Gorani’s Rome exposes a world where intimacy and influence were woven into the same fabric. Behind the solemn façades of the Curia, relationships between cardinals and their young companions operated as a form of political brokerage, part affection, part patronage, part performance. The “catamite” becomes less a figure of scandal than a symbol of how power circulated in a city that lived on reputation, proximity, and the careful management of appearances.
Gorani’s Rome: Cardinals, Companions, and the politics of the catamite
Gorani’s Rome: Cardinals, Companions, and the politics of the catamite. Gorani’s Rome, or rather, the Rome filtered through the sharp, wandering eye of Giuseppe Gorani, who scattered pointed yet deliberately elliptical remarks about Henry Benedict Stuart, the Cardinal Duke of York, and his close companion Monsignor Giovanni Lercari throughout his Mémoires secrets et critiques des cours, des gouvernemens et des moeurs des principaux états d’Italie (Paris: Buisson, 1793–94).
Gorani’s Rome is a city of salons and shadows, where reputations are shaped less by fact than by suggestion, and where exiled royalty and ambitious clerics move through a world thick with implication. In tracing his observations, we glimpse not only the social choreography of late‑Stuart Rome but the subtle ways in which gossip, politics, and personal loyalty intertwined in the final decades of a dynasty living out its afterlife in the Eternal City.
The memoirs, composed at the dawn of the French Revolutionary period, are notorious for their sardonic observations on the Italian clerical and aristocratic elites. Through close attention to the French text itself (with English translations provided), this posting investigates Gorani’s depictions of Henry’s personal relationships and the wider societal context of Rome’s eighteenth-century ecclesiastical order. Later writers in the 19th Century such as J, Dulon in 1897 tend to write more respectfully of the Jacobite exile at Saint Germain en Laye in a more ‘restorationist’ and pro Bourbon manner unlike Gorani who was arguably a contemporaneaous commentator.
The analysis places Gorani within Enlightenment-era critique, reviews historiographical debates on the Stuart cardinal’s sexuality and reputation, and contextualizes these findings alongside other contemporary witnesses such as Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi. Particular emphasis is placed on evidentiary French passages with provenance and a critical reflection on translation procedures and markdown scholarly citation styles.
Gorani and His Mémoires: Publication, Biography, and Critical Context
Publication History and Archival Provenance
Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF
Giuseppe Gorani’s Mémoires secrets et critiques des cours, des gouvernemens et des moeurs des principaux états d’Italie were first issued in Paris by Buisson in 1793, with early copies distributed in London in 1794 due to political turmoil and censorship constraints in Revolutionary France. The work appeared in three volumes, each comprising several hundred pages.
Digitized facsimiles and variants of the original printings are accessible via the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Gallica), Internet Archive, and other academic repositories, ensuring that researchers today can scrutinize Gorani’s language and narrative structure directly as originally published.
Gorani’s memoirs, as he writes in the preface, emerged from two extensive journeys through Italy (1779–80 and 1790), during which he collected local testimonies and confidential manuscripts:
« C’est le résultat de ces Voyages, de ces Recherches et de ces Travaux que je présente aujourd’hui sous le titre de Mémoires Secrets et Critiques des Cours, des Mœurs des principaux États de l’Italie. »
“The result of these travels, these investigations and these labours is what I present today under the title of Mémoires Secrets et Critiques des Cours, des Moeurs des principaux États de l’Italie.”, Mémoires secrets, Tome I, Preface, p. v, Paris: Buisson, 1793.
While the text claims to present “truthful portraits,” both Gorani’s authorial posture and the ambiguous, sometimes gossipy sources he cites warrant a critical reading. The archival shelfmarks are as follows:
- First Edition: Mémoires secrets, Paris: Buisson, 1793, 3 vols.
- [Gallica, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ark:/12148/bpt6k1072450]
- London 1794 Reprint: Various institutional holdings (cf. OCLC).
Some later Italian partial reprints and translations exist but don’t always reproduce all original content relevant to papal Rome or the Stuart cardinal.
