother-in-law of Marcantonio Colonna. He was a knight of the Order of Saint Michael and a Knight of the Golden Fleece.
| Year, Month | State, Comp. ventura | Opponent | Command | Area of Activity | Actions Undertaken and Other Salient Facts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| His guardianship and the government of his state are entrusted to his mother Francesca Sforza of Santa Fiora to pass, in a second moment, after her marriage to Lelio dell’Anguillara (1546), to his uncle, Cardinal Guido Ascanio Sforza. The latter succeeds in reconstructing the ancient territorial power of the Orsini of Bracciano by recovering, through recourse to huge loans, territories alienated by previous generations. An enormous debt accumulates in this way that Paolo Giordano Orsini will never be able to meet. | |||||
| 1548 | |||||
| Aug. | Latium | Inherits from Gentile Virginio Orsini the county of Anguillara with Cerveteri and Canale Monterano. Cardinal Sforza, moreover, purchases for 30,000 scudi Anguillara Sabazia from his uncle Francesco Orsini, abbot of Farfa. In addition to this heavy expenditure, the agreement also includes payment of the dowry of Caterina Orsini, daughter of Gentile Virgilio, for another 20,000 ducats and those of other female cousins assigned to him at the time by his father Gian Giordano and his mother Felice della Rovere. | |||
| 1551 | |||||
| Nov. | Liguria | He is sent to Genoa to pay homage to the sovereigns of Bohemia returning from Spain aboard Doria’s galleys. | |||
| 1552/1553 | His uncle Cardinal of Santa Fiora to consolidate his position at the imperial court arranges the marriage of his sister Felice Orsini with Marcantonio Colonna. The following year the same prelate allies himself with the Duke of Florence. In mid-July the marriage contract is ratified between the twelve-year-old Paolo Giordano and the eleven-year-old Isabella de’ Medici, third daughter of the Duke of Florence Cosimo. The dowry is set at 50,000 scudi. Orsini is immediately taken to Florence to remain under Medici control. | ||||
| 1555 | |||||
| Apr. | Tuscany | With Francesco de’ Medici he welcomes Gian Giacomo de’ Medici to the city, returning from the war of Siena. | |||
| Dec. | Latium | He is imprisoned by Pope Paul IV. Released, in mid-December he is given by the pontiff the military command of Campo de’ Fiori square. | |||
| 1556 | |||||
| Jan. | Tuscany | At the end of the month the wedding with Isabella de’ Medici is celebrated in Florence. For the occasion he has the square of San Lorenzo decorated with large canvases depicting the illustrious men of the Orsini house painted by Santi di Tito. At the same time the guardianship of Cardinal of Santa Fiora over him ceases. | |||
| Sept. | Church | Empire | Latium | In the service of the Papal States; fights the imperials commanded by the Duke of Alba. Takes part in the defense of Rome; with 6 companies of infantry he is charged with guarding the section of city walls that runs from Porta Esquilina (San Lorenzo) to San Giovanni in Laterano. He is sent with some companies of infantry on a diversionary action in the Kingdom of Naples. | |
| Nov. | Latium | At Fiumicino to negotiate a truce with the adversaries. | |||
| 1557 | |||||
| Feb. | Latium | At the storming of Vicovaro castle. | |||
| Mar. | In the name of the King of France the Duke of Guise, Francesco di Lorena, confers upon him the collar of the order of Saint Michael. | ||||
| 1558 | Tuscany | June. Marries sixteen-year old Isabella de’ Medici. | |||
| 1559 | |||||
| Aug. | Latium | At the death of Pope Paul IV with his brother-in-law Marcantonio Colonna he assumes the task of defending the college of cardinals from the people in revolt. He returns to the French the collar of the order of Saint Michael to be able to pass to Spanish pay. | |||
| 1560 | |||||
| Autumn | Latium and Tuscany | He is appointed by the new Pope Pius IV governor of Ascoli Piceno and head of the council of the Hundred and Peace. In early October the pontiff erects the fief of Bracciano into a duchy. The ceremony takes place in Rome and is accompanied by jousts, cavalcades and fireworks. Despite the institution of the duchy, by his father-in-law’s will, he continues to live in Florence with his wife. | |||
| 1561 | |||||
