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“In a few words, after his murder occurred in the room of the Nymphs, a room that was destroyed and no longer exists today, that ghost had been seen in various periods several times wandering around the palace and someone said he had seen him in the fortress of Ravaldino. Only that most people preferred to forget or keep quiet about it”.
“Even the third window on the first floor, counting from the left in front of the facade of the town hall, was in the past considered cursed by many, because someone thought it was the one where Riario was thrown down after his murder under a screaming crowd that tore his body to pieces. But that was not the real window from which Riario was thrown after his murder”.
“Where was it thrown from?” the researcher asked.
“From another window. Riario was killed in the Nymphs Room, but then his body was dragged out and taken to another room”.
“And what was the window where it was thrown from then?” the researcher interrupted him.
“The window was on the opposite side of the building facade, the third window counting from the right”.
“But that's the window where the woman said she saw the ghost dancing”, said the researcher in amazement.
“Exactly, that woman saw him in that window, only he wasn't dancing at all”, replied the witness smiling a little.
“And what was he doing then?”
“It's too early to tell that. There are many other things you should know before”, explained the witness to the researcher.
“All right, so the nymphs room wasn’t the one where he was seen dancing?” asked the researcher.
“No, that was just a window through which his body was dragged after his death. That room was destroyed by his wife Caterina Sforza after his murder and no longer exists today”.
“And after five centuries, you still know such things and details?”
“Actually, I know a more lot of it”.
“I understand, go ahead”, replied the researcher.
“Returning to the window from which he was thrown out, the spot where Riario fell on the under square was marked for a long time and many people in all ages and centuries knew this. Only today, no one remembers it anymore. Since then many people in all ages have seen his ghost and some even heard him”, explained the witness.
“How do you know all this?” asked the researcher.
“You run fast and go ahead too much. I already told you there's more to know”, replied the witness as he began to tell more.
Romagna five centuries earlier
Faenza Market in early 1488. A fencing master approached a wealthy farmer from Forlì surrounded by friends in the middle of the square. The master want delivering them a book of black prophecies to be reported in Forlì
The fencing master arrived in front of the farmer and his friends and asked aloud:
“Sir, I need a favour from you”.
“Who are you?” answers the farmer.
“My name is Cesare Scrimidore
from Faenza and I am a long-time friend of Leon Cobello
, painter and chronicler of your town of Forlivio
”.
“I know it's a your friend, and I want delivering him something through you that I owed him for a long time. We will both very grateful if you do that.”
“Yes. I know the chronicler Leone Cobelli. Tell me what this is at all”, replied the farmer.
“He begged me to give him this book personally, which was given to me by a soothsayer friar minor of St. Francis, and since I don't have the opportunity to go to Forlivio, I ask you to give it for me”, said the swordsman.
“All right. Who should I tell him you are?” replied the peasant.
“Say him I am a swordsman from Faenza and I send him a book by an astrologer friar so that you know what kind of destiny is written of your lord Girolamo Riario and your lands in the heaven and in the stars”.
“But what heavenly destiny written in the stars are you talking about, sword master?” spoke a scribe of the peasant present at the speech.
“Sir, don't tense or argue with me about things decided and willed from the heights and heavenly spheres. It is all written in this book and no one can say otherwise
”.
“Reach over Sir Leon Cobello, give him this book and tell him that this is the destiny of what will happen to your lord and city and he will know what to do about it”, replied the swordsman threateningly.
“I don’t wish to discuss with you in front of everyone, but know that many of the people of Forlì already know what is happening in our lands and our Count Girolamo Riario. And they don't need soothsayers nor astrologers to know what is happening in our lands
”, replied the scribe.
“Maybe You are talking about things you do not know. You must know that this book was written ten years ago by an astrologer of these lands and tells of things that have already happened and others that have yet to happen in the government of your city until the year one thousand five hundred”.
“So what? There are many prophecies in those lands runned across by invisibles Count Riario's enemies”.
“And that confirm the things that are still destined to happen there, willed by God and celestial mechanics
”, replied the fencing master.
“If you say it was written ten years ago, so tell me who wrote it? Who is the soothsayer who gave it to you?” asked the scribe.
“That is not for you to know”.
“So I bet it was the astrologer Girolamo Manfredi, friar and healer astrologer, related in its name to your lords of Faenza, friends of Florence and enemies of Riario
”, replied the scribe.
“This too is not given you to know, but what the matter?” replied the swordsman.
“The matter is: who has paid this astrologer friar to make this book? Astrologers and horoscopes cost a lot and someone rich must have paid for them”, asked the scribe even more critically.
“I don't know what's your problem, and I'm not want argue about it with you. But if you mean to say that I am a ciurmadore
and you want to pass the truth on to the tournament,
I will be well disposed to it”, replied the swordsman.
“I am a scribe and I do not intend to say that you are a swindler, nor do I intend to hold on you or pass with you at tournament, I just wanted to know how things were to take note for me and my citizens”, the scribe lowered his tone.
“Then let the Master Leon Cobello do this and let's end our discussion here that is better in this way”, concluded the fencing teacher with the scribe.
“You”, ordered the fencer at the farmer:
“Take and keep this book. Just give it to Master Leon Cobello, and he'll know what to do with it. We'll both be grateful for what you do for us”.
