Ercole Strozzi

Ercole Strozzi

Ercole Strozzi (born September 2, 1471 in Ferrara , † June 6, 1508 in Ferrara) was an Italian nobleman, humanist and poet, who was himself the son of an important poet, Tito Vespasiano Strozzi , as a courtier, poet and high judge at the court of the Dukes of Ferrara , was a friend of humanists and poets such as Pietro Bembo and Ludovico Ariosto and at the same time a close confidante of the Duchess of Ferrara, Lucrezia Borgia , and - deeply mourned by poet friends and his wife - was murdered in Ferarra at the age of 37.

origin

Coat of arms of the Strozzi family

Ercole Strozzi came from the old Florentine patrician family of the Strozzi , who can be traced back to the 13th century, made great fortune through international banking, initially rivaled the Medici successfully in Florence , but later lost to them. Ercole belonged to a branch of the family expelled from Florence by the Medici and settled in Ferrara .

Ercoles' father, Tito Vespasiano Strozzi (* 1425; † 1505), was born in Ferrara, lived there as a patrician and served three rulers of Ferrara, Leonello d'Este (1441–1450) and Borso d'Este (1450–1471 ) and Ercole I. d'Este (1471–1505) in important court and administrative functions, including as governor of Rovigo and Polesine and as high judge ("Giudice dei Savi"), a position that comes close to that of a head of government. At the same time he was an important humanist from the school of Guarino da Verona († 1460 in Ferrara), wrote the six-volume work "Eroticon" with elegies in refined, almost classical Latin, but also a number of sonnets in Italian.

The court of the Dukes of Ferrara was characterized by humanism and a love of literature, which not only shaped Tito Vespasiano Strozzi and his son Ercole, but also extended to their extended families. So was Luzia Strozzi, the sister of Tito Vespasiano, the mother of the humanist and court poet Matteo Maria Boiardo (* 1441, † 1494), who started with Latin poems, then wrote love poems in Italian and finally with the "Orlando innamorato" his most famous and most mature work created. Another family bond also existed with perhaps the most important Italian poet of his time, Ludovico Ariosto (* 1474; † 1533), as Alessandra Benucci, the wife of his cousin Tito di Leonardo Strozzi, his lover in 1515 and later his - secret - wife as a widow was because otherwise Ariostus would have lost his church inferiority.

Ercol's mother, Domitilla Rangoni, came from a noble family known since the 11th century, was the daughter of Guido Rangoni († 1467) and Giovanna Boiardo, who in turn was an aunt of the poet Matteo Maria Boiardo.

Life

youth

As the eldest son of the statesman and poet Tito Vespasiano Strozzi, Ercole's career as his successor as a courtier and humanist was predetermined. He enjoyed an excellent education in the spirit of humanism, both in Latin and in Greek, as he was a student of Aldo Manuzio , Battista Guarino and Alberto Pio da Carpi, among others . He was also close friends with Ludovico Ariosto, with whom he attended lectures by the humanist Luca Ripa in 1486/89. Ariosto dedicated an elegy to Ercole about the death of a mutual friend, the humanist and poet Michele Tarchaniota Marullo , and mentioned him with great praise in his elegance collection “Venatio”.

His father Tito Vespasiano probably also had a direct influence on his upbringing, as he also served as a model for his poems - elegant elegies and sonnets in classical Latin. Ercole was quick to learn and gifted, and eventually his poems became so popular that some observers believed that his son's Latin poems surpassed his father's.

As the son of a time that, despite idealistic admiration for antiquity, did not forget the present, he did not limit himself to emulating the classics of Roman literature, but wrote - like his father - love poems in the language in which they were understood by the addressees , in the popular "lingua volgare", that is, in Italian, where he was inspired by Pietro Bembo and the dominant role model of his time, Francesco Petrarca . Of these Italian poems, the quality of which Bembo praises in a poem, little more than four sonnets have survived, one of which was erroneously attributed to Baldassare Castiglione .

The elegies written by Ercole Strozzi in Latin were first published in 1513 by the humanist and important publisher Aldo Manuzio the Elder (* 1449/52; † 1515) together with his father's poems .

