Bembo's Other Bad Boarder
When nephews turn to poison; Adam's Notes for January 23, 2025
A few weeks ago we looked at Cornelio, Pietro Bembo’s bad boarder. But a bit of milk chugging now and then is nothing compared to Bembo’s other bad border, his nephew Carlo who tried to poison him. Carlo was probably thirteen when Bembo first took him in, in August of 1520. Carlo had just lost his father and Bembo didn’t have any children yet, so it made sense, and Bembo even made Carlo the inheritor of one of his rich benefices–-big mistake!
Nothing much happened at first. Bembo sent Carlo to school at Bologna, but Carlo didn’t have much interest in his studies:
Nothing further is heard of Carlo until three years later when he was studying in Bologna. On 11 June 1529 Bembo answered his request for Homer and Aristophanes. He sent Homer straightaway and said that Aristophanes would follow shortly. He then proceeded to tell him off. According to reports he had received these past months Carlo was interested in anything but learning. Bembo does not know whether he should wear himself out any more reminding Carlo of his duty to make himself clever, virtuous, and learned. On the one hand Bembo feels as though he is throwing his words to the wind, on the other he loves Carlo and would like him to be successful, since he has brought him up and considers him as a son. The sons of the king of France do not have a better teacher than Carlo has. When he gets older he will regret that he did not use his opportunities. ... Bembo’s words, however, were unlikely to be well received by a teenager away from home, discovering the joys of independence.
Then, in August 1530, Carlo tried to poison him:
Bembo described what happened in a letter of 28 August 1530 to his friend, Vettor Soranzo, in Rome: He had three different carafes of water, one of boiled water, one of barley water, and another of water of borage and other things. These stood by the window just outside his bedroom door. Someone put sublimate in the three carafes. When Bembo asked for a soup to restore his strength, some of the water was put in it and in his wine. He ate a little of the soup and drank a little of the wine and immediately felt his whole throat burn fiercely, as though he had swallowed fire. When he called his steward for a gargle he discovered that Giovanni Antonio, who had taken some of the soup after him, also had a burning throat. Cola, who was there looking after him, saw that the water in the carafes had changed colour and that some of the sublimate remained on the lip of one of them. After much gargling Bembo recovered somewhat. Cola sent for doctors who told them to drink a glass of oil to vomit the poison. Giovanni Antonio drank the oil and vomited but Bembo could not vomit anything. Therefore, the doctors gave him bolo armeno, a medicine against poison. He spent that night and the next day in great suffering:
The cup in which I expectorated became completely black where the sputum touched it. If I had drunk the barley water or the others, as I usually did for thirst, the person who wanted to poison me would have had his wish. But the making of the soup in which only a little of the boiled water was used saved me. Now I will be more careful than I was in the past because I did not think anyone would want to kill me since I have never done anyone any harm.
The governor of Padua, hearing of this and questioning the doctors and servants, asked for instructions from the Signoria as to the action he should take. The Signoria offered a reward for the discovery of the criminal, who should then be banished from the Republic with a price on his head. The criminal investigation pointed to Carlo as the culprit. A summons was issued for him to face charges and make his defence. He was given more than a year to present himself. If he did not appear the sentence of banishment would apply.
But it wasn’t so easy. Remember, Carlo was poisoning Bembo so he could inherit a rich benefice, but in order to receive the benefice he must have already taken Minor Orders at this point, meaning he was treated as a member of the clergy and could only be prosecuted under canon law. Bembo, at this point a retired papal secretary, wrote to Rome saying he didn’t want to punish Carlo, he just wanted to be safe from the boy’s attempts to kill him.
But Bembo had already sent Carlo to Rome, before the investigation had come to focus on him.
Then, on 16 October 1530, Bembo wrote to another friend in Rome asking him to look for Carlo and tell him that he is being charged with poisoning his uncle and that a summons was issued that very morning. If he does not obey it he will be banished from the Republic. If he is innocent, Bembo advises him to come and defend himself rather than suffer an undeserved banishment. Bembo’s letter of 22 October 1530… reveals that in the intervening week Bembo had become convinced of Carlo’s guilt and wanted him out of the way.
Even so, Bembo didn’t hold a grudge against his nephew. Once he took away Carlo’s incentive for poisoning him (by getting Carlo to renounce the benefice), Bembo went back to paying his expenses!
In his next letter to Gualteruzzi, Bembo thanked him for obtaining Carlo’s resignation of Villanova and told him that he would retake possession of it because of the right of regression. Then he instructs Gualteruzzi to provide for Carlo’s living expenses out of the income from Benevento, though he does not deserve it. He could perhaps pay the person who provides room and board. He should not give the money directly to Carlo because he is a great spendthrift. Bembo wants to provide for his needs, not for his vanity. Carlo had written that he wanted to come to Venice shortly. He should be reminded of the necessity of facing charges. It would be better to wait until the affair is forgotten.
Carlo, of course, took Bembo for a fool:
(Bembo) does not want Carlo to have the preceding letter to show it around. He has heard that Carlo has been laughing with friends at his gullibility. Gualteruzzi undoubtedly has realized that the reason Bembo wanted Carlo to renounce the abbey was so that he would no longer be thinking of doing him in when he could not become abbot. He also hoped that Carlo would study now to deserve it. If Carlo does, Bembo will restore the abbey to him. He does not want Carlo to stand trial because the case against him is overwhelming. He may have boasted to Gualteruzzi that he wanted to fight to defend his honour, but he is a big mouth who never speaks the truth. He is an empty shell. Nevertheless, Bembo was very caring toward the nephew who had tried to poison him. And, always concerned about family honour, Bembo must also have been worried that Carlo would drag the family name into disrepute. … In a letter of 18 February 1531 to Gualteruzzi in Rome Bembo complains about things that Carlo has written about him, which are completely untrue, then asks Gualteruzzi to give Carlo 120 ducats on the Benevento account. On 12 April 1531 he writes again to Gualteruzzi about his benefices then adds, in a ps, “If Carlo is causing his friends to bother you and says nasty things about you, he is just acting true to form. Do not be upset about it, make little of it because, in truth, one ought not to pay much attention to such a light and weak and slovenly brain. Now that the affair of the abbey is settled he will shut up”.
Carlo, it seems, even moved back in with Bembo, and at one point threatened to sue him for the return fo the benefice:
Bembo again returns to the subject of an income for Carlo of 120 ducats on Benevento. In a letter of 28 May 1531, he suggests that Gualteruzzi deposit the money and have the bank dole it out to Carlo in monthly instalments. From this letter it appears that Carlo is still with Bembo in Venice but that Bembo will allow him to go to Rome shortly. Then one of Carlo’s friends wrote Bembo that Carlo intended to start litigation with the aim of getting the abbey back on the grounds that he had been forced to make the renunciation because Bembo had had him detained in Rome. Nothing appears to have come of this threat. Carlo reappeared in Venice in December 1531, then was back in Rome by May 1532. Henceforth he received his allowance and appears to have left Bembo alone.
From Pietro Bembo: Lover, Linguist, Cardinal by Carol Kidwell.
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