1 For the story of the dream, see Waddingo, Luca (Luke Wadding), Annates Minorum seu Trium Ordinum A S. Francisco Institutorum, eds. J. M. Fonseca and B. Marrani, vol. XI (Quaracchi, 1932), pp. 98–99 Google Scholar; Historici, Platynae (Platina), Liber di Vita Christi ac omnium pontificum, eds. G. Carducci and V. Fiorini, in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, Raccolta degli storici italiani, ed. L. A. Muratori, vol. III, Parte 1 (Bologna, 1932), p. 399 Google Scholar; Pusci, Lucio, “Profilo di Francesco della Rovere poi Sisto IV,” Storia e cultura at Santo, ed. Antonino Poppi, Fonti e studi per la storia del Santo a Padova, Studi, vol. I (Vicenza, 1976), III, 279 Google Scholar; and Vincenzo Pacifici, Un carme biografico di Sisto IV del 1477 (Tivoli, n.d. [1923]), p. 7. The author of the fifteenth-century text published by Pacifici has been identified as the Englishman Robert Flemmyng: see Campana, Augusto, “Roma di Sisto IV, le Lucubraciunculae Tibertinae di Robert Flemmyng,” Strenna dei romanisti, 9 (1948), 88–98 Google Scholar. The dream was represented in an anonymous fresco in the Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Rome, which Sixtus patronized; see Steinmann, Ernst, Die Sixtinische Kapelle, Bau und Schmuck unter Sixtus IV (Munich, 1901), I, 95 Google Scholar, fig. 45. The family tree of Sixtus IV is given in Rodocanachi, E., Histoire de Rome, Une cour princière au Vatican pendant la Renaissance, Sixte IV—Innocent VIII—Alexandre VI Borgia 1471- 1503 (Paris, 1925), p. 9 Google Scholar. On Della Rovere's career as friar and pope, see Lee, Egmont, Sixtus IV and Men of Letters, Temi e Testi, 26, ed. E. Massa (Rome, 1978), pp. 11–45 Google Scholar; and Pastor, Ludwig, The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages, (2nd ed., F. I. Antrobus; London, 1900), IV, 197–523 Google Scholar. Further bibliography is given in Ritzier, Remigio, “I cardinali e i papi dei Frati Minori Conventuali,” Miscellanea francescana, 71 (1971), 47-8Google Scholar.

2 Pusci, “Profilo,” p. 280.

3 The disputation was held in January of 1463; see ibid., p. 282. On the issue itself, see Chenu, M.-D., “Sang du Christ,” Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, vol. XIV ¹ (Paris, 1939), pp. 1094–1097 Google Scholar. Delia Rovere's career was promoted by the great Bessarion, who was Cardinal Protector of the Order from 1458-1472. Delia Rovere became Bessarion's confessor before 1459, but they later quarreled and the cardinal did not vote for the friar as pope; see Bisticci, Vespasiano da, Vite di uomini illustri del secolo XV, ed. L. Frati, Collezione di opere inedite o rare dei primi tre secoli della Lingua, Vol. I (Bologna, 1892-3), p. 139 Google Scholar. (N.b. Vespasiano's negative attitude toward Sixtus.) On Delia Rovere and Bessarion, see also Lee, Sixtus, pp. 17, 24-25 and 30-31; and Sevesi, Paolo M., “Lettere autografe di Francesco della Rovere da Savona, Ministro Generale (1467-1471) (poi Sisto IV, 1471-1484),” Archivum Franciscanum Historkum, 28 (1935), 198–234 and 477-99Google Scholar.

4 For the conclave that elected della Rovere on August 9, see Lee, Sixtus, pp. 28-30. Wadding recorded the pope's election: Annales, XIII, 534.

5 Wadding, XIII, 424. The pope even managed to die on the feast of the Franciscan St. Clare, August 12, 1484; see Huber, Raphael M., A Documented History of the Franciscan Order from the Birth of St. Francis to the Division of the Order under Leo X (1182-1517) (Milwaukee and Washington, D.C., 1944), p. 441 Google Scholar.

6 That this medal commemorated the pope's coronation is suggested by the inscription as well as the imagery: “HEC DAMUS IN TERRIS. AETERNA DABUNTUR OLIMPO.” Ascribed to Lysippos the Younger, the medal provided the model for the portrait of Sixtus in his paliotto in S. Francesco in Assisi, which was in place by 1473. On the medal and its significance, see Weiss, Roberto, The Medals of Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) (Rome, 1961), pp. 13–18 Google Scholar. For the paliotto in which Sixtus kneels before St. Francis, see Kleinschmidt, Beda, Die Basilika San Francesco in Assisi, vol. I (Berlin, 1915). p. 37 and fig. 27Google Scholar.

7 For this and for the similar bull of 1478, see Wadding, Annales, XIV, 41-42; Huber, History, pp. 424-25 and n. 31; and Mencherini, Saturnino, Codice diplomatko della Verna e delle SS. Stimate di S. Francesco d'Assisi nel VII°-centenario del gran prodigio, Document francescani, Vol. III (Florence, 1924), pp. 109-11Google Scholar, 117-22, 125-26, and 134-35. Depictions of St. Catherine of Siena with the stigmata were forbidden and preaching her stigmatization would be punished with excommunication, unless given express permission by the Holy See. Like many other bulls issued by Pope Sixtus (and by other pontiffs), this one was mostly ignored. Franciscan attempts to guaranty the stigmata as the exclusive attributes of Christ and of St. Francis are discussed in my forthcoming monograph, Giotto's Bardi Chapel and the Character of St. Francis in Italian Art.

8 1472 October 3; Teetaert, A., “Sixte IV,” Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, vol. XIV² (Paris, 1941), p. 2213 Google Scholar.

9 On the papacy of Sixtus IV and the Franciscans, see Aubenas, Roger in Aubenas and Ricard, Robert, L'Église et la Renaissance (1449-1517), in Histoire de l'église depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours, ed. by A. Fliche and V. Martin, XV (n.p., 1951), pp. 85–87 Google Scholar; Moorman, John, A History of the Franciscan Order from its Origins to the Year 1517 (Oxford, 1968), pp. 487-88Google Scholar; and Goffen, , Piety and Patronage in Renaissance Venice: Bellini, Titian, and the Franciscans (New Haven and London, 1986), chap. iiGoogle Scholar.