| Jan. | Latium | He donates to his maternal uncle Guido Ascanio Sforza, Cardinal of Santa Fiora, the castles of Cerveteri, Palo, Sanguinaria, Campo del Mare and Gricciano: the donation is annulled by the pontiff after a few days as it was extorted from him. The same pope, moreover, grants him a “motu proprio” that allows him to recover many lands at the price he had previously sold them. | |||
| 1562 | |||||
| Oct. | In the period with the help of Cosimo de’ Medici he undertakes a series of lawsuits to recover estates and castles that he had ceded with pact of restitution, in exchange for loans, seized by the lenders for contract expiration. Among the most important cases is that against the Cesi for the recovery of the castle of San Polo dei Cavalieri, Marcellina and the Sponga mountain. Other cases, always in the period, he initiates against the Chigi for Castel Giuliano and against Cardinal Prospero di Santacroce for San Gregorio da Sassola and the Farnese for Sant’Angelo castle. | ||||
| 1563 | |||||
| Dec. | Lombardy | With his brother-in-law Francesco de’ Medici in Milan to pay homage to the Archdukes of Austria Rudolf and Maximilian, who are traveling to Spain as guests of King Philip II. | |||
| 1564 | |||||
| Mar. | Tuscany | The princely lifestyle combined with generosity causes him to be given the nickname “il Largo” (the Generous) in the Sienese academy of the Intronati. This contrasts with his serious debt situation. To remedy it he concludes an agreement with his father-in-law who lends him 8,000 scudi a year for a three-year period to cover household expenses in Florence and another 6,000 to meet creditors’ demands. | |||
| Dec. | Latium | From December until early February of the following year he is reported in Rome, due to the discussion before the Sacred Rota tribunal of his numerous lawsuits (particularly with the Chigi for the recovery of Castel Giuliano). Pope Pius IV, concerned for the security of the Papal States, orders all feudal lords to strengthen the defenses of their castles in poor condition from the previous conflict with the imperials: his poor economic conditions cause the pontiff to exempt him from such expenses with the promise to take charge of the recovery of Vicovaro castle. At Bracciano. | |||
| 1565 | |||||
| Jan. May | Latium | In Rome, first to settle his economic affairs. He undertakes to pay the two sons of Napoleone Orsini a life annuity of 560 scudi a year in exchange for renouncing their claims on Bracciano and Vicovaro. Always in the period he goes a second time to Rome to accompany Ferdinando de’ Medici in his official presentation to the papal court. | |||
| Oct. | Austria | He is reported alongside Francesco de’ Medici at the court of Emperor Maximilian of Austria. | |||
| Tuscany | At Pisa: his economic conditions are such that he is not even able to pay the salary of his servants. Appointed Grande of Spain, a position for which he is paid an annual compensation of 3,000 scudi, he urges his father-in-law to intervene with King Philip II so that he may be invested with the order of the Golden Fleece and given command of the light cavalry in the Kingdom of Naples. | ||||
| Oct. | Trentino Tuscany | Cosimo de’ Medici gives his daughter and Orsini the villa of Baroncelli, later called Poggio Imperiale. In the same month he goes to Trento to accompany Archduchess Joanna of Habsburg, daughter of the emperor, to Florence, who is to marry Francesco de’ Medici. On the occasion of the bride’s entry into the city he has a wooden theater built at his expense where some tournaments take place. | |||
| 1566 | |||||
| Mar. Oct. | Church | Ottoman Empire | General Governor | Tuscany Latium and Marche | He is recalled to Rome by the new Pope Pius V. He leaves Florence. In July he negotiates with the Olgiati bankers the sale of Isola Farnese castle. In August, thanks to the intervention of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, he is elected general governor of the papal army. He is charged with protecting the Marche coasts from Turkish corsair raids and organizing their defenses. He visits the sanctuary of Loreto. He is forced to return soon to Rome (October) and leave his post because he is suspected of being contacted by the French to pass to their service. |
| Malta | He is sent with 4,000 infantry to the defense of Malta following Turkish threats. | ||||