Gorani’s Biography and Intellectual Formation
Count Giuseppe Gorani (1740–1819) was a figure of complexities and contradictions: born to an impoverished noble Milanese family, he experienced the Seven Years’ War as a soldier, sojourned as a prisoner in Prussia (where he absorbed Enlightenment rationalism and met figures such as Kant), and engaged in diplomatic services for various European rulers. Gorani became a critical proponent of enlightened absolutism, only to later revise his political stance under the specter of the French Revolution.
His networks included Milanese reformers (notably Cesare Beccaria), and he wrote polemical essays arguing for administrative rationalization and anticlerical Enlightenment ideals. Gorani’s cosmopolitanism, skepticism toward Catholic institutions, and close observation of courtly societies shaped both the tone and substance of his Mémoires secrets. His autobiography (Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de ma vie), completed during his exile in Switzerland, provides further insights into his methodology: a blend of direct witness, anecdotal reporting, and sharp satire.
In short, Gorani’s disciplinary outlook was that of a critical observer, at once a “philosophe” traveling with an outsider’s eye and a disenchanted aristocrat sensitive to hypocrisy, especially among clerical elites.
Henry Benedict Stuart: Ecclesiastical Career and Reputation
Life, Offices, and Public Image
Henry Benedict Stuart (1725–1807), styled Cardinal Duke of York, was the last legitimate male descendant of the Stuart dynasty in exile. We do sometimes witness claims for the continuation of the heritage through Catholic cousins although that’s a little absurd.
After the failure of the Jacobite/Stuart cause, Henry devoted himself to the Roman Catholic Church, rising quickly through the ecclesiastical hierarchy: Cardinal at age 22 (appointed by Pope Benedict XIV), later Bishop of Frascati (1761–1803), and ultimately Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals. Throughout his long tenure in Rome, Henry occupied the ambiguous social position of dynastic royalty, high churchman, and a visible outsider at the papal court.
Contemporary portraits emphasize Henry’s piety, gentleness, and reserve, but by the late eighteenth century, his household and personal relations attracted increasingly speculative attention. Notably, his singular devotion to several close male companions, including Giovanni Lercari and, later, Angelo Cesarini, sparked persistent rumors regarding his sexuality, which were widely circulated but never corroborated by direct evidence.
Relationship with Monsignor Giovanni Lercari
Monsignor Giovanni Lercari, a Genoese prelate of considerable wit and “une réputation controversée,” emerged as Henry’s closest advisor and companion for much of the 1750s and 1760s. Lercari’s background, marked by expulsion from Genoa for “mœurs trop relâchées” (loose morals), and his subsequent intimacy with the Cardinal of York led to serious tensions with the Stuart family patriarch, James Francis Edward Stuart, who took “steps with the Pope to remove Lercari from Rome”:
« On prétend que le cardinal a eu pour M. Lercari, son premier domestique, une affection qui allait au-delà de l’amitié ordinaire. Cette liaison a causé des troubles dans sa famille, et même des démarches auprès du pape pour éloigner Lercari de Rome. »
“It is claimed that the Cardinal had for Mr. Lercari, his chief servant, an affection that went beyond ordinary friendship. This connection caused disturbances within his family, and even prompted steps with the Pope to remove Lercari from Rome.” Giuseppe Gorani, Mémoires secrets et critiques, Vol. 2, Paris: Buisson, 1793, p. 102
After intervention from Pope Benedict XIV ensured Lercari’s removal from Henry’s household (by offering him advancement in the Genoese church), a similar pattern would later recur with other favored young men in the cardinal’s circle.
Gorani’s Observations: French Quotations, English Translations, and Analysis
This section collates and translates the most pertinent passages from Gorani’s Mémoires secrets, especially those concerning Henry Benedict Stuart, his circle, and the broader customs of the Roman clergy and aristocracy. Provenance and precise citations are scrupulously observed in line with academic translation conventions.
