A small Emilian capital, two centuries of family wars
The da Correggio are among the longest lived lordly houses of late medieval and Renaissance Emilia. Rooted in the plain between Parma and Reggio Emilia, with the center of their power in the city that bears their name, the da Correggio span more than two centuries of Italian history, from 1315 to 1552, remaining almost always suspended between the great regional powers: the Visconti of Milan, the Este of Ferrara, the Church, Venice. The family knows a brief season of absolute glory in the mid fourteenth century, when Azzo da Correggio becomes lord of Parma and forges a celebrated friendship with Francesco Petrarca; for the rest of its history, however, the house is content almost always to defend Correggio and the minor fiefs of its contado, Brescello, Guastalla, Casalpò, Novellara, often dividing internally between cousin branches fighting over the shared inheritance.
The sources recount repeated partitions, mutual betrayals, shifting alliances with Visconti and Este according to the convenience of the moment; at least two condottieri of the house die at the hands of allies or even of civic authorities who had received them as guests. In the sixteenth century the family also produces a figure of cultural importance, Niccolò da Correggio, poet and courtier tied to the Este court and friend of two poets, Matteo Maria Boiardo (author of the Orlando Innamorato) and Ludovico Ariosto (author of the Orlando Furioso). Below are the profiles of the twenty two members of the house recorded on the site, ordered by family branch and chronology.
The Parma branch: the three founding brothers
SIMONE DA CORREGGIO
Son of Giberto III and Elena Malaspina. Brother of Azzo and Guido. He marries Cancelliera Maggi, daughter of Matteo, lord of Brescia, and Beatrice della Torre, daughter of Francesco and lady of the fief of Santa Maria in Croazia. Father of Cagnolo (Gianfrancesco), of Jacopina, wife of Ubertino da Carrara, lord of Padua, and of Antonia. He dies in 1344 (November).
Lord of Correggio, Fosdondo, Campagnola Emilia, Fabbrico, Guastalla, Colorno, Brescello, Parma, Campegine, Gualtieri, Boretto, Luzzara, Reggiolo, Suzzara, Borgoforte and San Benedetto Po, patrician of Parma, Simone is the eldest of the three brothers who open the documented history of the house. From 1315 he fights alongside his father Giberto against Cardinal Luca Fieschi. In the 1320s and 1330s his career is closely bound up with that of his brothers Azzo and Guido, with whom he shares victories, exiles and reconciliations. In 1326 the three da Correggio occupy several localities in the Mantuan territory on behalf of the papal legate Cardinal Bertrando del Poggetto; in 1332, again together, they rebel against Emperor John of Bohemia, and in 1341 they retake Parma from the della Scala, capturing on that occasion the podestà Bonetto da Malvicina. The sources describe him as “the most prudent” of the brothers, in the judgment of the local historian Ireneo Affò. He dies in November 1344.
GUIDO IV DA CORREGGIO
Son of Giberto III and Elena Malaspina. Brother of Simone and Azzo. He marries Guidaccia della Palude. Father of Azzo, count of Casalpò, and of Giberto lord of Correggio. His daughter Antonia marries Feltrino Gonzaga, lord of Reggio Emilia, and his daughter Beatrice marries the lord of Padua Marsilio da Carrara, making Marsilio his son in law. He dies in Guastalla in August 1345.
Lord of Parma, Guastalla, Brescello and Correggio, Guido follows step by step the affairs of his brothers Simone and Azzo, alternating his service among papal forces, the della Scala and the Visconti according to the convenience of the moment. He holds important offices such as podestà of Verona and of Treviso; in 1341 he becomes lord of Parma with his brothers after the expulsion of the della Scala from the city. He breaks definitively with his brother Azzo when, in 1344, Azzo sells Parma to the marquis of Ferrara Obizzo d’Este for sixty or seventy thousand florins; the act forces him to take refuge in the minor holdings of Brescello, Guastalla and Correggio together with his sons Giberto and Azzo. He dies in Guastalla in August 1345. Described as a “man adorned with the finest qualities” by Ireneo Affò and as “a great captain (lord and condottiero)” by the Corpus Chronicorum Bononiensium.
