Caravaggio_ A Life Sacred and Profane - Andrew Graham-Dixon [120]
During the investigation, Onorio Longhi was asked to cast his mind back to an altercation involving himself, Stefano and others that had taken place earlier that year. Under cross-examination, he conjured up the vibrancy of Rome in the high summer in holiday mood, packed with men watching sport and spoiling for a fight:
Yes, sir, if I remember correctly, in July I was at the French tennis court at Santa Lucia della Tinta to see a match between two fencers, one of whom is called Cencio Abruzzese and the other is a Bolognese, whose name I don’t know. After I had seen the two fencers fight, I went on to Piazza Navona, where some people were playing ball. I went up to watch them play. I met Vicenzo da Ascoli, a fencer, Livio Freta, who had been the judge of the said combat, Fulvio Scocimarro da Riete and Geronimo Roncalli, a merchant; there was one other with them, who they say is from Terni, but I don’t know his name or anything else. They asked me what I thought about the fight between the two fencers, and who struck the most blows. I told them in my opinion Cencio had struck the most; then the man from Terni suggested that I hadn’t seen well, or that I didn’t understand much. I told him that he had gambled away ten scudi on the first hit, and in response the said Stefano made a mistake and threw a punch at me, then he put his hand to his sword. For my honour and defence I put my hand to my sword too. We threw so many punches that I don’t know who was hit, because we were separated by many, and I was alone. But according to what I heard from the Duke of Acquasparta, who brokered a peace between us, he told me that he was hurt a little in the hand.
The magistrate then told Onorio that he was not asking about that fight, but another one that had taken place on the Via della Scrofa near the harbour of the Ripetta, the whore’s part of town.20 It was a brawl that had started because someone had called out ‘Testicles for a penny’ (a double-edged provocation, since the Italian word for testicles, coglione, could also signify a moron or imbecile). Longhi remembered that fracas too and described it:
Sir, I was walking down the street with some friends of mine. We were talking among ourselves and I said to them that bollocks were one a penny. Someone happened to be passing, accompanied by a certain painter whom I didn’t know at all. He took it as meant for himself and told me not to speak to him like that, saying that he ate bollocks like me fried. We went at each other with our fists, and were separated. Then I went off on my own business, because after the fist-fight, those two took up stones to throw, but I didn’t throw back because we had been separated.
Longhi insisted that nothing else happened and that no one else came to blows, but the magistrate continued with his cross-examination:
Who else was present at the scene?
With him, that is, the one who came to blows with me, was one Marco Tullio, a painter, and with me was Michelangelo Merisi, the painter, who separated us.
Was Caravaggio armed at the time?
At the time Messer Michelangelo was convalescing, so he had his sword carried by a boy. This boy had the sword and was with him when the fight occurred, but Messer Michelangelo never took it out of the scabbard.
Did anyone else take up the scabbard and throw it, and if so, at whom?
When Messer Michelangelo was separating us, my adversary drew the scabbard to himself. I don’t know what he did with it then and whether he threw it at me or not.
Did Michelangelo have the sword in its scabbard? Why was the scabbard thrown?
I don’t know about that, because Messer Michelangelo was so ill he could barely stand, and when he saw the sword without its sheath he went off about his own business.
Suddenly the magistrate changed tack, perhaps revealing his main reason for enquiring into this otherwise