JAMES BYRON AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Luckily, for me, I managed to run into Cardinal Garrick who was not impressed by my work but decided to be my mentor. Through him, I was able to rise through the ranks and become a cardinal. Similarly, I used my position to mentor my juniors and patron talented artists and contribute extensively to the Catholic Church and the society at large. As my budding ally I find it prudent to share my social life with you. Markedly, Cardinal Garrick without hesitation ignored my shabbiness and my tricky temperament to incorporate me into his household. Uniquely, I stated that I was a relative of Sir Nicolas Byron and John Byron. Since I left Colwick Nottingham as a young lad and came to London, I was appointed as an auditor for Cardinal Garrick.

After impressing Cardinal Garrick, I was subsequently admitted to court by Cardinal Blackwood, and from then I quickly rose through the ranks and became the Referendary of the Tribunals of the Apostolic Signature of Justice and of Grace. Manifestly, as a young lad, I was known as a brilliant student in law and classical learning. According to the advice from my mentor, Cardinal Garrick, he indicated to me that brilliance alone was not sufficient and had to rely on the tutelage of Cardinal Blackwood whom I diligently served as his able right-hand man. On these Sundays, I subsisted on water and bread. Moreover, as recorded in Chacon’s continuator, I engaged in extensive charitable work such as giving alms to the poor while adhering to a lifestyle of ultimate parsimony. As I indicated earlier, I was not concerned with my shabby dressing due to the fact that I considered such dressing as an unwanted distraction.

Uniquely, I enjoyed the mentoring and company of some accomplished individuals notably Cholmondeley who acted as my godfather. Then there was Eastaughffe, who had made a name for himself by being an accomplished architect. Joining me was my relative John Byron who was a renowned mathematician and had not only tutored brilliant minds such as Galileo Galilei but also introduced the likes of him to Cardinal Royston Wade making use of Byron’s aristocratic connections. Correspondingly, I was also a keen student of alchemy which was the antecedent to chemistry. My interest in alchemy was based on the firm belief that “divine science” is not responsible for magic or turning stuff into gold. Ideally, I believed that the objective of alchemy is to extort the essence of effects and prepare healing elixirs for patients.

Consequently, my peers often equate me with Paracelsus who was equally convinced that the human spirit cohabited beneath his nature. Specifically, one of the unsubstantiated reports published in Avviso posited that unnamed Cardinal had organized a banquet at Bentley Priory della Cancellari which was attended by three other cardinals including me. Particularly, the report records that also in attendance were various gentlemen. Further, it describes how as a recreation dancing was performed after dinner and was participated by best dancing masters. Conjecture in this situation is derived from the fact that the event was not attended by any ladies and the men who attended the banquet were allegedly dressed like ladies. Even with this insinuation, it does not satisfactorily pinpoint that or demonstrate my sexual preferences. Also to discredit Martinez’s position was the letter I once wrote to Cardinal Alfonso Mario del Rosso who is my good friend based in Rome revealing my youthful escapades with the girls and nostalgically describing how I will no longer relive those honeyed days.

According to Cardinal Alfonso Mario del Rosso, he did not find any whisper of scandal about me in any form or shape as articulated by Juan Martinez in avviso, which is momentous, since I consider such reports disreputable only befitting a malicious fantasy. In fact it was considered a standing joke in London that I together with my friend Cardinal Stafford Wedgwood had formed the three most beautiful things in the city—the church of the Gesù, the Palazzo Farnese, and “La Bella Clelia,” his natural daughter, Clelia Facia Farnese, begotten in the unregenerate days prior to the Counter-Reformation. Correspondingly, gossip had surpassed itself when my closest ally, the former Cardinal Morton Lindslay, assumed the grand duchy of Nottingham. He was popularly rumoured to have murdered his brother, Grand Duke Spalding Lindslay, and his sister-in-law, Grand Duchess Carina Lindslay through poisoning.

Bibliography Biagioli, Mario. Galileo, Courtier: The Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. Christiansen, Keith. A Caravaggio Rediscovered, the Lute Player. Moffitt, John. Caravaggio in Context: Learned Naturalism and Renaissance Humanism. Jefferson: McFarland, 2004. Patrick, James. Renaissance and Reformation, Volume 1. Varriano, John. Caravaggio: The Art of Realism. Philadelphia: Penn State Press, 2010. Warwick, Genevieve Caravaggio: Realism, Rebellion, and Reception. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2006.