| Marche and Latium | Rumors about his debts reach the pontiff. Despite the diplomatic ability demonstrated in Ascoli Piceno in settling a dispute between two rival families, he falls into disgrace and is forced to leave his post. | ||||
| 1567/1568 | Latium and Tuscany | In June he rents the administration of Bracciano to some bankers for nine years in order to free himself from the burden of debts. A few months (September) are enough for him to understand that he is dealing with corrupt individuals. At the same time his administrator Giulio Folchi, arrested the previous year in Florence, is still being held in prison, albeit formally. He leaves his cousin Giovanni Paolo Orsini at Bracciano and moves to Tuscany. Until the end of the year he moves between Passignano sul Trasimeno, Certaldo, San Casciano and Montescudaio, a guest in convents and friends’ houses, without money, because his income is blocked by creditors. For two years he remains in total isolation and inactivity, dedicating himself only to hunting. | |||
| 1569 | Latium | The situation changes with his father-in-law’s appointment as Grand Duke of Tuscany by Pope Pius V. In August he is in Rome where with Marcantonio Colonna he attends the ceremony in which Cosimo de’ Medici is officially crowned grand duke. In December he returns to Rome. He remains disappointed in his hopes of having command of the papal fleet against the Turks which, instead, is assigned to his brother-in-law Marcantonio Colonna. | |||
| 1570 | Venice | Ottoman Empire | Cyprus | ||
| 1571 | |||||
| May | General Captain of infantry | He has under his orders 6 captains and 15 broken lances. | |||
| Aug. | Sicily | He goes to Naples; mid-month in the church of Santa Chiara Cardinal Granvelle, viceroy of Naples, presents to don Giovanni d’Austria the standard of the league. During the ceremony Orsini has a quarrel for reasons of precedence with the Dukes of Parma and Urbino. He arrives in Messina to join with the allied fleet. He participates in a war council with don Giovanni d’Austria. | |||
| Oct. | Greece and Latium | He fights at the head of 360 infantry in the Battle of Lepanto aboard Battista Lomellino’s galley. With a Venetian vessel from Sebenico, commanded by Cristoforo (or Michele) Lucich, he assails the galley of Pertev Pasha (also known as Piali Pasha). He is wounded in the leg by an arrow in the clash. The Turkish admiral, after losing his rudder and almost all his men, severely burned on a shoulder by an incendiary trumpet, abandons his ship with his son and flees on a small rowing boat guided by a Bolognese renegade who manages to pass among the Christian galleys shouting in Italian. During the combat Paolo Giordano Orsini captures the qadi of the Ottoman fleet; he leads the latter to Rome where he enters in triumph alongside his brother-in-law Marcantonio Colonna. The Muslim official, reduced to slavery, is donated by Orsini to Cardinal de’ Medici who, in turn, considers ceding him to the pontiff. In December King Philip II of Spain will send Orsini a letter of thanks for his work at Lepanto. | |||
| 1572 | |||||
| May | Spain | Tuscany and Sicily | He has command of the infantry. He embarks on 6 Medici galleys and is ferried with his men to Messina. | ||
| 1573 | |||||
| Oct. | Tuscany | Tunis | Tunisia | With 6 Tuscan galleys he takes part in the expedition led by don Giovanni d’Austria to Tunis. The objective is to seize the city at the expense of Occhiali, who had previously conquered the city from Hamida Bey, ally of the Spanish. Tunis is occupied mid-month. | |
| 1574 | |||||
| Apr. | Tuscany | In Florence, at the funeral of Grand Duke Cosimo de’ Medici of Tuscany which takes place in San Lorenzo. | |||
| 1575 | |||||
| June | Latium | He is indicted with Prospero Colonna both for having sponsored a duel between Giovan Paolo Baglioni and a Salviati, and for circulating in Rome and outside the city surrounded by numerous armed men. Pope Gregory XIII laments in consistory the spread of duels that take place continuously. Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici, Orsini’s brother-in-law, Cardinal Alessandro Sforza and Flavio Orsini convince the pontiff that, as an example, Orsini should be confined in Castel Sant’Angelo. The castellan Giacomo Buoncompagni entertains him splendidly for a few days; for his part, when he leaves the castle, he distributes money to the garrison soldiers. He goes to his fief of Bracciano to spend the exile that has been imposed on him as punishment. | |||
