History

Born into an already noble family, the author of his funeral oration remembered him as “natus … ex nobili Erulorum familia.” A doctor of both civil and canon law, he taught law at several Italian universities and became a renowned advocate.

Summoned to Rome by Pope Nicholas V, he began his career at the papal court, where he served under five pontiffs. First appointed auditor and referendary of the Sacred Rota, he was later named papal chaplain and held the office of auditor causarum palatii apostolici.

On November 13, 1448, he was elected to the episcopal see of Spoleto, where he remained for less than a year. In 1449 Nicholas V, praising his “laudable life, moral integrity, proven faith and prudence,” appointed him papal vicar for the city of Rome, a position he held for several years. The pope also granted him several benefices: in 1451 the commendatory abbacy of the Benedictine monastery of Colleantico in the diocese of Spoleto, and in 1453 that of San Cassiano near Narni.

He was also highly esteemed by Pope Callixtus III, who, only a few months after his election, reconfirmed him as vicar in spiritual matters in Rome and entrusted him, together with William of Fondera, Bishop of Oloron, and Cosimo of Monserrato, the pope’s confessor, with the delicate task of visitor and reformer of Roman churches and monasteries, both male and female, of every order, as well as all other pious institutions, both within and outside the city.

It was, however, under Pope Pius II that he received the cardinalate on March 5, 1460, with the title of Santa Sabina. Pius II immediately granted him a substantial benefice, appointing him commendatory abbot of the Abbey of the Tre Fontane in Rome. His relationship with Pius II was always close and cordial, as emphasized by the pope himself in his praise during the consistory. Pius II consulted him “both in matters of state and of court,” as Ottone Del Carretto reported to Francesco Sforza in a letter dated November 11, 1458, “and almost nothing is done without him.”

Appointed on August 20, 1458 lieutenant of the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, he was also placed in charge of the Office of Supplications, coordinating the work of the referendaries, whose number had greatly increased during the pontificate of Pius II. This pope also entrusted him with other important assignments, especially of a legal nature: the settlement of the dispute between the Holy See and Ferdinand I, King of Naples, regarding the restitution of Benevento and Terracina, the investiture of the kingdom, and the tribute owed annually by the Neapolitan sovereign to the pope (November 1, 1458); the controversy over possession of the castle of Acquafranca between Foligno and Spoleto, resolved in 1461; and the border dispute between Spoleto and Todi, for which his ruling of October 17, 1470 still survives (Vatican Apostolic Library, Borg. lat. 809, ff. 112–121).

Sent to Umbria as papal legate for the territories of Perugia, Todi, and Civitacastellana, he arrived in Perugia on July 29, 1462, and remained there continuously until June 17, 1463. During this legation he distinguished himself for his impartiality and strong sense of justice, so much so that the municipal authorities of Perugia presented him with a silver sword bearing the city’s coat of arms.

He is also remembered, in connection with the foundation of the Monte di Pietà of Perugia, for opposing the demand that the Perugian Jews provide a loan of 2,000 florins to establish a financial base for the new institution. Bypassed by the civic authorities, who appealed directly to Pope Pius II, on March 30, 1463 he issued a decree whereby, in exchange for the 1,200 florins paid by the Jews for the Monte, their former privileges were confirmed, while the prohibition on moneylending was reaffirmed.

He also enjoyed the favor of subsequent pontiffs. In 1466 he was appointed chamberlain of the Sacred College for the first time, a position he would hold again in 1474. Pope Paul II, considering his revenues insufficient, granted him a monthly pension of 100 ducats.

Appointed by Pope Sixtus IV as Bishop of Sabina on May 23, 1474, after resigning the bishopric of Spoleto in favor of his nephew Costantino Eroli, he served repeatedly as legate in Umbria: between 1471, when he received Duke Borso d’Este in Perugia on his journey to Rome, and 1474, and again in 1477. In these legations as well, his work was highly appreciated by the Perugian authorities.

He is also remembered as a protector of the Cistercian Order. In this capacity, during the pontificate of Sixtus IV, he opposed the project to reform the Abbey of Chiaravalle and, at the instigation of those monks, stirred a particularly sharp controversy in the Curia against the Duke of Milan, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, who was accused of having personal interests in the matter. Despite his efforts, the long-standing dispute was resolved in favor of the reform on August 15, 1475.