AZZO DA CORREGGIO
Son of Giberto III and Elena Malaspina. Brother of Simone and Guido. He marries Tommasina Gonzaga, daughter of Guido, lord of Mantua. Father of seven children, all educated by the poet Moggio da Parma, a friend of Francesco Petrarca: Giacomo, Ludovico (a condottiero in the service of the Visconti), Taddeo, Giberto, Orsola, Elisabetta, and a last child, whose name is not recorded, imprisoned and put to death by the della Scala. He dies in Milan. 1303 to 1362 (summer).
Marquis of Correggio; lord of Parma, Berceto, Guardasone, Guastalla, Colorno and Brescello, Azzo is the most celebrated of the brothers and the only one to leave a mark on Italian cultural history. After a youth spent between ecclesiastical appointments, exile and diplomacy in the service now of the Church, now of the Empire, in May 1341 he conquers Parma together with his brothers Guido and Simone, having driven the della Scala podestà Bonetto da Malvicina from the city. On the very day of the victory Francesco Petrarca arrives in the city; Azzo had become his close friend after a shared journey from Avignon to Rome in 1341 on the occasion of Petrarca’s coronation as poet laureate on the Capitoline. The relationship with the poet remains his most lasting legacy: Petrarca dedicates to him the third edition of the Canzoniere and the treatise “De remediis utriusque fortunae.” In 1344 Azzo da Correggio sells Parma to the Este, causing with this choice the definitive break with his brother Guido. He spends his last years between Verona (involved in a conspiracy against the lord of the city, Cangrande II della Scala), Bologna and Milan, where he dies in the summer of 1362. Judgments of him in the sources are not very flattering: they range from “the greatest of the brigands of his age,” in the words of Ireneo Affò, to “a modest petty lord favored by an ephemeral success in the conquest of Parma,” in the assessment of Riccardo Finzi in “Correggio nella storia e nei suoi figli.” Only Petrarca’s judgment is favorable, dictated by friendship. This figure “certainly cannot be taken as an example of the wise man who stands firm in the face of adversity” (www.museocorreggio.org).
The Casalpò branch: descendants of Guido IV da Correggio
AZZO DA CORREGGIO (Count of Casalpò)
Son of Guido IV and Guidaccia della Palude. Brother of Giberto IV, cousin of Cagnolo da Correggio, nephew of Azzo, the friend of Francesco Petrarca. He marries Luigia Gonzaga, daughter of Luigi, lord of Mantua. Father of Guido. He dies in 1400 in Casalpò.
Count of Casalpò and lord of Brescello, Correggio, Gualtieri, Montechiarugolo, Guastalla, Berceto, Guardasone, San Biagio, Casalpò and Traversetolo, Azzo inherits together with his brother Giberto the difficulties that follow the loss of Parma in 1344. His career is marked by a long succession of shifting alliances with the Visconti and the Este. In 1372 his son Guido’s surrender to Ambrogio Visconti leads the Este to imprison him in Ferrara, held responsible for the affair. Freed in 1373, at the death of his brother Giberto he finds himself managing a complicated inheritance, resolved only in part in 1389 by the so called “Visconti Award,” which divides the family holdings into four shares among the nephews, sons of Giberto (Piero, Giberto, Galasso and Gherardo), while Azzo receives three quarters of all the assets. In 1397 the duke of Milan Gian Galeazzo Visconti strips him of Casalpò because of his son Guido’s conduct. The castle is demolished the following year. He dies in 1400 in Casalpò. “A famous captain, a most noble man yet most cruel in his vengeance” is the judgment of Andrea Balletti in his work “Storia di Reggio nell’Emilia.” A higher standing is granted him by the eighteenth century scholar and historian Girolamo Tiraboschi, who in his “Memorie storiche modenesi” groups him with his brother Giberto among the protagonists of the history of their time, “who in their day played a great part in the affairs of Italy.”