| He tries to participate in the rumored Spanish expedition against Genoa. The pope orders him not to serve in any other enterprise except against the Turks. | |||||
| 1576 | |||||
| July | Tuscany | In agreement with his brother-in-law Francesco de’ Medici he brings his wife Isabella to his villa at Cerreto Guidi, who betrays him with his relative Troilo Orsini; he strangles the woman, putting a rope around her neck lowered by some servants from the hole in the ceiling of the nuptial chamber. | |||
| 1577 | |||||
| Nov. | He has his wife’s lover killed with arquebus shots on the road to Perugia. According to some sources Troilo Orsini is killed by an assassin, perhaps on the orders of Francesco de’ Medici who had the opportunity to discover his double game in favor of the King of France. | ||||
| 1578 | Pope Gregory XIII thinks of giving him command of 6,000 infantry to fight the English in Ireland. Nothing comes of it. | ||||
| 1579 | Church | Barbary corsairs | Latium | He is informed of a land raid at Fiumicino by some Barbary corsairs. He rushes from Magliana with the light horses of the papal guard; he occupies the hills of the first foothills and puts the adversaries to flight. | |
| 1580 | |||||
| Summer | Latium | He hosts at Bracciano, in his castle, Marcello Accoromboni who has just killed Matteo Pallavicini, brother of the cardinal, in the capital. He meets in Rome Vittoria Accoromboni, sister of Marcello and wife of the nephew of Cardinal Montalto Felice Peretti. | |||
| 1581 | |||||
| Apr. Aug. | Latium | He has Vittoria Accoromboni’s husband killed by his assassins in an ambush at Quattro Fontane, with arquebus shots and daggers. Orsini brings to safety at Bracciano Accoromboni’s Bolognese maid and the material executors of the crime. Only three days after the killing of Francesco Peretti Orsini welcomes the woman and her mother in his palace; Vittoria falls seriously ill and returns for some time to be treated in her father’s house. In August Orsini is also struck by the plague; recovered, he transfers his mistress from the Campo de’ Fiori palace to that of Cardinal Sforza. | |||
| Latium | The trial for the murder of Francesco Peretti begins in Rome. Orsini lives with the woman; he is prevented from marrying her by Cardinals Medici and Savelli. | ||||
| 1582 | |||||
| Apr. May | Latium | The bargello breaks into his palace in Rome to arrest two bandits who have found refuge there. A brawl follows in Campo de’ Fiori; the sbirri are overwhelmed (six wounded) and put to flight. The police representative, named Pace, is beheaded by the pontiff for his cowardice. The governor of Rome orders Paolo Giordano Orsini to appear before him: he lets it be known that the culprits of the homicide have already fled. He continues to give gifts to his beloved woman and, always in May, he first gives her a present worth 6,000 ducats, partly in cash and partly in tableware and jewels, and, subsequently, two garments with gold and silver threads worth 500 ducats. He asks Pope Gregory XIII to be able to marry Vittoria Accoromboni; he obtains a refusal; he is ordered, indeed, to send the woman back to her father’s house and to move to Bracciano. He must no longer set foot in Rome. He falls ill; a monitorial is notified to him that confirms the orders received from the pontiff: otherwise a fine of 10,000 ducats and the charge of rebellion is foreseen. | |||
| Latium | A harsher monitorial is addressed to Vittoria Accoromboni: she is ordered not to marry again, not to leave the house and not even to appear at the window. The marriage celebrated with Orsini is declared null because clandestine and the religious who presided over the sacrament are put on trial. Orsini pretends to forget the woman in order to return to Rome. | ||||
| Dec. | Latium | Vittoria Accoromboni is confined in the monastery of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. Orsini returns to Bracciano. He is subjected to continuous examinations; many cardinals pray Gregory XIII to free him without obtaining any grace. Meanwhile Orsini is abandoned by the Grand Duke of Tuscany and the King of Spain takes away his Golden Fleece with the related prebends. He meditates on moving to Padua in the service of the Venetians. | |||
| 1583 | |||||
