URBAN VII, Pope. - Giambattista Castagna, b. in Rome on 4 Aug. 1521, from a noble Genoese family, related on his mother's side to the Roman families of the Ricci and Jacobazzi.

He studied at Perugia, then at Padua, and obtained his doctorate at Bologna. Cardinal Girolamo Varallo, his uncle, received him into his service and kept him with him in France when he was there as papal legate to Henry II (1551). Having returned to Rome, he was referendary of the Segnatura di Giustizia; then archbishop of Rossano (1553), and at the age of 32 he was ordained a priest. Under Paul IV he was for a short time governor of Fano; then of Perugia (March 1559). From 14 Nov. 1561 onward he took part in the work of the Council of Trent.

URBANO VII, POPE - Oil portrait by an unknown author (ca. 1585), readapted after his election as Pope (1590). - Vatican, Sala dei Foconi.(phot. Musei Vaticani)

After a brief stay at Rossano, in 1564 he accompanied Cardinal Boncompagni, pontifical legate in Spain; Pius V sent him as nuncio to Madrid, where he remained until 1572 and negotiated that Holy League against the Turks which led to the victory of Lepanto. Nuncio in Venice (1573), he prepared the war against the Turks; then he went as governor to Bologna. He later represented the Holy See at the Congress of Cologne for peace with the Netherlands (1578). Having returned to Rome at the beginning of 1580, he was appointed consultor of the Inquisition and of the Congregation for the affairs of the Papal State, until Gregory XIII created him cardinal (12 Dec. 1583) with the title of St. Marcellus al Corso; later he was legate in Bologna, where he remained until the death of that Pope.

Elected pope on 15 Sept. 1590, with the support of the Spaniards, the Florentines, Cardinal Sforza and the Genoese cardinals of Sixtus V, by his first measures he soon knew how to win over minds. He modeled his government on wise economy, ordered that the wealth of the churches be used to supply Rome with good bread at a low price; he ordered the abolition of the oppressive taxes introduced by Sixtus V. He charged four cardinals with reforming the Dataria. He declared that his numerous relatives should be attended to after the poor and the servants of the pope. As soon as he was elected, he issued measures so that the dome of St. Peter's might be completed.

Struck by an attack of malaria on the first night after his election, bled and weakened, he died on 27 Sept. 1590, at 69 years of age, after barely 12 days of papacy. His entire paternal estate (30,000 scudi) was bequeathed to the Confraternity of the Annunziata in S. Maria sopra Minerva, to provide dowries for needy girls. His mortal remains were transferred on 21 Sept. 1606 to the church of S. Maria sopra Minerva, where a beautiful statue, the work of Ambrogio Bonvicino, commemorates him.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: A. Neri, La patria d'origine di U. VII, in Boll. stor. della Svizzera ital., 27 (1905), p. 130, with genealogical tree; Pastor, X, pp. 512-20; D. Redig de Campos, Un ritratto inedito di U. VII in Vaticano, in Rend. Pont. Acc. Rom. di Arch., 18 (1942), pp. 175-82.

Raffaele Ciasca

@incollection{ec12_urbano_vii_papa, author = {Ciasca, Raffaele}, title = {Urbano VII, papa}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {910--912}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/urbano-vii-papa} }

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Urban VII, Pope

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