GUIDO V DA CORREGGIO
Son of Azzo and Luigia Gonzaga. He marries Violante Alidosi, daughter of Roberto, lord of Imola. Father of Francesco (a condottiero), Jacopo, count of Casalpò, Beltrame, Beatrice, wife of Jacopino Rangoni, and Azzo. Nephew of Giberto V, lord of Correggio. He dies in 1397.
Count of Casalpò, lord of Correggio and Casalpò, in 1371 he allies with the lord of Milan Bernabò Visconti against his uncle Giberto. The Visconti forces are repelled. The following year he is attacked in Correggio by Ambrogio Visconti, and on that occasion is forced to restore to his cousins, the sons of Giberto, half of the lordship of the family lands. He then spends years as a condottiero between Emilia, Lombardy and Tuscany, serving alternately the Visconti, the Venetians, the Sienese and the Pisans; he is captured by the Visconti forces in 1390. Freed in 1393, he swears fidelity to Gian Galeazzo Visconti, only to betray him again in September 1397 to serve the commune of Bologna. The duke of Milan takes revenge on his family, stripping his father Azzo of lands. He dies that same year. “He launched an impressive project to fortify Correggio. For the sum of 25,000 florins the town was protected by a new circuit of walls; several towers were built and, above all, a new fortress.” Francesco Bozzi, in “La signoria rurale nel XIV-XV secolo. I da Correggio.”
GIBERTO IV DA CORREGGIO
Son of Guido IV and Guidaccia della Palude. Brother of Azzo, count of Casalpò; cousin of Cagnolo da Correggio. He marries first Paola Visconti, who bears him Piero, Maddalena (wife of the condottiero Azzo da Sesso), Agnese (wife of Ansedisio da Collalto), Margherita and Iacopa. He marries second Orsolina Pio, daughter of Galeazzo, lord of Carpi. From the second marriage are born Manfredo, a condottiero in the service of the della Scala; Francesco; Gherardo, lord of Correggio together with Galeazzo and Giberto V da Correggio; Egidio; Giovanni; Galasso; and Paola. Circa 1320 to July 1373. He dies in Venice.
Lord of Correggio, Fabbrico, Bazzano, Scurano, Traversetolo, Fosdondo, Campora, San Prospero, San Biagio, San Giovanni, San Martino in Rio, Vico, Campagnola Emilia, Mandrio, Caprile, Saliceto Buzzalino, Guastalla and Gualtieri, Giberto stands from a young age alongside his father Guido and his brothers in the struggles for control of the Parma territory. In 1359 he obtains from Cardinal Egidio Albornoz the title of count and the governorship of Romagna. In 1362 the lord of Milan Bernabò Visconti attempts to seize Correggio through a conspiracy organized inside the town. Giberto da Correggio receives reinforcements of cavalry from Ugolino Gonzaga, co-lord of Mantua. As the Visconti army approaches, he has the drawbridges lowered as if the conspiracy had succeeded. Seventeen companies of cavalry enter, finding the enemy troops before them and the gates closed behind them. A brief clash follows in which the Visconti forces are compelled to surrender their arms. After various turns of fortune, in 1371 his nephew Guido’s betrayal forces him to cede his share of the lordship to the Visconti and to take the road of exile to Venice. He commands the troops of the Serenissima against the Carraresi of Padua. Stricken with plague during the defense of the bastion of Lova, he is replaced in the field by Francesco Ordelaffi. He dies in Venice in July 1373. Judgments of him from both Venetian and Paduan sources are unanimous. “A captain of great valor in the conduct of war,” Pietro Giustinian, in “Dell’historie venetiane,” and “a wise man, knowledgeable in the affairs of war,” Andrea Gatari, in “Cronaca carrarese.” “He has the reputation of having been a most noble man, capable, and merciless in war,” Carlo Ciucciovino, in “La cronaca del Trecento italiano.”
The sons of Giberto da Correggio and the cousin branch of Cagnolo
PIERO DA CORREGGIO
Son of Giberto IV and Paola Visconti. Half-brother of Francesco; brother of Giberto V and Galeazzo. He dies around 1410.