As early as 1455 he had obtained from Pope Callixtus III the indultum testandi, which allowed him to dispose, in favor of his “agnate and cognate” relatives, of his houses in Rome, his books of canon and civil law and other subjects, and all other movable property personally owned by him. He made use of this concession, confirmed by Sixtus IV in 1472, shortly before his death: his will, drawn up in Rome on March 17, 1479 by the cleric Benincasa de Benincasis of Ancona, preceded by only a few days his death there on April 2, 1479.

This document has not yet been found. However, a surviving excerpt of the will remains in the archives of the Confraternity of the Holy Savior, which still provides valuable information. First of all regarding his property, which he distinguished between inherited assets and those acquired ex laboribus meis. As heirs to the houses in Narni, described as patrimonial and ancestral, he named in equal shares the chapel of San Leonardo in the cathedral of the city, “where the bones of my parents rest,” and the hospital of San Girolamo outside the walls of Narni. 

The Roman houses as well, the residence of the cardinal and his nephew Costantino, located in the parish of Santa Maria in Monterone near those of the Della Valle family, were to be divided into two parts: one assigned to St. Peter’s Basilica and the other to the Hospital of the Holy Savior, whose confraternity E. had joined after 1476. To his nephew Costantino, Bishop of Spoleto, he reserved the use and usufruct of the Roman residence for the duration of his natural life.

St. Peter’s Basilica was also designated as his burial place. In his memory, his nephew Costantino erected there a magnificent funerary monument, the work of Giovanni Dalmata, later removed during the construction of the new basilica, though fragments of it can still be admired in the Vatican Grottoes.

On the occasion of his funeral, which E. had wished to be conducted “sine aliqua pompa fieri solita cardinalibus aut prelatis” (without any of the pomp customary for cardinals or prelates), an anonymous author composed a funeral oration, printed several times in Rome between 1480 and 1490.

The will also contained provisions concerning his books, although in the surviving excerpt the two items relating to them are only briefly mentioned; it is nonetheless known that part of them was intended for his nephew Costantino. Certainly belonging to E. are the Breviarium Romanum, preserved in the Vatican Apostolic Library (Archive of St. Peter, F. 29), bearing his coat of arms with episcopal insignia, and the Lectura super III partem decreti, qua de consecratione intitulatur by Torquemada, now Vatican Latin manuscript 9429.

His love for his native city, attested by his testamentary bequests, had already been demonstrated during his lifetime through works of public utility, such as the restoration of the bridge over the Nera River (1473), and above all through the restoration and decoration of churches and convents.

In the cathedral of Narni he commissioned finely carved and inlaid choir stalls, but his most significant undertaking was the complete restoration of the convent of San Girolamo and its adjoining church, praised by Cardinal Ammannati in a letter of August 7, 1472 for the magnificence and elegance of the construction.

In 1471, once the works were completed, he invited the Observant Franciscans to settle there, replacing the Dominicans (for the convent had formerly housed nuns of that order). Their installation was not without difficulty: the Observants initially refused to accept the residence, as the grandeur of the convent was contrary to their ideal of poverty and the spirit of the Franciscan rule. Threatened by E. with expulsion even from the convent of San Paolo in Spoleto, which he had built for them in 1460, and with appealing to the pope, the friars eventually took up residence. The convent, again through the cardinal’s efforts, was adorned with valuable works of art and became home to a rich library as well as a pharmacy.

He also left evidence of his generosity in Monterosi, in the diocese of Nepi, where he founded a hospital for the poor with an attached church, described by Ammannati in the same 1472 letter as “opus opportunum et pium” (a useful and pious work).

In addition to maintaining friendly relations with Cardinal Ammannati, of whom three letters addressed to E. survive, and with the Archbishop of Florence and future saint Antonino Pierozzi, E. was also connected with the Medici family, and especially with Lorenzo di Piero, to whom he wrote numerous letters between 1473 and 1477.

Evidence of his care for pastoral and devotional matters remains in several records: an apostolic visitation of the diocese of Spoleto ordered by him in 1465; a decree dated June 3, 1463 confirming the provisions concerning the feast in honor of Saint Bernardino of Siena to be celebrated in Perugia; and his support for new expressions of holiness, represented by the Blessed Francesco Beccaria of Pavia of the Observant Friars Minor and by the hermit of Monteluco, Blessed Gregory of Spoleto.

Like his uncle Berardo, he was a jurist and authored several legal treatises. An apostolic protonotary, his career in the Curia took off following his uncle’s elevation to the cardinalate in March 1460.

