Papal Banking in Renaissance Rome: Benvenuto Olivieri and Paul III, 1534-1549Benvenuto Olivieri was a Florentine banker active in Rome during the first half of the sixteenth century. A self made man without any great family patrimony, he rose to prominence during the pontificate of Pope Paul III, becoming involved with a variety of papal enterprises which allowed him to get to the heart of the mechanisms governing the papal finances. Amassing a considerable fortune along the way, Olivieri soon built himself a role as co-ordinator of the appalti (revenue farms) and became one of the most powerful players in the complex network that connected bankers and the papal revenue. This book explores the indissoluble link that had developed between the papacy and bankers, illuminating how the Apostolic Chamber, increasingly in need of money, could not meet its debts, without farming out the rights to future income. Utilising documents from a rich corpus of unpublished private sources in Florence and Rome, Bruscoli unravels the web of financial connections that bound together Florentine and Genoese bankers with the papacy, and looks at how money was raised and the appalti managed. |
Contents
Florentines in Rome 114 | 1 |
The Ascent of the Olivieri Family | 25 |
The Depositary and Loans to the Pontiff | 69 |
Venal Offices and Monti | 95 |
The Customs of Rome | 111 |
Indirect and Direct Taxes | 145 |
Other Activities | 167 |
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Common terms and phrases
accounts activity addì administration agreement already alum amount Antonio Apostolic Chamber balance bankers banking beginning Benedetto Benvenuto Olivieri Busini busta calculated Camera capital Chapter collection commission Conti continued conto contract contributed customs d'oro in oro deal debt della depositary detail detto documents ducats example fact fasc Filippo Strozzi Florence Florentine Francesco further Galli Tassi 2278 Genoese Giovan Giovanni Giulio given gold half hands heirs held important included income increase interest involved Italy January latter loan Lorenzo March Medici mentioned mercatores merchant-bankers Montauto Monte months Moreover offices Olivieri & Partners Olivieri company operations owed paid papacy papal Parma Paul payment period Perugia pope profits referred relative remained Roma Romagna Roman Rome scudi d'oro share social sources Stato Strozzi Studi Treasury Ubaldini various vols