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The Cardinal's Hat: Money, Ambition, and Housekeeping in a Renaissance Court
The Cardinal's Hat is the fascinating story of how Ippolito d'Este, the second son of Lucretia Borgia, acquired the coveted cardinal's hat and became the Archbishop of Milan.
Working with Ippolito's letters and ledgers, recently uncovered in an archive in Modena, Italy, Mary Hollingsworth has pieced together a fascinating and undeniably titillating tale of this Renaissance cardinal and his road to power and wealth in sixteenth century Europe. The ledgers document every aspect of Ippolito's comings and goings, and he comes to life out of the minutiae, as do the lives of his staff.
308 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 27, 2004
47 people are currently reading
261 people want to read
About the author
Mary Hollingsworth
12 books63 followersMary Hollingsworth is a scholar of the Italian Renaissance, and author of The Cardinal's Hat, The Borgias: History's Most Notorious Dynasty and Patronage in Renaissance Italy: From 1400 to the Early Sixteenth Century.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
February 21, 2014
Very interesting (although to be honest I was hoping for some details about his life at Villa d'Este). This book covers the details of Ippolito's life largely in the period before he became a cardinal. It reveals the manoeuvrings & infighting required to get his cardinals hat, the extravagant lifestyle of a Renaissance prince and just how mobile life was at the French Court - Francis & thus Ippolito are forever on the move. In the end its the little details that draw you in how much a stable boy was paid and who embroidered his shirts.... Ippolito was it seems a reasonable employer - taking care of the families of his staff and ensuring that everyone was paid, fed and accommodated to a reasonable standard. If you didn't know though you'd never suspect he was a cleric - his hobbies appear to be women, gambling & hunting, not necessarily in that order and it confirms to me that if forced to pick another time to live I'll be a pre-Counter Reformation religious....
December 12, 2024
Fantastic tale of the life of the son of Lucretia Borgia who became a Cardinal told through the voluminous archives of the D 'Este family. This is a brilliant example of what can be learned from a reading of the what might appear dry accounts - but of course money is at the heart of history and it is good to be reminded of its central place in time's like the Renaissance were the major, and minor players, can appear blissfully removed from such practical matters, but of course they weren't. What is truly insightful is what we learn about the many - and I mean many - ordinary people who made up the household of those Renaissance Princes and how essential they were.
If you like Renaissance history, or the tales of nobility in any other European country then this book should be right up your street.
If you like Renaissance history, or the tales of nobility in any other European country then this book should be right up your street.
May 3, 2020
Reading this made for a great reminder of why history books are so fun. I got this at a book sale for basically nothing, and it’s about someone I’d never heard of before. That just made it more of an adventure!
It’s interesting to me how historical figures can intersect, yet you can so easily overlook people who are background players in other people’s stories. For instance, I’ve read a great deal about King Francis I, and I know a bit about Lucrezia Borgia (here spelled Lucretia). But I had no idea one of her sons with her third husband was such a good friend of the French king.
This is why history is such a blast! There’s always more to discover.
The Cardinal’s Hat is a very short read about Ippolito II d’Este. We get some background about his family, and learn quite a lot about his older brother, the Duke of Ferrara.
The book takes you on a journey, tracking Ippolito’s efforts to gain the titular cardinal’s hat. Along the way, there are so many logistics that can either seem riveting or boring depending on what you like. I thought it was concise enough to find the tidbits about how his household was kept quite neat.
This is not a drawn out biography that tries to dive into each tiny aspect of the protagonist’s life. Instead, it’s a great overview, with plenty of fascinating details.
It was a good library book sale find, and it reminded me of why I enjoy history books so much.
It’s interesting to me how historical figures can intersect, yet you can so easily overlook people who are background players in other people’s stories. For instance, I’ve read a great deal about King Francis I, and I know a bit about Lucrezia Borgia (here spelled Lucretia). But I had no idea one of her sons with her third husband was such a good friend of the French king.
