ABSTRACT
Biographical sketches are provided for most of the collectors, agents, and craftsmen named in Cesare Gonzaga’s correspondence. Each entry begins with a listing of the letters in which the name in question appears, thereby providing a convenient table of contents to the catalogue raisonne. The Bellay collection was divided between his house in the Campo Marzo and the “orti Bellaiani” in the ruins of the Thermes of Diocletian. In 1562, shortly after the death of Stefano, Paolo sold a portion of the family collection to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. It was valued at 1,575 scudi by Guglielmo della Porta, Tommaso de Cavalieri, and Gerolamo Garimberto. In July 1564 Cesare Gonzaga learned that the Duke of Savoy was among those requesting a copy of the inventory of the Pio da Carpi collection although in point of fact he did not begin to collect in earnest until the beginning of the 1570s.