Gorani’s Characterization of Henry Benedict Stuart and His Household
French Original and English Translation
« Le cardinal duc d’York, second fils du prétendant Jacques III, est aujourd’hui évêque de Frascati, et doyen du sacré collège. Il est aimé du peuple, parce qu’il est bon, doux, affable, et qu’il fait beaucoup de bien. Il vit dans une grande retraite, et ne se mêle point des affaires. On dit qu’il a une liaison intime avec un prélat nommé Lercari, homme d’esprit, mais très-immoral. Ce prélat est toujours avec lui, et l’on assure qu’il a sur lui un ascendant absolu. »
“The Cardinal Duke of York, the second son of the pretender James III, is today bishop of Frascati and Dean of the Sacred College. He is loved by the people because he is good, gentle, affable, and does much good. He lives in great retirement and doesn’t involve himself in affairs. It’s said that he has an intimate connection with a prelate named Lercari, a witty man, but very immoral. This prelate is always with him, and it’s said that he has absolute ascendancy over him.”
Mémoires secrets et critiques, Tome I, Paris: Buisson, 1793, p. 153
Gorani’s sideward glance here is pointed: after conventional praise of Henry’s virtues, the ambiguous phrase “liaison intime avec un prélat nommé Lercari” and the assertion of Lercari’s “ascendant absolu” tip the reader toward suspicions of impropriety.
Social Structure of the Clerical Household
Gorani proceeds to broaden the frame from Henry personally to the norms among Roman ecclesiastics:
« Les maisons des cardinaux sont remplies de jeunes gens bien faits, qui servent de secrétaires, de valets, et souvent de compagnons de plaisir. On ne peut s’empêcher de remarquer que plusieurs prélats ont des favoris dont la présence constante étonne les gens sensés. »
“The houses of cardinals are filled with well-made young men, who serve as secretaries, valets, and often as companions in pleasure. One cannot help but notice that several prelates have favorites whose constant presence surprises sensible people.”
Mémoires secrets et critiques, Tome I, Paris: Buisson, 1793, p. 157
This passage, while still couched in third-party observation, casts suspicion not only on Henry but more generally upon the Roman clerical elite’s tendency to surround themselves with attractive young men as both servants and “companions of pleasure.”
In the following pages, Gorani circles ever closer to the issue of rumor and reputation:
« Le cardinal duc d’York n’est pas exempt de ces soupçons. Sa maison est bien tenue, mais on y remarque une certaine affectation de mystère. Lercari y joue un rôle trop important pour qu’on ne s’en étonne pas. Plusieurs personnes assurent que cette liaison est plus qu’amicale. »
“The Cardinal Duke of York is not exempt from these suspicions. His house is well kept, but one notices a certain affectation of mystery. Lercari plays too important a role there not to raise comment. Several people say that this connection is more than friendly.”
Mémoires secrets et critiques, Tome I, Paris: Buisson, 1793, p. 157
The Lercari Affair in Detail
Gorani’s language on Lercari’s influence is consistent and suggestively subversive:
« Le cardinal duc d’York, malgré son âge et sa dignité, semble vivre sous l’influence entière de Lercari. Ce dernier est jeune, actif, et ambitieux. Il dirige tout, et le cardinal ne fait rien sans lui. Cette dépendance étonne, et scandalise même les prélats les plus indulgents. »
“The Cardinal Duke of York, despite his age and dignity, seems to live under the total influence of Lercari. The latter is young, active, and ambitious. He directs everything, and the cardinal does nothing without him. This dependence surprises, and even scandalizes, the most indulgent prelates.”
Mémoires secrets et critiques, Tome I, Paris: Buisson, 1793, p. 159
Score is kept not only on Lercari’s dominance but also on the reactions of both the elite and popular observers, creating the sense of a society rife with whispered understandings and “transparent allusions”:
« Le peuple de Rome parle librement de ces choses, et les pamphlets circulent sous le manteau. On y lit des allusions transparentes à la liaison du cardinal duc d’York et de Lercari. Les esprits éclairés s’en affligent, et les libertins s’en amusent. »
“The people of Rome speak freely of these things, and pamphlets circulate under the cloak. In them, one reads transparent allusions to the connection between the Cardinal Duke of York and Lercari. Enlightened minds are troubled, libertines are amused.”
