Francesco Gonzaga

Francesco Gonzaga was the fourth Marquis of Mantua and the husband of Isabella d’Este Gonzaga. He was born in Mantua in 1466 and died there in 1519. He contributed, thanks to his highly refined wife’s initiative, to the cultural promotion of this city in Lombardy, making of Mantua a centre of attraction for top intellectuals. Francesco Gonzaga’s policy was based on neighbourly relations with the Duchy of Milan and the Republic of Venice, so much so that he was for a certain period the commander of the Venetian army and brother in law of  Ludovico il Moro. After the French invasion led by Charles VIII, Francesco Gonzaga initially remained faithful to Venice to then side with Louis XII. In 1509 he fell into the hands of his Venetian ex allies, who freed him one year later thanks to the pressure applied by his wife Isabella on Julius II. The Marquis showed a marked interest in the cantos of the Furioso, as they were being composed, and in 1512 asked Ariosto if he could read the work, so greatly praised by his wife Isabella. But the grand manuscript was illegible and it was only the poet who could decipher or copy it. In correspondence between Francesco Gonzaga and Ariosto the work was referred to simply as the "gionta" or continuation of the Orlando innamorato, which would demonstrate that as late as 1512 Ariosto had as yet not decided upon the title to give his romance of chivalry, or maybe as if he didn’t as yet want to divulge it. Ariosto, who was in Mantua on 5 May 1516 to sell a good number of the first edition of the Furioso, gave a copy to an enthusiastic Francesco Gonzaga. The Marquis of Mantua is mentioned in the Orlando furioso XXVI, 49, vv. 5-8: "V’è Francesco Gonzaga, né abandona / le sue vestigie il figlio Federico; / et ha il cognato e il genero vicino, / quel di Ferrara, e quel duca d’Urbino". Francesco Gonzaga, died after years of illness from a resurgence of ‘French Disease’ in 1519.