Mantua

An influential city in the Renaissance that came under the control of the Gonzaga family, among Italy's leading patrons of writers, artists, and scholars. Mantua dates to well before the time of Rome, and was best known in the Middle Ages as the birthplace of the Roman poet Virgil. The city was an independent commune from the eleventh century but was seized by a member of the Bonacolsi family in 1273. The reign of this dynasty brought the city prosperity until a revolt occurred in 1328, led by Luigi Gonzaga, a city official, and his three sons. Mantua went through a century of turmoil until Ludovico Gonzaga seized power and his descendant, Gianfresco Gonzaga, was named as the marquess of Mantua by the Holy Roman Emperor through his marriage to the emperor's daughter Barbara of Brandenburg. In 1530, Federigo Gonzaga was given the title of Duke by Emperor Charles V, and it was under Federigo's reign that Mantua reached its full glory as a center of art, architecture, and music. Federigo commissioned the lavish Palazzo Te and improved the city with new gardens, roads, and monuments. The Gonzaga dynasty came to an end in 1627, after which it came under the control of a related French clan, the Nevers. A war soon broke out over the contested duchy, and a siege of the city by the emperor's forces in 1630 brought hunger, destruction, and the plague. Prominent citizens and artists fled the city and Mantua entered a long period of neglect and decline. The dukes were overthrown and the city finally seized by the Habsburg dynasty in 1708.

See Also: Gonzaga, House of; Tasso, Torquato