Giovanni Poggio

His Eminence, the Most Rev. Lord Giovanni Poggi
Bishop emeritus of Tropea
A portrait of Poggio in 1551, shortly after his appointment as cardinal
Province	Reggio
Diocese	Tropea
Appointed	4 October 1541
Term ended	6 February 1556
Predecessor	Girolamo Ghinucci
Successor	Gian Matteo di Luchi
Other posts	Apostolic Nuncio to Spain (1529–1541); Cardinal Priest of Sant'Anastasia (1552–1556)
Orders
Consecration	1541
Created Cardinal	23 March 1552
Rank	Cardinal Priest
Personal details
Born	26 January 1493 Commune of Bologna
Died	12 February 1556 (aged 63) Commune of Bologna
Nationality	Bolognese
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Residence	Commune of Bologna
Spouse	name unknown (died 1528)
Children	names unknown

Giovanni Poggio (also written Poggi) (26 January 1493 – 12 February 1556) was an Italian Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal. He is mainly known for the elaborate decorations he arranged for his residence, the Palazzo Poggi.

Early years

Poggio was born in Bologna on 26 January 1493, the son of Cristoforo Poggio and Francesca Mantuana. He was married and had several children, becoming a cleric in minor orders only after his wife's death in 1528.

Pope Paul III appointed Poggio as a protonotary apostolic and treasurer of the Apostolic Camera.

From July 1529 to January 1535, Poggio was the nuncio to the Royal Court of Spain. From January 1535 to July 1537, he served as nuncio, residing in Madrid (with Giovanni Guidiccione serving as nuncio at the royal court). He was nuncio to the royal court again from July 1537 to March 1541.^[1]

Bishop

Poggio was appointed Bishop of Tropea on 4 October 1541.^[2] He appointed a Vicar General to administer the diocese, since he was again nuncio to Spain from September 1541 to December 1551. From the 1540s until 1551 Poggi was papal nuncio at the Spanish court of the Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.^[3]

In 1554, Pope Julius III dispatched him to attempt to convince Francis Borgia, a ranking Spanish nobleman who had recently renounced his position to enter the Society of Jesus, to accept a cardinal's hat, but Borgia refused.^[1]

In November 1548 Prince Philip of Spain, son of King Charles V of Spain, made a triumphal entry into Genoa en route from Spain to the Spanish Netherlands. As nuncio, Poggio was among the dignitaries who accompanied him.^[4]

As was normal at the time, Poggio accepted loans from the Olivieri banking house, leading financiers of the city. Given his important positions as nuncio to Spain and general treasurer, the amounts lent to him were unusually large.^[5]

Cardinal

At the request of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Pope Julius III made Poggio a Cardinal Priest in the consistory of 20 November 1551.^[1] He received the red hat and the titular church of Sant'Anastasia on 23 March 1552. From December 1551 to March 1553, he was legate a latere in Spain.^[1]

In January 1552 he successfully defended the Jesuits against attempts by Archbishop Juan Martínez y Siliceo of Toledo to suppress that Order.^[6]

Poggio was a participant in the papal conclave of April 1555 that elected Pope Marcellus II.^[1] He also participated in the papal conclave of May 1555 in which Giovanni Pietro Carafa was elected Pope, taking the name Pope Paul IV. Poggio initially resisted the election, but was eventually persuaded by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese.^[7]

Poggio resigned the government of his see in favor of his nephew Giovanni Matteo di Lucchi, Bishop of Ancona on 6 February 1556. He died in Bologna six days later, 12 February 1556, and was buried in the Augustinian Church of San Giacomo Maggiore there.^[1]

