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Giambattista Guarini
Giovanni Battista Guarini (10 December 1538 – 7 October 1612) was an Italian poet, dramatist, and diplomat. Courtier at Ferrara, diplomat and secretary to several ruling families, he served also at Florence and Urbino. He is best known as the author of the pastoral tragicomedy ''Il pastor fido''. Written in emulation of Tasso's ''Aminta'', it was extremely successful and remained one of the most popular work of secular literature in Western Europe for almost two hundred years. Life Guarini was born at Ferrara in 1538 of a family of Veronese origin. His father Francesco was the grandson of the famous Renaissance humanist Guarino da Verona. On the termination of his studies at the university of Padua, he was appointed professor of rhetoric and poetics at Ferrara. Soon after his appointment, he published a collection of sonnets which obtained for him great popularity as a poet. His marriage in about 1560 to Taddea, a sister of the famous Ferrarese singer Lucrezia Bendidio, result ...
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Ferrara
Ferrara (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po (river), Po River, located north. The town has broad streets and numerous palaces dating from the Renaissance, when it hosted the court of the House of Este. For its beauty and cultural importance, it has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. History Antiquity and Middle Ages The first documented settlements in the area of the present-day Province of Ferrara date from the 6th century BC. The ruins of the Etruscan civilization, Etruscan town of Spina, established along the lagoons at the ancient mouth of Po river, were lost until modern times, when drainage schemes in the Valli di Comacchio marshes in 1922 first officially revealed a necropolis with over 4,000 tombs, evidence of a population centre that in ...
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University Of Padua
The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest university in Italy, as well as the world's fifth-oldest surviving university. The University of Padua was one of the most prominent universities in early modern Europe, known particularly for the rigor of its Aristotelian logic and science. Together with the University of Bologna, Padua had a central role in the Italian Renaissance, housing and educating a number of Italian Renaissance mathematicians, amongst them Nicolaus Copernicus. , it is made up of 32 departments and eight schools. Padua is part a network of historical research universities known as the Coimbra Group. In 2021, the university had approximately 72,000 students including undergraduates, postgraduates, and doctoral students. History The university is conventionally s ...
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Duchy Of Urbino
The Duchy of Urbino () was an independent duchy in Early modern period, early modern central Italy, corresponding to the northern half of the modern region of Marche. It was directly annexed by the Papal States in 1631. It was bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Republic of Florence in the west and the Papal States in the south. In 1523 the capital was moved from Urbino to Pesaro. After the short rule by Cesare Borgia in 1502–08, the dukedom went to the House of della Rovere, della Rovere papal family, who held it until 1625, when Pope Urban VIII annexed it to the Papal States as ' (later '). History The papal nomination transformed the county of Urbino, established in 1213, into a duchy governed by the House of Montefeltro. In fact, it was Pope Eugene IV, in 1443, who appointed Oddantonio da Montefeltro as the first Duke of Urbino. However, he reigned for less than a year, from 1443 to 1444, before being assassinated. His older half-brother Federico da Montefeltr ...
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Mantua
Mantua ( ; ; Lombard language, Lombard and ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region of Lombardy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, eponymous province. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the "Italian Capital of Culture". In 2017, it was named as the "European Capital of Gastronomy", included in the Eastern Lombardy District (together with the cities of Bergamo, Brescia, and Cremona). In 2008, Mantua's ''centro storico'' (old town) and the nearby of Sabbioneta were declared by UNESCO to be a World Heritage Site. Mantua's historic power and influence under the House of Gonzaga, Gonzaga family between 1328 and 1708 made it one of the main artistic, culture, cultural, and especially musical hubs of Northern Italy and of Italy as a whole. It had one of the most splendid courts of Europe of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and early seventeenth centuries. Mantua is noted for its significant role in the history of opera; the city is also known for its architectural treasur ...
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House Of Gonzaga
The House of Gonzaga (, ) is an Italian princely family that ruled Mantua in Lombardy, northern Italy from 1328 to 1708 (first as a captaincy-general, then Margraviate of Mantua, margraviate, and finally Duchy of Mantua, duchy). They also ruled Monferrato in Piedmont and Nevers in Kingdom of France, France, as well as many other lesser fiefs throughout Europe. The family includes a Aloysius Gonzaga, saint, twelve Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinals and fourteen bishops. Two Gonzaga descendants became empresses of the Holy Roman Empire (Eleonora Gonzaga (1598–1655), Eleonora Gonzaga and Eleonora Gonzaga (1630–1686), Eleonora Gonzaga-Nevers), and one became Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (Marie Louise Gonzaga). History The first members of the family of historical importance are known to have collaborated with the Guelphs and Ghibellines, Guelph faction alongside the monks of the Polirone Abbey. Starting from the 12th cen ...
