Alessandro Damasceni Peretti di Montalto (1571 – 2 June 1623) was an Italian

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Cardinal Bishop A cardinal ( la, Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae cardinalis, literally 'cardinal of the Holy Roman Church') is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. Cardinals are created by the ruling pope and typically hold the title for life. C ...

. He received the title by his uncle Felice Peretti after the latter was elected

Pope Sixtus V Pope Sixtus V ( it, Sisto V; 13 December 1521 – 27 August 1590), born Felice Piergentile, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 April 1585 to his death in August 1590. As a youth, he joined the Franciscan order ...

on 24 April 1585, in the consistory on 13 May, and was installed as

Cardinal Deacon A cardinal ( la, Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae cardinalis, literally 'cardinal of the Holy Roman Church') is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. Cardinals are created by the ruling pope and typically hold the title for life. Co ...

San Girolamo dei Croati Saint Jerome of the Croats is the national Catholic church of Croatia on Via Tomacelli in the Campus Martius of Rome. It is now a chapel of the Pontifical Croatian College of Saint Jerome in Rome and is only open to visitors by arrangement with ...

on 14 June 1585; the cardinal was then fourteen years old. The Republic of

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

inscribed him in the '' Libro d'Oro'' as a patrician of Venice that same year. Though he was made the permanent governor of

Fermo Fermo (ancient: Firmum Picenum) is a town and '' comune'' of the Marche, Italy, in the Province of Fermo. Fermo is on a hill, the Sabulo, elevation , on a branch from Porto San Giorgio on the Adriatic coast railway. History The oldest ...

the following year, and was often the papal legate in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...

, he was not made a bishop until 1620, when he became

Cardinal-Bishop of Albano The Diocese of Albano ( la, Albanensis) is a suburbicarian see of the Roman Catholic Church in a diocese in Italy, comprising seven towns in the Province of Rome. Albano Laziale is situated some 15 kilometers from Rome, on the Appian Way. Under ...

. He served also as

Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church The Apostolic ChanceryCanon 260, ''Code of Canon Law'' of 1917, translated by Edward N. Peters, Ignatius Press, 2001. ( la, Cancellaria Apostolica; also known as the "Papal" or "Roman Chanc(ell)ery") was a dicastery of the Roman Curia at the ser ...

(1589–1623) and Cardinal Protector of the Kingdom of Poland (named on 19 September 1589 by King

Zygmunt III Waza Sigismund III Vasa ( pl, Zygmunt III Waza, lt, Žygimantas Vaza; 20 June 1566 – 30 April 1632 N.S.) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1587 to 1632 and, as Sigismund, King of Sweden and Grand Duke of Finland from 1592 to ...

) and of the several religious orders. Alessandro Peretti was born at

Montalto delle Marche Montalto delle Marche is a ''comune'' (municipality) and former Latin catholic bishopric in the Province of Ascoli Piceno in the Italian region Le Marche, located in the hilly area that goes from the Adriatic cost to the Sibillini Mountains, a ...

, the son of Fabio Damasceni and Maria Felice Mignucci Peretti, who was a niece of the pope on her mother's side. Like his great-uncle before him, Alessandro Peretti was also known as Cardinal di Montalto. His primary works as a great patron were the

Villa Lante Villa Lante is a Mannerist garden of surprise in Bagnaia, Viterbo, central Italy, attributed to Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola. Villa Lante did not become so known until it passed to Ippolito Lante Montefeltro della Rovere, Duke of Bomarzo, in the ...

at Bagnaia, where he contributed to the gardens a

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live enterta ...

matching the earlier one, and the church (though not the facade) of

Sant'Andrea della Valle Sant'Andrea della Valle is a minor basilica in the rione of Sant'Eustachio of the city of Rome, Italy. The basilica is the general seat for the religious order of the Theatines. It is located at Piazza Vidoni, at the intersection of Corso Vit ...

in Rome, (begun in 1591), where

Carlo Maderno Carlo Maderno (Maderna) (1556 – 30 January 1629) was an Italian architect, born in today's Ticino, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His façades of Santa Susanna, St. Peter's Basilica and Sant'Andrea della Vall ...

constructed at the Cardinal's personal expense the second-largest dome in Rome, 1608 to 1621. Sculpture of Cardinal Montalto by Bernini 6

As a cardinal, Peretti lived an extravagant lifestyle in which he indulged his taste for music and lavish theatrical productions staged in his residence, the Cancelleria palace. He retained several musicians in his service and encouraged the art of monody or solo song. His

portrait bust A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, and a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. The bust is generally a po ...

Gian Lorenzo Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, , ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 159828 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his ...

is at the

Hamburg Kunsthalle The Hamburger Kunsthalle is the art museum of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany. It is one of the largest art museums in the country. The museum consists of three connected buildings, dating from 1869 (main building), 1921 (Kuppelsaa ...

. Surviving books from Cardinal Alessandro's library reflect pride in his relationship to the Pope through elaborate armorials and his perfect taste. Cardinal Montalto was in turn the uncle of Cardinal

Francesco Peretti di Montalto Francesco Peretti di Montalto (1597 – 4 May 1655) was an Italian Catholic Cardinal. Peretti was born to an Italian noble family. By birth he was to be the successor of his father; Prince of Venafro, Venetian patrician, Marquis of San Martin ...

(1597‑1655), raised to the purple in 1641.

References

Sources

James Chater James Chater, British composer and musicologist, was born in Henley-on-Thames in 1951 and studied music at the University of Oxford, taking the BA in 1973 and the D.Phil. in 1980. His thesis, ''Luca Marenzio and the Italian Madrigal, 1577-1593' ...

, "Music and Patronage in Rome: the Case of Cardinal Montalto", ''Studi musicali'', xvi (1987), 179–227 * Hill, John Walter, ''Roman Monody, Cantata, and Opera from the Circles around Cardinal Montalto''. Two volumes. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1997

External links

Biographical Dictionary of the Cardinals of the Roman catholic Church:
San Andrea della Valle {{DEFAULTSORT:Peretti di Montalto, Alessandro 1571 births 1623 deaths People from the Province of Ascoli Piceno 17th-century Italian cardinals Cardinal-bishops of Albano Cardinal-nephews