Giorgio vasari, ritratto di bernardetto de' medici

Bernadetto de' Medici (died after 1576) was an Italian patrician who moved from

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

and established the Ottaiano branch of Medici - one of two Medici branches still extant.

Biography

A member of a cadet branch of the

Medici family The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Muge ...

(the one later called the Princes of Ottajano), he was the son of

Ottaviano de' Medici Ottaviano de' Medici (11 July 1484 – 28 May 1546) was an Italian politician. He was the ancestor of the Princes of Ottajano line of the Medici family. From a minor branch of the Medici family, he gained prominence through his marriage to Franc ...

and Francesca Salviati. In 1559, he married Giulia de' Medici, the illegitimate daughter of Duke Alessandro de' Medici by Taddea Malespina. In 1567, he bought the seigniory of Ottaiano in the

Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...

from

Cesare I Gonzaga Cesare I Gonzaga (1530 – 15 February 1575) was count of Guastalla from 1557 until his death. He was a member of the House of Gonzaga, the first-born son of the imperial condottiero Ferrante Gonzaga and Isabella di Capua. From the latter, he inh ...

and moved there, probably due to strife with Grand Duke

Cosimo I Cosimo I de' Medici (12 June 1519 – 21 April 1574) was the second Duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, a title he held until his death. Life Rise to power Cosimo was born in Florence on 12 ...

. He died in Naples after 1576. His son Alessandro (died 1606) was Lord of Ottaiano and General of the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

. His descendants unsuccessfully claimed the title of

Grand Duke of Tuscany The rulers of Tuscany varied over time, sometimes being margraves, the rulers of handfuls of border counties and sometimes the heads of the most important family of the region. Margraves of Tuscany, 812–1197 House of Boniface :These were origin ...

after the extinction of the main branch of the Medici family.

Marriage and descendants

Bernardetto married the illegitimate daughter of the Duke Alessandro de 'Medici, Giulia in 1559. It was her second marriage after the death of her first husband Francesco Cantelmi, Duke of Popoli. They had a son:

Alessandro Alessandro is both a given name and a surname, the Italian form of the name Alexander. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name Alessandro * Alessandro Allori (1535–1607), Italian portrait painter * Alessandro Baricco ...

(† 1606). Lord of Ottaiano, general of the pontifical army since April 1605, governor of Borgo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Medici, Bernadetto Bernadetto 16th-century Italian nobility 16th-century births 16th-century deaths 16th-century Neapolitan people