Lord of Correggio. In 1363 he serves the lord of Milan Bernabò Visconti; he takes part in the battle fought in the Modena area near the bastion of Solara, in which the Visconti forces are defeated by the league’s troops commanded by Galeotto Malatesta Ungaro. Captured during the fighting by the lord of Padua Francesco da Carrara, he is freed only the following spring, when the conflict ends. Driven from his lands by his cousin Guido V, he enters the service of the della Scala of Verona as ambassador. In 1379 he receives from the Malatesta the office of podestà of Rimini. In 1389 his cousin Guido is compelled to restore to him his rightful share of the lordship of Correggio. In 1391 he rebels against Gian Galeazzo Visconti; with the help of the Bolognese he retakes the castle of Correggio; his betrayal is commemorated in the piazza of Reggio Emilia, where his effigy is hanged upside down. Reconciled with Gian Galeazzo Visconti in 1392, he becomes lord of Correggio in 1400 at the death of his uncle Azzo, together with his brothers Giberto V and Galeazzo. He dies around 1410.
FRANCESCO DA CORREGGIO
Son of Giberto IV and Orsolina Pio. Half-brother of Piero da Correggio. He dies in July 1387 in Vicenza.
Given his position as a younger son he is compelled to take up the profession of arms. In 1378 he is among the founders, with Alberico da Barbiano, of the celebrated Company of San Giorgio, in which he is named field marshal. He serves the Serenissima against the Carraresi of Padua; in the winter of 1379 he is recorded with the company in Tuscany, raiding the Florentines; the following year, again with Barbiano, he ranges through the same region against Siena, Pisa, Lucca and Florence. Further service follows in the kingdom of Naples on behalf of Charles of Durazzo against the troops of Queen Joan I of Anjou, and further service on behalf of the count of Virtù, Gian Galeazzo Visconti. He dies in Vicenza in July 1387 and is buried there in the Franciscan church of San Lorenzo. In the early 1800s the sacred site is converted by Napoleonic troops first into a barracks and later into a billeting post. It is said that on that occasion his tomb was used as a drinking trough for the horses.
CAGNOLO DA CORREGGIO (Gianfrancesco da Correggio)
Son of Simone da Correggio and Jacopina da Carrara. Cousin of Azzo and Giberto. He marries Bartolomea degli Ubaldini, daughter of Giovanni, lord of Badia di Susinana. He dies around 1375.
Lord of San Quirico and Gualtieri, patrician of Parma, Cagnolo is notable for a career of captures, escapes and mutual betrayals with his own cousins. In 1345, to secure his freedom from the Este, who hold him prisoner, he seizes by trickery the castle of Gualtieri, taking it from his cousins Azzo and Giberto. He serves the Este, the commune of Perugia (he is captured by the Sienese at the battle of Torrita di Siena), and finally the lord of Milan Bernabò Visconti. In 1371 he seizes Correggio; he is quickly driven out again by the Visconti themselves. He dies around 1375.
The Casalpò branch in the second half of the fourteenth and early fifteenth century
FRANCESCO DA CORREGGIO
Brother of Jacopo. He dies in 1432.
In 1425, together with his brother Jacopo, he is compelled by Guido Torelli to renounce all rights to the fief of Montechiarugolo. In May of the following year the duke of Milan Filippo Maria Visconti grants him as a fief, jointly, the lands of Casalpò, Olmo, San Sisto and Nosedole. He serves the Visconti against the Venetians. In October 1432, bribed by the enemy, he betrays the Visconti cause to defect to the Serenissima. He carries out raids as far as the gates of Parma and into the territory of Cavriago, controlled by Galeazzo da Correggio. Erasmo da Trivulzio and Angelo della Pergola are sent against him; captured with two sons and five councillors, he is taken to Parma to be imprisoned in the fortress of Porta Santa Croce. Finally transferred to Milan, he is executed there. His body is quartered.
ANTONIO DA CORREGGIO
He dies in combat at Assisi in March 1379.
