CANOSSA, LUDOVICO di. - Of the Veronese branch of the counts of C. (who do not descend from the family of Countess Matilda), b. at Verona in 1476 and d. there in 1532. Through family connections he was brought up and educated at the courts of the Gonzagas of Mantua and the Montefeltros of Urbino, where he learned the art of courtly living so well that he was chosen by Baldassarre Castiglione to form the model of the courtier (Il Cortegiano, I, ch. 3).
Cultured (he knew a great deal of Greek and collected books and codices of it), a friend of men of letters and artists, he was esteemed one of the most skilful and capable diplomats of his age and was soon employed, with success, on embassies by Guidobaldo of Urbino and by Julius II, who on 10 Feb. 1511 appointed him bishop of Tricarico. Leo X chose him as his majordomo and sent him as nuncio to France in May 1513, where he succeeded in reconciling Louis XII with Henry VIII of England. He was one of the most ardent supporters of the French policy and in Sept. 1515 negotiated the league between Leo X and France, which was ratified in Oct. On 24 Oct. 1516 he received the bishopric of Bayeux, and from 1523 to 1529 he was ambassador of France at Venice and, in order to oppose Spanish predominance, cooperated with Gian Matteo Giberti, datary of Clement VII, in that League of Cognac which brought so many evils upon Italy and the famous sack upon Rome (1527). In 1529 he retired to a villa of his at Grezzana, not far from Verona, in the otium elegans that was the aspiration of the humanists of the Renaissance. In Apr. 1531 he also renounced his bishoprics.
Bibliography6 worksC. Migliarazzi, L. di C. Ricerche storiche con documenti inediti, Città di Castello 1907, a panegyrical work; many of his letters are in the
BIBL.: C. Migliarazzi, L. di C. Ricerche storiche con documenti inediti, Città di Castello 1907, a panegyrical work; many of his letters are in the Biblioteca Capitolare of Verona, from which C. Cavattoni drew and published a small collection (in Opusculi Veronesi for the election as bishop of mons. Luigi di Canossa, Verona 1861; cf. Arch. it. ital., 2nd series, 15 [1862], pp. 82-84, where a more exact judgment of C. is given); other letters are in the collections published in the 16th century; G. B. Pighi, Giammatteo Giberti vescovo di Verona, Verona 1921, ch. 3, §§ 1-3, especially in ch. 19, where the pious works accomplished by C. are discussed; Pastor, IV, 1-2, pp. 186-89 and passim.
Berra, Luigi. “Canossa, ludovico di.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III, coll. 609–610. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949. https://azioneromana.com/article/canossa-ludovico-di.
MLA
Berra, Luigi. “Canossa, ludovico di.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949, coll. 609–610. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/canossa-ludovico-di.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec3_canossa_ludovico_di,
author = {Berra, Luigi},
title = {Canossa, ludovico di},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {III},
pages = {609--610},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1949},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/canossa-ludovico-di}
}
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