According to Cottier, as early as May of that same year he had been appointed rector of the Comtat Venaissin. On September 24, 1462, he was promoted by Pope Pius II to the bishopric of Narni, a position that did not prevent him from residing in the Comtat until 1471 (especially in Carpentras) and also serving as governor of Avignon. His appointment as rector of the Comtat, to administer the French Papal States as lieutenant and governor general, had occurred shortly before the worsening illness of the papal legate in Avignon, Cardinal Pierre de Foix. On May 12, 1461, anticipating the cardinal’s imminent death, Pius II ordered him to take possession, immediately after the cardinal’s death, of the castles of Sorgues and Entraigues, which had been granted to Foix for life.

During the exercise of his office, he earned esteem for his wisdom and prudence, gaining the trust of the popes and the affection of his subordinates. Pope Sixtus IV had already considered sending him back to Avignon in 1475, shortly after appointing him Bishop of Spoleto, once again granting him the rectorship of the Comtat during the crisis caused by the absence of the lieutenant of the legate Charles de Bourbon. He managed to avoid involvement on that occasion, but ten years later Pope Innocent VIII, in agreement with Cardinal Giuliano Della Rovere, Bishop of Avignon and papal legate, sent him to serve again as rector of the Comtat and lieutenant of the legate-governor of Avignon. In the brief of appointment, dated July 14, 1485, the pope explicitly referred to the experience he had already acquired in local affairs. His return was welcomed and helped ease the rivalry between the Comtat and Avignon.

During this second stay in Avignon, his governance and prudent administration were once again highly appreciated. In the spring of 1489, after requesting permission to return to Spoleto, he was persuaded by local consuls and councillors to remain for at least another year. Finally, by papal brief of March 6, 1490, he was allowed to return to Italy. Upon his departure on April 14, he was honored with every distinction and presented with two silver vases worth 400 florins.

In 1472 he had been transferred from Narni to the bishopric of Todi, which he held until 1474. He was also appointed bishop of Tivoli, though he never effectively took possession of that see. Finally, on December 8, 1474, following the resignation of his uncle Berardo, he became Bishop of Spoleto, making his solemn entry the following year. He governed the diocese of Spoleto for about twenty-four years, also exercising temporal authority, and was entrusted with the civil administration of Foligno. In 1496 he was promoted to the archbishopric of Athens, with dispensation from residence, which allowed him to remain in Spoleto. There he was assisted by his nephew Francesco, appointed coadjutor on June 4, 1497 and later his successor.

Favored by Sixtus IV, he received in 1474 the collegiate church of San Vittore of Otricoli and in 1479 that of Sant’Angelo di Menaria in the diocese of Spoleto, formerly held by his uncle. In 1483 he served as vicar in spiritual matters in Rome and oversaw the transfer of the Benedictine nuns of Sant’Ambrogio della Massima to another location. In 1490 he was appointed governor of Perugia and its district and participated in the establishment of the Monte di Pietà of Spoleto. Enrolled among the prelates of the Roman Confraternity of the Holy Savior in 1484, he followed his uncle Berardo’s pastoral example, reconfirming in 1480 the Augustinian rule for the nuns of Santa Croce of Montefalco.

As a patron of the arts, he is remembered for commissioning the splendid funerary monument to his uncle Berardo in St. Peter’s Basilica, created by Giovanni Dalmata (now surviving only in fragments in the Vatican Grottoes), and for the construction and decoration of the Chapel of the Sacred Heart in the cathedral of Spoleto, completed in 1497 and decorated by Pinturicchio. He also began work on a second chapel, known as the Chapel of the Assumption, later completed by his nephew Francesco and adorned with rich frescoes and elegant decorations by Iacopo Siciliano.

Beneficiary of his uncle’s Roman properties and heir to part of his library, he left few records of the final years of his life, which, according to available sources, ended in 1500.

Nephew of Costantino Eroli, he first served as his coadjutor and later succeeded him as Bishop of Spoleto from 1500.

On October 1, 1503, he was among the principal co-consecrators of Pope Pius III following his election to the papacy. He took part in the Fifth Lateran Council, residing in Rome, though not continuously, between 1512 and 1516.

He was described as deeply observant of religion and ecclesiastical rules and charitable toward the poor.

He rediscovered the relics of Saint John, Bishop of Spoleto, and of Saint Peter, another Bishop of Spoleto.