Among the founders of Alberico da Barbiano’s Company of San Giorgio, Antonio da Correggio fights the della Scala on behalf of the lord of Milan Bernabò Visconti. At the end of that same year, 1378, he is recorded in the service of the Venetians against the Carraresi of Padua. His company is later found in Umbria, between Fermignano and Acqualagna, ready to take the road to Gubbio and Rome to link up with the troops of Pope Urban VI. Exiles from Assisi persuade Barbiano to attack their city. Da Correggio enters it by night through a sewer conduit. The population reacts to his entry: the condottiero is killed in the ensuing fight by a blow from an iron mace. His body is carried to Perugia. “One of the principal condottieri of that company,” is how he is described by Pompeo Pellini in his work “Della historia di Perugia.”
GIBERTO V DA CORREGGIO
Son of Giberto IV and Orsolina Pio. Brother of Francesco, Gherardo and Galeazzo. 1389 to December 1446.
Count, lord of Correggio, this Giberto has a career more administrative than military, focused on protecting the family’s rights over the fief. In 1385 he manages, on behalf of Jacopo dal Verme, the purchase of a share of Castelnovo di Sotto; in 1389 he obtains from his cousin Guido the restitution of holdings the latter had previously appropriated. He holds the office of podestà of Milan for two terms in 1392. In 1397 he is sent by the people of Parma to swear fidelity to Gian Galeazzo Visconti. In 1433 the duke of Milan raises Correggio to a county, naming both him and his brother Galeazzo as counts. He dies in Correggio in December 1446. He is buried in the church of San Francesco, in the same chapel to which, according to Francesco Sansovino (“Della origine e dei fatti delle famiglie illustri italiane”), the bones of his father Giberto IV, called “the Defender,” had already been moved. The tomb epitaph is worded so that it could refer indifferently to either of the two Gibertos.
The mid fifteenth century generation: the three brothers Antonio, Manfredo and Giberto VI
ANTONIO DA CORREGGIO (Lord of Correggio and Brescello)
Son of Gherardo. Brother of Manfredo and Giberto VI. He marries Bianca Rangoni and Ginevra Pio. He dies in November 1474 in Brescello.
Count, lord of Correggio, Brescello, Bazzano and Scurano, Antonio da Correggio is notable for his constant loyalty to the Sforza of Milan, unlike his brothers Manfredo and Giberto VI, who often serve the opposing side. In 1468, with the connivance of the duke of Milan Galeazzo Maria Sforza, he plots with the Pio family to strip his brother Manfredo of his domains; Brescello falls to the ducal forces, and Antonio obtains the fief at his relative’s expense. He enjoys Sforza protection, to the point of being admitted to the ducal council. He dies in Brescello in November 1474 and is buried in Parma in the church of the Friars Minor.
MANFREDO DA CORREGGIO (Lord of Correggio and Brescello)
Son of Gherardo. Brother of Antonio and Giberto VI. He marries Agnese Pio, daughter of Marco, lord of Carpi. Father of Elisabetta (wife of the count of Castel della Pieve Gianfrancesco dei Michelotti), Maddalena (wife of Maffeo Gambara of Brescia), Giberto VII, Borso, Galeazzo, and Veronica (wife of Giacomo Antonio di San Vitale). He dies in Correggio in February 1476.
Count, lord of Correggio, Brescello, Scurano, Novellara and Bazzano. A younger son, he takes up the life of a soldier of fortune. He serves the Ambrosian Republic, then Francesco Sforza in his drive for the duchy of Milan, then the Este, then the king of Naples Alfonso of Aragon. In the pay of the Aragonese and the Venetians, in 1452 he successfully confronts Sforza troops in Emilia. His activity intensifies in the early months of the following year and extends into the Mantuan territory. After the peace of Lodi is signed (1454) he is attacked in his lands by ducal forces commanded by Tiberto Brandolini. He is forced to submit to the duke of Milan, to restore Novellara to the Gonzaga, and to be invested by Francesco Sforza with Brescello, Scurano and Bazzano. In September 1456 he avenges the killing of his brother Giberto VI, which had taken place in Siena. He captures at Rubiera a Sienese ambassador returning from Milan, who had been a member of the council that condemned his relative, and has him killed in Correggio. In October 1468 his brother Antonio and the Pio family plot to strip him of his domains. He manages to escape the trap. The new duke of Milan Galeazzo Maria Sforza, incited by his brother Antonio, has him hanged in effigy in Milan, declaring him a traitor. He defends himself effectively; the Este, the Venetians and the papacy intervene on his behalf, and “the brothers’ scheme” fails entirely. He makes his will and dies in Correggio in February 1476. Matteo Bandello dedicates a novella to him.
