Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena

Raphael : Portrait of Cardinal Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena (around 1516)

Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena (born August 4, 1470 in Bibbiena , † November 9, 1520 in Rome ) was an Italian writer, cardinal and secretary to Pope Leo X.

Life

Bernardo was born into the family of the Dovizi, lords of Bibbiena . His life is closely linked to the Medici . At the age of 22 he was a member of the embassy that Pope Alexander VI. on behalf of the city of Florence . Two years later he was the Medici ambassador to the court of Naples .

He became a confidante of Giovanni de 'Medici . When the Medici were expelled from Florence, he followed him into exile in Urbino , which was then under the rule of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro . Under his successor Francesco Maria I della Rovere , da Bibbiena associated with important artists such as Francesco di Giorgio Martini and Luciano Laurana . Above all, he made friends with Baldassare Castiglione , who in 1513 contributed to the success of his only comedy La Calandria , which premiered in Urbino in 1513.

Giovanni de 'Medici succeeded in bringing Florence back under the rule of the Medici in 1512. After the death of Pope Julius II. In 1513 he was elected Pope Leo X. elected. In the same year he appointed Bernardo Dovizi treasurer general and protonotary . After his appointment as a cardinal, he was ordained a deacon after the Pope had assigned him to Santa Maria in Portico as the titular church . In 1515 he sealed the alliance between Leo X and Austria, Switzerland, Venice and Milan. The following year he was envoy of the papal army in Urbino , where he previously enjoyed a great reputation. In 1518 he traveled to France, ostensibly to persuade the French to crusade against the Ottomans , but in reality to increase the influence of the Roman Curia on France. In the meantime he was so powerful that Pope Leo X jokingly called him Old Papa (Eng .: second or antipope). At the end of 1519 he fell seriously ill and returned to Rome, where he died on November 9, 1520.

The suspicion that Leo X had allowed Bernardo Dovizi to be poisoned out of fear that he was intriguing against him in order to become his successor has persisted for a long time, but has never been proven.

Bernardo da Bibbiena was also a theater poet. His comedy La Calandria (1513) is one of the most important of the 16th century.

literature

• Guido Davico Bonino (Ed.): Il teatro italiano II. La commedia del Cinquecento. Tomo primo . Einaudi, Torino (Turin) 1977.
• Giorgio Patrizi:  Dovizi, Bernardo, detto il Bibbiena '. In: Fiorella Bartoccini (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 41:  Donaggio – Dugnani. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1992.

Web links

Commons : Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Dovizi da Bibbiena, Bernardo (1470-1520). In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website, English)
• Publications about Dovizi da Bibbiena in RI-Opac