10 For the separation of the Conventuals from the Observants by the so-called Bulla unionis published by Leo X in 1517, see Moorman, History, pp. 582-85; and the contemporary account in I diarii di Marino Sanuto, ed. by Rinaldo Fulin, et al. (Venice, 1879-1902), XXIV, 321-24. On poverty, see Lambert, M. D., Franciscan Poverty. The Doctrine of the Absolute Poverty of Christ and the Apostles in the Franciscan Order 1210-1323, (London, 1961)Google Scholar, passim. The manner in which Sixtus inscribed some of his books that he gave to Cardinal Riario expresses the basic problem confronting the Mendicants: “ex ellemosynis amicorum,” i.e., “from the charity of friends,” because as a friar, Sixtus would not have had the wherewithal to buy his own books. For the inscription, see Maier, Anneliese, “Alcuni autograft di Sisto IV,” Ausgehendes Mittelalter, Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Giestesgeschichte des 14. Jahrhunderts II, Storia e letteratura, Raccolta di studi e testi, 105 (Rome, 1967), p. 136 Google Scholar.

11 Wadding, Annates, XIII, 537.

12 Ibid., XIV, 4; the context suggests that this may have been mere lip-service. This passage and that cited in the following note were also quoted by Huber, History, p. 406.

13 Wadding, Annates, XIV, 5.

14 Sixtus had educated Riario as a Conventual friar and named him as Cardinal Protector after Bessarion's death in 1472; Wadding, XIV, 51. Wadding described Sixtus as “amantissimus et indulgentissimus” with his relatives: XIII, 536. For the pope's nepotism and for Riario's influence on his uncle—sometimes rumored to have been his father—see also XIV, 2; and Lee, Sixtus, pp. 33, and 37-39.

15 This bull of 1471 was among the first of his pontificate; the text is printed in Wadding, Annates, XIV, 619-23. With another bull of 1471, Sixtus confirmed rights of the Poor Claires; ibid., XIV, 615-19.

16 Ibid., XlV, 313-14.

17 Evidently at the suggestion of Cardinal Riario, the pope would have done this by abolishing the Bulla Eugeniana; see ibid., XIV, 2. Huber, History, pp. 409-16, gives an account of the events.

18 As Observant Vicar General, Mark had been in agreement with della Rovere as Conventual Minister General in the Bull of Concord published by Paul II; Wadding, Annates, XIII, 537.

19 Ibid., XIV, 2.

20 Ibid.: “… alii, praesertim Angliae Rex et Dux Mediolanensis, servius agebant, comminantes si quid acciperent Observantes molestiae, se protinus Conventuales a suis dominiis procul facturos.“

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid., XIV, 6-7.

23 The letter is published ibid., XIV, 626; see also Pastor, Popes, IV, 391-92; and supra, at n. 29.

24 Wadding, Annates, XIV, 109-12, for the text of Dum Singulos Regulates.

25 Ibid., XIV, 138-39; see also Moorman, History, pp. 489-90.

26 For the bull Regimini Universalis Ecclesiae, known as Magnum Mare, see Wadding, Annales, XIV, 112; Glassberger, Nicolaus, Chronica, in Analecta Franciscana, vol. II (1887), p. 457 Google Scholar: Pou y Marti, J. M., Bullarium Franciscanum, n.s. vol. III (Quaracchi, 1929), pp. 266-76Google Scholar; and the Bullarum privilegiorum ac diplomatum Romanorum Pontificum amplissima collectio (Rome, 1743), Vol. III, pt. 3, pp. 139-43. The Friars Minor were to enjoy all privileges ever granted the Order of Preachers, and vice versa; specific privileges granted by the bull are summarized in Huber, History, p. 421; and in Moorman, History, p. 513.

27 For the “Golden Bull,” Sacri Praedicatorum et Minorum Fratres Ordines, see Pou y Marti, Bullarium, pp. 603-607; Bullarum privilegiorum, vol. III, pt. 3, pp. 173-77; and Wadding, Annales, XIV, 258-63. The bull is summarized in Huber, History, p. 422.

28 Huber, History, p. 422.

29 The letter is published in Wadding, Annales, XIV, 634-36.

30 “Ecce totus mundus pro Fratribus de Observantia est,” quoted by Glassberger, Chronica, p. 463. The year was 1477. If this quotation is incorrect, it is at least “ben trovato.“

31 Ibid., pp. 256-58, for the pope's letters of 16 and 28 October 1479.

32 Ibid., pp. 283-86.

33 Huber, History, p. 422n.22, and p. 427.

34 Wadding, Annates, XIV, 164-65.

35 On the Seraphic Doctor, see Guy Bougerol, J., Introduction to the Works of Bonaventure, trans, by J. de Vinck (Paterson, 1964)Google Scholar; and Ritzier, “Cardinali,” pp. 10-12, with further bibliography. For the saga of the canonization, see Stanislao da Campagnola, “Le vicende della canonizzazione di S. Bonaventura,” S. Bonaventura francescano, Convegni del Centro di Studi sulla Spiritualità Medievale, vol. XIV (Todi, 1974), pp. 209-55; and Marinangeli, Bonaventura, “La canonizzazione di S. Bonaventura e il processo di Lione,” Miscellanea francescana, 17 (1916), 65–86 Google Scholar, 105-20, 164-74, and 18 (1917), 125-35.

36 Campagnola, “Vicende,” p. 241; and Pusci, “Profilo,” pp. 282 and 284. Sixtus had at least ten volumes by Bonaventure in his papal library, compared to eight by Scotus, thirteen by St. Bernard—and 81 by St. Augustine; see Eugène Müntz and Fabre, Paul, La Bibliothèque du Vatican au XV^e siècle d'après des documents inédits, Bibliothèque des Écoles Françaises d'Athènes et de Rome, 48 (Paris, 1887), pp. 177-80Google Scholar, 183-84 and 188-89.

37 On the delay in the canonization because of the resentment of the Spirituals and later the Observants, see Campagnola, “Vicende,” pp. 239 and 246; and Brooke, Rosalind B., Early Franciscan Government; Elias to Bonaventure (Cambridge, 1959), p. 284 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 Brooke has considered Bonaventure's efforts at reconciliation in Government, pp. 181-82 and 283-84, and in her essay, “The Lives of St. Francis of Assisi,” Latin Biography, ed. T. A. Dorey (London, 1967), pp. 188-89.