“All right, let's not quarrel again about it”, said the farmer, taking the book, turning is back to secure it in his travel bag.
“Listen, what did you say your name is?” asked the farmer, turning back again to the swordsman, but the swordsman had already quietly walked away in the crowd of the marketplace.
“When he arrived in Forlì the farmer handed the book to the chronicler Leone Cobelli telling him everything, but Cobelli, as hard he tried to remember who the swordsman and the monk might be, said he couldn't remember anyone who had promised such a thing to him. In any case the chronicler Cobelli was also an astrologer and held those prophecies in great consideration”.
“And as soon some strange sign appeared in the sky, he wrote that they arrived from Faenza or had been seen above the convent of the local Franciscan friars”, the witness concluded the explanation of his story.
The researcher had listened attentively him and asked:
“In a nutshell, do you mean say that this book was written by Riario's murderers to prepare the Forlians for his death and make the people believe that Riario was predestined to die?”
“Something like that, but planned a little bit better. A similar book was indeed ordered ten years earlier by people of Florence who run around Lorenzo de' Medici and contained the way and manner in which Riario should be die”, replied the witness.
“Lorenzo de Medici? Lorenzo the Magnificent ordered it?” asked the researcher in amazement.
“Yes, himself”.
“What does he have to do with Riario?” asked the researcher.
“He has a lot to do with it. It was in fact a settlement between them”.
“What are you talking about?”
“I'm telling you what happened. It all began when Pope Sixtus IV and his nephew, Girolamo Riario, try to take over Florence and overthrow Lorenzo de' Medici and his brother Giuliano de Medici”.
“And then what append?”
“And then Riario and the Pope found nothing better than trying to assassinate both during a solemn mass in Florence Cathedral, where they lying down Giuliano de' Medici in a pool of blood, while Lorenzo the Magnificent was missed and managed to save himself locking himself in a sacristy”.
“Are you talking about the conspiracy of Pazzi?” asked the researcher.
“Just that. The Pope, Riario and his followers organized it in Rome during a mass in the cathedral of Florence”, replied the witness. Then he added:
“The impact, the outrage and resentment at what a Pope and his nephew had organized in a church during a public mass, was enormous even at the time. And the reaction and revenge of the Florentines and Lorenzo de' Medici was equally proportionate to what had happened, so much that he set up a company of assassins or ‘ucciditori’
with the aim of making a list of the people involved to take revenge on the conspirators who had taken part in that assassination”.
“And what about Riario?” asked the researcher.
“Riario was at the top of that list of murderers”.
“And what was the difference between a company of assassins and a company of ‘ucciditori’?”
“Not to much. At the time, assassins were considered murderers in the service of someone, while the ‘ucciditori’ were secret avengers with the task of settling crimes and avenging the work of conspirators and murderers. But apart from these small details, more or less both did the same things and operated in very similar ways”, replied the witness.
“So that book of prophecies was true?”
“Only in part, because it was not born as a real book of prophecies but as a kind of mocking in macabre verses that mocked and narrated the end that Riario should have and the fate that would fall over Forli, immediately after his death”, replied the test.
“At the beginning, that book came from Florence and told facts and things that had to happen to Girolamo Riario and our city until 1500. They were more or less nothing else but the plans for revenge and the conquest of Forlì by Florence, disguised as verses and prophecies to take revenge for the conspiracy of the Pazzi in Florence”.
“What did that monk and that astrologer have to do with it?”
“Those Florentine verses were given to some friars of Florence and the surrounding area, as normal political propaganda of the time. So they would narrate and make well known to the people of those parts, the end that the enemies of Florence had to receive”.
“After a while these verse were also given to an astrologer followed and known in Romagna, so that he could read in the stars and explain scientifically to everyone what was about to happen to the Medici's assassins, because at that time astrology was considered by the people as science.
“Unbelievable”, replied the researcher.
“Not even that much. In truth, it was normal preparatory black propaganda, followed by the military conquest policy of the time”.
“And then what happened?” asked the researcher.
“Then, as the years went by and nothing of what the stars said was realized, someone ordered the Company of executors to realize what maybe was also written somewhere in the heavens, but for various reasons never happened on earth”, explained the witness.
“So what was Riario?” the researcher tried to ask.
“Girolamo Riario was the one who had organized the assassination of the Medici on behalf of his uncle Pope Sixtus IV”.
“And he was to take command of Florence, in place of Lorenzo the Magnificent, once he was assassinated. And that's why he ended up at the top of that company's list of killers or ucciditori if you prefer”, explained the witness.
“But why did Riario try to do such a thing?”
“For various reasons. One because he was Captain General of the Church
and the Pope had ordered him to take Florence”.
“The other, is that was interested in taking Florence and unite it with his lordships of Imola and Forlì and thus make a unique grand duchy adding Faenza, which stood between Imola and Forlì. at the time property of Florence”.
“That plan failed and only Giuliano de' Medici died, while Lorenzo the Magnificent saved himself from the attack of two priests assassin and you will soon understand the rest of the show”, replied the witness.
“Carry on”, nodded the researcher.
“Returning to the book of prophecies, before Riario's death mysterious inscriptions alluding something was found in Greek, on a column of the high altar of the church of San Mercuriale in Forlì and this made someone suspicious.”
“What was that inscription in the church alluding to?”
“According to many people of the time, they alluded to his death”.
