SOME CHARACTERS OF THE CAPON FAMILIES WHO WERE BORN IN GAGGIO MONTANO OR PORRETTA TERME
After the famous battle of Monteaperti, in Val d'Arbia fought in 1260 and also recalled by Dante in his encounter with Farinata degli Uberti, in the 10th canto of the Inferno, the Guelph families, defeated by the Ghibellines, left the city of Florence, and many of them, hoping to return to the city within a short time, did not go far from Florence, and some even settled in the towns of the Bolognese mountains, on the borders with Tuscany.
One of these, was the Capponi family who, having arrived in Gaggio Montano, had numerous houses built around the Sasso (now better known as Sasso di Rocca). It is said that Gaggio already existed at the time of King Astolfo, and a document from 753 suggests that there was a “garden with casino di delizia” (probably a villa with a private park) pertaining to Queen Geltrude.
Abandoning the idea of returning to arms in Florence, the Cappones turned to literary studies.
A branch of the family, in 1529 was in the service of Count Agnolo (or Angelo) governing the County of Porretta, a noble fief of the Ranuzzi family, and remained there until 1620.
NICOLA CAPPONI, better known as COLA MONTANO, was born in the first half of the 15th century in Gaggio Montano. Only a few things are known about him : he was Morello's son, he had brothers and sisters, many nieces and nephews, brothers-in-law and kindred; some possessions purchased and not inherited from his father. There is no record of Cola's childhood and youthful studies.
It is probable that he studied at the University of Bologna, and since in the “Confession” written in his own hand in Latin on March 13, 1481 before the judges of Florence who inquired against him, Cola declared himself a “cleric” of the Diocese of Bologna, it would appear that he initially manifested the desire to wear the ecclesiastical habit, an intention, however, soon abandoned.
What is certain is that in 1462 Cola was already in Milan : he was at the court of Duke Francesco Sforza and Duchess Bianca, as the reputation of the Duke who favored literati in a thousand ways had spread throughout Italy. Being an educator in the Sforza household gained Cola great esteem among the Milanese citizenry. He met, among others, Fidelfo, Mombrizio and Prof. Gabriele Paveri Fontana.
When Duke Francesco died in 1466, the eldest son Galeazzo Maria ascended the ducal throne and, at the age of 22, found himself master of the vast Milanese state. Writers such as Litta, Gherardini, Fabroni, and Roscoe called him lecherous, impudent, ferocious, brutal, and a terrible prince and compared him to Nero.
C. Cantù, in his Storia Universale, gives the following judgment of Duke Galeazzo:
“To the taste of pumps and sordid voluptuousness, Galeazzo associated that of tortures and refined tortures, and he was not satiated if to frightful tortures he did not unite the facetiousness, if his libidos he did not season with a brazen triumph and the despair of disgraced husbands and parents.”
Muratori , in the Annuali d'Italia year 1476, wrote : “ The excess of his ambition, lechery and cruelty, produced the ordinary fruit of vices, that is, the almost universal hatred of the people ”.
All historians of that time, not venal and not creeping in expectation of court favors, painted him with the gloomiest characters.
In a letter dated 12/11/1468 sent by Duke Galeazzo to the Lords of the Secret Council, it was established that Cola Montano was to be given a fee of 150 florins, which could be raised to 170 florins, for having Cola read rhetoric for several years without remuneration, and he was given the chair of Latin language and letters.
But this was not the only activity in which Cola labored during the Milanese period; he tried to promote the art of printing, then just in its infancy. It is from 1472 that the printing company stipulated between Antonio Zaroto, a famous printer, the priest Gabriele Orsoni, prof.Gabriele Paveri Fontana, the bookseller Pietro Antonio da Castiglione and Capponi.
The first book published by the society was the “Compendium de partibus orationis” specially commissioned by Capponi from Giorgio da Trebisonda.
The society, which was supposed to last for at least three years, dissolved after little more than a year, probably because of the sharp discord between Capponi and G.Paveri Fontana, but perhaps each was seeking, to the detriment of the other, a more favorable position with the Duke and of the society having specialized , as appears in the contract, in “iure canonico, iure civili ac medicina” subjects quite foreign to Capponi's interests.
Galeazzo Maria's government, meanwhile, was becoming increasingly disliked by the great majority of the Milanese population and nobility, both for its numerous failures in foreign policy and for the increasingly authoritarian and absolutist character it was taking on.
