PORCARI, STEFANO. — Born at the beginning of the 15th century in Rome, he died in Rome on 9 January 1453. In 1427 he is found in Florence, as captain of the people: an enthusiastic student of antiquity, in that city he formed friendships with the humanists, especially with Traversari. He then travelled in France and Germany. In 1431 he returned to Rome, and the following year Eugenio IV sent him as podestà to Bologna, where he succeeded in restoring the peace disturbed by the factions. In 1434 he was podestà in Siena, and 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 P.’s mind and induced him to present himself as the liberator of the City from papal rule; in the end, he was merely obeying the traditional claims of his fellow citizens vis-à-vis the Curia, which led
(photo. Gob. photographic archive.)
PORCELAIN — Dish in «p. dei Medici» (16th century) — Arezzo, Museo civico.
in 1142 to the reconstruction of the Senate, gave rise during the Avignonese exile to the creation of the tribunes, and re-emerged during the Western Schism. The same appeal to the freedom of ancient Rome was not an innovation of P., but found in him a more learned and eloquent supporter. In any event, in 1447, during the final illness of Eugenio IV and the subsequent conclave, P. publicly incited the Romans to rebel in order to restore the ancient republic. Niccolò 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 supervision of Cardinal Bessarione. From Bologna, P. remained in contact with the friends who shared his ideas until, abandoning all hesitation, at the end of December 1452 he fled the city and, arriving in Rome on 2 January 1453, hid in his brother-in-law’s house, where he completed the plan of the revolt, recruiting mercenaries and setting the action for Epiphany. The Vatican was to be attacked, Castel S. Angelo seized, and the Pope and cardinals taken and, in the event of resistance, killed; the republic was then to be proclaimed, with P. assuming the office of tribune. Informed of the matter in time, and having overcome his initial dismay, the camerlengo assembled armed men and, during the night of 6 January, attacked the rebels in the house where they had gathered; some of them fought energetically, while P. sought refuge elsewhere. Discovered and arrested, on 7 January he made a full confession, and on the 9th he was hanged with several companions, without the people rising. Other conspirators were condemned in the following days.
Sixteen speeches by P. are known, preserved in a considerable number of codices in Rome and elsewhere; some of them were also printed.