Il re, il papa, la città. Francesco I e Leone X a Bologna nel dicembre del 1515

This research focuses on the meeting between Pope Leo X and Francis I, King of France in December 1515 in Bologna. The event sets in a very critical moment for Italy’s fate – France won the battle of Marignano (13 and 14 September 1515). This battle was one of the most cruel ones during a long period of wars (1494-1559) in which Italy was a battlefield for the fights between French and Spanish monarchies. Our purpose is to reconstruct - by a thorough analysis - the short stay in Bologna of both King Francis I and the Pope and the context in which it set. This context is not just political and diplomatic, but also ceremonial and logistical. We tried to analyse thoroughly the way in which the city of Bologna managed to respond to such an important and sensitive occurrence, both for the economy of the city and for the political internal stability. The first fifteen years of XVI Century were actually crucial for Bologna’s history. Despite the fact that Pope Julius II expelled the historical Bentivoglio family in 1506 so that the Papal States could rule over the city, the Bentivoglio family managed to govern again the city for a short period between May 1511 and June 1512. When in 1513 Giovanni de’ Medici became Pope Leo X the process of political and institutional stabilisation began, in the form of a mixed government – the power of the papal legate coexisted with the one of public offices. In December 1515 Pope Leo X visited officially Bologna for the first time and this fact was the opportunity to solve the matter of Bentivoglio’s family readmission, after three years of indecision. One of the most remarkable episodes connected with the meeting was the ritual of the ‘touch’ of the scrofula. In fact, during his first trip to Italy, the young Valois used the healing power, that was attributed to the French kings, three times: on October 31st and November 3rd in Vigevano, near Milan, when the negotiations to meet the Pope were still underway, and on December 15th, his last day of stay in Bologna. As a result, the most popular element of the sacredness of the French monarchy ended up merging with the exotic political context of the Italian wars.