In this climate Capponi became the spokesman and herald of the restoration of ancient Roman virtue, of the classical love of liberty and hatred of the tyrant.
The Duke came, in his teaching, to assume the guise of Tarquin; while as models to his disciples he brought the examples of Brutus, Cassius, Catiline and all the tyrannicides of Greek and Roman antiquity.
The young men who were most inflamed by that teaching and who became his most faithful and inseparable disciples ( Capponi also took care of instructing them in the use of arms, secretly sending them to Bartolomeo Colleoni ) were Girolamo Olgiati, Gian Andrea de' Lampugnani and Carlo Visconti, the same ones, that is, who on December 26, 1476 killed Duke Galeazzo.
After the assassination of whom, the people rose in tumult and seized Lampugnani and Visconti as they fled, and executed summary justice on them. The corpse of the former was left to the crowd who dragged it through the streets of the city. Olgiati, who had managed to escape that torment, went to seek refuge in his father's house, but his father and brothers refused him asylum. Instead, his mother recommended him to a priest who, dressing him in a cassock, hid him in his own home. Two days later Olgiati went out, perhaps hoping to escape from the city. But, recognized by some, he was caught and handed over to justice, who, during the three days he was locked up in the castle, forced him to put the whole plan in writing.
Girolamo Olgiati, captured after the conspiracy, began his confession before the judges with Capponi's name:
““Cola de Montanio de Sagio, Bononiensis, vir summi ingenii et eloquentiae, praeceptor meus....””
Olgiati was sentenced to be taned and broken into minute pieces.
Capponi's actions were probably also prompted by personal grudges against the duke: in fact, in June 1474 Sforza had imprisoned him for 13 days, perhaps because some epigrams, attributed to Capponi, had spread against G. Paveri Fontana, who, as tutor to the duke's brother, had become a figure of considerable authority.
Released from prison, he was in the following year imprisoned again on the ignominious charge of raping a maiden. Paolo Giovio also speaks of a public flogging that Capponi is said to have suffered at the hands of Sforza, who, mindful of the whippings received by Capponi when he was his pupil, once he became Duke of Milan, wanted in this way to take revenge for the too severe education he had received from his former master.
At the end of 1475 Capponi decided to leave Milan for good ( he was therefore not present at the time of the Duke's murder ) ; in the two-year period 1476/1477 he was among the readers of rhetoric and poetry at the Bolognese Studio.
The last phase of his life was particularly eventful. Capponi himself gave precise testimony of this in his “Confession” written and recited in Florence in 1481 before the judges , as justification for his anti-Florentine actions, shortly before his death sentence.
In it Capponi expounded with numerous details and in a rather chaotic manner his many and adventurous biographical events from 1475 to 1482, the result is a tireless activity, dense with difficult ambassadorships and political plots, in the service now of one now of another lord.
Nicola Capponi went to Lucca, urged by Piero Vespucci, to warn the city of the aims of Florence and Milan. He then took part in Niccolò d'Este's attempt against his uncle Ercole, but Niccolò was soon discovered and executed.
Impoverished, on April 12, 1478 he set out from the Rhine valley of Bologna, determined to bring to the King of Naples-for little money-the plan of an outcast from Pistoia who wanted to take the city from the Florentines and offer it to the opposing league. Having also made the plan known to Count Girolamo Riario, he became his faithful collaborator and adviser from then on.
Capponi therefore had entered the heated anti-Florentine climate that characterized the politics of Naples and Rome, at least until 1480, the year in which Lorenzo de'Medici, with his courageous trip to Naples, obtained peace with the Aragonese.
In order for the much-elaborated plan to conquer Pistoia to be easier, Capponi went to Lucca a second time to persuade the people of Lucca to permanently remove themselves from any ties with the house of Medici. He pronounced on that occasion the famous “Oratio ad Lucenses.” The oration was printed repeatedly from 1480 , but according to Capponi without his consent; in fact, he declared to the Florentines that it was printed quite differently from the way it had been pronounced, and in the printing, in fact, Capponi's words are interwoven with the most varied insults against Florence and against Lorenzo de'Medici, who assumed in Capponi's words the guise of a wicked and diabolical tyrant.