GIBERTO VI DA CORREGGIO (Lord of Brescello)
Son of Gherardo. Brother of Manfredo and Antonio da Correggio. He marries Gabriella Gonzaga, daughter of the marquis of Mantua Ludovico Gonzaga. Father of Agata, wife of Michele Montecuccoli. 1410 to September 1455.
Count of Correggio, lord of Brescello, Poviglio, Scurano and Bazzano. He studies in Mantua at the school of the humanist Vittorino da Feltre. Taking up the profession of arms, he serves, like his brother Manfredo, the Ambrosian Republic and then Francesco Sforza in his drive for the duchy of Milan. In the pay of the king of Naples Alfonso of Aragon and of the Venetians, in 1452 he opposes with some success the troops of Sforza, by then duke of Milan, in Emilia and Lombardy. After the peace of Lodi is signed (April 1454) he enters into dispute with the marquis of Mantua Ludovico Gonzaga over possession of Brescello. Attacked by Sforza forces under Tiberto Brandolini, he is forced to submit to Sforza in order to keep the lordship of the fiefs of Brescello, Scurano and Bazzano. At the end of September, on the recommendation of the Venetian ambassador Francesco Contarini, he enters the pay of Siena to confront the count of Pitigliano, Aldobrandino Orsini. In December he lays an inconclusive siege to Sorano with Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta and Pietro Brunoro. When the lord of Rimini defects, he obtains command of the army and pursues Malatesta, intercepting him at Giuncarico. In February 1455 he clashes with the Sienese commissioner Antonio Petrucci over an affair of a Boccaccio-like character: a page, the commissioner’s lover, is dismissed from the camp by Giberto, provoking strong resentment against him. Giberto’s end is dramatic: accused by the Sienese authorities of treason for having secretly communicated with Jacopo Piccinino, then present in Tuscany with anything but peaceful intentions, in September he is confronted in a violent altercation in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena. According to some sources he is attacked and thrown from the window; according to others he falls accidentally onto a protruding iron spike while trying to flee. His body is publicly desecrated; his skull is kept in a cabinet in the palace; Pope Callixtus III grants absolution to those responsible for the killing. Despite this, paradoxically, he is buried with full honors in the cathedral of Siena. “Of all the brothers he was the most warlike,” writes Girolamo Tiraboschi; a Venetian source, too, Francesco Contarini’s “Historiae Hetruriae,” judges his conduct favorably: “a man of great renown in military matters.”
The sons of Manfredo da Correggio
GALEAZZO DA CORREGGIO
Son of Manfredo. Brother of Borso and Giberto VII. He dies in July 1495.
In 1476 he serves with his brother Borso for the Este against the troops of the duke of Milan Galeazzo Maria Sforza. Passing into the latter’s pay, in 1482 he confronts the Venetians in the war of Ferrara. In December he is captured in an ambush laid for him at Cella, in the Reggio area, by Guido Torelli and Giacomo dei Rossi. Galeazzo later serves the Church and Ferrara. Still in ducal pay, in July 1495 he takes part in the battle of Fornovo under the command of Giovanni Francesco da San Severino. Frightened by the French bombards, his men at arms throw down their weapons and flee toward Parma. Among them is Galeazzo da Correggio, who is overtaken and killed by his pursuers together with Giovanni Giacomo Piccinino.