This is why history is such a blast! There’s always more to discover.
The Cardinal’s Hat is a very short read about Ippolito II d’Este. We get some background about his family, and learn quite a lot about his older brother, the Duke of Ferrara.
The book takes you on a journey, tracking Ippolito’s efforts to gain the titular cardinal’s hat. Along the way, there are so many logistics that can either seem riveting or boring depending on what you like. I thought it was concise enough to find the tidbits about how his household was kept quite neat.
This is not a drawn out biography that tries to dive into each tiny aspect of the protagonist’s life. Instead, it’s a great overview, with plenty of fascinating details.
It was a good library book sale find, and it reminded me of why I enjoy history books so much.
March 28, 2008
I was all set to love this book. I am most interested in private history, not the annals of war and governments. I was disappointed, though, in this book. I got the feeling there wasn't a lot to go on and the poor author had to put some meat on the bare bones of the story about Ippolito d'Este's rise to Cardinaldom by padding it with extraneous and tedious general information. Let's face it: most of us will slip into that kind of obscurity. We'll be lucky if our birth and death records are still around in 500 years. So that's why nobody's going to write a book about most of us.
August 31, 2008
I wanted to give this book a higher rating - as it had moments where I really enjoyed it. But, bottom line, it was too full of dry lists of items bought and money spent and clothes worn. The good writing got lost in the lists...
October 22, 2023
This is an unusual history in that it is not focused on the lives of exceptional individuals who make their mark on history by important acts, thoughts, or good fortune. He was born onto the stage of history as the second son of Lucretia Borgia and Alfonso D 'Este, making him a wealthy princeling endowed with privilege and wealth from the start. Despite that good fortune, it appears that he left no indelible mark on the history of Europe or the Renaissance and would have been completely forgotten were it not for his having had a meticulous book keeper who left a record of all his household accounts, which Mary Hollingsworth drew on to write this history.
Those records in the ledgers of the book keeper form the heart of this telling of Ippolito D' Este's life. We learn a lot about Ippolito along the way. The number of horses and hounds he had, the number of hawks and how much they cost. We learn of how much he paid the stable boys and how much he paid his managers, The income he earned and the alms to the poor he paid. We learn the cost of his travels from home to France and back and along the way learn more about scudi, soldi, and sous--the currencies of the family accounts-- than we might ever want to. This is the lifestyle of the rich and famous 16th Century style from the dry-eyed viewpoint of an accountant.
His was an amazingly privileged lifestyle that cost incredible amounts to maintain in all its mundanity. In fact his one skill seems to have been his pursuit of social connections. He became a friend of King Francis I for nothing more than being rich, fashionable, generous with his family's wealth in gift giving, and always a good companion to have on a hunt or in a game of cards. He did not leave a reputation for being a wise councilor, a war leader, an inventor, an artist, merchant, or patron to the arts. None of these familiar routes to fame were his. But he had Francis I in his corner and the power of his family to eventually convince Leo III to make him a cardinal.
It was interesting to learn about the day-to-day expenses of a rich household in the Renaissance, but I have to say at times I wished it went more into the lives of the people. The author is left to infer personal details from what is in or missing from the ledgers and so this story is very much focused on the mundane. You know Ippolito's wardrobe better than you know him as a person. Nothing here would inspire a Shakespeare play or a Masterpiece Theater production, but if you are interested in how life really was, down to the amount one tipped a servant, how one dealt with a sick servant's salary, the cost for a peregrine falcon or the cost of transporting a wagon of hay or the number of pair of gloves a prince of the realm might own, than this book is one you will enjoy.
