Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/289

 n s. XL APRIL 10, i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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PROFESSORS AT DEBITZEN, 1756. On 12 June, 1756, the College (Queen's College, Oxford) agreed that the Bursar shall charge two guineas in the Long Roll for the support of the Professors at Debit zen. The Long Boll is the General Account of the College. Where is Debitzen ? and why did the Professors there need support at that time ? JOHN B. MAGRATH.

TOLOMEO, CARDINAL GALLI : " THE CAR- DINAL OF COMO " (1525-1607). Tolomeo Galli was born at Cernobbio, near Como, in 1525. Nothing seems to be known about liis parentage. Some accounts represent his father as a tradesman, others as a poor fisherman. Certainly his origin was ob- scure ; but that would not prevent him in Italy from having a coat of arms, and my first query is : What coat of arms did he bear ?

At an early age he attached himself to the household of Agostino, Cardinal Trivulzi. On the death of that prelate, in 1548, Galli became a secretary to Niccolo, Cardinal Gaddi ; but within four years this new patron also died, and in 1552 the young ecclesiastic transferred his services to Giann- angelo, Cardinal de' Medici, who was elected Pope 26 Dec., 1559, and took the title of Pius IV.

On 13 Sept., 1560, Galli was consecrated Bishop of Martirano, a small South Italian diocese, and was transferred to the Arch- bishopric of Manfredonia (Siponto), 6 July, 1562.

He became Cardinal Priest of the suc- cessive titles of S. Teodoro (18 May, 1565), S. Pancrazio (7 Sept., 1565), S. Agata {14 May, 1568), and S. Maria del Popolo (20 April, 1587).

In 1572 Galli became Secretary of State to Gregory XIII., as well as Prefect of the Council, and of the Congregation of Bites.

On 8 April, 1573, he resigned the Arch bishopric of Siponto.

The late Bev. T. W. M. Lund in 'The Lake of Como ' (Kegan Paul & Co., 1910), at p. 95, wrote of this Cardinal as follows :

" He became the possessor of vast estates and enormous wealth, holding in feud the Tre Pievi and purchasing the Neapolitan Duchy of Alvito and the Marquisate of Scaldasole, near Pavia It is said of him that, though seven days' journey from Rome, yet in travelling there he never slepl out of his own house. The fact was, he had a villa at every stage of the journey. Besides his splendid palace at Gravedona [Palazzo del Pero] he had two other residences on the Lake of Como one, the Villa Balbiano, at Campo ; and the other at Cernobbio, now known as the Villa d'Este The palace at Gravedona was rifled of its treasures

n the seventeenth century, and the boat bearing The Cardinal used his wealth for the amelioration of
 * hem away is said to have foundered in the Lake.
 * hat poverty with which he had been so familiar

n his youth. He established a college at Como, and endowed it munificently for the education of poor boys, wisely providing that those who had no aptitude for literary studies should be taught some mechanical trade. Nor did he forget the ?irls, for whom he left a large sum of money thirty at the same time, while whatever surplus there might be was to be spent in relieving the needs of the poor.
 * iOO,OOOscudi] to be bestowed in marriage dowers,

" As a tribute to his beneficence a statue was erected to him in the Cathedral of Como in 1860, in the inscription upon which he is beautifully described as Angela di luce, Apostolo di caritit del povero, ' Angel of light, Apostle of charity for the poor.' A local tradition is cherished that it was once in contemplation to transfer the Session of the Roman Council from Trent to Cardinal Gallic's palace at Gravedona, in consequence of bhe outbreak of pestilence in the former city. The supposition has probably no further founda- tion than a set of chairs in the great hall of the palace, which were originally brought from Alvito, and bear the names of various members of the College of Cardinals.

" Gravedona, Dongo, and Serico bear the name of Le Tre Pievi, ' the three parishes,' and these in the Middle Ages constituted a small republic, making its own laws, war, and peace. An eulogy upon the great Cardinal, inscribed in gold letters upon a marble slab, in the Palazzo Gallic thus alludes to the three parishes :

" ' Ptolomseus Gallius Cardinalis Comensis Trium Ploebium Gravedonae, Surici, Dungi, Comes et Dominus, Aeris temperiem, Loci amceni- tatem, sequutus, oppidum nobile Gravedonam, amplissimis sedibus, hortis, fontibus, exornavit,et nobilius reddidit.' "

Mr. Lund calls him Cardinal Gallic ; but it would seem that Galli is the correct form.

And now I come to my second query : Is there any extant portrait of this remark- able man ? Although he was born near Como, and was known from 1573 onwards as " the Cardinal of Como," he spent the greater portion of his life in Borne.

On 11 Dec., 1587, he became Cardinal Bishop of Albano ; on 6 May, 1589, he was transferred to Santa Sabina ; on 20 March, 1591, to Frascati; on 21 Feb., 1600, to Porto ; and on 19 Feb., 1603, to Ostia.

As Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and Velletri, Cardinal Galli became Dean of the Sacred College, and ex officio Protector of the Kingdom of Hungary, and of the Camal- donese hermits and coenobites.

He died in Borne, 3 Feb., 1607, aged 82. He was buried temporarily in Borne at S. Maria della Scala. His body found permanent rest in the chapel which he had founded at Como in the Church of San Giovanni di Piedemonte.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.