BORSO DA CORREGGIO
Son of Manfredo. Brother of Giberto VII and Galeazzo; cousin of Niccolò, called Postumo. He marries Francesca of Brandenburg, niece of the marquise of Mantua Barbara of Brandenburg. Father of Agnese (wife of a nephew of Matteo Bolognino, Matteo da Bologna), Manfredo, Gianfrancesco, and of Maddalena, Caterina and Margherita, all three of whom enter convents. 1450 to December 1503.
Borso da Correggio leads a life more diplomatic than military, in almost constant service to the Sforza of Milan and the Este of Ferrara. He accompanies ambassadors and lords on several missions to Rome, to Hungary (to King Matthias Corvinus) and to France. In 1482, during the war of Ferrara, he is wounded and defeated at San Biagio by Venetian stradiots. A member of the secret council of the duchy of Milan, he dies in Correggio in December 1503 and is buried in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, which he had built together with his cousin Niccolò and his brother Giberto VII. Francesco Sansovino recalls him, together with his nephew, as “magnificent men of great reputation among the lords of Italy.”
GIBERTO VII DA CORREGGIO
Son of Manfredo. Brother of Borso and Galeazzo. Father of Ippolito. Father in law of Alessandro Gonzaga, count of Novellara. He marries first Violante della Mirandola, daughter of Antonio Maria della Mirandola, and by proxy, in October 1508, the Brescian poet Veronica Gambara. The religious wedding is celebrated the following year in Amalfi. He dies in 1518.
Count of Correggio, Giberto has a rather subdued military career compared to that of his predecessors: nothing in particular distinguishes him, except his refusal of an offer from Pope Julius II to command the papal infantry as captain general. He nonetheless takes part in the battle of Fornovo in 1495 and supports Ludovico Sforza’s attempt to retake Milan in 1500. In 1517 he obtains the investiture of Correggio from the emperor Maximilian of Austria. With his brother Borso and his uncle Niccolò he has the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie built outside Correggio. He dies at the end of August 1518 in Correggio.
The third generation of descendants
MANFREDO DA CORREGGIO
Count. Son of Borso and Francesca of Brandenburg. He marries Lucrezia d’Este, daughter of Ercole d’Este (son of Sigismondo). Father of Camillo, Giberto, Fabrizio, Bianca (a nun in a convent in Correggio), Olimpia (a nun who obtains dispensation to marry Francesco Gonzaga of Novellara), and Isabella (husbands: Giberto da Correggio and Ottavio Gonzaga of Guastalla). He dies in March 1546.
A man of arms in the service of the duke of Milan Massimiliano Sforza. In 1513 he takes part in the battle of Novara at the head of a contingent of Swiss infantry. Following the victory over the French he obtains a condotta and an annual pension of 6,800 ducats. This payment is confirmed to him in 1515 also by the king of France Francis I. He is included in the imperial investitures of Correggio granted both by the emperor Maximilian of Austria (1517) and by Charles V (1520 and 1533). In 1530 he hosts the emperor in Correggio for two days. He dies in March 1546.
IPPOLITO DA CORREGGIO
Of Correggio. Son of Giberto VII and Veronica Gambara. His mother, sister of Cardinal Uberto, is one of the most illustrious women of her time in Italy, greatly admired by her contemporaries for her poetic and literary work. Brother of Girolamo, cousin of Gianfrancesco II and of Manfredo. He marries Chiara da Correggio, daughter of his cousin. Father of Francesco Borso and of Fulvia (wife of Ludovico della Mirandola). January 1510 to December 1552.
Of Correggio, lord of Correggio together with his cousins, Ippolito is held at baptism by Cardinal Ippolito d’Este and Isabella d’Este. He serves for many years the imperial forces against the French, taking part in the defense of Provence in 1536, in the attempt to seize Mirandola from them in 1537, and in the battle of Ceresole Alba in 1544. In the 1540s and 1550s he becomes above all a diplomat in the service of the duke of Florence Cosimo de’ Medici, entrusted with delicate missions to Charles V, especially during the war of Siena; he obtains Sienese citizenship and permission to remove from the wall of the Palazzo Pubblico an iron spike driven in a century earlier, the cause of the death of his great-uncle Giberto (Giberto VI). He dies in mid December 1552 in Correggio. Pietro Aretino recalls him repeatedly in his letters; likewise Francesco Sansovino, calling him “soldier and man of letters together.”
