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

Chap. IX. FOPPA'S DEATH AND BURIAL 229
of November 10, 1513 (Doc. 76), which would also seem to point to his being
still alive at that date, since the reference is to himself and not to his heirs.
The last payment from Master Vincenzo recorded in the Archives of S. Alessandro
is of May 31, 1515 (Item 15, f. 166), and on October 16, 1516, it is
noted that the payment was made by his heirs (Item 16) ; this is repeated on
December 16, f. 166, and on July 17, 1517, f. 166 v., after which in both rent
and account book the reference is invariably to M'° Paulo. Had Foppa
died in 15 13 we assume that this plan would have been adopted then, since
the entries throughout are made with the utmost regularity and precision, and
until further evidence comes to light we may take it as practically certain that
Vincenzo Foppa died between May, 1515, and October, 1516.'
He was buried in the cloisters of the great Augustinian Monastery of S.
Barnaba, which though situated in the second ward of the quarter of
S. Alessandro, was frequently the burial place of persons who lived in the first
ward.^ Burial in the parish church was not obligatory ; each individual was
free to choose his place of interment according to his religious leanings, the
only obligation being that his parish priest should follow him to the grave.
Had we been fortunate enough to discover the will of Foppa,' we should in all
probability have found that it contained in the first place, and before any
mention was made of the disposition of his worldly goods, minute instructions
as to his funeral and place of burial, and possibly he would also have stated
his reason for choosing the cloisters of the Augustinian Church of S. Barnaba
as his last resting-place, for as a rule in wills of this date, the testator provides
1
On the whole we think it probable that Foppa's death occurred in 1516, as from
Doc. No. 78 we gather that legacies and certain debts left by Vincenzo still remained
to be paid by his executor Paolo Caylina in 1517.
^ Gelmini gives the names of a number of those who were buried at S. Barnaba, and
among them we recognize many whose names are familiar to us as inhabitants of the
first ward ; for instance, members of the Cazzago family, the heirs of de Salis, Aquagno
the notary, and many more.
^
That Vincenzo Foppa left a will we know from document No. 82, which states
that Paolo Caylina and his sons (at the time of Foppa's death Paolo had two sons,
Bartolomeo and Vincenzo, Doc. 78), nephew and great-nephews of the master,
were his sole heirs "as provided by his will," but we have failed to find any trace of it
at Brescia. We know of at least two Brescian notaries who transacted business for
Foppa (Doc. 75 and App. B, No. 11), and we are also acquainted with the names
of many more who were living in the quarter of S. Alessandro at Brescia contemporaneously
with the master ; it seems not unreasonable to suppose that one or other of
them would have been summoned to draw up his will, but unfortunately these notaries,
Archivio Notarile at
if we except the Aquagno family, are wholly unrepresented in the
Brescia, and it
is greatly to be feared that the will of Foppa has shared the fate of countless
other legal documents which have been dispersed or destroyed.