Silvio Passerini (1469 – 20 April 1529) was an Italian

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Biography

Born in

Cortona Cortona (, ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Arezzo, in Tuscany, Italy. It is the main cultural and artistic centre of the Val di Chiana after Arezzo. Toponymy Cortona is derived from Latin Cortōna, and from Etruscan language, Etr ...

, Passerini was taken under the wing of the powerful Florentine Medici family, after his father, Rosado, was imprisoned for too openly supporting the Medici cause during one of the reversals of power in 15th‑century

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. Silvio was raised and educated at the court of

Lorenzo de' Medici Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (), known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (; 1 January 1449 – 9 April 1492), was an Italian statesman, the ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic, and the most powerful patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Lore ...

and became very close to Lorenzo's son Giovanni whom he followed even to the battlefront where they fought side by side in France and were both made prisoners. As papal commissioner and envoy for

Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...

and

Umbria Umbria ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region of central Italy. It includes Lake Trasimeno and Cascata delle Marmore, Marmore Falls, and is crossed by the Tiber. It is the only landlocked region on the Italian Peninsula, Apennine Peninsula. The re ...

, Passerini amassed a considerable fortune. When Giovanni became Pope Leo X in 1513, Silvio Passerini became cardinal-bishop of Cortona, with a diocese enlarged at the expense of the archdiocese of Florence and the diocese of Arezzo. He was made regent of Alessandro de' Medici, probably Giovanni's son, as lord of Florence in Giovanni's stead. A great period of wealth and power ensued: the papal historian

Pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

noted 55

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

s for Cardinal Passerini recorded in Leo's official register. In Cortona, Cardinal Passerini directed his diocese from the ''Palazzone'' on the height above Cortona. Originally the 12th-century ''Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo'', who represented the "tribune della plebe" (the "tribunes of the people"), in 1514 the palace gave way to Cardinal Passerini, who rebuilt it in Renaissance taste c. 1521‑27, and left it, as the ''Palazzone Passerini'', to his heirs (the last of whom donated it, in 1968, to the

Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa The Scuola Normale Superiore (commonly known in Italy as "la Normale") is a public university in Pisa and Florence, Tuscany, Italy, currently attended by about 600 undergraduate and postgraduate (PhD) students. Together with the University of Pi ...

, which now uses it to host prominent international meetings of mathematical researchers). It is richly frescoed with events of classical Roman history. While frescoing its chapel, the painter Luca Signorelli fell from the scaffolding and died. Many of the other frescoes are the work of Il Papacello and his assistants. The Cardinal was a great Renaissance patron. He built three more personal villas: one in the commune of Bettolle, one in Petrignano and the third in Piazzano, the closest to his official residence. He recognized the talent of the sixteen-year-old

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ideol ...

of Arezzo and supported him to study in Florence. At Florence he commissioned a tapestry from cartoons by Andrea del Sarto and Raffaellino del Garbo, which is conserved in the diocesan museum at Cortona. With the young Alessandro and Ippolito de' Medici in tow, he attended the first performance of

Niccolò Machiavelli Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) was a Florentine diplomat, author, philosopher, and historian who lived during the Italian Renaissance. He is best known for his political treatise '' The Prince'' (), writte ...

's comedy '' La Mandragola'', Vasari related. When the Medici fell in 1527, Silvio Passerini's loyalty toward them also forced him to flee from Florence and Cortona. He died at

Città di Castello Città di Castello (); "Castle Town") is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Perugia, in the northern part of Umbria. It is situated on a slope of the Apennine Mountains, Apennines, on the flood plain along the upper part of the river Tiber. T ...

. His body was later transferred to Rome and buried at his titular parish, San Lorenzo in Lucina.

References

External links

Passerini's ''Palazzone'' at Cortona
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Passerini, Silvio 1469 births 1529 deaths People from Cortona 16th-century Italian cardinals Bishops of Cortona 16th-century Italian Roman Catholic bishops