“Gran cosa è Roma” (What a great thing is Rome!)
The city of Rome is one of the fundamental reference points in Castiglione’s biography. He resided there on different occasions, between 1504 and 1524, as ambassador alternately for Francesco Gonzaga, Guidubaldo di Montefeltro, Francesco Maria Della Rovere, Federico Gonzaga. Here he entered into relationships with various popes (Giulio II, Leone X, Adriano VI, Clemente VII) and the men of the court, as well as the protagonists of artistic and intellectual life; here he had some of his greatest diplomatic successes; here, after the death of his wife Ippolita Torelli, he took holy orders; and here, finally, in the final arc of his life, much of the destiny of his intense life was decided.
His first encounter with the city dates back to March 1503, when he was called to partake in a mission sent to Pope Alexander VI by the Gonzagas, who wanted to maintain good relationships with the Borgia family, and intended to secure the engagement of Federico, the young son of the Marquis Francesco and Isabella d’Este, with the infant daughter of Cesare Borgia, Luisa. The young Baldassarre, at the time twenty five years old, was deeply impressed, because what he saw was not comparable to the reality of his experiences so far, at the courts of Milan and Mantua. Thus, in a letter to his mother he exclaimed: “gran cosa è Roma!” (What a great thing is Rome!) (B. Castiglione, Le lettere, edited by G. La Rocca, I, Milan 1978, 17). The city of Rome appeared to him as the live heart of the classical and humanist tradition he had been educated into, but also as the fulcrum of political and diplomatic relationships that from there radiated out to all the Italian states and great European monarchies.
During this first stay, or in the months immediately following, Castiglione wrote his most famous poetic composition, the sonnet Superbi colli e voi, sacre ruine. Here, once again giving vent to his amazement beholding the spectacle of the city of Rome, he treated a theme that was typical of humanist culture: the observation of the inexorable work of time, that destroys everything, led the author to mourn the loss of the great works of classical antiquity, of which today we can only observe the miserable ruins.
