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reform movements in the later Middle Ages and early Renaissance, Jerome experienced a tremen- dous thrust of popularity as a Christian Leitfigur, the prototypical hermit and ascetic.61 The order of Saint Jerome was established and pushed by the foundation of the Eremiti di S. Girolamo a Fiesole, supported later on by ample financial support of Cosimo de’ Medici.62 The veneration of Saint Jerome in the Italian Renaissance, in particular by scholars and juris- prudents, is amply documented.63 Pope Eugene IV massively supported the observant movement and promoted the foundation of the Fiesole or- der in 1441, initially under the rule of Saint Au- gustine.64 During that time, Leonardo Salutati was one of his closest administrators. When Leo- nardo became bishop of Fiesole in 1450, he was behind the monastery’s architectural and spirit- ual expansion.65 The cult of Saint Jerome was in fashion, not just in Fiesole. When Cardinal Guil- laume d’Estouteville, one of the major diplomats and global players at the papal court in the mid- fifteenth century, commissioned a marble cibor- ium and altar for Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome in the early 1460s, the commission went to no other than Mino da Fiesole.66 D’Estouteville was made cardinal in 1439 by Eugene IV. Leonardo, who entered the papal court that same year, must have known him well.67 D’Estouteville, who ‘for thirty seven years (…) was protector of the Or- der of Saint Augustine’,68 commissioned from Mino and his workshop a large-scale marble altar (1461–63) dedicated to Saint Jerome with a ser- ies of reliefs depicting scenes of the life and mir- acles of Saint Jerome: Jerome in his study, Jerome chastening himself in the image of Christ Cruci- fied, Jerome miraculously curing an injured lion, and finally, a scene in which Jerome has a vision (Fig. 11). The episode is from the pseudo-letters Fig. 11: Mino da Fiesole, Saint Gerome altarpiece for Car- dinal Guillaume d’Estouteville, relief panel with Saint Augustine’s vision of Saint John the Baptist and Saint Je- rome, 1461–1464, marble, Museo Nazionale Palazzo Vene- zia, Rome. The SaluTaTi Tomb in FieSole 163 61 Wiebel, Askese und Endlichkeitsdemut (cit. n. 59), p. 5, 33. 62 Ibid, p. 29. See also G. Raspini, Gli Eremi nella Diocesi di Fiesole, Fiesole 1981, pp. 8–14. In 1405 in the poor her- mitage of Beato Carlo da Montegranelli, which had become a popular location of veneration, the Congregazione degli Eremiti di San Girolamo a Fiesole was founded. Several decades later, Cosimo de’ Medici had a large convent built in 1450 for the Hieronymites. 63 D. Russo, Saint Jérome en Italie. Étude d’Iconographie et de Spiritualité (XIIe – XVe siecle), Paris/Rome 1987. 64 Wiebel, Askese und Endlichkeitsdemut (cit. n. 59), p. 29. 65 For the relations of Pope Eugene IV and Leonardo Salutati with the observant movement of Fiesole see S. and J. Horner, Walks in Florence, Florence 1884, 2 vols., vol. 2, p. 315. 66 Zuraw, The Sculpture of Mino da Fiesole (cit. n. 13), pp. 150–193, 621–649. 67 For Guillaume d’Estouteville see The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. Biographical Dictionary. http://www2. fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios1439.htm (last accessed March 15, 2015). 68 Ibid.