He completed the Chapel of the Assumption in the Spoleto Cathedral, begun by his predecessor Costantino Eroli, decorating it with frescoes by Iacopo Siciliano and Giovanni da Spoleto.

He was granted permission to make a will and left numerous charitable bequests. He died in 1540 at the age of seventy.

After studying law in Bologna, where he earned his degree, he began a curial career in the Papal States and served as auditor of the two Signatures and referendary of the Sacred Rota.

He was appointed governor of several cities within the Papal States, including Camerino.

In 1578 he was appointed Bishop of Narni, a position he held until his death.

In practice, however, he was absent from the diocese for long periods, as he was appointed vice-legate with the rank of archbishop: first in Bologna for his uncle, Cardinal Pier Donato Cesi, the papal legate, and later in Emilia for Cardinal Antonio Maria Gallo, also legate.

He attended several sessions of the Council of Trent, whose decrees he firmly implemented within his diocese.

He was an Italian writer, historian, and art historian.

He was born in Narni on November 17, 1813, into the noble family of the Marquesses Eroli, the son of Francesco and Luisa Tani of Cannara. He studied at the diocesan boarding seminary of Senigallia under the protection of Bishop and Cardinal Fabrizio Sceberras Testaferrata, where he was a classmate of Gioacchino Pecci (the future Pope Leo XIII), with whom he often competed in school exercises in prosody and Latin. Even during his studies, he showed a strong interest in history, paleography, archaeology, and scholarship in general.

After completing his initial studies, he enrolled at the University of Rome, where he graduated. From 1831 and for the following three years, he attended the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, following his father’s wish that he pursue a promising ecclesiastical career. Having obtained a study pension from Camerlengo Bartolomeo Pacca, he earned his academic degrees and began training at the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, entering papal circles. There, quickly becoming well regarded and known, he was soon granted the dignity of canon of the church of Santa Maria ad Martyres near the Pantheon.

However, determined “neither to become a priest nor to marry, being fond of his freedom,” he reluctantly abandoned his prelatic career in 1840 and returned to Narni to continue his personal studies, living on a modest income supplemented by the prebend of the Abbey of San Pellegrino, a family patronage. Especially after his father’s death in 1849, he began a long career as a writer, Latinist, historian, and local scholar. He wrote mainly in his dialect but also devoted himself to journalism and poetry, becoming a much-sought-after versifier for aristocratic weddings. He also experimented with technological innovations such as photography.

His varied interests—particularly photography—were noted by the historian Ferdinand Gregorovius, who met him during a visit to Narni in 1861 and described him in his travel writings. He was also passionate about cooking, pastry-making, physics, dynamics, aerodynamics, magnetism, astronomy, and geography, and he was a member of the Società Dantesca Italiana (of which he was a founding member), the Society of National History, and the Società Geografica Italiana.

He died in Narni on January 9, 1904. The municipal library of Narni, located in Palazzo Eroli, is dedicated to his memory, and his personal archive is preserved by the municipality of Narni.

He was an Italian painter and tapestry maker.

He was the son of Marquis Pio, a noble guard and sculptor specializing in ivory carving, belonging to the Roman branch of a family documented in the city of Narni since the 15th century, and of Marchioness Beatrice Orlandi.

Eroli firmly chose the path of art, becoming the founder of a family of painters and tapestry makers.

After completing his secondary studies at Sant’Apollinare, he followed his father to San Michele, where, in addition to painting, he learned the techniques of ceramics, high-temperature polychrome stained glass, and tapestry weaving. In 1875, given the irreversible decline of San Michele—by then incorporated into the property of the unified Italian State and no longer supported by papal funding—Erulo opened a painting studio on the Passeggiata di Ripetta.

In 1880 he moved the studio to Via del Babuino, where it can still be seen today, incorporated into an art gallery. Above the doorway, his name is engraved in marble and the family coat of arms is carved (curiously upside down). There he established a tapestry workshop and employed skilled weavers trained in the prestigious papal manufactory, helping—undoubtedly—to preserve a centuries-old technical tradition that might otherwise have disappeared, while also forming a workforce made up largely of women.

The studio soon gained international fame and, frequented by prominent members of the aristocracy, high clergy, and the political and cultural worlds, enjoyed the patronage of the House of Savoy, particularly Queen Margherita, who secured important commissions for him.

In 1883, introduced by Ettore Roesler Franz and Onorato Carlandi, he joined the Roman Watercolourists’ Association, serving as its president from 1909 to 1911 and strengthening it through reforms to its statutes.

