„Cum pace virtus floret ubique.” The Monelli Brothers of Crema in Hungary

Abstract

Bernardo Monelli’s red marble tombstone has long been known to scholars of the Renaissance. The young man from Crema served Queen Beatrice of Aragon and died in Esztergom at the age of only thirty-nine. The motto on his tombstone is identical to the inscription on a gem seal used by Augustinus de Monellis. Their kinship is beyond doubt, and is further illuminated by Pietro Terni’s Historia di Crema, which adds details hitherto unknown to Hungarian research. The history of the town of Crema commemorates four brothers – Giovanni, Agostino, Bernardo and Paolo – two of whom built significant careers in Hungary. The study analyses this urban historiographical work, publishes in an appendix the passages relating to the Monelli brothers together with their Hungarian translation, and compares the information it contains with the knowledge previously gathered about the four brothers and with additional Italian sources.