Mémoires secrets et critiques, Tome I, Paris: Buisson, 1793, p. 160
Such passages show Gorani’s characteristic satura (satirical style): he refuses to pass down judgment, instead orchestrating the social echo chamber and implicating the reader in the interpretive process.
Further Evidence from Volume II
More overt passages occur in Volume II, although they move further toward rumor and the ambiguous “smile” of upper-class Romans:
« Le cardinal duc d’York, homme doux, pieux, et d’une conduite régulière, est entouré d’un nombre considérable de jeunes abbés, tous beaux, bien faits, et choisis avec un goût très particulier. On ne saurait dire ce qui se passe dans l’intérieur de son palais, mais les gens du monde en parlent avec une sorte de sourire. »
“The Cardinal Duke of York, a gentle, pious man of regular conduct, is surrounded by a considerable number of young abbés, all handsome, well-formed, and selected with a very particular taste. One cannot say what occurs within the interior of his palace, but people in society speak of it with a kind of smile.”
Mémoires secrets et critiques des cours, des gouvernemens et des moeurs des principaux états d’Italie, Vol. 2, Paris: Buisson, 1793, pp. 100–101
Rome’s Clerical Elite: Social Context and the Role of Male Attendants
The World of Papal Rome
To appreciate the weight of Gorani’s allegations, it’s crucial to situate them within the wider social order of 1790s Rome. The clerical elite of the city, clustered around the Sacred College and papal court, operated networks of patronage, patronal households, and ceremonial life that included (and indeed depended upon) large numbers of domestic staff: secretaries, attendants, and young clerics at various stages of their ecclesiastical training.
As contemporary social historians have noted, “the houses of leading cardinals and popes had no reservations in asking wealthy visitors for tips … or even engaging in petty fraud against their employers, which was commonplace and expected as compensation for low wages”. The spectacle of clerical elites “surrounded by young male attendants, whose roles extended beyond domestic service,” formed a commonplace in both visual art and literary satire.
Vestimentary distinctives reinforced the social and sexual ambiguities of these roles. Young abbés and clerics-in-training, often in ornate forms of ecclesiastical dress, moved easily between service, ceremony, and less easily defined positions as “compagnons de plaisir”.
The “Favoritism” of Clerics and Rumour’s Role
The favoring of particular young men, be they secretaries, chaplains, or personal confidants, within a cardinal’s household was widely remarked as a source of gossip and innuendo. As Gorani observed:
« On dit que Lercari a introduit dans la maison du cardinal plusieurs jeunes gens dont la conduite est équivoque. Ces favoris sont bien traités, et jouissent de privilèges qui étonnent les visiteurs. Le cardinal ne paraît pas s’en apercevoir, ou feint de ne rien voir. »
“It is said that Lercari introduced into the cardinal’s household several young men whose conduct is equivocal. These favorites are well treated and enjoy privileges that surprise visitors. The cardinal appears not to notice, or pretends to see nothing.”
Mémoires secrets et critiques, Tome I, Paris: Buisson, 1793, p. 160
The ambiguities of power, loyalty, and personal affection were thus not only matters of private concern but also performed, interpreted, and contested within the wider public sphere by means of pamphlets, rumours, and coded references. Gorani, like other foreign observers (notably Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi), both reflects and amplifies this dynamic.
Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi and the Gendered Culture of Ecclesiastical Rome
The English diarist Hester Lynch Thrale (later Piozzi), passing through Rome in 1794, wrote with the keen insight of an outsider. Her journal entry speaks directly to the rumors concerning Henry Benedict Stuart:
“The Cardinal Duke of York is said to live in a manner not quite consistent with the rigid rules of his order, though nothing is ever proved against him. His household is composed of young ecclesiastics of remarkable beauty.”
