Don Giovanni de' Medici (13 May 1567, in

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– 19 July 1621, in Murano) was an Italian military commander, diplomat and architect. Medici was born the

illegitimate Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as '' ...

son of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and

Eleonora degli Albizzi Eleonora degli Albizzi (1543 – 19 March 1634) was a mistress of Cosimo I de' Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany. She had an illegitimate son with him, Don Giovanni de' Medici. History She was the daughter of an ancient Florentine family of modera ...

. Medici was later legitimated by his father. He was born 5 years after the death of his brother, Giovanni, and was given the same name. He moved to

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where he began his military career. In 1598 he was a

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and Florentine ambassador in

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. In 1600 he was Master of the Field for the Imperial army, but his most important appointment was as Commander-in-Chief of the army of the

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(1616–1617). He married Livia del Vernazza, with whom he had two sons; Gianfrancesco Maria (1619–1689) and another that was born

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but died as an infant. Giovanni was also a painter and an architect, and collaborated with

Matteo Nigetti Matteo Nigetti (ca. 1560/1570 – 1648) was an Italian architect and sculptor. He is an important Baroque architect in Florence. Biography Born in Florence, he was the pupil and assistant of Bernardo Buontalenti, with whom he collaborated on ...

in the design of the Principi Chapel for the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. On his return home he caught the smallpox at Padova. He died at Murano in 1621.

Patron of the arts

Don Giovanni took special care in dealing with artists, he was an architect, he designed the construction of the Chapel of the Princes and the Church of San Lorenzo, but he also had a special relationship with the '' commedia dell'arte'', in fact from 1612 to 1621 he oversaw relations with the comedy troupe of Confidenti, with whom he had extensive correspondence with famous comedians Flaminio Scala and Nicholas Barbieri Beltrame in art, as with other patrons such as Gonzaga and the owners of theatres in which Confidenti had to act.

Patron of the arts

References

Further reading