Vincent I, Duke of Mantua
Encyclopedia
Duchy of Mantua
The Duchy of Mantua was a duchy in Lombardy, Northern Italy, subject to the Holy Roman Empire.-History:After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Mantua was invaded by Byzantines, Longobards and Franks. In the 11th century it became a possession of Boniface of Canossa, marquis of Toscana...
and the Duchy of Montferrat
Duchy of Montferrat
The Duchy of Montferrat was created out of what was left of the March of Montferrat after the last Palaeologus heir had died and the margraviate been briefly controlled by Spain . After that brief interlude, it passed to the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua...
from 1587 to 1612.
Biography
He was a son of Guglielmo X Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Archduchess Eleanor of Austria. His maternal grandparents were Ferdinand I, Holy Roman EmperorFerdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1558 and king of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526 until his death. Before his accession, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs in the name of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.The key events during his reign were the contest...
and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary
Anna of Bohemia and Hungary
Anna of Bohemia and Hungary, also sometimes known as Anna Jagellonica was, by marriage to Ferdinand I, King of the Romans and later Holy Roman Emperor, Queen of the Romans.-Family:She was the elder child and only daughter of king Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and his third...
.
Vincenzo was a major patron of the arts and sciences, and turned Mantua
Mantua
Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...
into a vibrant cultural center. Vincenzo employed the composer Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the...
and the painter Peter Paul Rubens. In 1590 Monteverdi became a viol
Viol
The viol is any one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed musical instruments developed in the mid-late 15th century and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The family is related to and descends primarily from the Renaissance vihuela, a plucked instrument that preceded the...
-player and cantor
Cantor (church)
A cantor is the chief singer employed in a church with responsibilities for the ecclesiastical choir; also called the precentor....
in the music chapel of Vincenzo; in 1602 Vincenzo appointed him master of music on the death of Benedetto Pallavicino
Benedetto Pallavicino
Benedetto Pallavicino was an Italian composer and organist of the late Renaissance. A prolific composer of madrigals, he was resident at the Gonzaga court of Mantua in the 1590s, where he was a close associate of Giaches de Wert, and a competitor of his considerably more famous contemporary...
. Vincenzo was also a friend of the poet Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata , in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem...
. A small book published in Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
in 1589 describes how a comic actor named Valerini in the service of Vincenzo imagines an ideal gallery of art, in which statues of the most important art collectors are featured rather than the work of the artists themselves. Vincenzo was described as a colossus who would dominate the entire ideal gallery, called the Celestial Gallery of Minerva.http://www.mostragonzaga.it/english/exhibition/
The astronomer Giovanni Antonio Magini
Giovanni Antonio Magini
Giovanni Antonio Magini was an Italian astronomer, astrologer, cartographer, and mathematician.-Life:...
also served as tutor to Vincenzo's sons, Francesco and Ferdinando.
Magini's life’s work was the preparation of the Atlante geografico d'Italia (Geographic Atlas of Italy), printed posthumously by Magini’s son in 1620. This was intended to include maps of each Italian region with exact nomenclature and historical notes. A major project, its production (begun in 1594) proved. Vincenzo, to whom the atlas is dedicated, assisted him with this project and allow for maps of the various states of Italy to be brought to Magini.
During the winter of 1603-1604, Galileo visited the Mantuan court in an effort to obtain a position there, and was offered a salary, but could not agree on the terms with Vincenzo, who instead presented him Galileo with a gold chain and two silver dishes.
Vincenzo's spendthrift habits are considered to have accelerated Mantua's economic and cultural decline.
Vincenzo was rumored to have been impotent and he is said to have sent a secret expedition to the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
in order to obtain a legendary aphrodisiac
Aphrodisiac
An aphrodisiac is a substance that increases sexual desire. The name comes from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sexuality and love. Throughout history, many foods, drinks, and behaviors have had a reputation for making sex more attainable and/or pleasurable...
.http://www.siporcuba.it/cn-narr-mantua.htm
On 20 July 1588, Emperor Rudolf II
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
Rudolf II was Holy Roman Emperor , King of Hungary and Croatia , King of Bohemia and Archduke of Austria...
granted Vincenzo the right to an escutcheon of Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, surmounted by an archducal coronet. Vincenzo created the Order of the Redemptor (or of the Most Precious Blood), approved by Pope Paul V
Pope Paul V
-Theology:Paul met with Galileo Galilei in 1616 after Cardinal Bellarmine had, on his orders, warned Galileo not to hold or defend the heliocentric ideas of Copernicus. Whether there was also an order not to teach those ideas in any way has been a matter for controversy...
, on 25 May 1608http://www.heraldica.org/topics/national/italy2.htm.
Issue
Margherita Farnese
Margherita Farnese was a daughter of Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma and Infanta Maria of Guimarães. She was named after her father's mother Margaret of Parma, natural daughter of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor....
in 1581; their marriage was childless and they divorced. On 29 April 1584 he married his first cousin Eleonora de' Medici
Eleonora de' Medici
Eleonora de' Medici was the eldest child of Francesco I de' Medici and Johanna of Austria. She was a family member of the famous House of Medici.-Family:...
, the daughter of Francesco I de' Medici and Joanna of Austria.
Vincenzo and Eleonora's marriage produced five children. They were:
- Francesco (7 May 1586 – 22 December 1612), who ruled as Francesco IV Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Duke of Montferrat between 9 February and 22 December 1612.
- Ferdinando (26 April 1587 – 29 October 1626), who ruled as Ferdinando I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Duke of Montferrat from 1612 until his death.
- Guglielmo Domenico (1589 – 1591) - Died young
- Margherita Gonzaga (2 October 1591 – 7 February 1632) , wife of Henry II, Duke of LorraineHenry II, Duke of LorraineHenry II was Duke of Lorraine from 1608 until his death. His two daughters were Duchesses of Lorraine by marriage. He was also the brother-in-law of King Henry IV of France.-History and Family:...
- Vincenzo (7 January 1594 – 25 December 1627), ruled as Vincenzo II Gonzaga, Duke of MantuaVincenzo II Gonzaga, Duke of MantuaVincent II Gonzaga was Duke of Mantua and Duke of Montferrat from 1626 until his death.He was the son of Duke Vincent I and Eleonora de' Medici and inherited the duchy at the death of his elder brother Ferdinand, receiving the imperial investiture on February 8, 1627...
and Marquess of Montferrat from 1626 until his death. - Eleonora Gonzaga (23 September 1598 – 27 June 1655), second wife of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman EmperorFerdinand II, Holy Roman EmperorFerdinand II , a member of the House of Habsburg, was Holy Roman Emperor , King of Bohemia , and King of Hungary . His rule coincided with the Thirty Years' War.- Life :...
Ancestry
External links
|-