Portrait of Francesco I Gonzaga Francesco I Gonzaga (1366 – 7 March 1407) was

ruler A ruler, sometimes called a rule, scale, line gauge, or metre/meter stick, is an instrument used to make length measurements, whereby a length is read from a series of markings called "rules" along an edge of the device. Usually, the instr ...

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 2 ...

from 1382 to 1407. He was also a

condottiero Condottieri (; singular: ''condottiero'' or ''condottiere'') were Italian military leaders active during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The term originally referred specifically to commanders of mercenary companies, derived from the ...

Diplomatic policies towards Milan and Venice

Succeeding his father

Ludovico II Gonzaga Ludovico II Gonzaga (1334 – 4 October 1382) was an Italian politician who was capitano del popolo of Mantua. He was a member of the House of Gonzaga. Biography He was the son of Guido Gonzaga and Beatrix of Bar. Together with his brother France ...

in 1382, he led a policy of balance between the nearby powers of the

Visconti Visconti is a surname which may refer to: Italian noble families * Visconti of Milan, ruled Milan from 1277 to 1447 ** Visconti di Modrone, collateral branch of the Visconti of Milan * Visconti of Pisa and Sardinia, ruled Gallura in Sardinia from ...

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

and

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

. In 1380, he married Agnese, daughter of

Barnabò Visconti Barnabò is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Guglielmo Barnabò Guglielmo Barnabò (11 May 1888 – 31 May 1954) was an Italian stage and film actor. He appeared in more than 90 films between 1926 and 1954. Life and ca ...

. When she was executed in 1391 under accusations of adultery, Francesco switched his allegiance to Venice, also to protect his land from the increasing power of

Gian Galeazzo Visconti Gian Galeazzo Visconti (16 October 1351 – 3 September 1402), was the first duke of Duchy of Milan, Milan (1395) and ruled that late-medieval city just before the dawn of the Renaissance. He also ruled Lombardy jointly with his uncle Bernabò V ...

Second marriage

In 1393, he remarried, to

Margherita Malatesta {{Infobox noble , name = Margherita Malatesta , title = Consort of the ruler of Mantua , image = Маргарита Малатеста.jpg , caption = , alt = , CoA = ...

, who carried in the Gonzaga family the hereditary illness of

osteomalacia Osteomalacia is a disease characterized by the softening of the bones caused by impaired bone metabolism primarily due to inadequate levels of available phosphate, calcium, and vitamin D, or because of resorption of calcium. The impairment of b ...

, which appeared periodically in Mantua's rulers until the 16th century. Francesco had subsequently to defend his lands from Gian Galeazzo's assault, but the latter's death in 1402 solved the conflict. His son by Margherita was Gianfrancesco I.

Building projects

Francesco Gonzaga is remembered as the builder of the Castle of San Giorgio, the nucleus of

Ducal Palace Several palaces are named Ducal Palace (Italian: ''Palazzo Ducale'' ) because it was the seat or residence of a duke. Notable palaces with the name include: France *Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy, Dijon *Palace of the Dukes of Lorraine, Nancy *Pa ...

of Mantua, the Gothic façade of the city cathedral, the bell tower of the Basilica of Sant'Andrea, as well as the Sanctuary of Santa Maria delle Grazie at

Curtatone Curtatone (Emilian dialects, Mantovano: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Mantua, in the Italy, Italian region of Lombardy, located about southeast of Milan and about southwest of Mantua. The municipality of Curtatone is forme ...

Introducing the substitution cipher in his correspondence

Francesco Gonzaga used the earliest known example of a homophonic

substitution cipher In cryptography, a substitution cipher is a method of encrypting in which units of plaintext are replaced with the ciphertext, in a defined manner, with the help of a key; the "units" may be single letters (the most common), pairs of letters, t ...

in 1401 for correspondence with one Simone de Crema.Fred A. Stahl.
A homophonic cipher for computational cryptography
Proceedings of the national computer conference and exposition (AFIPS '73), pp. 123–126, New York, USA, 1973.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzaga, Francesco 01 1366 births 1407 deaths 14th-century condottieri 15th-century Italian nobility 15th-century Italian writers 15th-century letter writers Francesco 1 Francesco 1 Burials in the Cappella Gonzaga, San Francesco, Mantua