mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Mistress of the Vatican
Gregorio Leti about the cardinal nephew. 8 And indeed, Camillo’s favorite
part of his vaunted position was the honor, precedence, and income
he received, along with those dazzling red robes. We can picture him
trying them on in front of a full-length mirror, tilting his biretta rakishly
and admiring the result. The only thing he hated about his job
was the work.
Camillo was horrified that his uncle expected him to sit in an office
all day and meet with ambassadors and other cardinals who talked about
the most boring subjects—politics, finance, defense, and trade agreements.
His visitors, for their part, were insulted that as they spoke
about matters of international urgency, the cardinal nephew was doodling
on a piece of paper—sketching gardens and designs for his new
villa.
As soon as his uncle became pope in 1644, Camillo decided to build
a villa on a large property his father had bought in 1630. Located on the
top of Janiculum Hill, with a magnificent view of Saint Peter’s dome,
the land was just begging for a pleasure house with extensive gardens.
As cardinal nephew, Camillo now had unlimited funds to build his
dream villa, which he called Bel Respiro for its fresh, bracing air. He
hired the sculptor Alessandro Algardi to work with him, and soon the
villa began to rise.
While digging the foundations, Algardi realized he was actually
building on an extensive ancient Roman cemetery that included the
tomb of Nero’s bodyguard. This was a happy turn of events because the
excavators unearthed quantities of statuary that Camillo wanted to use
on the façade. Unfortunately, many torsos were lacking heads, and the
heads they found were missing torsos; and arms and legs had disappeared
during destruction by Goths, Vandals, and Saracens. Camillo
solved this problem by having Algardi glue available heads on available
bodies and sculpt the parts that were missing, then strew the finished
product all across the façade.
At first glimpse the villa is an impressive confection, pale blue, covered
with white statues and friezes that look like elaborate frosting on
an ornate wedding cake. But upon closer inspection, the heads and bodies
clearly don’t match—the heads are too big, or too small—and there
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