His family of origin
Baldassarre Castiglione was born on 6 December 1478 on the family estate in Casatico, near Mantua. His father, Cristoforo Castiglione (1458-1499), a member of the Mantua branch of an illustrious and ancient Lombard family, was a rich business man working for the Marquis of Mantua, Ludovico II Gonzaga. The year before the birth of his first son, Baldassarre, he married Aloisia (or Luigia) Gonzaga (1458-1542). When they did not retreat to their country villa in Casatico, they lived stably in the city, in an elegant palace, bought by Cristoforo in 1456, but which today no longer exists, situated in Contrada Montis (in the San Giacomo quarter, in the area behind the current Teatro Sociale).
The family, by virtue of the favours granted to them by the marquises of Mantua in exchange for military and political services, over the course of the 15th Century acquired wealth and importance, and above all vast areas of land. They were thus able to participate in the luxury and feasting court life, which though, inevitably, brought with them the instability of the domestic accounts. Baldassarre was to have three sisters and one brother: Polissena, later wife of Iacopo Boschetto; Gerolamo, who died in 1506; Francesca, later wife of Tommaso Strozzi; and Anna, who entered the order of Saint Chiara with the name of Sister Laura. His initial education took place in Mantua, at the court of the Gonzagas and at the Studio pubblico, and in his youth he bonded friendships that were destined to last in time: above all with Domizio Falcone and Mario Fiera.
The current palace of the Counts of Castiglione, previously belonging to the Bonacolsi, in piazza Sordello in Mantua, was bought by Baldassarre’s descendants at the end of the 18th Century (1780).
