page_title: Palazzo dei Convertendi
section_title: Palazzo Caprini
hierarchical_section_title: Palazzo dei Convertendi / History / Palazzo Caprini
caption_attribution_description: Self-portrait of Raphael, aged approximately 23
context_page_description: Palazzo dei Convertendi is a reconstructed Renaissance palace in Rome. It originally faced the Piazza Scossacavalli, but was demolished and rebuilt along the north side of Via della Conciliazione, the wide avenue constructed between 1936 and 1950, which links St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican City to the centre of Rome. The palace is famous as the last home of the painter Raphael, who died there in 1520.
context_section_description: Towards the middle of the 15th century, a house named "della stufa" stood at the northwest edge of the little Piazza Scossacavalli in Borgo. A stufa (from the German word stube) was something between a Roman bath and a modern sauna, often attended by artists who could freely sketch nudes there. In 1500 the house was sold to the apostolic protonotary Adriano (or Alessandro) de Caprineis, of the noble Caprini family of Viterbo. During those years, Pope Alexander VI Borgia (r. 1492–1503 ) was pursuing a project to open a new road between Castel Sant'Angelo and the Old St. Peter's Basilica. This road was named Via Alessandrina after the pope and later Borgo Nuovo, and was officially inaugurated in 1500. People willing to erect buildings at least 5 canne (11 m (36 ft) ca.) high along the new road received special privileges, such as tax exemptions. The Caprini fulfilled this obligation by buying a portion of another house near the stufa and erecting there a small palazzo designed by Donato Bramante. It was unfinished on 7 October 1517, when the Caprini sold it for 3,000 ducati to Raphael. The artist completed the construction, spending there the last three years of his life. He painted in those rooms the Transfiguration, and died there on 6 April 1520.
  After Raphael's death, the building was sold to the Cardinal of Ancona, Pietro Accolti, who already owned another palazzo on via Alessandrina, separated from the building through a house which the Cardinal bought later. After the death of the Cardinal, the palace was inherited by his nephew Benedetto, Cardinal of Ravenna. Accused of corruption, the Cardinal was imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo in 1534 and released after paying a fine of 59,000 scudi to the Apostolic Chamber. The cardinal had to borrow the huge sum from the Florentine bankers Giulio and Lorenzo Strozzi, who later acquired his palace for 6,000 scudi as partial reimbursement of the loan. However, the Cardinal reserved the right to redeem the building after repaying his creditors, and this led to a lawsuit between his heirs and the heirs of the Strozzi. The latter won, but in 1576 they were forced to sell the building, which was crumbling and whose walls had been shored up, to Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Commendone.
caption: Raphael purchased Palazzo Caprini in 1517, spending the last 3 years of his life there
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