39 The bull of canonization is published in Magnum Bullarium Romanum (Lyons, 1692), I, 437; and Bullarum Privilegiorum, Vol. III, pt. 3, pp. 182-85. Jacopo da Volterra described the ceremonies: Il diario romano di Jacopo Gherardi da Volterra, ed. Enrico Carusi, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, Raccolta degli storici italiani, ed. L. A. Muratori, Vol. XXIII, Parte iii (Città di Castello, 1904), pp. 95-97. See also Wadding, Annates, XIV, 329. The pope's nephew Giuliano della Rovere had been involved in the proceedings from the start: he was one of three cardinals appointed to a commission by Sixtus in 1475 to prepare the evidence for canonization; and in 1479 Giuliano, by then also the Cardinal Protector of the Franciscan Order, was put in charge of the second (and successful) canonization proceedings. On Giuliano's role, see Campagnola, “Vicende,” p. 242n.I, and pp. 248-50; and Marinangeli, “Canonizzazione” (1916) pp. 67ff. As Pope Julius, Giuliano commissioned Raphael's Disputà, including the depiction of St. Bonaventure accompanied by Sixtus.

40 The bibliography is extensive, but see especially Ettlinger, L. D.. The Sistine Chapel before Michelangelo, Religious Imagery and Papal Primacy (Oxford, 1965); Lee, pp. 145-47Google Scholar; Müntz, , “Un Mécène italien au XVe siècle,” Revue de deux mondes, 51 (1881), 180-87Google Scholar; de Campos, Deoclecio Redig, I palazzi Vaticani, Roma cristiana, Vol. XVIII (Bologna, 1967), pp. 64–70 Google Scholar; Salvini, Roberto, La Cappella Sistina in Vaticano (2 vols.; Milan, 1965)Google Scholar; and Steinmann, Kapelle, I. In “Anhang III, Dokumente,” pp. 633-72 of Steinmann's volume, Heinrich Pogatscher published the documents pertaining to the fresco decoration of the chapel. The earliest document is the contract dated 27 October 1481 naming Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Perugino and Rosselli; Pogatscher in Steinmann, p. 633. Perugino, however, had begun working in the chapel already in the spring of 1480, after having completed his work in the pope's funerary chapel by the end of 1479; see Canuti, Fiorenzo, Il Perugino (Siena, 1931), II, 122 Google Scholar, for the documents of 1479. Work must have been completed in the Sistine chapel by 1483 at the latest; see Covi, Dario A., “Botticelli and Pope Sixtus IV,” Burlington Magazine, III (1969), 616-17Google Scholar. The ceiling of Sixtus’ chapel was evidently painted by Pier Matteo d'Amelia in the traditional manner, with a blue ground and gold stars; see Ettlinger, Chapel, pp. 15-16; Groner, Anton, “Zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Sixtinischen Wandfresken,” Zeitschrift für christliche Kunst, 19 (1906), 167 Google Scholar; and the excellent description of the chapel by Wilde, Johannes, “The Decoration of the Sistine Chapel,” Proceedings of the British Academy, 44 (1958), pp. 70–71 Google Scholar. The fresco decoration was completed some years later by Michelangelo. The master first came to the chapel to (re)paint the ceiling for Sixtus'nephew, Julius II, and returned there to execute the Last Judgment on the altar wall for Clement VII and Paul III. On the chapel architecture, see Wilde, “Decoration,” pp. 63-65; Salvini, , “The Sistine Chapel: Ideology and Architecture,” Art History, 3 (1980), 144-57CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Tolnay, Charles de, Michelangelo, Vol. II, The Sistine Ceiling (Princeton, 1945), pp. 11–13 Google Scholar. The Sistine was constructed on the site of an older, smaller chapel; see Ehrle, Franz and Egger, Hermann, Der vatkanische Palast in seiner Entwicklung bis zur Mitte des XV.Jahrhunderts, Studi e documenti per la storia del Palazzo Apostolico Vaticano, Vol. II (Vatican, 1935), p. 71 Google Scholar.

41 Gherardi, Diario romano, pp. 121-23. Ettlinger, Chapel, pp. 14ff., considers the chronology of the building and decoration. John Monfasani argues that the chapel was probably completed a year before the dedication; see his “A Description of the Sistine Chapel Under Pope Sixtus IV,” which Professor Monfasani most kindly made available to me prior to publication. His article appears in Artibus et Historiae, 7 (1983), 9-18.

42 The earlier chapel on this site may also have been dedicated to the Assumption; see Ettlinger, Chapel, pp. 14-15. For a reconstruction of the destroyed altarpiece and the west wall (liturgical east), see Wilde, “Decoration,” pp. 69-70. Perugino's altarpiece was cited by Vasari: Milanesi, Gaetano, ed., Le opere di Giorgio Vasari, le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori (Florence, 1906; rpt. 1973), III, 579 Google Scholar.

43 For Francis’ devotion to the Assunta, see, for example, St. Bonaventura, , Legenda Sancti Francisci in Opera Omnia, vol. VIII, ed. A. Laver (Quarrachi [Florence], 1898), cap. ix, 3, p. 530 Google Scholar.

44 Conti, Sigismondo dei, Le storie de’ suoi tempi dal 1475 al 1510, ed. by D. Zanelli (Rome, 1883), I, 205 Google Scholar.

45 The pope's churches in honor of Mary are cited ibid. His buildings in Rome are Sixtus’ first accomplishment mentioned by Glassberger, Chronica, p. 455. See also Buchowiecki, Walther, Handbuch der Kirchen Roms, der römische Sakralbau in Geschkhte und Kunst von der altchristlichen Zeit bis zur Gegenwart (Vienna, 1974), III, 68–69 Google Scholar, 105, 110, 117; Dejonghe, Maurice, Roma Santuario Mariano, Roma cristiana, vol. VII (Bologna, 1969), pp. 109 Google Scholar, 118, 120, 232-34, 248; and Urban, G., “Die Kirchenbaukunst des Quattrocento in Rom,” Römisches Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, 9-10 (1961-62), 269-79Google Scholar.

46 For the feast of Presentation, see Dejonghe, Roma, p. 118. Sixtus was depicted by Dürer in the S. Bartolomeo altarpiece (Prague, National Gallery), representing members of the Confraternity of the Rosary adoring the Madonna and Child; see Sponza, Sandro in Ruggeri, A. A., et al., Giorgione a Venezia (Milan, 1978), pp. 83–86 Google Scholar. On the feast of the Visitation, see Aubenas, p. 86. For Sixtus and Loreto, see Gillett, H. M. in New Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1967), VIII, 993-94Google Scholar.

