The Cardinal's Hat: Money, Ambition, and Housekeeping in a Renaissance Court

By Mary Hollingsworth

The Cardinal's Hat is the fascinating story of how Ippolito d'Este, the second son of Lucretia Borgia, acquired the coveted cardinal's hat and became the Archbishop of Milan.  Working with Ippolito's letters and ledgers, recently uncovered in an archive in Modena, Italy, Mary Hollingsworth has pieced together a fascinating and undeniably titillating tale of this Renaissance cardinal and his road to power and wealth in sixteenth century Europe.

The ledgers document every aspect of Ippolito's comings and goings, and he comes to life out of the minutiae, as do the lives of his staff.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: May 2, 2006
• ISBN: 9781468303858

Mary Hollingsworth

Mary Hollingsworth is a scholar of the Italian Renaissance and the author of The Medici, which was widely praised on its publication by Head of Zeus in 2017, Princes of the Renaissance, published in 2021 and Conclave 1559: The Story of a Papal Election (2021). Her other books include The Cardinal's Hat, The Borgias: History's Most Notorious Dynasty and Patronage in Renaissance Italy: From 1400 to the Early Sixteenth Century.

Reviews for The Cardinal's Hat

[ngelina_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

fascinating.