At the same time, Ercole had social responsibilities at court. For example, he organized scenic performances for Duke Ercole I and in 1493, on the occasion of the marriage of his heir Alfonso d'Este to Anna Sforza, corresponding events. In one of his elegies, which he addressed to Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola , he mentions the plan to write a poem in praise of Ludovico Sforza , Duke of Milan († 1508), and that he had already collected the materials for a great opera.

Despite his youth, his father appointed him deputy as presiding judge (Giudice dei XII Savi) in 1498 with the intention of making him his successor, to which Duke Ercole I agreed. Ercole carried out this difficult task, for which Ercole had little experience, for eight years and four months with great commitment and impartiality, although a number of particular difficulties had to be overcome in his time. The dramatic financial situation of the duchy presented a serious challenge, which required an immediate and drastic increase in tax burdens in order to fill the empty coffers of the duchy. Since the collection of these amounts was incumbent on the authorities led by Ercole, the protest of the population was directed not only against the duke, but also against Ercole. A well-meaning contemporary wrote that Ercole had shed tears out of compassion for the citizens affected by the coercive measures.

Ercole had taken on this difficult task primarily at the urgent request of his father. Seven months after the death of his father, Ercole Strozzi requested Duke Alfonso to be dismissed from this office, which was in complete contradiction to his artistic vocation and his concept of freedom. He formulated this wish in the form of a solemn elegy, which he addressed to the Duchess Lucrezia Borgia. The request was met by Duke Alfonso, who appointed Antonio Costabili as his successor on April 18, 1506.

During his term of office, Ercole had the church della Madonna del Salice built near the monastery of S. Giorgio. There is a foundation inscription and a picture that shows him in the robe of Giudice de 'Savi.

This arduous government task hindered Ercole decisively in his poetic work, as Bembo himself painfully writes in his book “De Vergilii Culice et Terentii fabulis and Ercole” in the third elegy of his second book about love.

Hofmann and confidante of Lucrezia Borgia

Although handicapped by a handicap, Ercole was very popular at the court of the Dukes of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio as his father's son, as a humanist, as a poet and as a handsome and charming courtier. He quickly succeeded in not only acquiring the trust of Duke Ercole I d'Este , who ruled from 1471 to 1505, but also in particular that of Lucrezia Borgia (* 1480; † 1519), who became new on February 2, 1502 Wife of Crown Prince Alfonso I d'Este had made her entry into Ferrara.

Lucrezia Borgia had as the daughter of Pope Alexander VI. Borgia († 1503) held a high political status, because for her father-in-law, Duke Ercole I. d'Este, she was the guarantee that he was not driven out by her brother Cesare Borgia († 1507) like many other princes and feudal lords . Her husband Alfonso d'Este did little to obscure the impression that she was much more than just a political pledge. He was a soldier, often absent from campaigns and regularly neglected her in favor of women of the easy kind. Lucrezia was isolated at the court of Ferrara because she missed her Spanish court ladies and at court many believed that the illegitimate daughter of a pope was for the heir of the not befitting the oldest dynasty in Italy, especially a bride who at the age of 22 was engaged several times, once forcibly divorced and once forcibly widowed. At the same time, unflattering rumors about her family's morality and propensity for violence were circulating everywhere. It is therefore understandable that she turned to the few people who were impartial, benevolent, and like followers of humanism and friends of poetry.

As a result, Ercole Strozzi quickly became Lucrezia's closest confidante, not least because he was a poet himself and also maintained close contacts with other poets and humanists. It was also he who introduced her to his friend, the eminent humanist and poet and later Cardinal Pietro Bembo . He had overseen the publication of Francesco Petrarca's “ Canzoniere ” in 1501 and that of Dante's Divine Comedy in 1502 by the publisher and printer Aldo Muzio, so he was something of a celebrated “superstar” among the Italian humanists of his time and at the same time a brilliant figure personally when he came to Ferrara in 1502 at the age of 32. He often lived in the Ercoles house in the city and also on his country estates in Ostellato, called "Strotiano", and in Racano.

