Bartolomeo Gagliardi

Bartolomeo Gagliardi was born of indiscretion. Of a chance liaison between his father and the daughter of a close family friend. Of an embarrassing incident that all involved would prefer forgotten, the girl soon being safely placed in a convent and Bartolomeo being raised with common consent as if he were his father's son born within marriage rather than without.

Bartolomeo's father was a wealthy man, a Venetian by birth and loyalties and though his trading empire was neither the largest nor the richest of that most profitable of cities he was yet considered by his fellow Venetians to be a man of substance and by the standards of lesser cities would therefore be counted very rich indeed. He had started as a humble trader of cured meats and salamis, shrewd investment and clever friendships had grown on that simple business and now his ships ranged from England to the Holy Land and to all places in between.

Of all the Gagliardi children, the old man perhaps loved Bartolomeo best, for Bartolomeo had shown the greatest instinct for commerce and had a love of mercantile custom no less than the old man's himself. Yet, for all that, Bartolomeo by his very presence was a burden to the woman who had borne all his legal children, a constant reminder of past infidelity and of promises broken. Bartolomeo knew this, secrets long held fester deeply and his apparent mother bore him but little love. It was no great surprise when he learnt from his father his true origins. Still, despite all, he hoped to inherit and replace his father when the time came as head of the Gagliardi trading empire.

It was not to be. Other families rose in power, gained connections greater than the Gagliardi's connections, made friends in Rome with powerful men who disposed of contracts and trade routes. The Gagliardi remained wealthy, but the sweetest profits increasingly went to others. A man was needed in Rome, a man close to the Papacy who would protect the family's interests and advance their cause. A man perhaps such as Antonio, eldest of Bartolomeo's brothers and a pious and scholarly youth.

Or, alternatively, a man such as Bartolomeo who by his presence caused pain to his father's wife and who caused jealousy in his siblings by virtue of having the better of them in matters of commerce while being their inferior in matters of birth and standing. His father, old and weary of familial strife with a greater need now for the comfort of a contented family than the comfort of a well run business, chose Bartolomeo to go to Rome.

And so Bartolomeo joined the Church, it was no desire of his, but love and loyalty to his father dictated he obey and if one could not be in Venice Rome at least had wealth and opportunity. He allied himself to the Borgia faction, seeing in them much he admired and an ambition to match his own. His gifts for mathematics, for mapmaking and for languages (each the product of his mercantile youth) he applied to distinguish himself and he grew swiftly in power and influence. Diligently he pursued his family's interests, while quietly concealing his sins against the flesh and all matters that could lead to his disgrace and exile. Those who knew him poorly gossiped that he had little by way of genuine faith, that he was a political priest who paid no more attention to his vows than to the demands of his numerous creditors. Those who knew him well however, were quite certain of these truths and of his greed and licentiousness as well, but they saw also his intellectual passion and love of beauty (whether mathematic or physical).

By the end of the Summer of 1515 Bartolomeo had risen to the rank of Canon, had been rewarded with an Estate near Ostia for his services to the Papacy and had acquired enough wealth to satisfy his creditors that he could yet pay them and so that no such payment was yet required. His father's choice had proven wise after all, and Bartolomeo despite his misgivings had grown to love the life that the court of Pope Leo X (most generous and open handed of all holders of that high office) could offer. His future seemed assured...

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