A Jacobite Gazetteer - Bologna

Casa Belloni

Facade

This house, sometimes known as Palazzo Belloni or Casa Cantelli, is located at Via de' Gombruti 13, at the corner of Via Barberia. From the outside the building is very simple in appearance, but inside it is much more lavish with a particularly magnificent staircase.

In the early eighteenth century the house belonged to a Bolognese nobleman, Giovanni Angelo Belloni. ¹ The Belloni acted as bankers for the Royal Family throughout the eighteenth century. ² King James III and VIII and his family used the house as their Bolognese residence on numerous occasions.

James first stayed here for two nights from March 13 to March 15, 1717. His apartment consisted of a reception room and four bedrooms, decorated with red velvet, paintings, and rich damasks all trimmed with gold. Here he received the Papal Legate and Vice-Legate, the Archbishop of Bologna, and Don Carlo Albani (nephew of Pope Clement XI). ³

A marble tablet on the staircase wall commemorates the visit of King James in 1717 with the following Latin inscription: ⁸

Staircase with inscription

JACOBO. III.
MAGNAE BRITANNIAE REGI
FIDEI VERE DEFENSORI
QVOD
RELIGIONIS
ET JUSTITIAE CAUSA PROFUGUS
A CLEMENTE. XI. P. M.
ECCLESIASTICAE DITIONIS TERRIS
MUNIFICENTISSIME EXCEPTUS
ANN. AE. CHR. MDCCXVII.
AB EIUS ADVENTU
PRID. ID. AD IDUS MART.
PRAESENTIA ET MAJESTATE SUA
HAS AEDES MAGNUS HOSPES
IMPLEVERIT
JOANNES ANGELUS BELLONUS
D. D. D.
FACILEMQUE AC FAUSTUM
AD AVITA REGNA REDITUM
PRECATUR

James returned to Bologna for a three-week stay from October 15 to November 9, 1718. He remained such a long time since he was at first expecting the arrival of his future wife Princess Clementina Sobieska. However, it was soon revealed that she had been arrested at the orders of the Holy Roman Emperor and so James left the city. While he was in Bologna, however, he took the opportunity to visit many of the most important sites including the Accademia Clementina (a painting school). ⁴

It was not until May 1719 that Clementina arrived in the city. It is possible that Casa Belloni was the site of Clementina's marriage by proxy to James on May 9 (O.S.), May 19 (N.S.), 1719. ⁵

In October 1722 James and Clementina visited Bologna together to celebrate the feast of Saint Petronius; on this occasion they stayed at Casa Belloni. ⁶

James returned to Bologna alone in October 1726 staying again in Casa Belloni. ⁷ Soon, however, he was joined by his two sons, and found more appropriate lodging in Palazzo Fantuzzi.

Today the palace is privately owned. At the entrance is a sign recording King James' visit in 1717 and noting that on that occasion the palace was decorated with statues and frescoes. While it is not possible to visit the palace, it is sometimes possible to look into the courtyard.

Sign outside Casa Belloni

Courtyard

Notes

¹ Maurizio Ascari, James III in Bologna: An Illustrated Story. Royal Stuart Papers. (London: Royal Stuart Society, 2001), 7.

² A large number of letters to and from members of the Belloni family are in the Stuart Papers at Windsor Castle. As late as 1794 Angelo Belloni sent Christmas greetings to King Henry in Rome (cf. Suart Papers, 530/20). Other records of the service of the Belloni to the Royal Family are in the Archivio di Stato in Rome and the Archivio Cavaletti in Rome. Cf. Alberto Caracciolo, L'Albero dei Belloni: Una Dinastia di Mercanti del Settecento (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1982), 125-126.

³ Lodovico Frati. Il Settecento a Bologna. (Bologna: Remo Sandron, 1923), 170-172. Cf. Caracciolo, 49.

⁴ Frati, 174-175.

⁵ Ascari, 38. Clementina seems not, however, to have stayed in Casa Belloni on this occasion. Instead she was lodged at the Hotel Pellegrino in Via Ugo Bassi and later at a house in Via Larga; cf. Peggy Miller, A Wife for the Pretender (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1965), 128-132.

⁶ Miller, James, 268.

⁷ Ascari, 16. This was at the time that Queen Clementina had retired to the Convento di Santa Cecilia in Trastevere.

⁸ Ascari, 36. Cf. Fedora Servetti Donati, "Sua Maestà britannica a Bologna e il Palazzo del Re, anno 1728", Strenna storica bolognese 30 (1980): 336.

Image 4 (Staircase with inscription): Bologna: Its History, Antiquities and Art, edited by E. Coulson James (London: Henry Frowde, 1909), plate facing page 88.