47 Three volumes by Scotus were recorded in the pope's study after his death; see Müntz and Fabre, Bibliothèque, p. 266. For the pope's knowledge of Scotus, see also Bisticci, Vespasiano da, Vite di uomini illustri del secolo XV, ed. L. Frati, Collezione di opere inedite o rare dei primi tre secoli della lingua, Vol. I (Bologna, 1892), p. 139 Google Scholar; Teetaert, “Sixte,” p. 2200, referring to the pope's description of himself as a Scotist in an autograph inscription in Ms. Vat. Lat. 888, which contains the Marian Doctor's Commentarius; and Maier, “Autografi,” p. 136, for this and the other three volumes of Scotus (now Mss. Vat. Lat. 884, 886 and 891) which the pope gave to his nephew Riario. On the doctrine of the Conception, see especially X. Le Bachelet, “Immaculee Conception,” Dictionnaire de theologie catholique, Vol. VII¹ (Paris, 1927), pp. 845-1218, and 1073-78 on the powerful influence of Scotus. N.b. also Cherubino Sericoli, Immaculata B. M. Virginis Conceptio iuxta Xysti IV Constitutionis, Bibliotheca Mariana Medii Aevi, Textus et Disquisitiones, Collectio ed. Instituti Theologici Makarskensis, Croatia, Fasc. V (Rome, 1945).

48 Dejonghe, Roma, p. 120.

49 John W. O'Malley, Praise and Blame in Renaissance Rome; Rhetoric, Doctrine, and Reform in the Sacred Orators of the Papal Court, c. 1450-1521, Duke Monographs in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 3 (Durham, N.C., 1979), pp. 61-62, and p. 251 for references to publications of the sermon.

50 Le Bachelet, “Conception,” pp. 1120-24; and Teetaert, “Sixte,“p. 2209. For Sixtus' writing on the conception, see Matanic, Athanasius, “Xystus Pp. IV Scripitne Librum 'De Conceptione Beate Virginis Marie,’ “ Antonianum, 29 (1954), 573-78Google Scholar. See also Wadding, Annates, XIV, 195, 268, 293, 296 and 328.

51 Gherardi, Diario, p. 82. For Sixtus’ tomb and funerary chapel in Old St. Peter's, see Ettlinger, , “Pollaiuolo's Tomb of Pope Sixtus IV,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 16 (1953), 239-74CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The pope also endowed an altar dedicated to the Immacolata before Cimabue's Madonna with St. Francis in the Lower Church at Assisi; see Kleinschmidt, Basilika, Vol. III (1928), pp. 20-21, citing Pietralunga.

52 Le Bachelet, “Conception,” pp. 1120-24; and Teetaert, “Sixte,“p. 2209.

53 For the relationship of the Assumption to the Conception by defenders of Mary's immaculacy, see Jugie, Martin, La mort el l'assomption de la Sainte Vierge, étude historico doctrinale, Studi e testi, 114 (Vatican, 1944)Google Scholar; Jugie, , “La mort de la Sainte Vierge et la speculation theologique,” Marianum, 4 (1942), 247 Google Scholar; and Ignatius Brady, “The Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in the Fourteenth Century,” Studia Mariana (Second Franciscan National Marian Congress in Celebration of the Marian Year in Honor of the Centenary of the Definition of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception), 9 (1954), 71-76. Brady, p. 82, notes the particular influence of Petrus Thomae, who associated the Assumption with the incorruptibility of Mary's soul. See also Goffen, Piety and Patronage, chap. iii.

54 The two cults were combined, for instance, in S. Frediano in Lucca. See Bracaloni, Leone, L'arte francescana nella vita e nella storia di settecento anni (Todi, 1924), p. 322 Google Scholar; and Edgar Wind, “Sante Pagnini and Michelangelo. A Study of the Succession of Savonarola,” Gazette des beaux-arts, 6ser., 26 (1944), 222n.31. Wind notes that the dedication of the Sistine Chapel refers to the “immaculata.” For the solemn procession in the chapel on the feast of the Assumption, see Gherardi, Diario, p. 121. For the congruence of the Immacolata and the Assunta, see also Goffen, Piety and Patronage, chap. iii.

55 Many details in the narratives are also gilded, and certain decorative details of the figures of the popes—gloves, tiaras, and the like—are built up in relief and were originally gilded as well. One can see this clearly if warily from the vantage point of the scaffolding now in place for the restoration of the ceiling.

56 For Signorelli's part in the chapel decoration, see Kury, Gloria, The Early Work of Luca Signorelli: 1465-1490 (New York and London, 1978), pp. 328-35Google Scholar. For the artist's arrival in Rome after the others had departed, and the probable reasons for the pope's having summoned him, see Ettlinger, Chapel, p. 30, and p. 31 for Perugino as director of the program. Sixtus’ authorship of the cycle has been generally accepted by scholars, and I think that my arguments here will substantiate this assumption. N.b. also Wilde, “Decoration, “ p . 62 and n. 3, referring to a poem of 1477 in which Sixtus was complimented as author of the chapel.

57 Ettlinger, Chapel, pp. 12-13; and Shearman, John, Raphael's Cartoons in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen and the Tapestries for the Sistine Chapel (London, 1972), pp. 4 Google Scholar and 7-8, with further bibliography in the notes. For the original location of the cancellata, which was in line with the cantoria, see Steinmann, Kapelle, I, 160-61, and pi. VII, illustrating a reconstruction of the interior.