Lucrezia was deeply impressed by Bembo, exchanged poems with him and corresponded with him with the help of Strozzi, who took care of the discreet delivery of the letters. How close their relationship was to Bembo and Strozzi became apparent when their father, Pope Alexander VI, died on August 18, 1503. While almost everyone at court showed undisguised relief, if not joy, Lucrezia bore deep sadness, which only Bembo and Ercole Strozzi demonstratively joined at the court at Ferrara. As the correspondence between Lucrezia and Bembo shows, this relationship gradually began to become increasingly passionate.

After the death of Duke Ercole I d´Este in 1505, Lucrezia's husband followed, Alfonso d´Este as Duke and she as Duchess. Soon after, the close relationship with Pietro Bembo came to an end. Be it that she herself found that it was no longer possible for her to continue as the Duchess, who was at the center of the court, or that her husband Alfonso made it clear that this relationship, which was already being talked about at court, should be ended . As a token of his affection, Bembo dedicated his work "Gli Asolani" - Conversations about (Platonic) Love - to her in February 1505.

The relationship with Ercole Strozzi, which was based on a shared love for humanism and poetry, was platonic, as Ercole was emotionally bound to something else and adored Barbara Torelli, who, rejected by her husband Ercole Bentivoglio, had found a home in Ferrara and at the court of the Este lived. However, there was a lasting personal friendship between Lucrezia and Ercole Strozzi. His poems dedicated to Lucrezia therefore remain strictly within the framework of appropriate court poetry. In 1508 Ercole dedicated a mourning for her dead brother Cesare Borgia, who had died in Navarra, to the Duchess , in which he describes the misery of Lucrezia, the sister, and Charlotte d´Albret, Cesare's wife, and with the complaints of Kassandra and Polyxena about the dead Achilles and who at the same time describes Cesar's heroic career.

When Lucrezia gave birth to a son Ercole II on April 4, 1508 , Ercole Strozzi celebrated the birth of this heir to the throne as a humanistic courtier in the poem "Genethliakon", where he expressed the wish that this son would one day follow the deeds of his uncle Cesare Borgia and his grandfather Pope Alexander VI should be a role model, for both would remind him of Camillus and the Scipions .

In May 1508, after years of waiting, Ercole had the great pleasure of finally marrying his lover, Barbara Torelli, after the death of her husband, Ercole Bentivoglio, who had been estranged for years.

Violent death

Alfonso I d'Este, suspected of ordering the murder of Ercole Strozzi.

Thirteen days after the wedding, on the morning of June 6, 1508, the poet was found dead, lying in the street, wrapped in his coat, on the corner of an Este palace - the later Casa Romei in what is now via Savonarola 30 disheveled hair littered with 22 stab wounds, indicating targeted murder by several assassins.

The whole of Ferrara was dismayed, for Strozzi was the fame of this city, one of the most brilliant poets of his time, a friend of Bembos and Ariosts, favorite of the Duchess, highly respected at court, who was in the prime of his life.

Stone tablet commemorating the murder of Ercole Strozzi in Ferrara in via Savonarola

The real background to the murder has never been clarified. However, the opinion prevailed among the population that Duke Alfonso was behind the attack. There were various assumptions regarding motivation. Some said the Duke had Ercole murdered because he suspected that Ercole and his wife were too close. According to others, the Duke himself fell in love with Barbara Torelli and therefore wanted to eliminate her husband Ercole.

Others saw the motive of the murder in a completely different context, namely in a dispute over the legacy of Ercole Bentivoglio, the first husband of Barbara Torelli. According to this, the instigator of the murder would have been Galeotto Sforza, a son-in-law of Ercole Bentivoglio and Barbara Torelli, as he got into a violent argument with Ercole Strozzi and his mother-in-law Barbara over the inheritance and the surrender of the very important dowry of Barbara (10,000 gold pieces) was.

According to another - more likely - thesis, which among others the historian Maria Bellonci (1902–1986) represents, Ercole Strozzi would have been guilty of mediating confidential correspondence between Lucrezia Borgia and her admirers. Namely, on the one hand between Lucrezia and Pietro Bembo , and on the other hand between Lucrezia and the brother-in-law Alfonsos - the husband of his sister Isabella d'Este - Gianfrancesco II. Gonzaga , Margrave of Mantua (1484-1519) - both of whom showed more than friendly feelings for Lucretia Borgia had. The still existing correspondence between Lucrezia and her two admirers, which clearly suggests more than platonic feelings, speaks for this thesis.

