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 (4 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 Alexand ...

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

Louis XII of France Louis XII (27 June 14621 January 1515), also known as Louis of Orléans was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples (as Louis III) from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Marie of Cleves, he succeeded his second ...

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 (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) 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 ...

. A man of the world whose personal emblem was

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titans, Titan. He is best known for defying the Olympian gods by taking theft of fire, fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technol ...

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

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in Pius IV'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 (), also called the Sacred College of Cardinals, is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church. there are cardinals, of whom are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Appointed by the pope, ...

; he kept as his secretary Arnaud d'Ossat, 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 but not in the conclave of 1572, as he was absent in France. He played a key role, however, in the Papal conclave, 1585. Luigi d'Este lived partly in Rome and partly at the Villa d'Este, Tivoli, built for his uncle Ippolito II d'Este. In Rome he rented from the Orsini an agglomeration of ''case'' at Montegiordano, near Piazza Navona, 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'' on the Quirinal that is now the residence of the

President of Italy The president of Italy, officially titled President of the Italian Republic (), is the head of state of Italy. In that role, the president represents national unity and guarantees that Politics of Italy, Italian politics comply with the Consti ...

. Careless of his mounting debts, Cardinal d'Este was the most influential patron of the madrigal composer Luca Marenzio, whom he employed as '' maestro di cappella'' 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 preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...

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 or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...

Giambattista della Porta, 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 an Italian Renaissance painter who was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Renaissance, who was responsible for som ...

's '' Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine'', 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 Luigi (; ) is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Part of Nintendo's ''Mario'' franchise, he is a kind-hearted, cowardly Italian plumber, and the younger fraternal twin brother and sidekick of Mario. Like ...

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