Those records in the ledgers of the book keeper form the heart of this telling of Ippolito D' Este's life. We learn a lot about Ippolito along the way. The number of horses and hounds he had, the number of hawks and how much they cost. We learn of how much he paid the stable boys and how much he paid his managers, The income he earned and the alms to the poor he paid. We learn the cost of his travels from home to France and back and along the way learn more about scudi, soldi, and sous--the currencies of the family accounts-- than we might ever want to. This is the lifestyle of the rich and famous 16th Century style from the dry-eyed viewpoint of an accountant.
His was an amazingly privileged lifestyle that cost incredible amounts to maintain in all its mundanity. In fact his one skill seems to have been his pursuit of social connections. He became a friend of King Francis I for nothing more than being rich, fashionable, generous with his family's wealth in gift giving, and always a good companion to have on a hunt or in a game of cards. He did not leave a reputation for being a wise councilor, a war leader, an inventor, an artist, merchant, or patron to the arts. None of these familiar routes to fame were his. But he had Francis I in his corner and the power of his family to eventually convince Leo III to make him a cardinal.
It was interesting to learn about the day-to-day expenses of a rich household in the Renaissance, but I have to say at times I wished it went more into the lives of the people. The author is left to infer personal details from what is in or missing from the ledgers and so this story is very much focused on the mundane. You know Ippolito's wardrobe better than you know him as a person. Nothing here would inspire a Shakespeare play or a Masterpiece Theater production, but if you are interested in how life really was, down to the amount one tipped a servant, how one dealt with a sick servant's salary, the cost for a peregrine falcon or the cost of transporting a wagon of hay or the number of pair of gloves a prince of the realm might own, than this book is one you will enjoy.
September 16, 2025
Accountancy does not often make for thrilling storytelling, but this book reveals the life of Italian cardinal Ippolito d'Este through his account books, using granular details from his expenditures to reconstruct the routines of a Renaissance noble's life. Hollingsworth paints her subject as a man with few exceptional qualities except perhaps a talent for charming other nobles, forgoing psychological analysis of Ippolito or even detailed discussion of his actions or beliefs (which are depicted as being by and large unexceptional), instead using his biography as the canvas for examining his social world, from the extravagance of French and Italian royal courts to the living costs of an average worker. Her detailed contextualisation of exchange rates and the rationales for different prices, regularly couching Ippolito's expenses in terms of the staple goods they could buy or comparing them to the income of a skilled labourer, allows THE CARDINAL'S HAT to present a dense but intriguing portrait of economic life in the Renaissance.
February 23, 2020
This is a very detailed look at the practicalities and daily life of a Cardinal in Renaissance Italy. It deals with the court of Ippolito d'Este, second son of Lucretia Borgia using letters and ledgers, uncovered in an archive in Modena, Italy and shows how a person lived and thrived in that time period. It is less about dates and wars and more about how a Lord lived when they weren't plotting and fighting. A fascinating peek behind the scenes.
July 22, 2017
Absolutely fascinating account of the expenditure and travels of a young Italian nobleman/courtier/prelate as he makes his way up the greasy pole. Terrific piece of social history.
April 23, 2024
Horrible! Just horrible. This book was such a waste of time reading.. I wish I could get my $2.99 back that I paid for this book.
May 31, 2010
This book has the preversity of being a fine and strangely entertaining work about somebody you have no reason to ever have heard of. Ippolito d'Este is a footnote at best. Being the second son of Lucretia Borgia (yes, the one you think) and Duke Alfonso d'Este, he was the "spare" in the old dynastic tradition of of having an heir and a spare, destined to be sent off to the church while his brother succeeded as duke. As it turns out, Ippolito's life was really quite interesting- quite the seething stew of ambition, bribery, dirty tricks, and politics.
The author did somehing very appropriate to out post-Enron and popst bank bailout age: She found a complete collection of the man's financial accounts and rebuilt a story of his personal affairs from them. Affairs in every sense of the word.
The intrigues she unovered are only part of the fun. What is even better is that we get to wallow in the oridnary details of a Borgia prince's houseohold. We see all of the social relationships with the followers inside and friends and allies outside of this household. We get to see how very different basic moral, social, and ethical assumtions were at a time so removed from our own.
