DELLA ROVERE, FAMILY. - A noble house of very humble origin in Savona, whose fortunes began with the elevation to the papacy in 1471 of FRANCESCO D. R. under the name Sixtus IV.
The Pope's brothers were RAFAELLO and BARTOLOMEO; his sisters: BIANCA, who became the wife of Paolo Riario (v.), and LUCHINA, who married Gian Guglielmo Basso.
The son of Bartolomeo was LEONARDO, who from his uncle he was created prefect of Rome (1472) and married a natural daughter of Ferdinand, king of Naples (with the fief of Sora, Arpino, etc.); d. 11 Nov. 1475.
The sons of Raffaello were: GIULIANO, cardinal of St. Peter in Chains, later pope Julius II; GIOVANNI, made lord of the vicariates of Sinigallia and Mondavio, prefect of Rome in 1475 and in Dec. 1484 captain general of the Church, who married Giovanna, daughter of Federico of Montefeltro, lord of Urbino; BARTOLOMEO, bishop of Massa (8 Jan. 1472), then of Ferrara (11 July 1474), castellan of Castel S. Angelo from 1487 (d. 1494); LUCHINETTA, wife of Gabriele Gara, and then, in 1480, of the Lucchese Gian Francesco Franciotti. From him Luchinetta had GALEOTTO, who was created cardinal by Julius II on 29 Nov. 1503, vice-chancellor in 1505, d. 11 Sept. 1507; and SISTO, created cardinal on 11 Sept. 1507, d. 8 March 1517, also vice-chancellor and moreover penitentiary. Both held bishoprics in commendam. The sons of Luchina married Basso were GIROLAMO, bishop of Recanati (5 Oct. 1476), cardinal on 10 Dec. 1477, d. 1 Sept. 1507; and ANTONIO, who married Caterina Marzana, niece of the king of Naples, d. 12 Aug. 1480 (cf. Pastor, II, p. 454 ff.).
The two Turin brothers CRISTOFORO D. R., archbishop of Tarantasia (1472), created cardinal on 10 Sept. 1477, d. 1 Feb. 1478, and DOMENICO, created cardinal on 10 Feb. 1478, d. 22 Apr. 1501, did not, however, belong to the kinship of Sixtus IV.
When Giuliano D. R. was created pope Julius II, he named as cardinal of the SS. Apostoli, on 29 Nov. 1503, CLEMENTE Grosso D. R., his relative, who had been bishop of Mende since 27 Oct. 1483. When the latter died in the curia on 18 Aug. 1504, he created cardinal on 1 Dec. 1505 his brother LEONARDO, bishop of Agen since 9 Dec. 1487; in 1511 he also named him penitentiary. Leonardo, who had renounced Agen in 1519, d. in the Curia on 17 Sept. 1520.
On the death of Guidubaldo, son of Federico duke of Urbino, without heirs, in 1508, Julius II invested with that duchy FRANCESCO MARIA, son of Giovanni D. R. of Sinigallia. The latter in Aug. 1508 married Eleonora, daughter by Gian Francesco Gonzaga of Mantua, well known in the Italian affairs of those years as prefect of Rome (1504) and later as captain in the service of the Church. With Leo X he lost the duchy in 1516, but regained it after the latter's death (1521) and held it until his death (1538), when he was succeeded by his son Guidubaldo II (d. 1574).
Brother of these was GIULIO, whom Paul III created cardinal at the age of 16 on 27 July 1547 and published on the following 9 January. Giulio held the bishopric of Urbino from 24 September 1547 in commendam, then that of Vicenza from 13 September 1560, and finally the archbishopric of Ravenna from 6 March 1566; he died at the age of 46 in Urbino on 3 September 1578. The line of these D. R. became extinct with FRANCESCO MARIA II, son of Guidubaldo, who died on 28 April 1631; and the duchy returned under the direct dominion of the Apostolic See. Even the famous library of Urbino, through the solicitude of the popes, left Urbino to go to the Vatican Library, of which it forms a special collection; the prefecture of Rome, hereditary in the D. R. family, passed to Taddeo Barberini (Pastor, XIII, p. 272). - See plate LXXXVII.
Bibliography4 works
Pio Paschini