CANOSSA, LUDOVIGI di. — Of the Veronese branch of the counts of C. (who do not descend from the family of Countess Matilde), born in Verona in 1476 and died there in 1532. Through family connections, he was educated and trained at the courts of the Gonzagas of Mantua and the Montefeltros of Urbino, where he learned so well the art of courtly life that he was chosen by Baldassarre Castiglione to serve as the model for the ideal courtier (Il Cortegiano, I, ch. 3).
Cultured (he had a good knowledge of Greek and collected books and codices), a friend of men of letters and artists, he was esteemed one of the most skilled and capable diplomats of his age and was soon employed with success in 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 French policy and in Sept. 1515 negotiated the league between Leo X and France, which was ratified on 24 Oct. 1516. He then obtained the bishopric of Bayeux and from 1523 to 1529 served as French ambassador to Venice. To oppose Spanish predominance, he worked with Gian Matteo Giberti, datary of Clement VII, in forming the League of Cognac, which brought so much harm to Italy and to Rome the infamous sack (1527). In 1529 he retired to his villa at Grezzana, in the elegans otium that was the aspiration of Renaissance humanists, not far from Verona. In April 1531 he resigned his bishoprics as well.