Palace and chapel

Construction of the Palazzo Poggi in Bologna for Giovanni Poggi and his brother began in 1549.^[8] Cardinal Poggi met Pellegrino Tibaldi after the painter moved to Rome in 1547, and later commissioned him to paint the Palazzo Poggi.^[9] Tibaldi, a native of Bologna, returned to the city in 1555 and painted frescos for the Cardinal in his palace and family chapel. This work is considered Tibaldi's masterpiece.^[10] In the Poggi Chapel in the Church of San Giacomo Maggiore, there are two portraits by Tibaldi of Cardinal Poggi, one on each side of the altar. The one on the left shows him as papal nuncio to Spain, while the one on the right shows him later in his career, as a cardinal.^[11]

In 1714 the Palazzo Poggi, the Cardinal's private residence, became the House of the Instituto dell Scienze, and it is still one of the main buildings of the University of Bologna.^[12]

References

Citations

1. Miranda 2012.
2. Cheney 2012.
3. Bindman, Gates & Dalton 2010, p. 145.
4. Mulryne, Watanabe-O'Kelly & Shewring 2004, p. 281.
5. Bruscoli 2007, p. 196.
6. Pastor 1923, p. 173.
7. Setton 1984, p. 620.
8. Bacou & Viatte 1974, p. 152.
9. Farquhar 1855, p. 179.
10. Wolk-Simon & Bambach 2010, p. 84.
11. Smith 2002, p. 100.
12. Modena, Lourenço & Roca 2005, p. 788.

Sources

• Bacou, Roseline; Viatte, Françoise (1974). Italian Renaissance Drawings from the Musee du Louvre, Paris: Roman, Tuscan and Emilian Schools 1500-1575. Exhibition OCT 11, 1974-JAN 5, 1975. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-87099-094-6. Retrieved 2013-01-13.
• Bindman, David; Gates, Henry Louis Jr.; Dalton, Karen C. C. (2010-11-01). The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume III: From the "Age of Discovery" to the Age of Abolition, Part 1: Artists of the Renaissance and Baroque: From the "Age of Discovery" to the Age of Abolition, Part 1: Artists of the Renaissance and Baroque. Harvard University Press. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-674-05261-1. Retrieved 2013-01-13.
• Bruscoli, Francesco Guidi (2007). Papal banking renaissance Rome: Benvenuto Olivieri and Paul III, 1534-1549. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7546-0732-8. Retrieved 2013-01-13.
• Cheney, David M. (2012). "Giovanni Cardinal Poggio". Catholic Hierarchy. Retrieved 2013-01-13.
• Farquhar, Maria (1855). Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters, by a lady [M. Farquhar] ed. by R.O. Wornum. Retrieved 2013-01-13.
• Miranda, Salvador (2012). "POGGIO, Giovanni (1493–1556)". The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. Retrieved 2013-01-13.
• Modena, Claudio; Lourenço, Paulo B.; Roca, Pere (2005). Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions - 2 Volume Set: Possibilities of Numerical and Experimental Techniques - Proceedings of the Ivth Int. Seminar on Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions, 10-13 November 2004, Padova, Italy. Balkema Publ. ISBN 978-0-415-36379-2. Retrieved 2013-01-13.
• Mulryne, James Ronald; Watanabe-O'Kelly, Helen; Shewring, Margaret (2004). Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe. Modern Humanities Research Association. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7546-3873-5. Retrieved 2013-01-13.
• Pastor, Ludwig (1923). The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages. Taylor & Francis. GGKEY:15004GK4Q36. Retrieved 2013-01-13.
• Setton, Kenneth Meyer (1984). The Papacy and the Levant, (1204–1571).: The sixteenth century from Julius III to Pius V. American Philosophical Society. ISBN 978-0-87169-162-0. Retrieved 2013-01-13.
• Smith, Timothy Bryan (2002). Alberto Aringhieri and the Chapel of Saint John the Baptist: Patronage, Politics, and the Cult of Relics in Renaissance Siena. ProQuest. ISBN 978-0-549-89968-6. Retrieved 2013-01-13.
• Wolk-Simon, Linda; Bambach, Carmen (2010). An Italian Journey: Drawings from the Tobey Collection : Correggio to Tiepolo. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-1-58839-379-1. Retrieved 2013-01-13.