Mayhem in Monti

A woman has been battered almost to death in her own home in the Monti rione.

The terrible assault took place in the Bobboli household in what was once the merchant quarter of the district. The widow Esmerelda Pozzoli was cook and her brother Enrico steward to Silvio Bobboli. Esmerelda was a well-liked and well-respected woman in her community, known for her generosity and good works in the parish.

Though still alive, visitors report that Esmerelda is not responding to her environment. She is capable of swallowing water and the thin broth that her brother feeds her but speaks never a word and seems unaware of her surroundings. A physician attends each day and the parish priest comes to pray over her and read to her from his breviary, but none know whether her situation may ever be ameliorated.

There is much speculation as to what exactly happened that night. Neighbours report shouting and screams: then silence. Those peeping out of their shutters speak of a group of street ruffians leaving the property an hour or so later. One was limping heavily; another seemed to be a prisoner; there was a boy with them; and one of those disreputable mendicant friars. The following morning a tumbrel arrived and took away a body – a very substantial body given the way the driver and his mate staggered under the load.

The next day Desiderata, the daughter of the Bobboli household was brought to her father’s door by none other than Lorenzo Bembo, the Venetian Agent, who spent a full hour at the Bobboli house with a scribe and another man, while his guards stood outside front and back. Folk speculate that this must all be connected to the commotion over by the Porta Nomentana. The name of Cola di Rienzo, the notaio from the Aventine rione whose fingers seem to be in so many pies these days, is also whispered as the benefactor who sent round the physician (and the tumbrel).

Silvio Bobboli and Enrico Pozzoli are saying nothing and swiftly change the subject when pressed. However, it is said that Esmerelda’s three sons are devoted to her and they be more persistent in demanding answers from their uncle and her employer. They are all professional soldiers, currently fighting down in the Regno for King Roberto.