| Jan. Apr. | Latium | Marcello Accoromboni takes to the countryside in the Roman territory. Paolo Giordano Orsini, forced by lack of money, negotiates the sale of Formello with Paolo Sforza; Cardinal de’ Medici, who has a mortgage of 14,000 scudi on this property, denies his consent to the transfer. The trial for the murder of Francesco Peretti continues: an assassin, captured in the previous February by papal justice, reveals, without being tortured, that Accoromboni’s mother is involved in the plot and that the material executor of the crime was Vittoria’s brother, Marcello, with other accomplices. In the same days Orsini is suspected of giving hospitality at Bracciano to Alfonso Piccolomini’s brigands. | |||
| May Nov. | Latium | He is summoned to Rome by the pope to persuade him with blandishments to forget Accoromboni forever. The Spanish ambassador also acts in this sense. In July he publicly declares himself cured of his “illness”. He promises the same thing to the King of Spain, the Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cardinal de’ Medici. Vittoria Accoromboni is, instead, confined in Castel Sant’Angelo where she gives birth to a baby girl. The woman tries to kill herself when she learns of Orsini’s declarations; she does not accept entering a convent, nor marrying men indicated by the curia. In November she is allowed, on the advice of Cardinal Carlo Borromeo (the future saint), to leave prison because found not guilty: the condition is that she not unite in marriage with Orsini and that she retire to Gubbio. She meets with Cardinal Montalto Felice Peretti and leaves for Gubbio. | |||
| 1584 | |||||
| Orsini offers to purchase 4 galleys to fight the Barbary corsairs who infest the Tyrrhenian Sea: The command of the flotilla would have gone to Ludovico Orsini. His proposal is rejected due to his closeness with the Grand Duke of Tuscany who, with such ships, would have become even stronger at sea. The accomplice who denounced the conspiracy is freed and there is no more talk of the murder of Francesco Peretti. In February Accoromboni can leave Gubbio, even though the prohibition of her marriage with the duke is still valid. | |||||
| June | Latium | He receives at Bracciano Marcantonio Colonna, who goes there with a retinue of 400 people and stays eleven days. Orsini suffers from sores on his leg. | |||
| 1585 | |||||
| Apr. | Latium and Marche | At the death of the pontiff he marries Accoromboni again. For his misfortune Felice Peretti (Sixtus V) is appointed pope, uncle of the man he had killed years before. He embarks at Pesaro on the Pasqualiga galley. | |||
| July | Veneto | He takes refuge in Venice with his relative Ludovico. The police arrest, at the pope’s request, one of Francesco Peretti’s assassins hosted in the house. Orsini moves to Padua in the Cavalli palace. Bracciano is confiscated by the papal authorities. | |||
| Oct. | Lombardy | He settles in Salò to be treated. He dies in his palace located in that town a few days later after making his will. He is buried in the local Capuchin church. The tomb soon disappears at the work of the same friars at the pope’s request. It is believed that his body was also disinterred to be buried elsewhere. His wife will be killed in Padua at the end of December with her brother Flaminio in the Cavalli palace. Ludovico Orsini, who defends the interests of his first marriage son, breaks in at night with three assassins and kills the woman in the bedroom. Ludovico Orsini is besieged in his palace in Padua; captured, he is executed in the city. The 3 assassins are lynched by the population and their heads, placed on pikes, are delivered to the city rectors. Bernardo Tasso remembers him in the “Amadigi” where he grants him a place among the heroes in the Hill of Glory. Francesco Sansovino, brother of the architect and sculptor Jacopo, dedicates to Orsini a book on the history of his lineage “L’istoria di casa Orsina“. In Bracciano castle Orsini, to honor his wife Isabella de’ Medici, has an apartment frescoed by the brothers Taddeo and Federico Zuccari. His portrait in Florence in the Uffizi gallery. He builds in Galeria a hospital for the poor, called Santa Maria della Valle. In correspondence with Giorgio Vasari. For some years the Sienese theologian Fausto Sozzini, accused of heresy, works in his secretariat. The tragic death of Isabella de’ Medici has inspired, over the centuries, writers, poets