In January 1480, while in Naples, Capponi received from Neri Acciaiuoli, a Florentine exile, a proposal to kill Lorenzo de Medici, who was precisely in Naples to make peace with the Aragonese. But Capponi refused, perhaps because the reward promised to him by Acciaiuli was too small or perhaps because he never wanted to carry out practically what he had taught theoretically. The last of his political plots was an attempt to plot against Pisa on behalf of Riario, the 'die-hard enemy of the Florentines. On his way back to Rome, Capponi was captured in the Bolognese Apennines by Florentine troops and in his possession were found the compromising chapters of the treaty of alliance against Pisa. The recitation of the “confession” failed to move the Florentines; he was tried, sentenced to death and hanged, by order of Lorenzo de'Medici, at the windows of the Bargello.
The judges who heard Cola Montano's confession were : “Giovanni Battista de'Lambertini bolognese, judge of appeal of the city of Florence, Simone de'Simoncelli da Civitavecchia, market official of the city of Florence, Barnaba degli Accursii da Visso, doctor in laws and Collateral of the Podestà of Florence, Gio. Stefano da Montesanto, from Piacenza, doctor of both laws, second Collateral of the Podestà of Florence Girolamo de'Nugustioni, from Reggio, criminal judge of the Podestà of Florence Pier Antonio Cannulli, from Aquila, captain of the square of the city of Florence.”
ANNIBALE CAPPONI was born in Porretta in 1536. The date is uncertain because following the riots that occurred in Porretta under the papacy of Sixtus V , the parish archives were burned.
Her father Girolamo, a man of letters and author of poetic compositions in Latin, and her mother Eleonora Bartolini-known for her religiosity-were natives of Porretta, although the Capponi family's ancestors came from Florence. Their paternal grandfather, Sante, was a commissioner of the Ranuzzi Counts in Porretta, which in those days was known as Bagni della Porretta.
Hannibal had a brother, Marc-Antonio, who took the Dominican habit in the Convent of Bologna, under the name Brother Cherubino and a sister, Laura, who professed religious vows under the name Sister Virginia, in the Convent of the Nuns of the Most Holy Conception, where she died in 1562.
As a young man, Hannibal felt a strong attraction to religious life.
He joined the Dominican Order, founded by St. Dominic of Guzman (1170-1221) for the purpose of preaching the Gospel for the salvation of souls. For this reason, the Dominicans have always been referred to as the Order of Preachers (O.P.).
He donned the Dominican habit on 25/10/1552 at the age of 16 in the Church of San Domenico in Bologna and took his vows the following year. He became one of the best men of letters in the “Studio,” so much so that he was chosen to teach his fellow students. In this he was helped by his jovial and cheerful temperament.
From that time on, young Hannibal assumed the name Father Seraphim, later called the “Porrettan.” A distinguished scholar and a writer of rare expressive abilities, he was the author of various publications, commented on and studied in depth the works of St. Thomas Aquinas.
But even then he was tormented by a doubt that would nag at him for thirty years, namely, that his ordination had not been effective ; so his devotion was - if possible - even more attentive and suffered.
Having obtained the title of lector, he was sent to the Convent of Santa Caterina in Finale Ligure to teach philosophy and metaphysics ; then to Romagna to the Convent of Santa Maria in Modigliana. He taught philosophy in Faenza, then moral theology in Reggio Emilia.
He was later appointed reader of metaphysics in the General Study of the Convent of Bologna where he gave lectures, particularly on Aristotle.
In 1573 he went to the new Congregation of Abruzzo erected by Fr. Fray Paolino Bernardini of Lucca and remained there for seven years between the Convent of Rieti and that of L'Aquila, as lector and teacher of morals, theology, philosophy and Sacred Scripture, earning a reputation for holiness.
He also began his work as a preacher required by the Order, which would take him to several cities in Italy. He was in Naples at the Church of San Pietro Martire. Back in Bologna, he was sent as regent and inspector of the Order to Ferrara in the Convent of San Domenico then, in 1580, to that of Venice where he stayed for 25 or 26 years and where several of his works were printed. In 1606, as a result of the jurisdictional dispute between Venice and the Holy See, he had to return to Bologna before Venice was struck down by papal interdict.
He lived in the Convent of St. Vincent of Ronzano. He taught theology for two years to the young men of the Convent of the Carthusian Fathers, of the Certosa of Bologna, returning only rarely to his Convent. Because of his age and ill health, his superiors did not allow him to continue this strenuous assignment. He was therefore taken back to his Convent, with the task of explaining Holy Scripture in Church, which he continued to do until his death.
His humility prompted him to refuse every honorific title and every office, from the bachelor's degree to the regency of the Study of Bologna, from the Magisterium of the province to the regency of his Convent, and even to the dignity of cardinal, offered to him by Cardinal Alexandrinus, an intimate collaborator of the Pope. He also refused the invitation of this Cardinal to go to Rome, where the fame of his works against heresies had reached.