58 This is one significance of Christ's command to St. Francis in the abandoned church of S. Damiano, “repair my house“; St. Bonaventure, Legenda in Opera Omnia, VIII, 508. The idea is inherent in the Order's dedication to Apostolic poverty, as explained by Bonaventure in his “Sermo de S. Antonio,” Opera Omnia, Vol. IX, ed. by D. Fleming (Quaracchi, 1901), p. 536: “Hanc autem paupertatem Christi fere omnes sitiebant et cognoscebant in Ecclesia primitiva … .” On the subject of Franciscan Poverty, see Lambert. As the founder of his Order, St. Francis was compared to St. Peter as the founder of the Church, while St. Anthony the preacher and teacher was compared with St. Paul; see Bracaloni, Leone, “Le caratteristiche della spiritualitá francescana,“ Studi francescani, ser. 3, 2 (1930), 226-27Google Scholar. Franciscan imagery of the early Church was surely also related to their spiritual custody of the Holy Land, on which see Odoardo, Giovanni, “La custodia francescana di Terra Santa,” Miscellanea francescana, 43 (1943), 217-56Google Scholar. On the late Medieval conception of the exemplary early Church, see O'Malley, Praise, pp. 203-205; and Leff, Gordon, “The Apostolic Ideal in Later Medieval Ecclesiology“, Journal of Theological Studies, n.s. 18 (1967), 58–82 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 For S. Francesco as “head and mother,” see Kleinschmidt, Basilika, I, 10; Belting, Hans, Die Oberkirche von San Francesco in Assisi, Ihre Dekoration als Aufgabe und die Genese einer neuen Wandmalerei (Berlin, 1977), pp. 17–29 Google Scholar, especially 24ff.; and Hertlein, Edgar, Die Basilika San Francesco in Assisi, Gestalt—Bedeutung—Herkunft (Florence, 1964), pp. 109-12Google Scholar.

60 On the arrangement of the St. Francis cycle of the Upper Church at Assisi, see White, John, The Birth and Rebirth of Pictorial Space, (2nd ed.; Boston, 1967), pp. 40–43 Google Scholar. Cf Shearman, Cartoons, p. 4 and n. 20. Shearman sees the common source of the Sistine Chapel and the basilica at Assisi in the Cappeila Palatina of the Lateran. I do not argue with this, but rather mean to emphasize the Franciscan connection between the Sistine Chapel and Assisi.

61 “Decoration,” pp. 68-69; a nd. summarizing and expanding Wilde's ideas, Shearman, Cartoons, p. 48.

62 Ettlinger, Chapel, pp. 7 and 44-45, notes that the cycle is probably the most extensive monumental cycle of Moses in art and that the events of his life were rarely represented in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

63 Samson was Minister General for almost a quarter of a century, from 1475 until his death in 1499. He was elected 14 May 1475; see Glassberger, Chronica, p. 459. For his biblical nickname, see Wadding, Annates, XIV, 142. As for Sixtus and Moses, I postulate that the pontiff identified himself with the Old Testament hero. Although I cannot prove this, it seems probable, given his application of an Old Testament nickname to Nani and the role of Moses in the Sistine Chapel.

64 Ettlinger, Sistine Chapel, pp. 104-19 and passim. For the cycle as an illustration of three aspects of papal authority—the pope as priest, teacher and ruler—see also Wilde, “Decoration,” p. 67.

65 de Campos, Deoclecio Redig, “I ‘Tituli’ degli affreschi del Quattrocento nella Cappella Sistina,” Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia Romana de Archeologia, 42 (1969-70), 229–314 Google Scholar. Redig de Campos republished this article in Studi di storia dell'arte in onore di Valerio Mariani (Naples, 1971), pp. 113-21. See also Salvini, “Sistine,” pp. 146ff.; and Shearman, Cartoons, p. 48 and n. 17. For the inscriptions of the St. Francis cycle, see Gerhard Ruf, S. Francesco e S. Bonaventura, un ‘interpretazione storico-salvifica degli affreschi della navata nella Chiesa Superiore di San Francesco in Assisi alia luce della teologia di San Bonaventura (Assisi, 1974), pp. 130–228 Google Scholar.

66 Redig de Campos published the transcriptions in “ ‘Tituli,’ “ pp. 305-306; in Studi, p. 116. The inscriptions are easily legible in the chapel itself. I have transcribed “v” as “u“ when appropriate.

67 For the repainted murals, see Redig de Campos, “ ‘Tituli,’ “ Rendiconti, p. 300 and n. 7 (Studi, p. 114 and n. 15); and Kury, Signorelli, p. 335.

68 For example, the sixth fresco of the Christ cycle, Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter, also includes the Tribute Money and the Stoning of Christ. The titulus in this case seems to allude only to this last event. Ettlinger, Chapel, p. 61, argued that “a typological reading alone will not account for the choice of imagery“; and Shearman, Cartoons, p. 48, noted that the scheme “is indeed typological, but without exact precedent.“

69 See also Redig de Campos, “ ‘Tituli,’ “ p. 309 (Studi, p. 117).

70 Fuiano, Michele, “Astrologia ed umanesimo in due prefazioni di Andrea di Trebisonda,“ Atti della Accademia Pontaniana, n.s. 17 (1967-8), 411 Google Scholar. Andrew was the son of George of Trebizond. The passage cited here is from Andrew's preface dedicating his father's commentary on the Almagest to Pope Sixtus. I owe my knowledge of this text to John Monfasani; see his “Description of the Sistine Chapel,” pp. 10-11.

71 On the pope's taste for long, learned sermons, see O'Malley, Praise, p. 23, and pp. 245-54 for a list of sermons including those preached before Sixtus. On the pope's erudition in general, see Lee, Sixtus, pp. 15-19, 24-25 and passim; and Pusci, “Profilo,“ pp. 280-87.

72 See the new critical edition of the saint's “Testamentum” in Esser, Kajetan, Die Opuscula des HI. Franziskus von Assisi, Spicilegium Bonaventurianum, XIII (Grottaferrata, 1976), pp. 438-44.Google Scholar

73 Ibid., p. 400, for this passage in chapter xxiii of the Regula non Bullata.

74 Legenda, cap. xi, II, p. 538; and Legenda Minor, cap. iv, 5, p. 574. For Bonaventure's Franciscan typologies of Moses, see Clasen, Sophronius, “Franziskus, der neue Moses,” Wissenschaji und Weisheit, 24(1961), 200–208 Google Scholar; Fleming, John V., From Bonaventure to Bellini; An Essay in Franciscan Exegesis, Princeton Essays on the Arts, 14 (Princeton, 1982)Google Scholar; passim; and Goffen, , “A Bonaventuran Analysis of Correggio's Madonna of St. Francis,” Gazette des beaux-arts, 103 (1984), 11—3Google Scholar.

75 “De S. Patre Nostro Francisco. Sermo V,” Opera Omnia, Vol. XI (Quaracchi, 1911), pp. 590 and 595. See also Goffen, “Analysis,” p. 11.

