The education of a prince: Francesco di Borbone – Count of Trapani – at the Collegio dei nobili in Rome
We have already seen that future presidents, scientists and leading figures of 19th and 20th century society from different social and geographical backgrounds studied in Jesuit schools. Today our column takes us to Rome and tells us some fragments of the life of a young Neapolitan prince, struggling with his education.
In the Collegio dei Nobili in Rome, formerly active in the Antica Compagni and reopened after its suppression from 1826 until 1874, Prince Francesco, Count of Trapani of the Bourbon dynasty, brother of Ferdinand, future King of the Two Sicilies and uncle of Francis II, the last ruler, studied for a few years before the Unification of Italy.
Born on 13 August 1827, ‘Franceschino’, as his mother called him in some letters, entered boarding school on 17 April 1838: here he received his First Communion and Confirmation, and remained until 26 March 1845.
A dense correspondence bears witness to the frequent communications between the Rector and the particular secretary of the King, Ferdinand of Bourbon and the Queen Mother of the Two Sicilies concerning the education of the Royal Brother and son respectively.
From the letters emerges the profile of a boarding school student like any other, the Queen’s concerns, the brother’s decisions.
The young prince enjoyed “room, master’s board and service apart”, surely a special treatment, as emerges from the register of those enrolled in the college, the letters nevertheless reveal the character and profile of an ordinary child that Gennaro de Cesare, secretary to Ferdinand of Bourbon, describes to us, who replies to the Rector of the College, on behalf of the King, as follows
that he should not lose heart if he sees the little prince so inattentive, and so devoted to games, that such a defect is now common to the other brothers; it is necessary to try all means to correct him, but then to wait patiently for the time; when he will be of the longed-for maturity: it will be opportune to mortify him a little and to threaten him either to shorten the time of his amusements or to deprive him of the most pleasant games when he goes wrong in his studies.
In a letter received by the Fr Rector, for example, there are instructions that the Queen Mother wanted to be observed concerning the education of her own son: that even more emphasis be laid on the study of history and geography, and because the Royal Prince likes to go out for pleasure in an open carriage, if he can only grant it at times as a reward for his diligence in giving the usual lessons.
Let the condition of the food be somewhat improved, by using people who are more expert in such a trade. Despite belonging to the royal family, the young man was not granted too many rank-related favours or gifts, as in the case of the carriage ride, granted to him only if he had studied the lesson.
On another occasion, the young Francesco had expressed to his brother ‘the wish to have for himself a saddle horse as other boarders of this College have […] of a fine Neapolitan breed and well trained’; however, the King of the Two Sicilies also on this occasion wanted to take the Rector’s opinion into consideration.
In the photo: a detail of the register of those enrolled at the College.
Maria Macchi
