Niccolò Ridolfi (1501–50), was a Florentine cardinal, nephew and cousin to the Medici popes Leo X and Clement VII, and he owed his status and wealth to their patronage. He remained actively engaged in Florentine politics, above all during the years of crisis that saw the Florentine state change from republic to duchy. A widely respected patron and scholar throughout his life, his sudden death during the conclave of 1549–50 led to allegations of poison that an autopsy appears to confirm. This book examines Cardinal Ridolfi and his court in order to understand the extent to which cardinalate courts played a key part in Rome’s resurgence and acted as hubs of knowledge located on the fault lines of politics and reform in church and state, hospitable spaces that can be analysed in the context of entanglements in Florentine and Roman cultural and political patronage, and intersections between the princely court and a more professional and complex knowledge and practice of household management in the consumer and service economy of early modern Rome. Based on an array of archival sources and on three treatises whose authors were closely linked to Ridolfi’s court, this monograph explores these multidisciplinary intersections to allow the more traditional fields of church and political history to be approached from different angles. Niccolò Ridolfi and the Cardinal's Court will appeal to all those interested in the organisation of these elite establishments and their place in sixteenth-century Roman society, the life and patronage of Niccolò Ridolfi in the context of the Florentine exiles who desired a return to republicanism, and the history of the Roman Catholic Church.

Gene Stratton-Porter (1863-1924) was an American author, amateur naturalist, wildlife photographer, and one of the earliest women to form a movie studio and production company. "The Song of the Cardinal" (1903) was her first novel.

Exploring the history of the cardinal virtues from patristic times to the late fourteenth century, this book offers a comprehensive view of the development of moral debate in the Latin Middle Ages.

This 1930 volume maintains that the first two and a half years of the pontificate of Pius IV, during which the continuation of the Council of Trent was secured against strong French and German opposition, constituted the critical period which finally determined the ultimate orientation of the Counter-Reformation.

Enjoy this Small-Town Murder Mystery Featuring A Unique Sleuthing Couple It’s an eventful October for Father Tom and Helen. It begins with the wedding of Father Tom’s mother Nola to her fiance, former strip club owner Stu Landry. The two septuagenarian newlyweds have no sooner embarked on their honeymoon than Saint Clare’s Parish plays host to the Cardinal Archbishop of Baltimore Walter Knowland, making his periodic visit. It should be a welcome homecoming for the Cardinal, who spent his high school years in Myerton. But there’s a cloud hovering over the visit. A special state grand jury issued a report, documenting decades of sexual abuse in the Archdiocese. While the report makes clear that the Archdiocese under Cardinal Knowland has mended its ways, he’s bearing the brunt of the criticism. He’s also received death threats. With this in mind, Helen assigns her newest officer Gwen Tolson–who also happens to be the Cardinal’s granddaughter–to his security detail. During a tour of the Unclaimed Blessings Thrift Store, a large urn falls from a loft, narrowly missing the Cardinal and injuring Gwen. That combined with the firebombing of the Archbishop’s Residence in Baltimore convinces Helen that he’s in danger. She begins to hunt for the person responsible. But then an elderly volunteer at the thrift store, Eliza Ross, is murdered. At first it looks like a robbery gone wrong. But it’s soon clear to Helen that someone staged the scene to make it look like a robbery. This raises two questions: who’d want to kill her, and why? In the midst of all this, Gladys goes into labor early . . . and one of the triplets may not make it . . . The Cardinal’s Clock is the fourteenth novel in the Mercy and Justice Mysteries, a contemporary small town mystery series. The series is a sequel to the Father Tom Mysteries that began with The Penitent Priest and includes the same cast of characters. It features Father Tom Greer, a Catholic Priest who is also an amateur sleuth in the tradition of Father Brown, and his wife Helen Greer, female Chief of Police and detective in the tradition of Kinsey Millhone.