ABSTRACT
On 9 June 1562 the Modenese patrician Lanfranco Fontana dispatched several couriers with packages intended for members of the Bellencini family in Modena, Reggio, Parma and Florence, timing it so they would arrive at the same hour and on the same day. 1 The cathedral canon Cornelio Bellencini had gone to bed in his chamber in Buomporto castle when a servant brought him one of the packages: a box painted with flowers and tied with a string. When he took up the string to read the letter attached, he triggered an internal mechanism. The box exploded in his face, setting both him and the room ablaze. 2 His servants found him blackened, withered and burned, and carried him the 20 miles south to his palazzo in Modena to receive the last rites. Lingering in excruciating pain for two days, Cornelio died shortly after commending his soul to God.
