Retrenchment

Abstract

In 1587 Girolamo sells Palazzo Torriani to Antonio Marchesi, a rich merchant, to satisfy some of the creditors. Marchesi, who has noble aspirations, embellishes the palace with luxurious furnishings, including a ceiling painting by the workshop of Paolo Veronese, and builds new structures on the site. Girolamo ties up loose ends. He verifies the family’s titles and investitures and puts his financial house in order. Mindful of the litigation over Gian Matteo’s estate, he executes a notarized document, dividing his property, and his debts, equally between his three surviving sons, Sigismondo, Giulio, and Giovanni, ‘so that everyone would know his share’. Girolamo’s brother-in-law Pietro Bembo, Bishop of Veglia, dies in 1589. The pope gives the office to Girolamo’s son Giovanni over Venetian objections. Girolamo drafts his testament, reaffirming the property division of 1587. He dies in Venice in March 1590 at the age of eighty-five.