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Ferdinando I De' Medici
Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (30 July 1549 – 17 February 1609) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1587 to 1609, having succeeded his older brother Francesco I, who presumably died from malaria. Early life Ferdinando was the fifth son (the third surviving at the time of his birth) of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleanor of Toledo, the daughter of Pedro Álvarez de Toledo, Marquis of Villafranca, the Spanish viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples. He was made a Cardinal in 1562 at the age of 13, but was never ordained into the priesthood. At Rome, he proved an able administrator. He founded the Villa Medici in Rome. He acquired the large collection of antiquities established by Andrea della Valle in 1584, as well as other works of art like the Medici lions. These were subsequently divided among the various Medici estates. Grand Duke When his brother Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, died in 1587, Ferdinando succeeded as grand duke ...
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Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence was a centre of Middle Ages, medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. It is considered by many academics to have been the birthplace of the Renaissance, becoming a major artistic, cultural, commercial, political, economic and financial center. During this time, Florence rose to a position of enormous influence in Italy, Europe, and beyond. Its turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful House of Medici, Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The Florentine dialect forms the base of Italian language, standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Italy due to ...
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Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west. The territory has a varied landscape, diverse ecosystems, and a temperate climate. Poland is composed of Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 million people, and the List of European countries by area, fifth largest EU country by area, covering . The capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city is Warsaw; other major cities include Kraków, Wrocław, Łódź, Poznań, and Gdańsk. Prehistory and protohistory of Poland, Prehistoric human activity on Polish soil dates to the Lower Paleolithic, with continuous settlement since the end of the Last Gla ...
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Duke Of Ferrara
This is a list of rulers of the estates owned by the House of Este, Este family, which main line of Marquesses (''Marchesi d'Este'') rose in 1039 with Albert Azzo II, Margrave of Milan. The name "Este" is related to the city where the family came from, Este, Veneto, Este. From the Lordship of Este to the Duchy of Ferrara-Modena-Reggio The family was founded by Adalbert the Margrave, who might have been the true first margrave of Milan of this family. In 1209, Azzo VI was named the first marquess of Ferrara. The title passed to his descendants, and the marquisate was delegated to a cadet branch of the Este family. Later, they were also created marquesses of Modena and Reggio. Italy 1494 AD.png, The Duchy of Modena (in the dark purple) and of Ferrara (in the light purple) in the context of late 15th century Italy. Arms of the house of Este (1).svg, First coat of arms of the family Ferrara-1600.jpg, A map of Ferrara at the time of its loss by the Este family, c.1600 In 1452 Borso ...
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Alfonso II D'Este, Duke Of Ferrara
Alfonso II d'Este (22 November 1533 – 27 October 1597) was Duke of Ferrara from 1559 to 1597. He was a member of the House of Este. Biography Alfonso was the elder son of Ercole II d'Este and Renée de France, the daughter of Louis XII of France and Anne of Brittany and was the fifth and last Duke of Ferrara. As a young man, Alfonso fought in the service of Henry II of France against the Habsburgs. Soon after his accession, he was forced by Pope Pius IV to send his mother back to France due to her increasingly Calvinist beliefs. The 1570 Ferrara earthquake occurred during his reign. In 1583, he allied with Emperor Rudolf II in the war against the Turks in Hungary. The court of Alfonso was a center for the development of secular music, both in Italy and Europe at large. He assembled the concerto delle donne, a chorus of women performing for the entertainment of Alfonso and his court. Marriages Alfonso married three times: *On 3 July 1558, he married his first wife Lucrezia ...
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Lucrezia Bendidio
Lucrezia Bendidio (Signora or Contessa Machiavella) (April 8, 1547 –'' after'' 1584) was an Italian singer and noblewoman from Ferrara. She started as a lady-in-waiting for Leonora d'Este in 1561. Many poets wrote of her great skill as a singer, including Torquato Tasso and Giovanni Battista Pigna. She was in fact an early love of Tasso's in 1561, as well as of Cardinal Luigi d'Este and Pigna.Newcomb, 1980 pg. 8 Tasso's character "Licori" in his play ''Aminta'' was based on her. She was part of the famous '' Concerto delle donne'' during its early period. She was later married to Count Baldassare Macchiavelli of Ferrara. With her sister Isabella Bendidio she sang for private court evenings as part of the '' musica secreta'' of the court. Another sister, Taddea, married Giovanni Battista Guarini; their daughter Anna Guarini was a singer in the ''concerto delle donne'' during the second period. References * Anthony Newcomb. "Lucrezia Bendidio", ''Grove Music Online ...
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Sonnet
A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in 13th-century Sicily, the sonnet was in time taken up in many European-language areas, mainly to express romantic love at first, although eventually any subject was considered acceptable. Many formal variations were also introduced, including abandonment of the quatorzain limit – and even of rhyme altogether in modern times. Romance languages Sicilian Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention at the Court of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The Sicilian School of poets who surrounded Lentini then spread the form to the mainland. Those earliest sonnets no longer survive in the original Sicilian language, however, but only after being translated into Tuscan dialect. The form c ...
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