Luigi d'Este

Luigi Cardinal d'Este (Arezzo or Ferrara 21 December 1538 — Montegiordano, Rome 30 December 1586), of the house of Este, [ [http://www.castelloestense.it/eng/castello/storia/personaggi.html Este genealogical chart] .] was the second of the five children of Ercole II d'Este, duke of Modena and Ferrara, and Renée, daughter of Louis XII of France. A man of the world [His liaison with the noble and musical Lucrezia Bendidio, whose favours were shared with Torquato Tasso, was well known. (Franca Trinchieri Camiz and Katherine A. McIver, "Art and Music in the Early Modern Period" 2003:148).] whose personal emblem was Prometheus bearing fire in the stalk of fennel, [R. A. Scorza, "Vincenzo Borghini and the Impresa" "Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes" 52 (1989:85-110) p. 97.] , he was made a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in Pius IV's consistory of 26 February 1561 [ [http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios1561.htm Salvador Miranda, "Cardinals of the holy Roman Church"] ] and served as Cardinal Protector of the kingdom of France, which made him one of the most powerful and influential members of the College of Cardinals; he kept as his secretary Arnaud d'Ossat, a skillful French diplomat who was eventually made a cardinal himself.

He was Bishop of Ferrara (1550) and Apostolic Administrator of Ferrara (1561 – 8 October 1563), [ [http://www.gcatholic.com/dioceses/diocese/ferr0.htm Archdiocese of Ferrara] .] deacon of S. Angelo in Pescheria (1577-1583) [ [http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/deaconries-1.htm Salvador Miranda, "Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church - Deaconries"] ] He participated in the Papal conclave, 1565–1566 but not in the conclave of 1572, as he was absent in France.

Luigi d'Este lived partly in Rome and partly at the Villa d'Este, Tivoli, built for his uncle Ippolito II d'Este. [The young architect Flaminio Ponzo made his first documented appearance there in 1585, providing some minor new outbuildings in the outer park (David R, Coffin, "The villa d'Este at Tivoli" (.] In Rome he rented from the Orsini an agglomeration of "case" at Montegiordano, near Piazza Navona, where he kept in attendance the large "famiglia" or household expected of a man of his birth and position, [See G. Fragnito, "'Parenti' et 'familiari' nelli corti cardinalizie del rinascimento", in C. Mozzarelli, ed. "Familgia' del principe e famiglia aristocratica" (Rome) 1988; a list of 1579 notes 34 prelates and noblemen, with their 73 servants, 66 lesser individuals sharing 44 further servants, plus pages, footmen, kitchen and stable staff, falconers and bakers that served the household in general (Marco Bizzarini, "Marenzio and Cardinal Luigi d'Este" "Early Music" 27.4, (November 1999:519-532) p. 520.] and a "villa suburbana" on the Quirinal that is now the residence of the President of Italy. ["Ibid."] Careless of his mounting debts, [His benefices, when they were taxed in 1571, amounted to 19,665 "scudi" a year, more than Alessandro Farnese's (16,750 "scudi") or Giulio Della Rovere's (16,267 "scudi"), according to figures noted in Gianvittorio Signorotto and Maria Antonietta Visceglia, "Court and Politics in Papal Rome, 1492-1700" 2002:61).] Cardinal d'Este was the most influential patron of the madrigal composer Luca Marenzio, whom he employed as "maestro di capella" from August 1578 until the time of his death: during the eight-year period, Marco Bizzarini observes, Marenzio published some two-thirds of his copious output. [Bizzarini 1999:519] To Cardinal d'Este Marenzio dedicated his "Primo libro de' madrigali a5", 1580, "because of the debt of an infinite number of favours", and books of motets published at Venice were dedicated by Bertoldo Sperindio (1562) and Francesco Portinaro (1568). [Jane A. Bernstein, "Music Printing in Renaissance Venice: The Scotto Press (1539-1572)" (1998:203).] Cardinal d'Este was a generous patron of scholars, men of letters— like the unbalanced and high-strung Torquato Tasso, who was taken to Paris in 1565 in the Cardinal's housefold dedicated his "Rinaldo" to him but was found hopelessly mad in 1579 and confined at Ferrara— and scientists, such as the Neapolitan polymath Giambattista della Porta, [Paolo Portone, in "Dizionario biografico degli italiani", vol. 43 (Rome 1993) "s.v." "d'Este, Luigi".] whom he invited to join him in Rome in 1579. Among the Cardinal's paintings was Correggio's "Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine", now in the Louvre.

At his death he bequeathed his entire estate to his brother Alfonso II d'Este. He is buried in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome.

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