In 1892 he was admitted to the International Artistic Association, and in 1903 he co-founded the Union of Artists to protect the profession in dealings with public commissions.

From 1904 onward he maintained close relations with the group known as the “XXV of the Roman countryside” and exhibited regularly with the Society of Amateurs and Fine Arts Enthusiasts.

Despite his success—so much so that the city of Rome dedicated a street to him—his intense activity, marked by numerous official honors, has received limited critical attention, and many of his works remain scattered, making a full evaluation difficult.

He tackled a wide variety of themes and subjects with academic skill and eclectic taste. Alongside his preferred historical-military subjects, especially those related to the Risorgimento, he devoted equal commitment to religious and historical-religious themes. He was an official portraitist, a skilled watercolor landscape painter, and the author of numerous genre scenes depicting popular and characteristic figures.

In 1880 he painted Wounded at Mentana (now in the Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano). In 1883, at the Rome Fine Arts Exhibition, he made his first major public appearance with the large oil painting The “Palestro” at Lissa, which was purchased by the Naval Academy of Livorno.

In 1885 and 1886 he exhibited works with the Society of Amateurs and Fine Arts Enthusiasts. In 1887 he received his first recognition for textile work: a silver medal at the Museum of Industrial Art in Rome for imitation tapestries dyed with vegetable pigments.

In 1891 he successfully took part in the National Exhibition of Palermo with The Sicilian Vespers, a large canvas that entered the collections of the local civic gallery of modern art.

The following decade proved intense in both activity and recognition: in 1894 he received a gold medal for textiles at the Antwerp World’s Fair, and King Fuad purchased his oil painting Nude Youth at the Mirror for the Royal Palace in Cairo.

To compete for a prize established by Pope Leo XIII for the best painting of the Holy Family, he painted in 1897 the large altarpiece Holy Family (Ecce Agnus Dei) in a Pre-Raphaelite style, which won a gold medal in Turin in 1898. In 1899 his socially themed watercolor Malaria, exhibited in Dresden, was acquired by that city’s National Gallery.

At the same time, he intensified his tapestry work, reviving traditional techniques and creating specialized cartoons designed specifically for weaving, requiring a different approach to color harmony than painting.

His most prestigious commission—preceded by six panels, now lost, for the foyer of the Buenos Aires theatre—came in 1902, when the municipality of Rome commissioned him to create 25 tapestries to decorate the exterior of the Capitoline palaces, now preserved at the Museo di Roma Palazzo Braschi.

The entrance to Erulo’s former studio in Via del Babuino, Rome.

The largest panels, designed for the central balconies—Stet Capitolium fulgens (about 40 m²), Roma communis patria, and Ars omnium nationum—had a decorative character and celebrated the triumphs of classical, Renaissance, and Baroque Rome. Smaller panels featured the coats of arms of the city districts, Roman eagles, and plaques bearing the inscription SPQR. This demanding project, begun in 1902, was interrupted by the war between 1916 and 1919 and completed in 1926, ten years after Erulo’s death, by his sons Pio and Silvio.

At the Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna di Roma, the watercolors Landscape with Oxen, exhibited at the Society of Watercolourists’ exhibition in 1905, and a Saint Cecilia are preserved.

In 1902 he married his brother Alberto’s widow, Virginia Bartolini, and adopted his nieces Ada and Emma, who later collaborated in the tapestry workshop.

Between 1904 and 1905 the painter produced two further historical-religious works, The Dream of Pontius Pilate’s Wife and Translatio Sebastiani post martyrium, purchased by Monsignor De Oca.

In 1905 he took part in the Lateran Marian Exhibition in Rome with the watercolors Sanctus Sanctus and Ecce Agnus Dei, which won a gold medal.

From 1907 to 1911 he restored ancient tapestries on behalf of the State while continuing his painting activity. Works from this period include To Anita Ten Years Later, exhibited in Santiago de Chile in 1910, and The Dawn of October 23 (also known as The Cairoli Brothers) at Villa Glori.

The painter’s patriotic passion was further expressed in his depiction of the exploit of Millo at the Dardanelles (1912) and in his illustration of a tercet from the Canzone d’oltremare, dedicated by Gabriele D'Annunzio to the sailors of Italy, preserved at the Naval Academy of Livorno.

In 1914 he was commissioned to create five tapestries, now lost, depicting the Stories of Titus and Vespasian for the summer residence of the Romanian royal family in Sinaia, completed after his death.