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lessandro Geraldini was born in Umbria, in Amelia (Terni province), presumably in 1455. His moth-
er, Graziosa (daughter of Matteo), already a widow, hailed from the prestigious Amelian family of
the Geraldini; his father was Pace Bossetano, but Alessandro preferred to keep the more prestigious
maternal surname. After a childhood and adolescence spent at Amelia, he studied under the guidance
of the famous teacher Grifone d’Amelia.
Sometime around 1475, Geraldini left Italy for Spain, specifically Barcelona, where his uncle Angelo and
brother Antonio (older by a few years) served as diplomats and intellectuals at the Aragonese Court. Under the
guidance of the two, young Alessandro begins a career that will lead to considerable satisfaction (but also bitter
disappointment). Alessandro accompanied his brother on numerous diplomatic missions to European sover-
eigns on behalf of the Aragonese King John II, and afterward his heirs, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Cas-
tile, whose marriage would in fact lead to the union of the two Iberian crowns. In the late spring of 1477, for
example, Alessandro accompanied Antonio on a delicate diplomatic mission to Sicily, with the aim of carrying
out the orders and directives of King John II related to the tangle of events that had taken place on the island
and in Sardinia, after the revolt of Alagona and the comportment of Viceroy of Sicily Giovanni Raimondo III
Folch de Cardona; these events were not exactly in line with the policies which had been established in Bar-
celona. Alessandro continued with his brother on missions to the rulers of Burgundy, Florence, and Brittany.
In the mid-1480s, the two brothers were most often in Italy, where they were also able to look after their
business concerns in Amelia. During this time, Antonio was particularly active in Rome, which had evolved
into the most important reference point based on its rising importance, being at those times increasingly the
center of a complex and delicate political game and including the particularly active and enterprising role of
the Church. This was probably the peak of Antonio’s exceptional career. In September 1486, he served as the
spokesman for the Spanish legation that accompanied the Count of Tendilla, ambassador of Ferdinand and
Isabella, in a visit to Pope Innocent VIII to seek peace between the Pope and King Ferdinand I of Naples, and to
swear allegiance of the Catholic monarchs to the pope. The speech delivered on this solemn occasion compris-
es one of Antonio’s published works, and is recalled in one of Alessandro’s nostalgic letters many years later.
By March 1487, the two Geraldini brothers were back in Spain. During the following year, Antonio’s
sudden and untimely death occurred. This sad event, remembered by Alessandro in terms that expressed his
devastation, paradoxically created greater paths by forcing him to take direct action. Beginning in 1493, he
was appointed guardian of several Spanish and non-Spanish princesses: Isabel de Trastámara, who married
an heir to the throne of Portugal; Maria of Aragon, queen consort of Portugal; Catherine of Aragon, Queen
of England; and Margherita, daughter of Emperor Maximilian I of the Habsburgs. Alessandro, we have dis-
CHAPTER 6
From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
“The Itinerarium ad regiones sub
Equinoctiali plaga constitutas” (Itinerary)
of Alessandro Geraldini d’Amelia
By Edoardo D’Angelo
Professor of Medieval Latin Philology at the University of Naples Suor Orsola Benincasa
and
Rosa Manfredonia
Professor
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