76 For Elias’ typology, see Corstanje, Covenant, pp. 125-28; n.b. also the texts of Sir. 5, 6 and 30.

77 Legenda, cap. iv, II, pp. 515-516. See also Goffen, “Analysis,” p. 12.

78 Legenda, cap. xiii, 5 and 9, pp. 543 and 545, quoting Dt. 9:10-11; 9:15; and 19:15.

79 Ibid., cap. iv, II, p. 516.

80 Vasari mentioned Perugino as the author of both the Nativity and the Moses in the Bullrushes; Vasari (Milanesi ed.), III, 579. For Pinturicchio's participation in the Moses fresco, see Ettlinger, Chapel, p. 28. The tituli of these first two narratives were not included in the pamphlet published in Rome evidently in 1513, in which only the inscriptions of the side walls were given; Electio Pape Leonis Decimi, Anno MC. Tredecimo. Ordo Mansionum Reverendorum dominorum Cardinalium in Conclavi existentium: assignatarum secundum Prophecias in Capella pontificia figuratas, of which there are copies in the British Museum and the Biblioteca Vaticana; see Redig de Campis, “ ‘Tituli,’ “ pp. 2998”.; and Shearman, Cartoons, p. 48 and n. 17.

81 Legenda, “Prologus” iv, p. 505; trans. B. Fahy in Habig, Marion A., ed., St. Francis of Assisi, Writings and Early Biographies, English Omnibus of Sources for the Life of St. Francis (Chicago, 1973), p. 633 Google Scholar. Salvini also has recognized that theology overrules historical order in the chapel; see “Sistine,” p. 156n. 18.

82 As Ettlinger had recognized, Chapel, p. 60.

83 The Biblical text of Ex. 4:24, describes a meeting between God and Moses; the sword-bearing angel who appears in God's stead in the fresco is derived from Petrus Comestar, Historia Scholastica, as explained by Ettlinger, Chapel, pp. 58-59.

84 Ettlinger, Chapel, p. 61, is surely correct in identifying the scene in the midground as the meeting of Moses and his family with Jethro, as described in Ex. 18:Iff.

85 St. Bonaventure, De Translatione S. Francisci, in Opera Omnia, IX, 534.

86 As pointed out by Ettlinger, Chapel, p. 76.

87 Ibid., p. 77, citing Petrus Lombardus, Collectanea in Epistulas S. Pauli, Patrologia Latina [PL], CXCI, cols. 1538-39; see also Sententiarum Libri IV, Dist. iii and iv, PL, CXCII, cols. 843-50. A copy of the latter was in Sixtus’ study at the time of his death; see Muntz and Fabre, Bibliothèque, p. 267.

88 Legenda, cap. iii, 7, p. 511. Lk. 3:3, referring to St. John, reads: “fuit praedicans baptismum poenitentiae in remissionem peccatorum.“

89 “Prologus” 1, Legenda, p. 504; trans, by Fahy in Habig, Francis, p. 631.

90 Legenda, cap. ii, 5, p. 509; trans, by Fahy in Habig, Francis, p. 643.

91 Legenda, cap. xii, 2, p. 539; trans, by Fahy in Habig, Francis, p. 722.

92 Legenda, cap. xii, 1, p. 539.

93 Sixtus’ papal throne was located beneath this composition, perhaps, as has been suggested, intending a reference to his family name; see Hartt, Frederick, “Lignum Vitae in Medio Paradisi, The Stanza d'Eliodoro and the Sistine Ceiling,” Art Bulletin, 32 (1950), 130 Google Scholar. Hartt associates the burning bush, rubus ardens (Latin) or roveto ardente (Italian) with the pope's name, della Rovere. Be that as it may, the Burning Bush is to be understood as a symbol of the Immaculate Virgin: as the Bush was not consumed by fire, so too was Mary conceived without the consumption of the flames of concupiscence. A similar image is evoked in the Medieval hymn: “Ave virgo gravidata, / Rubo Moysi signata,” quoted in Enriqueta Harris, “Mary in the Burning Bush, Nicolas Froment's Triptych at Aix-en-Provence, “Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 1 (1937), 281n.2, and also pp. 282-83. Thus, the figure of papal authority—the pope himself, enthroned in his public chapel—appeared beneath a scene that evoked simultaneously the Biblical precedents for his authority and the exegetical proof of the Virgin's immaculacy.

94 In this sense, then, Shearman's interpretation of the scene as representing the Principatus of Moses is convincing, but I do not follow Shearman when he also finds here the themes of the Pontificatus of Aaron and the Old Testamental division of authority (Cartoons, pp. 48-49). That subject, so clearly expressed in the Punishment ofKorah, is not included or anticipated in the Temptation, as Shearman suggests.

95 The Temple resembles Sixtus’ Hospital of S. Spirito; see ibid., p. 49. For the influence of the Franciscan Nicolaus de Lyra on the form of the altar, see Ettlinger, Chapel, p. 80. Ettlinger adds that the altar is placed in front of the Temple, as described in 2 Chron. 7:7. On Nicolaus, see Labross, H., “Sources de la biographie et oeuvres de Nicolas de Lyre,” Études franciscaines, 16 (1906), 383–404 Google Scholar; 17 (1907), 489-505 and 593-608; 19 (1909), 41-52, 153-75, and 368-79; and 35 (1923), 171-87 and 400-432.

96 Steinmann, Kapelle, I, 244-53; idem, “Sandro Botticellis ‘Tempelscene zuJerusalem' in derCapella Sistina,” Repertorium für Kunstwissenschafi, 18 (1895), 1—18 (n.b. p. 7 on Mt. 18:4); and idem, Botticelli, trans. Cambell Dodgson, Monographs on Artists, VI, ed. H. Knackfuss (Bielefeld and Leipzig, 1901), pp. 44-54. Steinmann is supported by Shearman in Cartoons, pp. 49-50.

97 See Ettlinger, Chapel, p. 34, for Hebrews 9, which text was discussed by Pope Sixtus in his consideration of the nature of sacrifice and the ways in which the Old Testament prefigured the expiation of the New. Ettlinger proposes (pp. 85-86) that the “acolyte” in the fresco is in fact Christ himself, as suggested by the Commentarium de Sacerdotio Christi that Filelfo translated and dedicated to the pope in 1476. See also Steinmann, Kapelle, I, 249-51.

98 For further bibliography on the interpretation of the Epistle, see Goffen, “Masaccio's Trinity and the Letter to Hebrews,” Memorie Domenicane, n.s. 11 (1980), 495 and passim.

