Ciro Spontoni (15521612) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

advisor to rulers, diplomat, and historian.

Biography

Born in

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

, Spontoni served as secretary to several high-placed dignitaries in Northern Italy, including the archbishop of Ravenna; the bishop of Policastro; the Duke of Nemours, Giacomo di Savoia (

Jacques, Duke of Nemours Jacques de Savoie, duc de Nemours (12 October 153115 June 1585) was a French military commander, governor and Prince étranger, Prince Étranger. Having inherited his titles at a young age, Nemours fought for king Henri II of France, Henri II duri ...

); , marchese di Castiglione, and the Duke of Mantua. He traveled with the latter to

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

and

Transylvania Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...

. He also served as secretary to the Bolognese Senate. He also published a book on ''Metoposcopia'' (

Metoposcopy Metoposcopy is a form of divination in which the diviner predicts personality, character, and destiny, based on the pattern of lines on the subject's forehead. It was in use in the Classical era, and was widespread in the Middle Ages, reaching its ...

), a mixture of

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...

and phrenologic interpretation of forehead wrinkles.

Works

Among his works are: * ''Dodici libri del governo dello Stato'' (Verona, ad istanza di Giò. Battista Pigozzo e Andrea de Rossi, 1599). * ''Ragguaglio del fatto d'arme seguito nell'Africa tra Don Sebastiano, re di Portogallo (King Sebastian of Portugal) e Matei Auda Mlucco'' (Muley-Abdel Melck or

Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik I Saadi Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik I (), often simply Abd al-Malik or Mulay Abdelmalek, (b. 1541 – d. 4 August 1578) was the Saadian Sultan of Morocco from 1576 until his death right after the Battle of al-Kasr al-Kabir against Portugal in 1578. Biogr ...

) (1601, Bologna). * ''Azioni dei re dell'Ungheria'' (1602, Bologna). * ''Avvertimenti della storia di Guicciardini'' (1608, Bergamo). * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spontoni Ciro 1552 births 1610 deaths 16th-century Italian historians 16th-century Italian male writers 17th-century Italian historians Italian male non-fiction writers 17th-century Italian male writers Diplomats for the Papal States