The poet cousin
NICCOLÒ DA CORREGGIO
Of Ferrara. Also called Niccolò Postumo, having been born after the death of his father Niccolò. His mother is Beatrice d’Este, daughter of the marquis of Ferrara Niccolò II. Cousin of Borso da Correggio. He marries Cassandra Colleoni, daughter of Bartolomeo Colleoni; brother in law of Gaspare da Martinengo, of Gerardo da Martinengo and of Giacomo della Motella. Father of Giangaleazzo, Eleonora (wife of Eleuterio Rusca, count of Lugano), Beatrice, Isotta (a nun, known as Sister Barbara and remembered as a poet), and Cornelia (wife of the condottiero Ettore Gonzaga). He is born in February or April 1450 and dies in February 1508 in Ferrara.
Lord of Brescello and Castellazzo, Niccolò grows up at the Este court under the guardianship of his uncle Borso d’Este. As for his military career, the reader is referred to the site’s full profile; here it is enough to note that his is the most refined figure of the house: courtier, diplomat and above all poet, author of the comedy “La fabula di Cefalo” and of the poem “Psyche o la Aurora,” dedicated to Isabella d’Este, not to mention a rich body of verse mostly on themes of love. On the military and political plane he oscillates throughout his life between Ferrara and Milan, serving alternately the Sforza and the Este, with an interval of Venetian imprisonment between 1482 and 1483 following the defeat at San Biagio. He dies in Ferrara in February 1508 and is buried in Correggio in the church of San Domenico. Verses and elegies are dedicated to him by Matteo Bandello, Tebaldeo, Battista Mantovano, Gaspare Visconti and Ercole Strozzi, while Ludovico Ariosto cites him in the Orlando Furioso and Matteo Maria Boiardo mourns, in his own time, his capture in battle in an eclogue. Scholars of every era have written a great deal about him. From the ample body of tributes the following have been chosen. “Niccolò was, for the nobility of his character, one of the most splendid ornaments of his age,” Pompeo Litta; “A prince, celebrated less for his cultivation of good letters than for his military valor… He was a most splendid and magnificent prince,” Girolamo Tiraboschi. “A perfect courtier, almost the ideal prototype of the figure sketched by Castiglione (Baldassarre Castiglione, in “Il Cortigiano”), cultured and a poet but also a skilled condottiero and man of arms, an expert diplomat and counselor to princes, as well as an organizer of feasts and tournaments,” Paola Farenga, in the “Dizionario biografico degli Italiani.”
CONTAZZO DA CASALPÒ (Azzo da Correggio)
Contazzo da Casalpò, count, lord of Casalpò. He dies in February 1528 in L’Aquila.
Contazzo belongs to a generation of the house particularly active in the Italian Wars of its time. He serves in the Black Bands of Giovanni de’ Medici, takes part in the siege of Pavia in 1524 and in the battle of Borgoforte in 1526; at the death of the famous captain he attempts, with Piermaria dei Rossi, to reorganize the company left leaderless. Having entered Florentine service, his condotta is repeatedly reduced and disputed by the Ten of the Balìa. In February 1528, while in L’Aquila with Orazio Baglioni, he is accused of mutiny and treason. The Florentine commissioner Giovanni Battista Soderini decides to settle the matter decisively: he has him killed after pretending to have sent him on a special mission. Maurizio Arfaioli, in his work “The Black Bands of Giovanni: Infantry and Diplomacy during the Italian Wars (1525-1536),” describes his end: according to Mantuan sources, the defenseless Azzo was killed by a blow of a mace to the head, and his naked body was left on the road with only a stocking on his right foot.
Featured image: Wikipedia
