Giano di Campofregoso

Giano II di Campofregoso (also: Fregoso) (* around 1455 in Genoa ; † August 1529 in Brescia ) was the 43rd Doge of the Republic of Genoa . Giano was the firstborn son of Tommasino Fregoso, Lord of Sarzana and Caterina di Antonio Malaspina di Mulazzo . He received an excellent humanistic and military training and spent a large part of his childhood in Corsica, where his father worked for the powerful Banco di San Giorgio . In 1482 Giano married Ardabella da Leca, daughter of the Corsican nobleman Giampaolo da Leca. In the same year his father made him Count of Corsica and left him the government of the island. Conflicts with the local upper class forced him to return to Genoa at the end of 1482, where he lived until 1488.

Exile and return to Genoa

Coat of arms of the Fregoso family (also: Campofregoso)

In 1488 the Doge Paolo di Campofregoso was overthrown by the Adorno and the Milanese Sforza. The Fregoso clan had to leave Genoa and found a golden exile in Rome, around Cardinal Giuliano Della Rovere , who later became Pope Julius II. Giano was in command of several cavalry companies in the service of the Pope, but shared broader ambitions with Ottaviano di Campofregoso . In Rome the opportunity arose to forge the right alliances to regain power in Genoa. From 1509 Giano was in the service of Venice, where he was promoted to governor general of the Venetian army in 1510. After the wars of the Fregoso and their allies against Genoa in 1507 and 1510 failed, another military campaign led to success in 1512. On June 29, 1513 Giano di Campofregoso was proclaimed Doge of Genoa.

Doganat and later years

After attempts to overthrow the noble families Fieschi and Adorno and a new French offensive against Genoa, the Doganate of Giano di Campofregoso ended on May 25, 1513 with his flight by ship to La Spezia. The following day Antoniotto Adorno was appointed governor of the French King Louis XII. used. A brother of Giano, Zaccaria Fregoso, was executed in Genoa for the murder of Girolamo Fieschi. A few days later, on June 12, 1513, Giano signed a pact to recapture Genoa with Ottaviano di Campofregoso and Ramón Folch de Cardona , viceroy of Naples on the Trebbia . When Ottaviano di Campofregoso moved into Genoa and when the new Doge was proclaimed on June 20, 1513, he was no longer involved. Like his father, Giano settled on Lake Garda in the Veronese and broke off all ties with Genoa. At the beginning of 1514 he returned to the Venetian service as general of the militias of S. Marco. He took part in several campaigns and ended his military career as military leader of the Venetian troops in the League of Cognac . Giano di Campofregoso wrote his will on August 10, 1529 and died shortly afterwards. He was buried in Verona in the church of S. Anastasia, where his son Ercole had a grandiose mausoleum built by Danese Cattaneo in 1565 .

Fregoso altar by D. Cattaneo, S. Anastasia, Verona

family

Giano di Campofregoso had several sons and daughters:

• Cesare (around 1500–1541), ⚭ Costanza Rangoni , sister of the condottiere Guido II. Rangoni (1485–1539) . Cesare Fregoso was a condottiere of the Republic of Venice and died as a troop leader in French service.
• Annibale (1500 – June 1532, Padua), ⚭ Camilla Strozzi from Ferrara; Colonel in the Venetian service
• Alessandro († 1565, Padua), ⚭ Costanza Strozzi (sister of Camilla Strozzi); Condottiere in the service of Venice
• Caterina, ⚭ Antonio Maria Avogadro (1500– September 1528) from Brescia
• Marta, nun
• Ercole, canon
• Fregosina, ⚭ Girolamo Maggi from Brescia
• Susanna, ⚭ Count Alberto Landriani from Milan

literature

• Maristella Cavanna Ciappina:  Fregoso, Giano. In: Fiorella Bartoccini (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 50:  Francesco I Sforza-Gabbi. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1998.