The sudden death of the ever popular courtier and poet Ercole Strozzi was widely mourned in Ferrara. Lucretia Borgia built - probably not entirely by chance - a few years later in the casa Romei - where Ercole was murdered - the monastery of San Bernardino. Duke Francesco Gonzaga, mindful of Ercole's faithful service in conveying his sentimental correspondence with Lucrezia Borgia, offered a reward for finding the murderer. Alfonso d'Este, whose courtier had been assassinated in his immediate vicinity in the middle of the city, however, did not lift a finger to clarify the case.

Ercole's newly wedded wife, Barbara Torelli, was deeply shaken by the violent death of her beloved husband Ercole Strozzi, which occurred only thirteen days after the wedding. She mourned him deeply and expressed her feelings in a poem that has become famous. In it she wished to mix Ercole's dust with her tears and to bring him back to life through the greatness of her love, to show the cruel murderer how much her love can do. The corresponding part of the poem is as follows in the original text:

Vorrei col foco mio quel freddo ghiaccio

intepidire, e rimpastar col pianto

la polve, e ravvivarla a nuova vita:

e vorrei poscia, baldanzosa e ardita,

mostrarlo a lui, che ruppe il caro laccio,

e dirgli: - Amor, mostro crudel, può tanto.

Many of his admirers and poet friends published obituaries for Ercole Strozzi. For example Antonio Tibaldeo, Pietro Bembo, Lodovico Ariosto, Giglio Gregorio Giraldi and Celio Calcagnini , who gave the farewell speech at Strozzi's funeral in the church of S. Maria del Vado, in which he expressed his deep sorrow over the loss of his friend and poet.

Marriage and offspring

Castel montechiarugolo Ancestral seat of the Torelli family, where Barbara Torelli was born

Ercole Strozzi was married to Barbara Torelli (* around 1475 in Montechiarugolo; † 1533 in Bologna) since May 1508, who was famous for her beauty and as a poet. She came from an old noble family, was a daughter of Marsilio Torelli, Lord of Montechiarugolo, condottiere in the service of the Sforza of Milan and Paola Secco, a daughter of the condottiere Francesco Secco († 1496) and Caterina Gonzaga, who was an illegitimate daughter of the margrave Ludovico III. Gonzaga of Mantua was. In the Torelli family, too, some were seized by the movement of humanism, with Barbara's cousin Ippolita Torelli (daughter of her uncle Guido and Francesca Bentivoglio) with none other than Baldassare Castiglione (* 1478 in Casatico near Mantua; † 1529 in Toledo), the famous humanist and author of the “Libro del Cortigiano” (Hofmann's book), was married.

Baldassare Castiglione, a cousin by marriage of Ercole Strozzi’s wife

At the age of sixteen she was married in 1491 to the Condottiere Ercole Bentivoglio (* 1459; † 1507), a son of Sante Bentivoglio († 1462), the Lord of Bologna and the Ginevra Sforza di Pesaro. The marriage later became so unhappy that she fled from her husband to see Elisabetta Gonzaga in Urbino in 1501 and through her later reached Ferrara via Mantua . There she got to know and love Ercole Strozzi around 1504 and married him after the death of her husband in June 1506 with the support of the Duchess of Ferrara, Lucrezia Borgia.

Barbara brought two daughters, Costanza († 1530) and Ginevra Bentivoglio († around 1524) into her second marriage. Of these, Costanza had married the brother Ercoles, Lorenzo Strozzi in 1505. Ercole therefore became the (step-) father-in-law of his brother Lorenzo through his marriage to Barbara, Costanza's mother. Ercoles' other stepdaughter, Ginevra Bentivoglio, soon married Galeazzo Sforza di Pesaro († April 14, 1515 in Milan), the brother of Giovanni Sforza , Lord of Pesaro and Gradara , who married Lucrezia Borgia, then 14, in 1493. A marriage that began in 1497 by Lucrezia's father, Pope Alexander VI. was canceled on the pretext of a lack of enforcement for political reasons.

