Giacomo Chizzola

Giacomo Chizzola (* 1502 in Brescia , † 1580 in Brescia) came from a respected Brescian family. Giacomo was a very universal spirit and humanist, doctor of law, judge, economist, diplomat and extremely socially committed. As early as 1534 he was a member of the "Consiglio generale", the city council of Brescia. As an educated man and judge, he worked several times as a special envoy for Brescia and the Republic of Venice . Already at the age of 29 Giacomo was very prominent in public. In 1548 he founded one of the first agricultural academies in Europe in Rezzato (BS) and was the protector of Angela Merici , the founder of the Catholic Ursuline Order, took care of street children and the terminally ill as early as 1532, following the example of Girolamo Miani (1486–1537) . In 1563 he was named Cavalier of the Venetian Order of San Marco for his many services . He was married to Vittoria Gavazzi, daughter of the excellent doctor Ludovico Gavazzi, and died in 1580 or 1588.

Life's work

Even as a young member of the city council, when the Republic of Venice demanded 1,000 oxen a year from the province of Brescia, he was able to achieve the abolition of this payment with eloquence and success in negotiations, as the country was very populated and there was not enough fodder around 1,000 To look after oxen and their own animals. As a doctor of law and lawyer, he had been sent 17 times as ambassador of the republic to deal with various problems. In 1553 Giacomo traveled with Cardinal Pole Cardinal Polo and other delegates on a diplomatic mission from Brescia to Germany to negotiate peace between the Emperor and the King of France, but this mission was prematurely canceled by the Emperor and the delegation was sent to England on another mission . Giacomo went with him to Brussels , Antwerp and Paris , but preferred to return to Brescia because he “did not want to exchange the air of Brescia with the air at court”. Via Paris he went to Rome to report to the Pope. In the years 1558–1561, the Cremonese had appropriated land on the Oglio (western border river) and issued an edict that no one else - neither prince nor republic - except His Majesty Charles V was responsible. So Giacomo went to Venice , Milan and Regensburg and, accompanied by the envoy of the Republic of Venice, obtained the annulment of the edict. Against the Senate of Milan and against the Cremonese, the rights of the Brescians with regard to shipping, mills etc. on the Oglio were restored. In 1561 he mediated a conflict with Ferrara . For his safety he was given the right to bear arms by the Doge in 1562 . In 1563 Giacomo was appointed to a commission by the Republic of Venice to fix the borders of Friuli with Austrian archdukes ; Giacomo was appointed as one of the advocates who was envoy of the Republic of Venice at the Congress of Udine . Also in 1563 he successfully negotiated with the empire about the rights of navigation in the Adriatic, as a vital right that has been granted to Venice since the fall of Constantinople and is widely respected. His most enduring works were the scientific literary academy, which was first founded in his house in Rezzato, and then in particular the agricultural academy founded in 1548 together with his like-minded friend Agostino Gallo and the agronomist Camillo Tarello to study agriculture and the cultivation of the mulberry tree. This agricultural academy was one of the first of its kind in the world. The academy was under the protectorate of Bishop Bollani and was a meeting place for the intelligentsia and important personalities of the time. So there were z. B. also the mathematician Nicolo Tartaglia and the English cardinal Pole, who was his friend and patron. The academy is believed to have existed until 1575. Francesco Grasso Caprioli produced extensive documentation on literature sources and correspondence . Another historical social act was in 1532, following the example of Girolamo Miani , the merger with three other nobles to organize a charitable foundation to collect children from the streets. With Gerolamo Patengola, D. Giovanni Zanetti and Agostino Galli, Giacomo is one of the founders of the Hospital of the Incurables, where Angela Merici(1474–1540) - founder of the Ursuline Order - worked with her sister community. Giacomo was also significantly involved in the establishment of the community of the "Daughters of St. Angela Merici" and was with Agostino Gallo protector and patron of the community. It is said of him: “di cui si chiamò figlio spirituale”, he called himself: “a spiritual son” of Angela Merici Angela Merici lived from 1532 in a modest room in the house of the church of Santa Afra. The community was officially founded in 1535, called "Compagnia di Sant´ Orsola" and received the house with the small church of Santa Afra, in the immediate vicinity of Chizzola. Angela Merici died in 1540. The town clerk of Brescia reported a funeral like a prince. In 1568, in a trial against Angela Merici, Giacomo said - as one of four men, women were not questioned - that he had visited her on her deathbed and quoted her words of admonition: “Act in your life as you do at the moment of Death would wish to have acted "," ... I do not remember anything else ". Angela Merici was beatified in 1768, and canonized in 1807, her body is intact in a glass coffin in the church of Santa Afra in Brescia for worship. At Christmas on December 24, 1563 he was awarded the Knighthood of the Order of St. Mark by the Senate for his special services to the Republic of Venice . “It was adorned with a heavy gold chain with the image of St. Marcus” and received an annual donation of 300 ducats. Associated with this honor was the extraordinary right to use the Venetian lion as a separate house symbol in coats of arms, flags and on the signet ring. Cav. Giacomo Chizzola died in 1580 at the age of 78, according to another source not until 1588. He was considered the epitome of wisdom in Brescia, he was always respected in noble as well as in simple society and died as a respected citizen, praiseworthy and admirable person, as a role model for posterity. Cav. Dr. Giacomo Chizzola had 7 sons and 2 daughters. His son Hieronimo was “Civitatis Cancellarijs & Notarijs de Collegio Brixiae” and without descendants, son Agostino followed in the footsteps of Giacomo, took over Rezzato and continued the academies and was entrusted with public missions, so that he and Hieronimo with their servants from the Doge expressly the carrying of weapons was allowed.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Treccani degli Alfieri, Storia di Brescia, 1964 Vol. II, p. 343 etc.
2. ↑ Rossi Ottavio, “Elogi historici” 1620, p. 373
3. ^ State history of the Republic of Venice: from its origin to ours ... by Johann Friedrich Le Bret
4. ↑ F.Grasso Caprioli, Camillo Tarello, Agostino Gallo, Giacomo Chizzola e l'Accademia di Rezzato
5. ↑ Guerrini P., “Scuole e maestri bresciani del cinquecento”. Comm.Ateneo 1921, pp. 73-127
6. ↑ Antonio Cistellini, Figure della riforma pretridentina, 1948, pp 21, 83, 97
7. ↑ Website d. Federation of German Ursulines
8. ↑ L. Mariani-E. Tarolli-M. Seynaeve: "Angela Merici, contribution to a biography" 1986, German translation 1995, p. 138
9. ^ Archivio di Stato, Venezia
10. ↑ L. Mariani-E. Tarolli-M. Seynaeve: "Angela Merici, contribution to a biography" 1986, German translation 1995, p. 136
11. ↑ Rossi Ottavio, "Elogi Historici" 1620, p 378
12. ↑ archivio Chizzola and Polizze estimi 1548, Archivio di stato, Brescia