Trust me, by the standards of our modern and more democratic sensabilities the stuff they thought was acceptable and proper is quite stunning. I was particlularly amused by the sense of social obligation the d'Este family felt toward conspicuous spending! It was not like today, when an affluent suburbanite spends to establish status his before his neighbors. Rather, status of birth obligated the family to live up to a high standard of ostentation and largesse.
This book contains no accounts of the grand events of the day. No battles, discoveries, movements, or coups. But by providing an insight into the psychology and social relationships of the leaders of the age it may be a great resource for understanding them better. It sure as (bleep) would be a great resource for any author with an intent to write a novel set in the Renaissance.
The author did somehing very appropriate to out post-Enron and popst bank bailout age: She found a complete collection of the man's financial accounts and rebuilt a story of his personal affairs from them. Affairs in every sense of the word.
The intrigues she unovered are only part of the fun. What is even better is that we get to wallow in the oridnary details of a Borgia prince's houseohold. We see all of the social relationships with the followers inside and friends and allies outside of this household. We get to see how very different basic moral, social, and ethical assumtions were at a time so removed from our own.
Trust me, by the standards of our modern and more democratic sensabilities the stuff they thought was acceptable and proper is quite stunning. I was particlularly amused by the sense of social obligation the d'Este family felt toward conspicuous spending! It was not like today, when an affluent suburbanite spends to establish status his before his neighbors. Rather, status of birth obligated the family to live up to a high standard of ostentation and largesse.
This book contains no accounts of the grand events of the day. No battles, discoveries, movements, or coups. But by providing an insight into the psychology and social relationships of the leaders of the age it may be a great resource for understanding them better. It sure as (bleep) would be a great resource for any author with an intent to write a novel set in the Renaissance.
February 8, 2012
This non-fiction book traces the life of Ippolito d'Este, second son of the famous Lucrezia Borgia. Hollingsworth primarily draws on account books such as financial ledgers and letters from Ippolito to his older brother Ercole II to construct this tale. I was initially drawn to this book because like many I'm fascinated by the Borgia family. I watch the Borgias show on Showtime and just read a novel about Catherine de Medici who Ippolito knew as a member of the king of France's court. However, I was disappointed to find that rather than a biography, this is a detailed account of the price of everything in Ippolito's household from his many servants to the thread for his many garments. The vast majority of the book focuses on expenses Ippolito occured as a very wealthy and powerful figure leading up to receiving his cardinal hat. Additionally, I was disappointed that the novel rather abruptly concludes once Ippolito becomes a cardinal and only alludes to the rest of his life. I wanted to know what became of him.
I was interested in learning about how very little time powerful people spent at home during this time period. Ippolito spends a small fortune on his private residence only to leave for four years. I also found it interesting learning how little time he spent devoted to any religious matters. For a cardinal, he doesn't seem too concerned with church issues, but instead lavishes court ladies with gifts and spends his time gambling and searching for good horses and dogs.
While too reliant on endless lists of expenses, this book was an insightful look at the lives of the wealthy during this time period, as well as the corruption of the Catholic church. 2.5 stars
I was interested in learning about how very little time powerful people spent at home during this time period. Ippolito spends a small fortune on his private residence only to leave for four years. I also found it interesting learning how little time he spent devoted to any religious matters. For a cardinal, he doesn't seem too concerned with church issues, but instead lavishes court ladies with gifts and spends his time gambling and searching for good horses and dogs.
While too reliant on endless lists of expenses, this book was an insightful look at the lives of the wealthy during this time period, as well as the corruption of the Catholic church. 2.5 stars
April 4, 2013
The Cardinal's Hat is a book about the life of Ippolito d'Este, a Ferrarese noble during the Renaissance. More than being a biography, it is also a sociological book about the Renaissance life and society with rich details (sometimes these details were too precise and tiny to be appreciated) on how people from different social classes lived and interacted.