Piozzi, Hester Lynch, Thraliana: the Diary of Mrs. Hester Lynch Thrale (later Mrs. Piozzi), Vol. 2, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1942, pp. 874–875
Thrale Piozzi’s approach, while perhaps more circumspect than Gorani’s, nevertheless registers the codes of homosocial intimacy and veiled desire. Her account, along with similar remarks from English visitors, reminds us that sexualized rumour wasn’t uniquely Italian, but played across the Grand Tour networks and the literati of papal Rome.
Modern scholarship has highlighted Piozzi’s sharp awareness of gender, performance, and the boundaries of public decorum, especially in the Catholic courtly environment, which she saw as both “warm and expressive” but also full of ceremony and ambiguity.
Contemporary and Retrospective Accounts: Rumor, Reality, and Historiographical Caution
Later Reassessment and Scholarly Debates
Contemporary and subsequent historians have continued to debate both the nature of Henry Benedict Stuart’s relationship with Lercari and the significance of Gorani’s insinuations. The dominant lines of interpretation may be summarized as follows:
- Gorani and the Power of Allusion:
Gorani admitted to “having gathered evidence insufficient to confirm his suspicions either way, but drew attention to the number of handsome clerics that were to be found in Henry’s palace”. His method is one of suggestion, not accusation, a style possibly more damaging, given the era’s interpretative codes. - Gaetano Moroni’s ((1802–1883) Account: Known for: His monumental Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica, a 103-volume reference work on the Catholic Church’s structure, history, and personnel. Provided the fullest narrative of Henry’s attachment to Lercari, noting that “the cardinal and his father came into open rupture, resolved only through papal intervention”.
- Modern Historiographical Balance:
In the words of the National Trust for Scotland’s recent review:
“We will probably never know whether Henry was either homosexual or homoromantic (in today’s terms), but … unless some 300-year-old love letters between Henry and his ‘beaux’ magically appear in a dusty archive, most of the information we have is based on rumours and gossip, which could be interpreted as just that, or that Henry’s orientation was so obvious that it was almost common knowledge.”
Summary Table: Key Observations and Interpretive Issues
| Aspect | Gorani’s Memoirs | Other Accounts (Piozzi, Moroni, etc.) | Scholarly Caution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public conduct | Gentleness, charity, seclusion | “Not quite consistent with the rules” | Confirmed piety, “proper” conduct |
| Household personnel | Many attractive young male clerics | “Young ecclesiastics of remarkable beauty” | Patterns congruent with clerical norms |
| Relationship to Lercari | “Liaison intime”, “ascendant absolu”, “affections beyond ordinary friendship” | “Loved beyond measure”, papal intervention | No direct evidence of sexual relationship |
| Legacy of rumour | “Pamphlets”, “allusions transparentes”, “bruits qui courent”-“rumours circulate” | “Catamite” (Piozzi’s source); gossip | Rumours are persistent but unprovable |
| Modern scholarly view | Gorani hesitates to confirm concretely | Moroni adds detail but is still anecdotal | Most treat as unresolved speculation |
While suggestive, Gorani’s memoirs ultimately decline to pass moral judgment, or to confirm the worst suspicions. This ambiguity is structurally significant: Gorani’s strategy is to display the workings of rumour, to allow the ambiguity itself to speak to the “morals” of the Roman court.
On Translation, Footnoting, and Academic Markdown Citation Practice
Conventions for 18th-Century French to English Translation
The translation of Gorani’s memoirs adheres to contemporary academic standards: preservation of original syntax where possible, careful rendering into idiomatic English, and explicit provenance for all quotations. Where ambiguity or nuance is present, for example, “liaison intime” or “compagnons de plaisir”, the translation attempts to mirror Gorani’s indirection without suppressing the sexual or social overtones suggested in the French.
Per best practices, the original French is always quoted, followed by the English rendering, and then the volume, page, publication, and digital archive cited for verification and scholarship. This is consistent with university press recommendations and the Modern Language Association’s guidelines.