He wrote several books whose titles are known. Of the “ELUCIDATIONES FORMALES IN SUMMAM THEOLOGICAM S.THOMAE DE AQUINO” there is a five-volume edition from 1588 printed in Venice and another Venetian edition in six volumes from 1612, entitled “SUMMAE TOTIUS THEOLOGIAE DIVI THOMAE DE AQUINO ANGELICI ET S.ECCLESIAE DOCTORIS CUM ELUCIDATIONIBUS FORMALIBUS.”
Prefixed to each article are those passages from Scripture or from the most famous theologians, which appeared most suitable to him; finally, in an appendix it was clarified which heresies were refuted in those passages. To the text were added both commentaries by Cardinal Caetano and pamphlets by Cristoforo Iavelli, Guglielmo Tocco, and Bartolomeo di Spina, as well as letters from Caetano to various Pontiffs. The last work, continued until the point of death, is “COMMENTARII IN PSALTERIUM DAVIDICUM” published posthumously in Bologna in 1692.
In the writings of many authors there are references to the life of Dominican Father Serafino Capponi.
Upon the news of his death in Bologna on 2/1/1614, a huge crowd flocked to the Church of San Domenico. The Dominican Fathers could not prevent the body from being stripped by the faithful, who were eager to preserve some relic. Strands of hair were removed; one friar removed the nail of the big toe of the left foot.
In those days a number of miracles occurred, later confirmed by the authority of the ordinary.
Immediately after his death and at the request of two gentlemen from Bologna, an imprint of his hands and face was made with a plaster cast. He was also portrayed by a painter, whose name, however, has not been found. He was buried in the common cemetery of the Religious.
Later, by decree of the Holy Congregation of Rites, the body was moved to the Church, to the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas, on the night of 4/29/1614 in order to prevent the faithful from flocking to take possession of some other relic. Upon opening the coffin, it was noticed that the body was intact and that the big toe of the left foot - four months later - was still red with blood.
The fame of sanctity, which had already accompanied him in life because of his absolute poverty, his mortifications and abstinences, and the cloistered modesty of his existence both in Venice and Bologna, became even greater following a series of alleged prodigies, apparitions and healings investigated by Archbishop Alessandro Ludovici.
He was not recognized as blessed by the Church, although some of his contemporaries already considered him as such.
A bust of him, whose face was taken from a cast of the body, has long been on display in the Church of San Domenico in Bologna.
For many years, students from what used to be a nearby technical institute came to pray before the image of Venerable Seraphim, especially near school exams. Perhaps they were aware of his great will and determination to study.
In 1998, that is, a few centuries after his death and by chance, a framed canvas, depicting the Dominican Father Serafino Capponi, was found in a basement of the bell tower of the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena in Porretta. The state of preservation was disastrous!
The parish priest Don Franco Govoni and Prof. Renzo Zagnoni, spread the news and at one of the annual meetings of the alumni of the Albergati College in Porretta (established by Mons.Augusto Smeraldi), the elderly principal Mons.Francesco Marchi, in recalling that in Porretta there has long existed a street and a shrine dedicated to the Venerable Serafino Capponi, pointed out the fortuitous finding of the painting.
News was gathered from Father Reginaldo Orlandini of the Dominican Fathers in Bologna about the life of Father Serafino.
The painting was then shown to the former students ( many of whom are from Gaggio ), in the Chapel of San Rocco in Porretta, and the enthusiasm of the find also inflamed Mrs. Clara Castelli, a former student of the Albergati College, who became a valid promoter of an initiative to restore the painting and to spread the devotion to the Venerable Serafino.
But here, the affair was tinged with yellow ! In fact, towards the end of October 1998 Don Franco Govoni noticed that the painting of “ our Serafino ” had disappeared.
Amazement, bitterness and disorientation, which fortunately lasted only a few weeks. It happened that Fr. Enea Albertazzi noticed on a pew inside the Church of Silla, of which he was pastor, a wrapper. He opened it and discovered that it was the canvas stolen in Porretta.
Unfortunately, the perpetrator of the theft had not only further damaged the canvas by rolling it up but, worse, to remove it from the frame he had cut the entire edge around it. The joy of recovering the canvas was thus joined with consternation at the new damage done.
At this point Mrs. Clara Castelli had no more doubts : a fundraising effort for restoration had to be started immediately!