I think that this book can be fully appreciated by people who enjoy minute and precise details on history. I for one had my curiosity quenched and fulfilled because of Hollingsworth's extensive discussions on all parts of Renaissance life: from the simple running of a household to court traditions and practices. Apart from that, it is also rich in details about the lives of the common people. There are plenty of discussions on common people earn their living and how they spend them.
I really enjoyed this book, but I admit that some people who can be easily bored by the mountain of details poured in the book. There are so many details which can delight those who are curious about Renaissance life, but it can also be tedious for some to look into tables, numbers, and calculations that deal mostly with money. However, being a person who loves details, I really, really enjoyed this book. I learned a lot from it as I immersed myself to the fancy life of Ippolito d'Este in his rise to power to gain the Cardinal's Hat.
I think that this book can be fully appreciated by people who enjoy minute and precise details on history. I for one had my curiosity quenched and fulfilled because of Hollingsworth's extensive discussions on all parts of Renaissance life: from the simple running of a household to court traditions and practices. Apart from that, it is also rich in details about the lives of the common people. There are plenty of discussions on common people earn their living and how they spend them.
I really enjoyed this book, but I admit that some people who can be easily bored by the mountain of details poured in the book. There are so many details which can delight those who are curious about Renaissance life, but it can also be tedious for some to look into tables, numbers, and calculations that deal mostly with money. However, being a person who loves details, I really, really enjoyed this book. I learned a lot from it as I immersed myself to the fancy life of Ippolito d'Este in his rise to power to gain the Cardinal's Hat.
April 14, 2014
I had never read Hollingsworth before, and I liked her style. This book follows the early career of Lucrezia Borgia's sons, foucsing on how his household was run. This could have been a quite boring summation of costs and outlays, but it was a fascinating glimpse into the running of his household. It also brought light into the politics of 1530s Itally, France and the Holy Roman Empire. The reading is light and fairly fast; I was able to hunker in while suffering a mild head cold. She somehow doesn't get bogged down in all the details and helpfully reminds of us of what various amounts spent would have bought for lower-class citizens.
August 9, 2008
Generally a solid biographical account of a second born son of minor noble stock from Ferrara. Dry in parts, it does offer some fascinating insight into the social world of northern Italy and France in the sixteenth century. It of course offers a clear picture of the relationship between the Church and nobility and power during the period, right as the Reformation was gathering steam.
May 21, 2015
The Cardinal's Hat is easily one of my favorite books of all time. Mary Hollingsworth's work is so satisfyingly rich in detail and so completely engaging. That she is able to pull so much information from simple receipts, log books, and misc. financial records is matched only by her ability to retell that information in such a compelling, coherent, and thoroughly enjoyable story.
October 26, 2011
Beware titles that promise too much; the content often disappoints. Dry and tedious household inventory. I should have known to give this book a miss when the title referred to Ippolito d'Este as "a Borgia Prince". Yes, his mother was Lucretia Borgia, but that's where the Borgia connection ends.
September 25, 2012
After a while, the lists of thing that were bought and their prices became boring and repetitive, but the political stuff, as well as the information about the personal relationships of powerful people were very interesting.
July 31, 2015
A very informative book, though I was disappointed that it was not ore about Rodrigo nor Cesare. Nevertheless, I believe most people who are interested in 16th century history will enjoy reading this book, especially the parts about Ippolito II d'Este’s friendship with the King of France.
Want to read
February 22, 2010Life in court of Borgia Prince
August 30, 2010
Very detailed account of the early life of a Renaissance Arch-Bishop through what he ate, bought, and sold. Gets a little tedious toward the end but otherwise very informative narrative non-fiction.
July 25, 2012
This book is little more than a list of Ippolito d'Este's acquisitions and parties – not that there's anything inherently wrong with this. But the book doesn't sell itself as such.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews