Giacomo Boncompagni

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Giacomo Boncompagni

Giacomo Boncompagni , also Jacopo Boncompagni (born May 8, 1548 in Bologna , then Papal States , now Italy , †  August 18, 1612 in Sora , Italy) was an Italian feudal lord of the early Baroque.

Life

Boncompagni was the son of Ugo Boncompagni , who later became Pope Gregory XIII. , and his mistress from Carpi , Maddalena Fulchini, born in Bologna. Ugo Boncompagni was in his hometown of Bologna to perform his duties as one of the papal lawyers during the exile there of the Council of Trent in the Papal States; he was ordained a priest ten years later. Giacomo was recognized as a legitimate son by his father on July 5, 1548. His education was taken over by the Jesuits .

After his father was elected Pope in May 1572, Giacomo went to Rome and was appointed castellan of Castel Sant'Angelo ; at the same time he studied at the Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum . This was followed in April 1573 by his appointment as Gonfaloniere of the Church . In this capacity as commander of the papal army, he first went to Ancona to protect the city against a possible threat from the Turks, and then to Ferrara until 1574 , where he met King Henry III. received from France on papal mandate. In August 1575 he transferred King Philip II. Of Spain the title of supreme commander of the armed forces in time of Spain dominated Duchy of Milan . In February 1576 he married Costanza Sforza in Rome from the family of the Counts of Santa Fiora in southern Tuscany , who brought a dowry of 50,000 Scudi into the marriage; with her he had 14 children. In December of the same year Gregory XIII appointed him. to the governor of Fermo .

Sovereign and warlord

His father Gregor XIII. tried over the years, despite all administrative tasks and military obligations, to create his own feudal rule for his son. In February 1577 the attempt to get the margraviate of Saluzzo in western northern Italy from the French king failed , for which the Pope offered a sum of 600,000 Scudi. In August of the same year, however , the small margraviate of Vignola near Modena was acquired by paying 70,000 Ferrarese gold scudi to Alfonso II. D'Este , Duke of Ferrara . In August 1578, King Philip II granted Giacomo the margraviate of Casalmaggiore in the eastern part of the Duchy of Milan; He was also appointed Councilor of State and Knight of the Spanish Order of Calatrava .

On September 12, 1579, however, the Pope succeeded in making an acquisition that was important for the future of his son and his own family: For an amount of 100,000 gold scudi, he bought the Duchy of Sora on the northern border of the city from Francesco Maria II della Rovere , Duke of Urbino Kingdom of Naples , which Philip II confirmed with the official enfeoffment in December. In May 1583 Giacomo bought the counties Aquino and Arpino in the same region from their previous owner, Alfonso D'Avalos D'Aquino, for 243,000 ducats . All of these places are now in the extreme south of the Italian region of Lazio .

In February 1581 Giacomo received an embassy from Tsar Ivan IV in his palace in Rome as a representative of the Pope and served his father in a diplomatic function. In the same year 1581 he received together with Latino Orsini , Margrave of Lamentana , the order to fight the bandit mischief in the Papal States . After his father's death in 1585, with 2,000 foot troops and four companies of light cavalry, he ensured that the conclave could proceed safely during the sedis vacancy . However, influencing the cardinals with regard to their voting decision failed.

The new Pope Sixtus V confirmed Giacomo in his function as commander of the papal troops, but not in the office of governor of Fermo. Pope Clement VIII renewed this in July 1600. Philip II of Spain also kept him in his functions in the Duchy of Milan. Giacomo and his family subsequently moved to Isola del Liri , from where in his absence the wife Costanza administered the duchy in the Palazzo Boncompagni there. It was not until 1612 that Giacomo was released from his duties in Milan.

Patrons and industrialists

Giacomo was involved early on in his dominions in the industrial sector and banking: in 1576 he bought an alum mine in the Tolfa region in the northwest of the Lazio region , and in 1583 he bought a paper mill for 1,500 ducats in the Sora area, where he also founded a company for wool processing. In 1579 he contributed 25,000 ducats to the establishment of a bank in Naples and in 1589 he promoted the settlement of Jewish merchants and bankers in his northern Italian estate of Vignola.

As a patron, Giacomo particularly supported authors of literary works, some of which were dedicated to him with political content. He owned a sizeable library, most of which is now in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana . He also granted his support to Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina , the most important composer of the time, which is why he dedicated two books of madrigals and motets to him. Finally, Giacomo himself collected documents from his father's pontificate, which were published in a corresponding documentation work. The Boncompagni family archive that he created is now part of the Archivio Segreto Vaticano . This patronage earned him the esteem of many of his contemporaries; it was in fact the substitute for the dwindling political role in the papal state under the popes who followed his father.

The Palazzo Boncompagni in the residential town of Isola del Liri is built directly over a waterfall of the Liri River . It has a tall tower and an inner courtyard; two large coats of arms in the stairwell are reminiscent of the builder family and thus Giacomo as the client.

In 1612 Giacomo, the first Duke of Sora from the Boncompagni family, returned to Sora sick and died there on August 18th at the age of 64.

Art history

The Italian painter Scipione Pulzone , a well-known portraitist of his time, painted a portrait of Giacomo Boncompagni in 1574, which was auctioned at Christie's in New York City in January 2013 .

literature

See also

personal data
SURNAME Boncompagni, Giacomo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Boncompagni, Jacopo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian feudal lord
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1548
PLACE OF BIRTH Bologna , Papal States
DATE OF DEATH August 18, 1612
Place of death Sora