Sebastiano Montelupi ( pl, Sebastian Montelupi, name occasionally Polonized as ''Wilczogórski'', 1516 – 18 August 1600), was an Italian-born merchant and banker in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

, Poland, and

Postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

General of the Polish royal postal service under

Sigismund II Augustus Sigismund II Augustus ( pl, Zygmunt II August, lt, Žygimantas Augustas; 1 August 1520 – 7 July 1572) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548. He was the first ruler ...

, Henry III of Poland,

Anna Jagiellon Anna Jagiellon ( pl, Anna Jagiellonka, lt, Ona Jogailaitė; 18 October 1523 – 9 September 1596) was Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania from 1575 to 1587. Daughter of Polish King Sigismund I the Old and Italian duchess Bon ...

Stephen Báthory Stephen Báthory ( hu, Báthory István; pl, Stefan Batory; ; 27 September 1533 – 12 December 1586) was Voivode of Transylvania (1571–1576), Prince of Transylvania (1576–1586), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1576–1586) ...

and

Sigismund III Vasa Sigismund III Vasa ( pl, Zygmunt III Waza, lt, Žygimantas Vaza; 20 June 1566 – 30 April 1632 N.S.) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1587 to 1632 and, as Sigismund, King of Sweden and Grand Duke of Finland from 1592 to ...

Life

Montelupi left Italy in 1536, settling in the

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Królestwo Polskie; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a state in Central Europe. It may refer to: Historical political entities *Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom existing from 1025 to 1031 *Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom exist ...

in 1557. He worked for the merchants and bankers Carlo and Bernardo Soderini until establishing himself independently in partnership with his younger brother Carlo. In 1567 he married the teenaged Urszula, daughter of doctor of medicine Wojciech Baza (died 1569), physician to the court. The year after the wedding the couple moved into a '' kamienica'' residence in the centre of Kraków, rebuilt in the Renaissance style. This building, known as the Italian House or Montelupi House, also served as the central post office. Urszula was to die without surviving issue on 12 July 1586, aged 35, after 19 years of marriage. At one point

Francesco Pucci Francesco Pucci (1543 – 5 July 1597) was an Italian philosopher and humanist. Life Pucci was born in Figline Valdarno. He was of the same family as the Cardinals Lorenzo Pucci, Roberto Pucci, and Antonio Pucci. He worked began in a mercantile ...

had consulted

John Dee John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divinatio ...

on Montelupi's behalf, to determine whether their childlessness could be due to witchcraft.

Career

As a merchant, Montelupi traded with Italy, Germany, England, Austria and Russia. As a banker, his clients included the papal nuncios at the Polish court. In 1574, the city reimbursed Montelupi a little over '' fl''.1,827 for his contributions to the ceremony of receiving and performing hommage to the new king, Henry III; these contributions included a yard and a half of red Chinese cloth for the dish holding the keys to the city, and a number of vermeil vessels and a large silver vase that were presented to the king. In 1581 Montelupi advanced ''fl''.3,000 to King Stephen Báthory to help finance that year's campaign against Muscovy. Towards the end of his life he became court banker to King Sigismund III, and consul of the Italian community in the capital. In the 1580s he funded the publication of work by the Franciscan writer Annibale Rosselli. He died in Kraków on 18 August 1600, aged 84, leaving an estate valued at ''fl''.150,000. He was succeeded by his nephew and adopted heir, Valerio Tamburini Montelupi (Walerian Montelupi, 1548–1613), who thus became the richest citizen in Kraków.

Master of the Royal Post

From 1568 Montelupi was postmaster general of the Polish Royal Post (succeeding Pietro Maffon), running one public service to

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

(in three weeks) and another to Vienna and Venice (in ten days). These services were suspended in 1572 and when resumed in 1574 were reserved for the carriage of royal messages. In 1583 he was confirmed as royal postmaster general by the new king, Stephen Báthory, on condition he maintain public deliveries between the major cities of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...

, and an international service to and from Venice at least twice each month. His position enabled Montelupi to provide high-level information services for correspondents including the

Medici The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Muge ...

in Florence and the

Fugger The House of Fugger () is a German upper bourgeois family that was historically a prominent group of European bankers, members of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century mercantile patriciate of Augsburg, international mercantile bankers, and vent ...

in Augsburg. At Sebastiano's death the postmastership also passed to his nephew Valerio, and in time to Valerio's descendants, the last postmaster of the dynasty being Carlo Montelupi de Mari (Karol Montelupi, died 1662). Another Italian, Angelo Maria Bandinelli, then became royal postmaster general.

Commemoration

A magnificent monument to Sebastiano Montelupi and his wife Urszula was erected in St. Mary's Basilica, Kraków. The work has been attributed to the workshop of Italian-Polish architect and sculptor

Santi Gucci Santi Gucci (c. 1530–1600) was an Italian architect and sculptor. Biography He moved to Poland after 1550, most probably from Florence, and became the court artist of king Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, his sister Anna Jagiellonka and his s ...

. A street in Kraków is named after his family, as is his kamienica, and a palace built by his descendants. In 2008 a commemorative stamp set celebrating the 450th anniversary of the Polish postal service was issued, featuring portraits of Prosper Provano and Sebastiano Montelupi. The portrait of Montelupi was based on the effigy incorporated into the Montelupi monument.

References

Bibliography

* Danuta Quirini-Popławska, ''Działalność Sebastiana Montelupiego w Krakowie w drugiej połowie XVI wieku'', Kraków, 1980. * Danuta Quirini-Popławska, ''Korespondencja Sebastiana i Valeria Montelupich (1575–1609)'', Wrocław, Wydawnictwo "Ossolineum", 1986. * Danuta Quirini-Popławska, ''Sebastiano Montelupi, toscano, mercante e maestro della Posta Reale di Cracovia: Saggio sulle comunicazioni Polonia-Italia nel '500'', Quaderni di storia postali 13; Istituto di studi storici postali, 1989.

External links

Effigy of Sebastiano Montelupi

Commemorative stamp issue
{{DEFAULTSORT:Montelupi, Sebastiano 1516 births 1600 deaths Polish businesspeople 16th-century Italian businesspeople Postmasters of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Italian expatriates in Poland