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There were, it seems, some three hundred ships of diverse strength; and every sort of person, old and young, took part in this adventure. Going astray, they first landed in Catalonia and did much damage; then, "acknowledging their unfortunate mistake," they found the island, where, under Archbishop Peter and the Pope's gonfalone, they were entirely successful.
As the Company of the Gonfalone was composed of the foremost burghers and nobles of Rome, almost the entire city attended her funeral. Vannozza was buried in S. Maria del Popolo in her family chapel, by the side of her unfortunate son Giovanni, Duke of Gandia.
Such cars were much used in Italy, where each city had its own consecrated Gonfalone, on its caroccio, hung with scarlet cloth and drawn by oxen.
That night I happened to be at a place where I heard the death announced, according to the Roman custom, in the following formal words: 'Messer Paolo gives notice of the death of Madonna Vannozza, mother of the Duke of Gandia; she belonged to the Gonfalone Company. She was buried yesterday in S. Maria del Popolo, with the greatest honors, almost like a cardinal. She was sixty-six years of age.
Thus unwittingly the people of the medieval church were gathering into a loose, but by no means unformed, union the same materials as the ancients used in the creation of their drama. The earnest Lewis Riccoboni holds that the Fraternity of the Gonfalone, founded in 1264, was accustomed to enact the Passion in the Coliseum, and that these performances lasted till Paul III abolished them in 1549.
Marcantonio Altieri, one of the foremost men of Rome, who was guardian of the Company of the Gonfalone ad Sancta Sanctorum, and as such made an inventory of the property of the brotherhood in 1527, drew up a memorial regarding her, the manuscript of which is still preserved in the archives of the association, and is as follows: We must not forget the endowments made by the respected and honored lady, Madonna Vannozza of the house of Catanei, the happy mother of the illustrious gentlemen, the Duke of Gandia, the Duke of Valentino, the Prince of Squillace, and of Madonna Lucretia, Duchess of Ferrara.
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