While her marriage to Ercole Bentivoglio was still in effect, Barbara Torelli gave birth to her lover Ercole Strozzi in 1505 and a daughter in 1508:

• Cesare Strozzi (* 1505; † before 1533 in Pisa)
• Giulia Strozzi (* 1508; † before 1533)

Ercole left two children from previous extramarital relationships:

• Tirinzia Strozzi, she is mentioned in the will of her stepmother Barbara Torelli from November 7th, 1533 as one of her heirs.
• Romano Strozzi, † probably early, as not mentioned in his stepmother's will in 1533

literature

• Giovanni Andrea Barotti, Lorenzo Barotti: "Memorie istoriche di letterati ferraresi, Volume 1, Per gli eredi di Giuseppe Rinaldi", 1792 [3]
• Ferdinand Gregorovius: “Lucrezia Borgia” page 277; limited preview in Google Book search
• Carnelio Monteforte, "Wecole Strozzi poeta ferrarese: la vita, le sue poesie latine e volgari con un sonetto inedito", La Sicilia (1899)
• Kate Simon: “The Gonzaga. A ruling family of the Renaissance ”page 198; Translation from the American; Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-462-02110-9
• The art de verifier les dates [4]
• Maria Bellonci: “Lucrezia Borgia. La sua vita ei suoi tempi, Milano, A. Mondadori, “1939.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wikibools: Storia della letteratura italiana / Ludovico Ariosto [1]
2. ↑ Ercole Strozzi | Sprazzi di Nobiltà | Archive link ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ Giovanni Andrea Barotti, Lorenzo Barotti: Memorie istoriche di letterati ferraresi, Volume 1, page 169; Per gli eredi di Giuseppe Rinaldi, 1792
4. ↑ Epist. I.4
5. ^ Giovanni Andrea Barotti, Lorenzo Barotti: "Memorie istoriche di letterati ferraresi", Volume 1, page 170; Per gli eredi di Giuseppe Rinaldi, 1792
6. ^ Giovanni Andrea Barotti, Lorenzo Barotti: “Memorie istoriche di letterati ferraresi, Volume 1, page 173; Per gli eredi di Giuseppe Rinaldi ", (1792)
7. ^ Giovanni Andrea Barotti, Lorenzo Barotti: “Memorie istoriche di letterati ferraresi, Volume 1, page 174; Per gli eredi di Giuseppe Rinaldi ", (1792)
8. ^ Giovanni Andrea Barotti, Lorenzo Barotti: “Memorie istoriche di letterati ferraresi, Volume 1, page 177; Per gli eredi di Giuseppe Rinaldi ", (1792)
9. ^ Ferdinand Gregorovius: Lucrezia Borgia p. 58, limited preview in the Google book search
10. ↑ Giovanni Andrea Barotti, Lorenzo Barotti: “Memorie istoriche di letterati ferraresi, Volume 1, page 178; Per gli eredi di Giuseppe Rinaldi ", (1792)
11. ^ Ferdinand Gregorovius: Lucrezia Borgia p. 274, limited preview in the Google book search
12. ^ Ferdinand Gregorovius: "Lucrezia Borgia", page 277; limited preview in Google Book search
13. ^ Ferdinand Gregorovius: Lucrezia Borgia p. 277, limited preview in the Google book search
14. ↑ Maria Bellonci: “Lucrezia Borgia. La sua vita ei suoi tempi, Milano, A. Mondadori “, 1939.
15. ↑ Kate Simon: The Gonzaga. A ruling family of the Renaissance. Page 198; Translation from the American; Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-462-02110-9
16. ↑ Kate Simon: "The Gonzaga. A ruling family of the Renaissance ”page 198; Translation from the American; Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-462-02110-9
17. ↑ L'art de verifier les dates [2]
18. ↑ Girolamo Baruffaldi published this poem, which he attributed to Barbara Torelli, in a collection of poems by authors from Ferrara “Rime scelte de 'Poeti Ferraresi antichi e moderni. Aggiuntevi alfine alcune brevi Note “Istoriche intorno ad essi” published in Ferrara in 1713.
19. ↑ Giovanni Andrea Barotti, Lorenzo Barotti: “Memorie istoriche di letterati ferraresi, Volume 1, page 183; Per gli eredi di Giuseppe Rinaldi ", (1792)