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

APPENDIX I 283
was born at Brescia itself. In the Libro d' Estimo of 1430' we find a certain Giovanni
di Sandrina da Bagnolo registered as living in the quarter of the Cittadella and paying
his annual "livello" of one "denaro di terzuoli.'"- In the Estimo of 1434 he is
registered as Giovanni da Bagnolo,^ and in that of 1442 as Giovannino da Sandrina da
Bagnolo, Tailor.*
Now as all persons registered in the Libro d' Estimo were citizens of Brescia, and as
citizenship as a rule presupposed a residence of some years in the city, it is clear that
Giovanni di Sandrina da Bagnolo,'^ who is first registered in 1430, must have been
domiciled at Brescia for some time before that date. Hence it follows that his son
Vincenzo, whose birth we have placed, for reasons stated in Note 2, in the year
1427, was most probably born at Brescia in the quarter of Cittadella Vecchia.
From the Estimo of 1442, we learn that the father of Vincenzo Foppa,
like his father-in-law Pietro Caylina, followed the profession of a tailor. The
fact that he is not spoken of as Giovanni Foppa da Bagnolo need not surprise
us, for it was very usual at this date to omit the surname, especially when the place of
origin is mentioned ; nor is there anything peculiar in the addition of Sandrina, a place
where Giovanni da Bagnolo may have owned some small property. We meet with
similar forms in the case of other families of Bagnolo," and it is not without significance
to remember that in document No. 78, among the creditors of Poppa's executor, Paolo
Caylina, we find the Commune of Bagnolo.
After 1442 we have no Estimo again until 1459, and in this no Giovanni da
Bagnolo is entered, which, assuming him to have been the father of Vincenzo, is quite
correct, for we know (see Appendix II, A, Doc. No. 2, and chap, i, p. 26), that Poppa's
father was already dead in
1458.'^
1 Arch. Mun. Brescia.
^ Ibid., f. 22 V. : Johannes Sandrina de Bagnolo, den. unus.
5 Johannes de Bagnolo, Est. 1434, f. 150 v.
^ Johanninus de Sedrina de Bagnolo, Sartor, Est. 1442, f. 245.
^ Sandrina is a hamlet still existing in the territory of Bagnolo in the direction of Caprlano.
Kindly communicated by Don Paolo Guerrini of Bagnolo, Director of the Episcopal Archives at
Brescia, who confirms our opinion that these three entries refer to the same person.
* For instance, the Gori family, who owned property at Canello and are styled "del Canello
da Bagnolo," or the Pizzamelii, who rented lands in the hamlet of Godi and are called " de
Guto "or " de Godis da Bagnolo."
^
It may be noted here that in the first half of the sixteenth century a painter of the name of
Vincenzo was living at Bagnolo, of which place he appears to have been a native, but we cannot
tell if he was related to Vincenzo Foppa. He was the son of a certain Simone, whose surname
is not known, and he is first mentioned in 1534 in the Polizza d' Estimo (Queriniana Library) of a
Paolo Roda, who states that he owed money to "Vincenzo son of Simone, painter in Bagnolo "
(kindly communicated by Don Paolo Guerrini). We might have been tempted to assume that
in the person of " Vincenzo son of Simone" we had the solution to the problem of " Vincenzo
Foppa the younger," for it would not be unreasonable to suppose that he may have been a near
relation of Vincenzo the son of Giovanni of Bagnolo ;
but Vincenzo, son of Simone, was
absolutely unknown until recently, when he was rescued from oblivion by Don Paolo Guerrini ;
whereas "Vincenzo Foppa the younger" was an invention of the early nineteenth century, as
has been shown in chap, x, p. 261, note 2.