Vincenzo Foppa of Brescia, founder of the Lombard school, his life ...

Chap. VI. FOPPA'S PETITION TO THE DUKE OF MILAN 137
time of her marriage, and was then to defray all expenses connected with
the marriage and provide the dowry. Further, he was to pay to Bartolomeo
Caylina, son of Caterina de Bolis, a certain sum of money, being the
equivalent of Bartolomeo's share of the inheritance to which he was entitled.
Foppa, it appears, had only fulfilled his obligations towards his brother-in-law
in part, at which the latter was justly indignant, and retaliated by endeavouring
to sell the house in order to obtain the money due to him, though in point
of fact he had admitted Foppa's rights to the property and had recognized the
validity of his mother's deed of gift. Vincenzo was therefore forced to take
steps to protect himself and secure his rights, and to this end he appealed
to the Duke. The petition having been handed in, the Duke on July 19,
1481 (Doc. No. 34), forwarded it to the authorities at Pavia, commanding
them to force Bartolomeo to respect the deed of gift made by his mother
if it should appear that he had consented to it,
as Foppa on his part declared
himself willing to satisfy to the full all Bartolomeo's claims in the matter of
the inheritance. How the dispute ended we do not know ; but the petition
(No. ;i^)
is of great value for the light it throws upon the family history of
Foppa. These incidental notices are by no means so trivial as may at first
sight appear, and this document has practically been the means of unravelling,
step by step, the history of Foppa's later years, and thus of proving
that he did not die in 1492, as was formerly supposed, but that his life was
prolonged for about twenty-four years beyond that date.
From this and other sources we gather, that Foppa's wife was the daughter
of Caterina de Bolis of Cremona and of a Brescian named Pietro Caylina, the
latter being probably identical with a tailor of that name, who was living in
the second ward of the quarter of S. Alessandro at Brescia between 1430 and
1442.
One of her brothers was that painter Paolo Caylina "son of Pietro,"
who, as we saw (chap, i), was at Pavia with Foppa in 1458.
In 1451 he was living in the Contrada S. Agata at Brescia," perhaps therefore
inhabiting with his mother the house which she eventually made over to
Foppa, and between 1459 and 1475 he is registered in the Estimi as living in
the first ward of the quarter of S. Giovanni,' the same ward, it may be noted,
in which was situated the Contrada S. Agata. Paintings by Paolo at
> See the Libri d' Estimo of 1430-42, f. 60.
- Atti di Antonio di Pederzolo Codeferini de Riva : "Paulo f. q. Petri de Cailina
pictore in contrata S. Agatha" appears as a witness. ("Commutatio inter monacos
S. Petri in Oliveto Brixie et Comune de Bagolino," Arch. Ant. Mun. Brescia A. VII,
157. Kindly communicated by Don Paolo Guerrini, Keeper of the Episcopal Archives,
Brescia.)
' Lib. d' Est., 1459, f. 20 ; 1469, f. 22 v.