and scientists, from the Elizabethan John Webster, who writes the tragedy “The White Devil” to Alessandro Dumas, to Domenico Guerrazzi who dedicates a historical novel to her figure, to Gaetano Pieraccini. More recently Elisabetta Mori in “L’onore perduto di Isabella dei Medici” has contested the killing of the woman by Orsini: it should instead be attributed to a blockage of the biliary, urinary and intestinal tracts. The life of Vittoria Accoromboni and her tragic end inspire Webster again in the work cited above, Stendhal, Crépet, Capranica and the Vicentine G.B. Roselli. Also to be remembered is the novel by J.L. Tieck. Guerrazzi, finally, follows the novel “Isabella Orsini” with a tale of the life of Vittoria Accoromboni. |
Sources
-“Ha una statura gigantesca. Rosso di pelo. Golosissimo, comincia ad ingrassare quando è ancora nel fiore della giovinezza.” SARAZANI
-“Si aprì larghissima strada a un intero nome di grandissimo osservator de gli ordini militari, e di pietoso e clemente. Perché nessun più amorevole di lui risparmiò il sangue a soldati, né con maggior astinenza conservò le facultà de gli huomini innocenti, come quello che sommariamente godendo della conversatione d’ogni qualità di persone honorate, ha nella pace imparato a regger con l’arte de la dolcezza e della humanità, la natura de popoli pronti a riverire i principi buoni, come egli.” SANSOVINO
-“Chi vuol veder quanto natura e Arte/ Possa d’animo eccelso, e invitto core/ Miri l’Orsin del secol nostro honore.” G.M. Verdizzotto, da un sonetto riportato dal SANSOVINO
-“E’ di grandissimo spirito e giudizio, et intrepido nelle cose militari..aintantissimo della persona, lui sta dalla matina alla sera a cavallo nella caccia, camina molte volte le due e tre miglia a piedi, è fortissimo nella lotta, combatte una sbarra con picca et stocco in modo che trova pochi di pari..E per di più è in grado di arruolare nelle sue tenute 3000 fanti e 300 cavalli.” Da un documento riportato dallo HALE
-“Il primo di quella famiglia potente di stato e ricco di molti beni.” ADRIANI
-“Alto, grosso, di carnagione bianca, di pelo rosso.” BRIGANTE COLONNA
-“Le sue sanguinose vicende hanno ispirato poeti e scrittori e acceso la fantasia popolare che spesso ha dato origine a leggende legate ai fantasmi suoi e di Isabella, che si aggirano tra la Toscana e Bracciano.” WIKIPEDIA
-“Cresciuto ed educato nell’ambiente dei Farnese, degli Sforza di Santa Fiora e dei Medici, vi ricevette una formazione fondata sui modelli della più alta e raffinata educazione principesca che coniugava gli studi umanistici con la danza, il canto, la musica e la disciplina delle armi. Tra i musicisti al suo servizio ci furono Scipione del Palla e Bartolomeo Roy. Suo precettore fu Orazio Prospero, musicista e poeta, suo maestro nelle lettere e nelle armi fu il conte Alessandro Valenti di Trevi e, probabilmente, si occupò della sua educazione anche Benedetto Varchi, che lo definì in un sonetto il suo “verde rampollo”. Suo maestro di equitazione fu il nobile napoletano Giovan Battista Pignatelli, considerato dai contemporanei fondatore di quell’arte. Questo tipo di addestramento, guidato e sorretto dai valori e dai rituali tipici della cavalleria cortese, trovava la sua massima applicazione nei tornei che Orsini stesso amava allestire…Nell’atmosfera di calunnie, sospetti e complotti che, nella seconda metà del Cinquecento, si insinuarono nella vita politica delle corti italiane, la situazione debitoria lo rese facile bersaglio delle campagne di diffamazione messe in atto dalla concorrenza spietata per la conquista di ricchi feudi e incarichi militari…Recenti ricerche su documenti d’archivio, e in particolare sul corposo carteggio di Orsini, gettano una luce nuova sul personaggio rivelando il grande legame d’affetto che lo unì a Isabella e la malattia di lei, che fu la vera causa che la portò alla morte. Le ricostruzioni letterarie delle vicende della vita di Orsini influenzarono a tal punto la storiografia successiva assunta come vera, senza riscontri documentari.” MORI
-“Come di Scipion giacquero l’ossa/ Della mal nata Patria estinta fuora;/ Giaccion fuora le tue di Patrii marmi.” Da un sonetto del GRATTAROLO
-“A mercenary soldier by trade.” HOLLINSWORTH
Featured image: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Giordano_I_Orsini#/media/File:Paolo_Giordano_I_Orsini_detail.jpg
