Becoming an Imperial Count Palatine, A Grand, Golden Document Signed by Prominent Citizens of Padua in 1585

The Renaissance was a period of crucial cultural, artistic, social and financial development in late Medieval and Renaissance Italy, and particularly the affluent cities of Florence, Venice, Genoa, and Padua.

The Holy Roman Empire spanned central Europe, in one form or another, for the span of a millennia. For much of that time, it contained vast swaths of Italy, mainly in the north, and included the Italian city of Padua, which would become a hub in the Renaissance in that country and a major university center. As the Middle Ages bled into the period of the Renaissance, the Empire slowly lost direct control over Italy. It managed to maintain its power into the 16th century in part via old established orders that maintained local control.

Among these Holy Roman imperial titles was the “comes palatinus caesareus” or the imperial count palatine. The office of imperial count palatine was hereditary and the emperors seem to have used it to create an Italian aristocratic class loyal to the empire. In 1357, the Emperor Charles IV added the power of conferring licenses and doctorates of civil law to those of the counts palatine. Later on, they acquired the power to confer doctorates in general. In 1363, Charles himself bestowed this honor to Giacomo Santacroce. His heir to this title and power given by it, which was significant, was Giovanni Santcroce, who, in addition to being the benefactor for religious and cultural efforts in the region, was a businessman.

The Facino (or Facini) family was a prominent one from the town of Feltre. The Ioannes Baptista Facinus, namd in the document, was prominent in the cultural community. There remains today a church bearing the crest of this family, constructed shortly before his birth.

Francisco Fabriano and Andreas Tinto were important functionaries and notaries of the period in Padua.

Document signed, September 25, 1585, in Latin, using the Latin names of the people involved, including The Holy Roman Emperor Charles, signed by important figures of the late Italian renaissance. In it, “Ioannes Sancta Cruce” bestows the position of “comes palatinus caesareus” on “Ioannes Baptista Facinus” and all his male heirs. The document is witnessed and signed not only by Santa Cruce himself, described as “the most excellent lawyer, lord, count, soldier, knight (horseman) of the Court of Caesar”, but also by Fabriano and Tinto. The document is likely in the hand of Tinto himself.

Such Italian Renaissance documents are very uncommon. The most direct comparable was acquired by J.P. Morgan and is now in the Morgan Library.

There is an extended portion in the middle about Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, who, it describes, in 1357, added the power of conferring licenses and doctorates of civil law to the position.