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Pietro Riario

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Pietro Riario
O.F.M. Conv.
Archbishop of Firenze
Church Catholic Church
Archdiocese Archdiocese of Firenze
In office 20 July 1473 – 3 January 1474
Predecessor Giovanni de' Diotisalvi
Successor Rinaldo Orsini
Other posts Administrator of Mende & Sevilla(1473-1474)
Bishop of Split (1473-1474)
Titular Patriarch of Constantinople (1472-1474)
Administrator of Valence and Die (1472-1474)
Cardinal-Priest of San Sisto (1471-1474)
Previous post Bishop of Treviso (1471-1473)
Orders
Consecration 1473
Created cardinal 16 December 1471
by Pope Sixtus IV
Personal details
Born 21 April 1445
Free Commune of Savona, Holy Roman Empire
Died 3 January 1474 (aged 28)
Rome, Papal States

Pietro Riario (1445 – 3 January 1474) was an Italian cardinal and Papal diplomat.

Biography

Born in Savona, Riario was the son of Paolo Riario and Pope Sixtus IVs' sister, Bianca Della Rovere. Sixtus nominated him bishop of Treviso and cardinal in 1471, and, in 1473, archbishop of Florence. He was entrusted with Sixtus' foreign policy. To reinforce the alliance between Rome and Milan, he had his brother Girolamo married to the daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan.

Riario was a humanist known for his patronage of literature and the arts, his huge feasts, luxurious behaviour and irreligious conduct.[1] He had a large palace begun in Rome, near the church of Santi Apostoli (it was completed by his cousin Giuliano della Rovere, pope as Julius II). In 1473 he had the square before his palazzo transformed with painted canvas and wooden construction into temporary but luxurious lodging for Eleanor of Naples the daughter of King Ferrante of Naples, who was entertained in June, as she traveled through Rome on her way to marry Duke Ercole I d'Este of Ferrara, with a Roman reception including an extravagant banquet with forty piatti that included roast stags, herons, the requisite roast peacock, even a roast bear. The bread was gilded.[2][3]

In 1473 Riario travelled to northern Italy to oversee the cession of Imola from Milan to the Republic of Florence. At his return to Rome, Riario died suddenly in his house at age 28.[4] It was suspected that he had been poisoned,[5] although an indigestion was also possible. He was buried in Santi Apostoli in a magnificent Renaissance tomb sculpted by Mino da Fiesole and Andrea Bregno. His role as Sixtus' collaborator was inherited by his cousin Giuliano della Rovere.

References

  1. Back to citation Burckhardt, Jacob (1878). The Civilization Of The Renaissance in Italy. University of Toronto - Robarts Library: Vienna Phaidon Press. p. 57. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  2. Back to citation John Dickie, Delizia! The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food, 2008, p65f.
  3. Back to citation of Aragon, Eleonora (22 March 1996). "Letter from Eleonora of Aragon". Renaissance Quarterly. 49 (1): 1–30.
  4. Back to citation Joost-Gaugier, Christiane; Paoletti, John T; Radke, Gary M. (2003-04-01). "Art in Renaissance Italy". The Sixteenth Century Journal. 34 (1): 163. doi:10.2307/20061319. ISSN 0361-0160. JSTOR 20061319.
  5. Back to citation Burckhardt, Jacob (1878). The Civilisation of the Period of the Renaissance in Italy. Vol. 1. C.K. Paul & Company. p. 106.