99 Legenda, cap. ix, 2, p. 530; trans, by Fahy in Habig, Francis, p. 699.

100 Ettlinger, Chapel, p. 88, and p. 84, for Botticelli's omission of sacrificial animals.

101 Ibid., p. 77, for the garment's resemblance to the Franciscan habit and for the Temptation scenes. See also Steinmann, “Botticellis Tempelscene,” p. 3.

102 Legenda, cap. xi, II, p. 538, in which Bonaventure quotes Deut. 5:5.

103 See, for example, Bonaventure's account of St. Francis and the Devil in the Legenda, cap. v, 4, p. 517.

104 Cf. Ettlinger, Chapel, p. 64: “It should be remembered … that the fresco on the opposite wall, the Calling of the First Apostles, cannot be related to this event [the Red Sea] by any typological argument.“

105 Ettlinger, ibid., p. 63, noted the importance given the Red Sea in the cycle and identified the small figures at the right, referring to Exod. 14:23-28.

106 For the image of Francis’ leading the friars out of Egypt, see St. Bonaventure, Translatione, p. 534, in which the author is alluding to the text of Ex. 3:10. See also Goffen, “Analysis, “ pp . 12 and 17n.i4; and supra, at n. 85.

107 “Miracula,” cap. x, 9, Legenda, p. 564; trans, by Fahy in Habig, Francis, p. 787. St. Bonaventure is alluding to Exod. 14:15ff. He repeated essentially the same text in the Legenda Minor, cap. ix, 9, p. 579.

108 Legenda, cap. iii, 7, p. 511.

109 Celano, Thomas de, Vita Prima S. Francisci Assisiensis et Eiusdem Legenda ad Usum Chori (Quaracchi, 1926), cap. xxxii, pp. 35–36 Google Scholar.

110 In his Testament, Francis avowed that “the Most High himself made it clear to me that I must live the life of the Gospel. I had this written down briefly and simply and his holiness the Pope confirmed it for me” (trans, by Fahy in Habig, Francis, p. 68.) For Franciscan imagery of the early Church, see also nn.57-59 supra. For the issue of apostolic poverty in sermons preached before the popes during the Renaissance, see O'Malley, Praise, pp. 205-206.

111 Ettlinger, Chapel, p. 90, on St. Peter as Vicarius Christi. For St. Peter and the Order of Friars Minor, n.b. that Bonaventure explicitly referred to the pope as “the successor of St. Peter” in the account of the Approval of the Franciscan Rule; Legenda, cap. iii, 9, p. 512. Moreover, St. Francis himself had requested that his Friars Minor be placed under papal protection and given a Cardinal Protector to govern them; see Brooke, Government, p. 61.

112 Legenda, cap. ii, 7, p. 509; trans, by Fahy in Habig, Francis, p. 645.

113 For the correct placement of the cancellata, which was moved in the later sixteenth century, see Steinmann, Kapelle, I, 160-61, and pi. vii. Wilde, “Decoration,” pp. 65- 66, has also considered other ways in which the presbytery is distinguished.

114 On Michelangelo's symbolic division of the ceiling cycle, see Tolnay, Charles de, Michelangelo, Sculptor, Painter, Architect, trans, by G. Woodhouse (Princeton, 1975), p. 27 Google Scholar.

115 For the legend of God's opening the rocks at La Verna to shelter St. Francis from the devil, see “The Considerations on the Holy Stigmata,” trans, by R. Brown in Habig, Francis, p. 1442. This text was added to the Italian Fioretti by the anonymous translator of the Latin Actus ca. 1370-1385, as explained by Brown, p. 1285.

116 “Sermo I de S. Patre Nostro Francisco,” Opera Omnia, IX, 575. Bonaventure was quoting Exod. 33:19, which is cited also in Romans 9:15.

117 “Sermo super Regulam Fratrum Minorum,” Opera Omnia, VIII, 438, paragraph 2 of the Rule.

118 Legenda, cap. iv, II, p. 516.

119 The sermon was delivered in the temporary papal chapel in the aula magna; see Ettlinger, Chapel, p. 89, citing Jacopo da Volterra, Diario romano, ed. by Carusi, p. III. Carvajal's sermon is preserved in Vatican Library MS. Vat. Lat. 13679, and was printed in Rome in 1483; see Ettlinger, p. 89n.4; and O'Malley, Praise, p. 117n.156.

120 For Francis at Rieti and the Stigmata as proof of the Rule, see the Legenda, cap. iv, II, p. 516; trans, by Fahy in Habig, Francis, p. 662. Bonaventure was quoting Deut. 9:7; 9:9-10; 9:15; and 10:4. For the stigmatization itself, described in the language of Deut. 9:10-11 and 15, see the Legenda, cap. xiii, 5, p. 543;trans. by Fahy, p. 732. In the “Sermo super Regulam,” Bonaventure cites Exod. 31:18 and 34:28ff. to compare Francis’ law with the Law given to Moses at Sinai; Opera Omnia, VIII, 438. Matthew 8:1, “When he came down from the mountain,” is the text immediately following the Sermon on the Mount and immediately preceding the Healing of the Leper, also depicted in Rosselli's fresco.

121 On the comparisons of La Verna with sundry Biblical mounts, including Sinai, see Cannarozzi, Ciro, ed., Dialogo del Sacro Monte della Verna di Fra Mariano da Firenze (Pistoia, 1930), pp. 12–13 Google Scholar. Although Fra Mariano's dialogue was first published in 1522 (Cannarozzi's preface, p. xxiii), it preserves older traditions and images. For La Verna and the Mount where Christ preached, see the text cited below in n. 130.

122 The brothers are required to say 76 “Our Fathers” every day, according to Chapter 3 of the Regula Bullata of 1223; trans, by Fahy in Habig, Francis, pp. 59-60. In his Testament, Francis remembered that “Those of us who were clerics said the Office like other clerics, while the lay brothers said the Our Father… “; trans, by Fahy, p. 68; and for the Latin “Testamentum,” Esser, Opuscula, p. 440.

123 Translation by Fahy in Habig, Francis, p. 64.

124 For the Admonitions, see ibid., p. 83. A newly edited Latin text is available in Esser, Opuscula, pp. 106-17; the passage cited here is at p. 113.

