PORCARI, STEFANO. - Born at the beginning of the 15th century in Rome, d. in Rome on 9 January 1453. He is found in 1427 in Florence as captain of the people: an enthusiastic devotee of antiquity, in that city he formed friendships with the humanists, and especially with Traversari. He then traveled to France and Germany. In 1431 he returned to Rome, and the following year Eugene IV sent him as podestà to Bologna, where he succeeded in restoring the peace disturbed by factions. In 1434 he was podestà in Siena, in 1435 in Orvieto. Having entered the service of Cardinal Vitelleschi, he received from him the government of Trani.
Nothing is known with certainty about the circumstances that influenced the mind of P. to induce him to style himself liberator of the City from pontifical dominion; at bottom he was doing no more than obeying the traditional claims of his fellow citizens against the Curia, which brought
(phot. Gob. phot. mac.)
PORCELAIN - Plate in "p. dei Medici" (16th cent.) - Arezzo, Museo civico.
in 1142 to the reconstruction of the Senate, gave rise during the Avignon exile to the creation of the tribunes, and rose again during the Western Schism. The same appeal to the liberty of ancient Rome was not a novelty of P. but found in him a more learned and more eloquent supporter. In any case, in 1447, during the last illness of Eugene IV and the subsequent conclave, P. publicly urged the Romans to rebel in order to restore the ancient republic. Nicholas V nevertheless pardoned him, and since P. did not desist from his seditious machinations, he sent him to Germany and finally confined him to Bologna, under the surveillance of Card. Bessarion. From Bologna P. kept in touch with the friends who followed his ideas, until, casting aside all delay, at the end of Dec. 1452 he fled the city, and on 2 Jan. 1453, having reached Rome, he hid in the house of his brother-in-law, where he completed the plan of the revolt, enlisting mercenaries and setting the action for Epiphany. The plan was to assault the Vatican, seize Castel Sant'Angelo, capture and, in case of resistance, kill the Pope and cardinals, and proclaim the republic, with P. assuming the office of tribune. The Pope, informed in time of the plot and having overcome his initial dismay, had the chamberlain gather armed men, and on the night of 6 Jan. he attacked the rebels in the house where they were gathered; some of them fought energetically, while P. sought refuge elsewhere. Discovered and arrested, on 7 Jan. he made a full confession, and on the 9th he was hanged with some companions, without the people stirring. Other conspirators were condemned in the following days.
Sixteen speeches of P. are known, handed down in a good number of manuscripts in Rome and elsewhere; some of them were also printed.
Bibliography3 works
Roberto Palmarocchi