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

220 VINCENZO FOPPA
master. We have reference to an action brought by Evangelista Foppa
on behalf of his father, against certain persons at Pavia, in documents of
February 25 and June 6, 1502, and from two further records we gather that
Vincenzo was still living in 1513 (Doc. No. 76), and that his heirs owned the
house in S. Invenzio at least as late as 1522 (Doc. No. 80). Foppa's
" livello " payable to the hospital amounted, as we know, to one soldo imperiale
per annum, but his heirs apparently paid a higher rate—namely, three soldi
a year (November 11, 1518 and 1522). Owing to the absence of documents
we are unable to explain the reason of this increase ; nor can we tell
who that Margarita Marcelli may have been who in 1518 pays the "livello"
on behalf of the heirs of Foppa, they being absent. Was she only the tenant
of the house ? or some relation of the Foppa family ? We have no means of
ascertaining.
Thus closes the chapter of Foppa's long connection with
Pavia extending
over a space of more than thirty years, and we pass on to consider
the last period of his life at Brescia. The facts relating to these years have
been drawn for the most part from documents in the Municipal Archives
at Brescia' and in the Fabbriceria of the Church of S. Alessandro in that
city.
When the master returned with his family to live at Brescia in 1490,
he must have settled in the southern part of the town, for, as already noted in
chapter viii, we find him registered in the Libro d' Estimo of 1498 as occupying
a house in the first ward of the quarter of S. Alessandro.
These volumes— the Libri d' Estimo— in the Municipal Archives, to which
we have several times had occasion to allude, are the registers in which the
names and addresses of all the citizens of Brescia were entered according
to the quarter of the city where they resided, together with the amount
of tax paid by them to the civic authorities." These Estimi are often of
the greatest use for the light they throw upon certain dates relating to
painters and artificers, and in the case of Foppa they have rendered valuable
service.
The city of Brescia had in medieval times been divided into four quarters,
each bearing the name of one of the principal churches, i.e. S. Faustino,
S. Giovanni, S. Alessandro, and S. Stefano.^ The quarter of S. Alessandro,
divided into two wards, was situated in the southern part of the city between
^ Archivio Antico Municipale, now housed in a room on the ground floor of the
Palazzo Martinengo. -
Called Censo Comunale or Estimo.
^ These quarters were later subdivided into wards called " quad re " or "vicinie."
S. Faustino was divided into eight wards, S. Giovanni into six, S. Alessandro into
two. In the early fifteenth century S. Stefano was subdivided into two quarters known
as Cittadella Vecchia and Cittadella Nuova.