Carlo and Francesco Ceroni in the Light of New Archival Sources

Piotr Ługowski

Abstract

In the second half of the 17^th century a group of architects from Valsolda on Lake Lugano, northern Lombardy, came to Warsaw. Among them there were Carlo and Francesco Ceroni. These architects thanks to the investigation conducted by Prof. Mariusz Karpowicz have had their respective studies published. It was Prof. Karpowicz who found their birth certificates in the Albogasio Inferiore Parish Archives, ascertained their family ties, found Francesco Ceroni’s contract for the works on the church of the Nuns of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, as well as Carlo Ceroni’s last will. The research performed by the author of the paper for the Dictionary of the Architects and Stonemasons in Warsaw in the 15^th-18^th Centuries brought about a number of biographic data. The preliminary research in the Albogasio Inferiore Parish Archives revealed some source documents. Among the discovered ones there was Ceroni’s authorization given in 1711 to the Bellottis: Pietro Martiri and Carlo Antonio in the presence of the Municipality of Old Warsaw to represent him in contacts with the authorities of Valsolda, as well as a set of documents related to the financial conflict between Carlo Ceroni and Carlo Farina. The clash made Ceroni exclude the Farina family from his inheritance. Farina who secured the architect’s interests in Italy in 1693-99, accused Ceroni of not having repaid the whole of his debt. In a letter from Warsaw dated 16 May 1714 addressed to his cousin, Mayor of Valsolda, Ceroni submitted arguments demonstrating that not only had he repaid the debt, but had even suffered financial losses through the shared business with Carlo Farina. The very same letter reveals that the architect’s second daughter Lucia, contrary to the to-date ascertainment, lived to come of age and aged 31 became a nun (d. 1717). The preliminary research in the Como Notarial State Archives allowed to find Francesco Ceroni’s codicil and authorization issued by Ceroni’s heirs to Carlo Antonio Bay and Giuseppe Rachetti to recover debts from Zofia and Dominik Comboni.

Six letters of Carlo Ceroni to Samuel Pączkowski, administrator of the Krasiński estate discovered in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, brought new information on the works conducted in Węgrów. The letters make us verify how long the works on the church and convent complex of the Węgrów Reformati lasted, and prolong them by at least ten years.

The analysed sources permit the claim that it was the junior of the Ceroni brothers, namely Francesco, who owned the building enterprise. Carlo and Francesco Ceroni managed to amass substantial wealth which following their death became the property of the residents of Albogasio as the Eredita Ceroni. Still in the 19^th century, its yields were allocated to satisfy their needs.