Luigi d'Este (21 December 1538 – 30 December 1586) was an Italian Catholic cardinal, the second son of the five children of

Ercole II d'Este Ercole II d'Este (5 April 1508 – 3 October 1559) was Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio from 1534 to 1559. He was the eldest son of Alfonso I d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia. Biography Through his mother, Ercole was a grandson of Pope Alexander ...

, Duke of Modena and Ferrara, and Renée, daughter of

Louis XII of France Louis XII (27 June 14621 January 1515), was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Maria of Cleves, he succeeded his 2nd cousin once removed and brother in law at the tim ...

Biography

Luigi, a member of the

House of Este The House of Este ( , , ) is a European dynasty of North Italian origin whose members ruled parts of Italy and Germany for many centuries. The original House of Este's elder branch, which is known as the House of Welf, included dukes of Bavaria ...

, was born in

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

. A man of the world whose personal emblem was

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, know ...

bearing fire in the stalk of fennel, he was made a

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Pius IV Pope Pius IV ( it, Pio IV; 31 March 1499 – 9 December 1565), born Giovanni Angelo Medici, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 December 1559 to his death in December 1565. Born in Milan, his family considered ...

's consistory of 26 February 1561 and served as Cardinal Protector of the kingdom of France, which made him one of the most powerful and influential members of the

College of Cardinals The College of Cardinals, or more formally the Sacred College of Cardinals, is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church. its current membership is , of whom are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Cardinals are appoi ...

; he kept as his secretary

Arnaud d'Ossat Arnaud d'Ossat (20 July 1537 – 13 March 1604) was a French diplomat and writer and a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, whose personal tact and diplomatic skill steered the perilous course of French diplomacy with the papacy in the reign ...

, a skillful French diplomat who was eventually made a cardinal himself. He was Bishop of Ferrara (1550) and Apostolic Administrator of Ferrara (1561 – 8 October 1563), deacon of S. Angelo in Pescheria (1577–1583) He participated in the

Papal conclave, 1565–1566 The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

but not in the conclave of 1572, as he was absent in France. He played a key role, however, in the

Papal conclave, 1585 The 1585 papal conclave (21–24 April), convoked after the death of Pope Gregory XIII, elected Cardinal Felice Peretti Montalto (O.F.M.Conv), who took the name ''Sixtus V''. Forty-two of the sixty cardinals participated in the conclave. The absen ...

. Luigi d'Este lived partly in Rome and partly at the

Villa d'Este The Villa d'Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains. It is now an Italian state museum, and is listed as a UNESCO World Herita ...

, Tivoli, built for his uncle

Ippolito II d'Este Ippolito (II) d'Este (25 August 1509 – 2 December 1572) was an Italian cardinal and statesman. He was a member of the House of Este, and nephew of the other Ippolito d'Este, also a cardinal. He is perhaps best known for his despoliation of the ...

. In Rome he rented from the

Orsini Orsini is a surname of Italian origin, originally derived from Latin ''ursinus'' ("bearlike") and originating as an epithet or sobriquet describing the name-bearer's purported strength. Notable people with the surname include the following: *Angel ...

an agglomeration of ''case'' at Montegiordano, near

Piazza Navona Piazza Navona () is a public open space in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in the 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans went there to watch the '' agones' ...

, where he kept in attendance the large ''famiglia'' or household expected of a man of his birth and position,See G. Fragnito, "'Parenti' et 'familiari' nelli corti cardinalizie del rinascimento", in C. Mozzarelli, ed. ''Familgia' del principe e famiglia aristocratica'' (Rome) 1988; a list of 1579 notes 34 prelates and noblemen, with their 73 servants, 66 lesser individuals sharing 44 further servants, plus pages, footmen, kitchen and stable staff, falconers and bakers that served the household in general (Marco Bizzarini, "Marenzio and Cardinal Luigi d'Este" ''Early Music'' 27.4, (November 1999:519–532) p. 520. and a ''

villa suburbana A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas n ...

'' on the Quirinal that is now the residence of the

President of Italy The president of Italy, officially denoted as president of the Italian Republic ( it, Presidente della Repubblica Italiana) is the head of state of Italy. In that role, the president represents national unity, and guarantees that Italian poli ...

. Careless of his mounting debts, Cardinal d'Este was the most influential patron of the

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number o ...

composer

Luca Marenzio Luca Marenzio (also Marentio; October 18, 1553 or 1554 – August 22, 1599) was an Italian composer and singer of the late Renaissance. He was one of the most renowned composers of madrigals, and wrote some of the most famous examples of the fo ...

, whom he employed as ''

maestro di cappella (, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...

'' from August 1578 until the time of his death: during the eight-year period, Marco Bizzarini observes, Marenzio published some two-thirds of his copious output. To Cardinal d'Este Marenzio dedicated his ''Primo libro de' madrigali a5'', 1580, "because of the debt of an infinite number of favours", and books of

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

s published at Venice were dedicated by Bertoldo Sperindio (1562) and Francesco Portinaro (1568). Cardinal d'Este was a generous patron of scholars, men of letters—like the poet

Torquato Tasso Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' (Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...

, who was taken to Paris in 1565 in the Cardinal's household and dedicated his ''Rinaldo'' to him but was deemed mentally unstable in 1579 and confined at

for several years, during which he wrote a number of philosophical dialogues and discourses—and scientists, such as the Neapolitan

polymath A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...

Giambattista della Porta Giambattista della Porta (; 1535 – 4 February 1615), also known as Giovanni Battista Della Porta, was an Italian scholar, polymath and playwright who lived in Naples at the time of the Renaissance, Scientific Revolution and Reformation. Giamb ...

, whom he invited to join him in Rome in 1579. Among the Cardinal's paintings was

Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sens ...

's ''

Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine The mystical marriage of Saint Catherine (or "Mystic") covers two different subjects in Christian art arising from visions received by either Catherine of Alexandria or Catherine of Siena (1347–1380), in which these virgin saints went through a ...

'', now in the Louvre. He died in Rome in 1586.''Deuotissime orationi ch’ogni notte, Oltre il diuino Offitio, soleua dire la fe. me. Dell'illustriss. et reuerrndiss Sig. Cardinal d'Este'', 1588, facsimile edition with biography, Second edition increased, 201

/ref> He bequeathed his entire estate to his brother Alfonso II d'Este. Luigi d'Este is buried in the church of S. Maria Maggiore (commonly known as S. Francesco), Tivoli.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Este, Luigi d 1538 births 1586 deaths

Luigi is a fictional character featured in video games and related media released by Nintendo. Created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Luigi is portrayed as the younger fraternal twin brother and sidekick of Mario, Nintendo's masc ...

16th-century Italian cardinals Bishops of Ferrara 16th-century Italian nobility 16th-century Italian Roman Catholic bishops