The Ghost Of Girolamo Riario

“However the chronicler Leone Cobelli, took that book in verses that they had given him, wrote hesitantly about it and in fact talked about it doing, among other things, propaganda for the enemies”.

“But several suspected that it was a trick of the conspirators to disguise the murder they were preparing for he and bury Riario under a kind of damnatio memoriae,

” explained the witness.

“What is a damnatio memoriae?” asked the researcher.

Damnatio memoriae: The condemnation to be forgotten by history

“Have you ever wondered why you know a lot of things and facts about someone, while about others you only know some little things existed or happened but little or nothing is really well known about or what happened?” asked the witness.

“Yes, but I think it's due to the fact that in the place where he lived or where something happened, there were no good writers or reporters who decided to write the events. And so the memory of someone or something was lost”, replied the researcher.

“It may be almost true, but you said well at the end of your answer: in the end the memory of someone or something was lost”.

“Well, this is also possible for various reasons”.

“Yes, it is possible. But there are also some ways to make this succeed. It's almost impossible that something happen in one place and no one seeing nothing happen or forgetting all about, unless someone hard work to forget facts or make someone else forget everything”, replied the witness.

“I'm listening, continue your speech”.

“In contrast to events and characters from the past, of which we always know something, almost nothing is left about Riario and his exploits, including most of the official documents he wrote and signed”.

“Even the memories, sayings and tales that are usually handed down orally about someone, seem to be no longer present for Riario, while for his wife Caterina Sforza there are letters, written stories, sayings and memories that go on in time”.

“What's the cause?”

“Damnatio Memoriae, so the Latin people called it. It was a condemnation to be forgotten and removed from historical memory.”

“A practice that Romans and Egyptians had been doing for a long time and was used even after them to erase someone from history”, explained the witness.

“Basically every memory and thing the person had done in life was erased. Every writing he wrote, every image in which he was portrayed, every coat of arms and everything that remembered he. If the person had had coins minted with his name or image, it was forbidden to use them and they had to be handed over to be melted down or minted again in another form”.

“Even his properties were razed to the ground and stripped of all memory and that's what they did with Riario”.

“That was also what Caterina Sforza did in revenge for Riario's murderers when she took them and razed their houses and their property. So all memories and things about them would also disappear and they would be erased and forgotten from history too”.

“And where are these things written now?” asked the researcher.

“I have no idea where they are written now. But I can tell where they were written in the past”.

“Tell me”.

“The chronicler Leone Cobelli wrote some of them in his chronicles and, if you look at his original correspondence, you will see that some pages right in the spot that mention the facts of Caterina and Riario have been scratched and torn out”.

“Also another writer and chronicler from Forlì, very well known at the time, Guido Peppo, surnamed ‘della Stella’

, came to the same conclusions but now all of his writings no longer exist”.

“He had written many history books that told many facts and chronicles that happened in Romagna but all his writings disappeared, because he had been Riario's friend and his personal chronicler and perhaps for some other reason”, explained the witness.

“Who was this Guido Peppo, known as ‘della Stella’?”

“A writer and healer from Forlì, able to read and translate ancient Hebrew and Greek like few others in Italy”.

“Would a ghost have whispered all this in your ears?” asked the researcher.

“No, the first to tell me was my great-grandfather when I was eleven” replied the witness.

“Did your great-grandfather explain all these things to you when you were eleven?” asked again the researcher in disbelief.

“As strange as it seems to you, that's exactly what it is”.

Would you like to explain me who are you and what happened to you?

...asked more and more intrigued the researcher.

“My surname today is Plaxxxxx and the ancestors of my family in Riario's time were noble and in favour of the papacy, but back then we had another surname and we were called Paoxxxxx”.

“We had residences and offices in Imola and Forlì by papal concession, then some members of my family took part together with other Forlì families in the conspiracy against Riario and were considered traitors, while others of our family remained faithful”.

“And so my ancestors were forced to change the surname to Plaxxxxx. to separate us from the original family who had not betrayed the trust they had received and remained a family of nobles. Then with the passing of the centuries, we went from fallen nobles to administrators and city officials and gradually became simple employees and workers of various kinds here in Romagna”.

“Is that all?” asked the researcher.

“It may not seem like much to you, but I assure you that buried down in a forgotten and fallen family is a condemnation to amnesia for me”, explained the witness.

“That may be true, but you have tried to remember and keep many things alive, and you don't seem a forgetful guy to me”.

“Yes, but a lot of people of my family became forgetful from a long time ago. And will not enough for me to remember everything for redeem and regain our lost family memories.”

“Do you have many relatives?”

“I had many relatives. Now most of them have a surname similar to mine and they don't even know any more who they used to be and that we were relatives”, the witness laughed.

“Why don't try to explain or tell something to them” said the researcher.

“Come on. Most people wouldn't even know what I'm talked about, and a few others wouldn't even care to remember if it is true what they heard. Men create their own prisons and then forget themselves in”.

“Maybe you're right”, said the researcher, thinking about it for a moment. Then he added, “Please continue”.

“At the end of 1700 an ancestor of mine, with French Enlightenment ideas, became an official collaborator with the Jacobins of the Napoleonic government, then settled in Forli, and also wrote some reports and surveys on our population for their administrators”.

“He was apparently an esoteric masonic group with some Napoleonic officials in and began to study mesmerism

which had taken its roots in France at the time”.

“Carry on”, the researcher urged him.