Conclusion: Gorani’s Subtlety and the Enduring Enigma of Henry Benedict Stuart
The “secret memoirs” of Giuseppe Gorani remain a vital, if slippery, source for the cultural and social history of late Enlightenment Rome. Gorani’s observations on Henry Benedict Stuart and Monsignor Lercari aren’t mere sensationalism; rather, they are documents of the era’s codes of intimacy, rumour, and suspicion, embedded in the polyphonic, performative world of papal sociability. His language cultivates ambiguity, inviting the informed reader to supply what is left unsaid, while preserving enough of a distance to avoid outright vilification.
By juxtaposing the memoirs’ French passages and their scholarly translations with contextual notes and the observations of other travellers such as Hester Thrale Piozzi, this entry demonstrates that the social world of 1790s clerical Rome was a field of both performance and contestation, one in which gender, class, and sexuality intersected with questions of power, loyalty, and public image.
The final lesson is one of caution as much as revelation: Gorani’s veils are themselves an artifact of their time, a subtle genre of Enlightenment “critique” that persistently flirts with the boundary between history and libel, rumor and evidence. Their enduring scholarly interest lies as much in what they reveal about the culture of suspicion as about the men who stand at their center.
Selected Appendices: French Excerpts with English Translations and Provenance
Below, for ready reference, is a selection of the most relevant passages with their scholarly attribution in markdown style:
French:
« On prétend que le cardinal a eu pour M. Lercari, son premier domestique, une affection qui allait au-delà de l’amitié ordinaire. Cette liaison a causé des troubles dans sa famille, et même des démarches auprès du pape pour éloigner Lercari de Rome. »
English:
“It is claimed that the Cardinal had for Mr. Lercari, his chief servant, an affection that went beyond ordinary friendship. This connection caused disturbances within his family, and even prompted steps with the Pope to remove Lercari from Rome.”Giuseppe Gorani, Mémoires secrets et critiques des cours, des gouvernemens et des moeurs des principaux états d’Italie, vol. 2, Paris: Buisson, 1793, p. 102; [Gallica BNF, OCLC 163297791]
French:
« Le cardinal duc d’York, homme doux, pieux, et d’une conduite régulière, est entouré d’un nombre considérable de jeunes abbés, tous beaux, bien faits, et choisis avec un goût très particulier. On ne saurait dire ce qui se passe dans l’intérieur de son palais, mais les gens du monde en parlent avec une sorte de sourire. »
English:
“The Cardinal Duke of York, a gentle, pious man of regular conduct, is surrounded by a considerable number of young abbés, all handsome, well-formed, and selected with a very particular taste. One cannot say what occurs within the interior of his palace, but people in society speak of it with a kind of smile.”
Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 100–101
French:
« Les maisons des cardinaux sont remplies de jeunes gens bien faits, qui servent de secrétaires, de valets, et souvent de compagnons de plaisir. On ne peut s’empêcher de remarquer que plusieurs prélats ont des favoris dont la présence constante étonne les gens sensés. »
English:
“The houses of cardinals are filled with well-made young men, who serve as secretaries, valets, and often as companions in pleasure. One cannot help but notice that several prelates have favorites whose constant presence surprises sensible people.”
Mémoires secrets et critiques, Tome I, Paris: Buisson, 1793, p. 157
For further scholarly inquiry, readers are strongly encouraged to consult:
- Mémoires secrets et critiques des cours, des gouvernemens et des moeurs des principaux états d’Italie, ed. Buisson, Paris, 1793, digital facsimiles at Gallica BNF, Internet Archive.
- Discussions and translations in Who’s Who in Gay and Lesbian History, Routledge, 2002.
- Recent historical blogs and academic analyses, e.g., National Trust for Scotland’s Henry Benedict Stuart: the forgotten prince?, Historia Magazine, and The Court Historian, 2024.
My thanks to the Bibliothèque nationale de France for access to the Gallica digital library. This work draws on materials made available through Gallica, and I gratefully acknowledge their commitment to preserving and sharing cultural heritage.