Maria Anna Josepha Althann (26 July 1689 - 1 March 1755) was a politically active Austrian countess. She was born as Donna Maria Anna Giuseppina Pignatelli di San Vicente. She was married Count Johann Michael von

Althann The House of Althann (also spelled Althan, Altham or Altheim) is the name of an ancient German noble family that originated from Lower Bavaria, whose members occupied many important political and clerical positions during the Holy Roman Empire. F ...

, the favorite of

Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor , house = Habsburg , spouse = , issue = , issue-link = #Children , issue-pipe = , father = Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor , mother = Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg , birth_date ...

, and known for her influence in the court of Spain and Austria, where she was an associate of the pro-Spanish party at court. She was also a noted patron of Italian art, and rumored to have secretly married

Pietro Metastasio Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782), better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio (), was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of '' opera seria'' libretti. Early life Me ...

References

Constantin von Wurzbach Constantin Wurzbach Ritter von Tannenberg (11 April 1818 – 17 August 1893) was an Austrian biographer, lexicographer and author. Biography He was born in Laibach, Carniola (present-day Ljubljana, Slovenia).He later went on to complete a cou ...

: Althann, Maria Anna Josepha Gräfin. In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich. 1. Theil. Universitäts-Buchdruckerei L. C. Zamarski (vormals J. P. Sollinger), Wien 1856, S. 18 {{DEFAULTSORT:Althann, Maria Anna Josepha 1689 births 1755 deaths 18th-century Spanish people 18th-century Austrian people