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Sulpizia Vitelleschi
Sulpizia Vitelleschi (1635–1684) was an Italian heiress.Monson, Craig A.: The Black Widows of the Eternal City: The True Story of Rome’s Most Infamous poisoners' She was one of the people implicated in the infamous Spana Prosecution. Life She was born to the extremely rich nobleman Ippolito Vitelleschi (1584-1654) and Angela Vitelleschi. She was the heiress of her parents and the richest woman in Rome. In 1647, she married Girolamo Mattei (1621-1656), brother of cardinal Orazio Mattei, who died during the Plague in Rome 22 August 1656. In December 1656, only four months after the death of her first spouse, she married her cousin Antonio II Tassi (1623-1672), Marchese di Paullo and captain of the royal guard of the viceroy of Naples. On 31 January 1659, Giovanna De Grandis was arrested in Rome and imprisoned in the Papal prison at Tor di Nona, which was the beginning of the infamous Spana Prosecution, exposing Gironima Spana {{One source, date=February 2022 Gironima Spa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spana Prosecution
The Spana Prosecution was a major criminal case which took place in Rome in the Papal States between January 1659 and March 1660.Monson, Craig A.: The Black Widows of the Eternal City: The True Story of Rome’s Most Infamous poisoners' The Papal authorities under the leadership of lieutenant governor Stefano Bracchi investigated a case involving a criminal net of poisoners, mainly women, for selling the famous poison Aqua Tofana to clients who wished to commit murder, in particular women who wished to become widows. The process involved over forty people, including professional poisoners and clients, some of them members of the aristocracy, and resulted in punishment ranging from exile and lifetime house arrest to the execution of five main figures, among them the central figure Gironima Spana. Background In 1624, a woman by the name Giulia Mangiardi (1581-1651) arrived to Rome from Palermo in Sicily. Her proper name was Giulia Mangiardi, but she has traditionally become known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giovanna De Grandis
{{Expand Swedish, Giovanna De Grandis, date=February 2022 Giovanna De Grandis (died 5 July 1659, Rome) was an Italian poisoner.Monson, Craig A.: The Black Widows of the Eternal City: The True Story of Rome’s Most Infamous poisoners' She was one of the central figures of the infamous Spana Prosecution, one of only six to be executed among over forty people to be implicated. Life Giovanna De Grandis was born in Rome. She was working as a laundress when she was recruited to the organization of Gironima Spana, who trafficked in lethal poison. De Grandis was an important member of the Spana organisation: she had direct contact with Spana and was one of the few of Spana's associates whom Spana entrusted the task to not only sell, but also to manufacture poison. She and Spana herself manufactured the poison using arsenic acquired by the priest Don Girolamo, since apothecaries did not sell arsenic to women. De Grandis was arrested in flagrante on 31 January 1659 and imprisoned in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tor Di Nona
The Tor di Nona is a neighborhood in Rome's ''rione'' '' Ponte''. It lies in the heart of the city's historic center, between the ''Via dei Coronari'' and the Tiber River. Its name commemorates the Torre dell'Annona, a mediaeval tower which once stood there and was later converted into one of the city's most important theatres, the Teatro Tordinona, later called the Teatro Apollo. History Early history The Torre dell'Annona was a medieval stronghold of the Orsini family and from the early 15th century acted as a pontifical prison. Prisoners included Benevenuto Cellini who experienced the dungeon's lightless cells, one of which was known as "the pit", Beatrice Cenci, and Giordano Bruno who was imprisoned here before being burned alive in Campo de' Fiori. In 1659-1660, it was used during the infamous Spana Prosecution.Monson, Craig A.: The Black Widows of the Eternal City: The True Story of Rome’s Most Infamous poisoners' Theatre When the New Prison (''Le Carceri Nuove'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gironima Spana
{{One source, date=February 2022 Gironima Spana (1615-5 July 1659) was an Italian poisoner and astrologer.Monson, Craig A.: The Black Widows of the Eternal City: The True Story of Rome’s Most Infamous poisoners' She was the central figure in the infamous Spana Prosecution against a net of poison merchant women in Rome, who distributed the famous poison Aqua Tofana to clients who wished to commit murder, in particular women who wished to become widows. She was executed alongside four women accomplices for having distributed poison to clients with the intent of murder. She has also been called Girolama Spara, Girolama Spala, L’ Astrologa, La Profetessa and L'Indovina, but Gironima Spana was the spelling she herself used in court documents. Biography Early life and origin Gironima Spana was born in Sicily as the daughter of the wealthy Niccolo Spano, who was provisioning Spanish galleys and overseeing expenditures of Palermo's Ospedale degli Spagnol. She became the stepdaug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1635 Births
Events January–March * January 23 – 1635 Capture of Tortuga: The Spanish Navy captures the Caribbean island of Tortuga off of the coast of Haiti after a three-day battle against the English and French Navy. * January 25 – King Thalun moves the capital of Burma from Pegu to Ava. * February 22 – The ''Académie française'' in Paris is formally constituted, as the national academy for the preservation of the French language. * March 22 – The Peacock Throne of India's Mughal Empire is inaugurated in a ceremony in Delhi to support the seventh anniversary of Shah Jahan's accession to the throne as Emperor. * March 26 – Philipp Christoph von Sötern, the Archbishop-Elector of Trier, is taken prisoner in a surprise attack by Spanish Habsburg troops, leading to a declaration of war against Spain by France and the beginning of the Franco-Spanish War. April–June * April 13 – Druze warlord Fakhr-al-Din II is executed in Cons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1684 Deaths
Events January–March * January 5 – King Charles II of England gives the title Duke of St Albans to Charles Beauclerk, his illegitimate son by Nell Gwyn. * January 15 (January 5 O.S.) - To demonstrate that the River Thames, frozen solid during the Great Frost that started in December, is safe to walk upon, "a Coach and six horses drove over the Thames for a wager" and within three days "whole streets of Booths are built on the Thames and thousands of people are continually walking thereon." Sir Richard Newdigate, 2nd Baronet, records the events in his diary. * January 26 – Marcantonio Giustinian is elected Doge of Venice. * January – Edmond Halley, Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke have a conversation in which Hooke later claimed not only to have derived the inverse-square law, but also all the laws of planetary motion attributed to Sir Isaac Newton. Hooke's claim is that in a letter to Newton on 6 January 1680, he first stated the inverse-square law. * Februa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
17th-century Italian Women
The 17th century lasted from January 1, 1601 ( MDCI), to December 31, 1700 ( MDCC). It falls into the early modern period of Europe and in that continent (whose impact on the world was increasing) was characterized by the Baroque cultural movement, the latter part of the Spanish Golden Age, the Dutch Golden Age, the French ''Grand Siècle'' dominated by Louis XIV, the Scientific Revolution, the world's first public company and megacorporation known as the Dutch East India Company, and according to some historians, the General Crisis. From the mid-17th century, European politics were increasingly dominated by the Kingdom of France of Louis XIV, where royal power was solidified domestically in the civil war of the Fronde. The semi-feudal territorial French nobility was weakened and subjugated to the power of an absolute monarchy through the reinvention of the Palace of Versailles from a hunting lodge to a gilded prison, in which a greatly expanded royal court could be more easily ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
