Council of Basel, Marriage dispensation for the Gonzaga and Este families, manuscript on vellum, 1436

COUNCIL OF BASEL

Dispensation, granted by the Council of Basel, allowing the marriage of Lucia d’Este (d. 1437) to Carlo Gonzaga (d. 1456). Dated at Basel, 11 December 1436

Vellum, single-sheet document, c.295x435mm, the lower c.100mm folded up, pricked in all four margins, ruled in plummet, 15 lines of text WRITTEN IN AN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE HUMANISTIC SCRIPT, signed by Bartolomeo de Batiferis, with a pendent lead bull with an image of Christ blessing, and the Holy Spirit descending upon, the Council members; the reverse with the legend "SACRO/SANCTA: GENE/RALIS: SINO/DVS: BASI/LIENSIS", hanging from a yellow and red suspension cord; the reverse with an endorsement by two scribes and a reference number by a third: "D. II. no. 17a"(?); the document with the usual horizontal and vertical creases, the bulla slightly worn, but overall in very fine condition

The text begins "Sacrosanta generalis synodus Basiliensis in spiritu sancto legitime congregata universalem ecclesiam representans. Dilecto filio nobili viro Carolo nato dilecti filii nobilis viri Johannis Francisci Mantuan’ et dilecte filie nobili mulieri Lucie …".

This document is an interesting witness to the machinations of Italian noble families. Carlo was the second son, after Ludovico, of Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua. For reasons that are unclear, Gianfrancesco decided that he wanted his inheritance to pass to Carlo, and on 3 November 1436 gained permission from the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund to pass the Marquisate to his favourite (not necessarily eldest) son. Within six weeks Carlo obtained the present dispensation, which opened the way to an alliance between the Gonzaga and d’Este families. The alliance was not, however, entirely straightforward: Carlo’s mother, Paola Malatesta, was a cousin of Parisina Malatesta, Lucia’s mother, who had been executed in 1425 by her father, Niccolo III d’Este, for having had an affair with his illegitimate son Ugo; hence the need for the present dispensation.

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