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

Chap. IX. FOPPA'S ACCOUNTS 227
The payment mentioned in No. la in April, 1503, was, however, not made
by Foppa's wife, but the sum was paid in the name of Vincenzo "per uno
puto, " by which we may perhaps understand an apprentice from his workshop.
The payment was made in the Piazola S. Alessandro, where stood the house
used by the officials of the quarter for the transaction of their business. A
stone inscribed Domus qiiadrae Sett. Alexandri MCCCCLXV, and let into
the wall of a house on the north side of the square, still marks the site,
according"
to the late Mgr. Fe, of the original building.'
Items 2 and 2« and b, record the payment of three different sums to the
massaro Bompiano between June, 1505, and July, 1506. This is all condensed
into one entry in the account-book f. 152, with the remark that the sum of
lire 14, soldi 8 was paid in three instalments, which from f. 3 we know to have
been the case.^
Item 8 on f. 3 deals with a sum of money expended on repairs to the door
of the workshop which the quarter had bought from an embroiderer, Zuan
Pietro.^ We learn from the account-book f. 162 that this sum was paid by
the syndic of the quarter Viviano Viviani, and that the workshop "bought
from the embroiderer " had been damaged by the French during the siege of
15 12. But why should this have been entered on Vincenzo Foppa's page
of accounts, there being no allusion to him in either rent or account-book
and the money having apparently been paid by the syndic? In spite of
appearances, this was not, however, the case, and Item 9 explains the matter.
On October 13, 1513, Master Vincenzo paid to Viviano, deputy massaro and
syndic of the quarter, 1. 2 (f. ;
3) and on f. 162 v., it is stated that Viviano had
received the sum of 1. 4, s. 5, in two instalments from Master Vincenzo.
Viviano had paid a part of this sum to the quarter and had been repaid by
>
Op. cit., Ill, p. II.
''
Twenty soldi being, as already stated, equal to i lira planet, these three sums I. 3,
s. 13, 1. 6, and 1. 4, s. 15, make up the total 1. 14, s. 8, which, as stated in the accountbook
(f. 152), was paid by Master Vincenzo in three instalments.
^ This Zuan Pietro belonged to a celebrated family of embroiderers who are also
called "de Vescovis." In the book labelled Istromenti, 1°, f. 51, we find the deed of
sale, according to which on April 2, 151 1, Giovanni Pietro and his wife Hellena sold the
shop to the quarter—represented by five of the principal officials, among them being
the two syndics, Giov. Battista de Monte and Viviano Viviani. The deed was drawn up
by the notary Francesco de' Porzani and the money was paid in instalments to Giov.
Pietro and his brothers (see Mass., 1°, f. 159 v.). After it became the property of the
quarter it must have been let to Foppa. Among the witnesses to one of these payments
was " W° Zuan de Vallcamonica," whom we might have been tempted to identify
with Giovanni Pietro da Cemmo (see chaps, v and vii), did we not know from the
Estimo that this Zuan (Giovanni) from the Val Camonica was a schoolmaster who lived
in the first ward of the quarter of S. Alessandro.