125 See O'Malley, Praise, p. 229.

126 Admonitions, trans, by Fahy in Habig, Francis, p. 87; and Esser, Opuscula, p. 117.

127 Legenda, cap. ii, 2, p. 508.

128 Ibid., cap. iv, 3, p. 513, referring to Mt. 6:9; see also Lk. 11:2.

129 Legenda, cap. iv, 7, p. 514, recalling Mt. 6:35, and 7:6.

130 “Miracula,” cap. i, 4, Legenda, p. 550.

131 Trans. by Fahy in Habig, Francis, p. 67. The Latin text is given in Esser, Opuscula, p. 438. In the fresco, as in the Bible, Christ's healing the Leper follows the Sermon. See also Steinmann, Kapelle, I, 252.

132 Legenda, cap. i, 5, p. 507; see also cap. i, 6 and cap. ii, 6, pp. 507 and 509.

133 “Miracula,” cap. viii, 5, Legenda, p. 561; trans, by Fahy in Habig, Francis, p. 778.

134 Trans. by Fahy in Habig, Francis, p. 67. For the Latin “Testamentum,” see Esser, Opuscula, pp. 438-39.

135 Ettlinger, Chapel, pp. 66-70, 92 and 105. Ettlinger explains that Korah's disobedience represents disobedience to the pope. For the riot on Sixtus’ coronation day in 1471, when stones were thrown at the pope himself, see Salvini, “Sistine,” p. 149, referring to Platina.

136 Trans. by Fahy in Habig, Francis, p. 82, no. xi of the Admonitions; see also Esser, Opuscula, p. 112.

137 For the Moses fresco, see Kury, Signorelli, pp. 328-32; and Heimann, Adelheid, “Moses Shown the Promised Land ,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 34 (1971), 321-24CrossRefGoogle Scholar. It may be that Sixtus intended a parallel between Francis and Moses: the precise location of the saint's tomb was then uncertain, even as the site of Moses' tomb is unknown (Deut. 34:6).

138 Chapel, pp. 82-83.

139 Esser, “Testamentum,” Opuscula, p. 438, and pp. 106-107 for the Admonitions. For the translations, see Fahy in Habig, Francis, p. 67 (“Testament“) and pp. 78-79 (Admonitions). N.b. too that Bonaventure's Legenda is in effect a discourse upon Francis's love of Christ crucified, and the culmination of that love was of course the stigmatization.

140 Trans. by Fahy in Habig, Francis, p. 67; Latin text in Esser, Opuscula, pp. 438-39.

141 Legenda, cap. vii, 9, p. 525.

142 Heimann, “Moses,” p. 324.

143 “Testamentum” in Esser, Opuscula, p. 442.

144 Legenda, cap. xiv, 5, p. 547.

145 On the significance of the octagon, see Richard Krautheimer, , “Introduction to an 'Iconography of Medieval Architecture’ “ [1942], Studies in Early Christian, Medieval, and Renaissance Art (New York and London, 1969), pp. 122ff. Google Scholar Krautheimer quotes Scotus on the connotations of eight. For the number five, see the Franciscan text of “The Considerations on the Holy Stigmata.” The author explained that his topic was the stigmata of St. Francis, “And because those Stigmata were five, like the five Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore this treatise shall have Five Considerations“; trans, by Brown in Habig, Francis, p. 1429.

146 On Franciscan efforts to assure that only St. Francis might be represented with the stigmata of Christ, see supra, at n. 7.

147 For the complete repainting of the frescoes, originally by Signorelli and by Domenico Ghirlandaio, see Kury, Signorelli, p. 335; and Redig de Campos, “Tituli,” Rendiconti, p. 300n.7.

148 Francis’ particular devotion to the Archangel Michael is described by Bonaventure, Legenda, cap. viii, 10, p. 529; cap. ix, 3, p. 530; and cap. xiii, 1, p. 542.

149 Ibid., cap. xiii, 5, p. 543, quoting Dt. 9:10, 11 and 15. See also supra, at n. 78.

150 Ettlinger, Chapel, pp. 74-75.

151 Wadding, Annales, XIV, 5-7, records the incident and describes the new shrine of St. Bernardino, pp. 9-11.

152 See Huber, History, p. 413.

153 Wadding, Annates, XIV, 5; Angelo of Clareno was elected instead.

154 Ibid., pp. 5-6.

155 Trans. by Fahy in Habig, Francis, pp. 78-79, chap, i of the Admonitions; Latin text in Esser, Opuscula, pp. 106-107.

156 Goldschmidt, E. P., Medieval Texts and their First Appearance in Print, Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, Supplements, 16 (Oxford, 1943), p. 128 Google Scholar; Goffen, “Analysis,” p. 17n.24.bis. (The information in n.24.bis, on the availability and influence of St. Bonaventure's writings during the Renaissance, was intended by me as part of the text and incorrectly printed as a note in the Gazette. For permitting me to chastise the editors of that journal I am grateful to the editors of this one.)

157 “I am determined to obey the Minister General of the Order and the guardian whom he sees fit to give me. I want to be a captive in his hands …“; “Testament,“ trans, by Fahy in Habig, Francis, p. 69; “Testamentum” in Esser, Opuscula, p. 442. The Conventuals considered themselves superior to the Observants in obedience to the Rule, because they (the Conventuals) accepted the authority of the Minister General and of the provincial ministers, whom the Observants replaced with vicars of their own choosing. See Moorman, History, p. 580.

158 N.b. also the pope's indulgence of 1483, allowing only the obedient friars of Venice to return to the Republic despite his papal interdict. Sixtus acted in response to the plea of Bernardino da Feltre; see Spimbolo, Timoteo, Storia dei Frati Minori delta Provincia Veneta di S. Francesco, Vol. I (Vicenza, 1933), pp. 87–88 Google Scholar. In his bull Regimini universalis Ecclesiae, 29 April 1473, the pontiff reminded the friars of the penalties for failure to observe the rules governing the acquisition of convents and the manner in which a Conventual friar might become an Observant (or vice versa). See Huber, History, p. 416.

159 On a less enlightened plane, the pope's partisanship led to his nepotism, e.g. his promotion of his nephews Pietro Riario and Giuliano della Rovere (later Julius II); see Aubenas in Aubenas and Ricard, L'Église, pp. 74-75 and ff. On the “multivalence” of the pope's character—pious and malevolent, genuine and hypocritical—see Lee, Sixtus, p. 41, and pp. 33-39 on his family and his guilty association with the assassination of Giuliano de’ Medici in the congiura dei Pazzi of 1478.

160 O'Malley, Praise, p. 62.