DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36838#0037
CASTIGLIONE D' OLONA
8
Legate to this distant land. Here we may recognize
the keen face and white hair of the aged Cardinal,
as Masolino painted him when he was past eighty,
kneeling with the shepherds at the manger of Beth-
lehem, or seated at King Herods banquet in his robes
of purple and ermine. The Castello which he raised
again from the dust is a heap of ruins to-day, but
down in the town, in a street bearing the name of
the Via del Cardinale, we may still see the fair
palace, with Lombard Gothic portals and windows,
which Branda built for himself, and which Masolino
decorated with friezes of portraits and views of the
distant Alps.
Like many other members of his house, Branda
was an able lawyer and statesman as well as a distin-
guished ecclesiastic. During his mission to Hungary
he rendered important services to the Emperor Sigis-
mond, who in return created him and all the members
of his house Counts Palatine, and granted them per-
petual exemption from imperial tolls, tribute, and
customs. By the same deed, drawn up at Buda-
Besth in 1412, the members of this 'ancient, numerous,
privileged, and most illustrious race,' were empowered
yearly to elect one of their house to hold jurisdiction
over their family and dependents in the county of
Castiglioned
On his return to Lombardy the Cardinal was
appointed President of the ducal council by Filippo
Maria Visconti, and founded a college for poor
students at Pavia that was only suppressed in the
last century. But Corio tells us that he incurred the
displeasure of the Milanese by endeavouring to sub-
stitute the Roman liturgy for the Ambrosian rites in
the Duomo on Christmas Day, 1440, a proceeding
i Beila-Negrini, 'Elogi,' 404.
1—2
8
Legate to this distant land. Here we may recognize
the keen face and white hair of the aged Cardinal,
as Masolino painted him when he was past eighty,
kneeling with the shepherds at the manger of Beth-
lehem, or seated at King Herods banquet in his robes
of purple and ermine. The Castello which he raised
again from the dust is a heap of ruins to-day, but
down in the town, in a street bearing the name of
the Via del Cardinale, we may still see the fair
palace, with Lombard Gothic portals and windows,
which Branda built for himself, and which Masolino
decorated with friezes of portraits and views of the
distant Alps.
Like many other members of his house, Branda
was an able lawyer and statesman as well as a distin-
guished ecclesiastic. During his mission to Hungary
he rendered important services to the Emperor Sigis-
mond, who in return created him and all the members
of his house Counts Palatine, and granted them per-
petual exemption from imperial tolls, tribute, and
customs. By the same deed, drawn up at Buda-
Besth in 1412, the members of this 'ancient, numerous,
privileged, and most illustrious race,' were empowered
yearly to elect one of their house to hold jurisdiction
over their family and dependents in the county of
Castiglioned
On his return to Lombardy the Cardinal was
appointed President of the ducal council by Filippo
Maria Visconti, and founded a college for poor
students at Pavia that was only suppressed in the
last century. But Corio tells us that he incurred the
displeasure of the Milanese by endeavouring to sub-
stitute the Roman liturgy for the Ambrosian rites in
the Duomo on Christmas Day, 1440, a proceeding
i Beila-Negrini, 'Elogi,' 404.
1—2