Eliano Spinola of Luccoli

Eliano Spinola of Luccoli

Year of death: 1474

Eliano Spinola, son of Carroccio of the Spinola of Luccoli, was Lord of Borgo Fornari, he was one of the most significant Genoese characters of the ‘400’s.

The board

Eliano Spinola, son of Carroccio of the Spinola of Luccoli, was Lord of Borgo Fornari, Elder of the Commune in 1438, Ambassador to Alfonso V D’Aragona in 1451, Officer of  the Coin in 1460, Delegated to deal with the Florentine Ambassador in 1461, in close relations with Jacopo Bracelli*, who was the author of many of his Latin letters to famous people such as Alfonso of Naples, the Bishop of Lucca, Pope Pius II and Cardinal Jacopo Ammanati, Bishop of Pavia.
He was one of the most significant Genoese characters of the ‘400’s in terms of culture, and besides being a great financier, a rarity merchant, a collector of precious objects, he owned an enviable library of classical texts like Quintilian, Cesare, Sallustio, Valerio Massimo, Plato and Aristotle among others. Together with his brother Jacopo, he was the builder of the Spinola palazzo of Luccoli, called “dei Marmi”, in piazza Fontane Marose, completed by the son of Jacopo or Giacomo, named Francesco and registered in 1459 as domus de novo built.
Eliano Spinola who died between 1470 and 1474, had bestowed while still alive, 126 places to be used for vectigalia, as the epigraph that accompanies his effigy in San Giorgio states. Of his  liberality toward the poor, a trace remains  in his testament that establishes a bequest of five  places in  S. George for the pauperes and four other places (corresponding to Genoese 400 lire), recorded in the Cartulary M of  the acquisitions of the year 1514, to be allocated in favour of the Hospital of Pammatone.
Among the provisions contained in his testament there are legacies left to some Genoese monasteries (San Bartolomeo della Certosa di Rivarolo, Santa Maria di Castello, Santa Maria del Monte Minorum, San Gerolamo di Quarto, San Benigno di Promontory, San Nicolo del Boschetto), and to the Santa Maria Annunziata Hospital in Naples.
In the last few lines of the document, Eliano expressed the desire to be buried in the Church of the Certosa di Rivarolo, which could clarify the origin of the funerary chapel that the son Giorgio would erect a few years after the death of his Father (1480). Today the Chapel portal is located at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

* The famous humanist and chancellor of the Republic.

Statue of Eliano Spinola, photo Fondazione Spinola Archive (by Silvia Melogno).

For further information:

  • Alberta Bedocchi, Eliano Spinola by Luccoli mercator and antiquarius Januensis (15th century). Biographical notes and epistular documents, “rend. Accad. Naz. Lincei », 9, XXIV (2014), 117-180
  • About Eliano Spinola’s correspondence with the famous of the time, see the contribution of Alessandra Gagliano Candela, a 15th-century Genoese antiquarian: Eliano Spinola, in the history of Genoese, vol. VI, Genoa, 1985, pp. 423-439
  • About further information on the testament see the article of Alberta Bedocchi “Elijan Spinola of Luccoli and relations with the Aragonese court” in images of the Middle Ages, studies of medieval art for Colette Dufour Bozzo, Università degli Studi di Genova, 2013, pp 257-265
  • Testament published by his son Giorgio, after the death of his brother Domenico, in 1477 – State Archives Genoa, filze Notaio Oberto Foglietta

Genealogy

Of the  Spinola branch of Luccoli, Lords of Arquata and Lords of Borgo Fornari (1447)

Eliano Spinola of Luccoli ( ?-1474), who was son of Carroccio, grandson of Lucchesio, great-grandson of  Gerardo (Gerardo Spinola, Lord of Lucca and of Tortona).
Brothers/Sisters
Carroccio Spinola (?) Lord of Borgo Fornari; Giacomo or Jacopo Spinola (?), Lord of Borgo Fornari, father of Francesco Spinola. Together with his brother Eliano, he was the builder of the Spinola palazzo of Luccoli, called “dei Marmi”, completed by his son Francesco.
Weddings
His first wife was Argenta Lomellini and his second wife was Battina Spinola daughter of Simone.
Sons/daughters
Domenico Spinola of Luccoli (1439-1477), son of Argenta Lomellini, who married Teodora Lomellini in 1464; Giorgio Spinola (?-1484), son of Argenta Lomellini, who married  twice, his second wife was Mariola Spinola daughter of Gio Francesco Spinola; Ginevra Spinola di Luccoli (?) who married Baldassarre Giustiniani; Teodora Spinola di Luccoli who married Salvago Vivaldi; Peretta Spinola di Luccoli, who married Giovanni Battista Spinola di Giovanni.

for the genealogy https://www.academia.edu/4544181/Eliano_Spinola_di_Luccoli_e_i_rapporti_con_la_corte_aragonese di Alberta Bedocchi

 

Archives

Eliano

Statue of Eliano Spinola

1514
00217

The Church and Monastery of Santa Maria di Castello

spinola-dei-marmi

Palazzo Jacopo Spinola di Luccoli

1459