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Mancini insinuates, as we have seen, that at the time of the killing Caravaggio was even touchier than usual because he had been upset by the rejection of The Death of the Virgin. He also implies that the painter was provoked, and he places the perenially hot-headed Onorio Longhi at the scene of the crime: ‘Finally, as a result of certain events he almost lost his life, and in defending himself Caravaggio killed his foe with the help of his friend Onorio Longhi and was forced to leave Rome.’118

Baglione moralized the murder, describing it as the predictable outcome of Caravaggio’s innate criminality. He also explained its cause. An argument over a tennis match had got out of hand:

Michelangelo was quite a quarrelsome individual, and sometimes he looked for a chance to break his neck or jeopardise the life of another. Often he was found in the company of men who, like himself, were also belligerent. And finally he confronted Ranuccio Tomassoni, a very polite young man, over some disagreement over a tennis match. They argued and ended up fighting. Ranuccio fell to the ground after Michelangelo had wounded him in the thigh and then killed him. Everyone who was involved in this affair fled Rome …119

Bellori echoed Baglione’s account, adding a colourful account of the fight itself: ‘during a tennis match with a young friend of his, they began hitting each other with their rackets. At the end he drew his sword, killed the young man, and was also wounded himself.’120

The idea that the fight was in some way connected to a game is seemingly confirmed by two avvisi, small booklets that were the rudimentary forerunners of the modern newspaper. They were sold on the streets of the city, especially around the statue of Pasquino, to the cry of ‘Nove e Avvisi!’, or ‘News and Notices!’121

One of these avvisi, written on 3 June 1606, six days after the murder, establishes the scene of the crime. It also confirms the involvement of the two other men who had been mentioned in the very first report of 28 May. According to the avviso of 3 June, Ranuccio Tomassoni’s brother, the former soldier and caporione Giovan Francesco Tomassoni, had indeed joined the fight, drawing his sword on another soldier. But this avviso contradicts the earlier document’s statement that the other man had been killed, saying instead that he had been seriously wounded and was now in prison awaiting trial. It also provides his name, and specifies that he was a companion of Caravaggio:

because of a game near the palace of the Grand Duke [i.e. the Palazzo Firenze] an argument arose between the son of the late Colonel Lucantoni da Terni, and Michelangelo da Caravaggio, the famous painter; Tomassoni was killed by a blow given to him while, retreating, he fell on the ground. Then his brother, Captain Giovan Francesco, and Petronio the Bolognese, Caravaggio’s companion, entered the fray; Giovan Francesco seriously wounded Captain Petronio, and wounded Caravaggio in the head. Caravaggio saved himself by running away, and Petronio was put in prison, where he remains.122

This would appear to confirm Baglione’s account of an argument over a tennis match. The avviso mentions a game near the Grand Duke of Tuscany’s palace. There were indeed tennis courts directly opposite the Palazzo Firenze: although they have long since disappeared, the street where they once stood is still the Via di Pallacorda, i.e. ‘Tennis Street’.123

The other avviso that mentions the murder was written on 31 May 1606. It does not name Caravaggio’s wounded companion, simply describing him as a Bolognese captain serving in the papal fortress of the Castel Sant’Angelo. It confirms that he had been wounded rather than killed, and had now been put in prison. This report also blames the fight on a game, on which money had been wagered. But it also makes the fight itself sound more like an outbreak of gang warfare than a chance fracas. A total of eight people are now said to have