Federico Borromeo

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Milan
Appointed24 April 1595
Term ended21 September 1631
PredecessorGaspare Visconti
SuccessorCesare Monti
Other post(s)Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria degli Angeli
Orders
Consecration11 June 1595
by Clement VIII
Created cardinal18 December 1587
by Sixtus V
Personal details
Born18 August 1564
Milan, Duchy of Milan
Died21 September 1631(1631-09-21) (aged 67)
Milan, Duchy of Milan
BuriedMilan Cathedral
ParentsGiulio Cesare Borromeo
Margherita Borromeo
Alma materUniversity of Pavia

Federico Borromeo (Italian:

patron of the arts and founded the Biblioteca Ambrosiana
, one of the first free public libraries in Europe. In 1618 he added a picture gallery, donating his own considerable collection of paintings. His published works, mainly in Latin, number over 100. They show his interest in ecclesiastical archaeology, sacred painting, and collecting.

Early life

Federico Borromeo was born in Milan as the second son of Giulio Cesare Borromeo, Count of Arona, and Margherita Trivulzio. The family was influential in both the secular and ecclesiastical spheres and Federico was cousin of Saint Charles Borromeo, the latter previous Archbishop of Milan and a leading figure during the Counter-Reformation.[2]

He studied in

Jesuit. His cousin Charles Borromeo dissuaded him and sent him to the Collegio Borromeo of Pavia where he remained for five years.[3][4] In May 1585 he earned a doctorate in theology at the University of Pavia. Following the death of his cousin Charles, he was sent to Rome for higher studies, where he was strongly influenced by Philip Neri, Joseph Calasanz, Caesar Baronius and Robert Bellarmine.[5] Federico Borromeo was created cardinal by Pope Sixtus V on 18 December 1587, at the age of only 23 years.[1]

As cardinal, he participated in the papal conclaves of 1590, 1591, 1592, 1605 and 1623 (he was absent from the election of 1621). His attendance in the first conclave of 1590 at the age of 26 made him one of the youngest Cardinals to participate in the election of a pontiff.

In Rome, Federico was not particularly interested in political issues, but he focused on scholarship and prayer. He collaborated on the issuing of the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate and to the publication of the acts of the Council of Trent.[3] He served as the first cardinal protector of his friend Federico Zuccari's Accademia di San Luca.[6]

Archbishop of Milan

The Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, founded in 1609 by Cardinal Federico Borromeo

On 24 April 1595

classical and oriental scholar. Through him Erycius Puteanus was appointed professor of Latin at the Palatine School of Milan from 1600 to 1606.[9]

In 1609 he founded the

Pinacoteca Ambrosiana is one of the most famous art collections in Italy, including masterpieces such as Leonardo's Portrait of a Musician, Caravaggio's Basket of Fruit, Raphael's preparatory cartoon for The School of Athens, Titian's Adoration of the Magi, the Madonna del Padiglione by Botticelli and numerous examples of the famous vases of flowers painted by Jan Brueghel
, Borromeo's lifelong friend.

The Ambrosiana was, after the

Vincenzo Pinelli, whose more than 800 manuscripts filled 70 cases when they were sent to Milan and included the famous Iliad, the Ilias Picta. A printing press
was attached to the library and a school for instruction in the classical languages.

Luigi Pellegrini Scaramuccia, Federico Borromeo visits the leper house during the Plague of 1630, Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana

A patron of the arts, Federico had the famous

Duomo di Milano where he is buried. Borromeo was also the patron of Manfredo Settala (1600–1680), son of the famous physician Ludovico Settala, who was compiling his famous museum of natural and scientific curiosities in his family palace on the Via Pantano in Milan. After Manfredo's death in 1680, the museum stayed in the Settala family for several generations, ultimately passing in 1751 to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana.[16]

He is most notable for his efforts to feed the poor of Milan during the great

Great Plague of 1630. Within the city, an average of eight out of every nine of the parish priests died of the plague, and Federico Borromeo lost almost the whole of his personal household. Nevertheless, he emulated the example of St. Charles and refused to leave the city for the relative safety of one of his country estates. Instead, he continued to issue orders to his clergy, personally visit the lazzarettos
and in the words of Ripamonti 'sought out the pestilence and lived in its midst.'

Federico Borromeo took part in eight Papal conclaves. At the papal conclave of August 1623, he received 18 votes but was opposed by the Spanish party.[17] He died in Milan on 21 September 1631 at the age of 67.

Works

Gratia de' principi, 1632

Federico Borromeo was a prolific writer, to the extent that he can be considered the most important Milanese writer of the first half of the seventeenth century, alongside Giuseppe Ripamonti.[18] He composed some 71 printed and 46 manuscript books written mostly in Latin that discuss various ecclesiastical issues.[4] His better known works are Meditamenta litteraria (1619), De gratia principum (1625), De suis studiis commentarius (1627), De ecstaticis mulieribus et illusis (1616), De acquirendo contemplationis habitu, De assidua oratione, De naturali ecstasi (1617), De vita Catharinae Senensis monacae conversae (1618 on Suor Caterina Vannini of Siena), Tractatus habiti ad sacras virgines (1620–1623), De cognitionibus quas habent daemones (1624), and De linguis, nominibus et numero angelorum (1628).[3] His writings are listed by Cesare Cantù.[19]

List of works

  • Archiepiscopalis fori Sanctae Mediolanensis Ecclesiae taxae (in Latin). Milano: eredi Pacifico Da Ponte. 1624.
  • Federico Borromeo (1630). De vita contemplativa, sive de valetudine ascetica libri duo (in Latin). Milano: typographia Collegij Ambrosiani.
  • Federico Borromeo (1632). De christianae mentis iucunditate libri tres (in Latin). Milano: typographia Collegij Ambrosiani.
  • Federico Borromeo (1632). De sacris nostrorum temporum oratoribus libri quinque (in Latin). Milano: typographia Collegij Ambrosiani.
  • Federico Borromeo (1632). De concionante episcopo libri tres (in Latin). Milano: typographia Collegij Ambrosiani.
  • Federico Borromeo (1632). Il libro intitulato la gratia de' principi. Milano: Stamperia del Collegio Ambrosiano.
  • Federico Borromeo (1632). I tre libri delle laudi divine. Milano: Stamperia del Collegio Ambrosiano.
  • Federico Borromeo (1633) [1619]. Meditamenta litteraria (in Latin) (2 ed.). Milano: typographia Collegij Ambrosiani.
  • Federico Borromeo (1756) [1618]. I tre libri della vita della venerabile madre suor Caterina Vannini sanese monaca convertita (3 ed.). Padova: Giuseppe Comino.

Legacy

Costanzo Corti (1824-1873), Monument to Cardinal Federico Borromeo in Piazza San Sepolcro (1865)

Federico Borromeo appears as a character in Alessandro Manzoni's 1827 novel The Betrothed (I promessi sposi), in which he is characterized as an intelligent humanist and saintly servant of Christ, serving the people of Milan unselfishly during the 1630 plague; in the novel he is called Federigo Borromeo, from the Spanish. In 1865 the citizens of Milan erected a marble statue of him next to the gates of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana.[4] The monument was realized by Costanzo Corti. It stands in Piazza San Sepolcro, in front of the former main façade of Ambrosiana, currently being its back façade. On one side of the pedestal of the statue is the phrase from Manzoni's I Promessi Sposi: "He was one of those men rare in every age, who employed extraordinary intelligence, the resources of an opulent condition, the advantages of privileged stations, and an unflinching will in the search and practice of higher and better things". On the other side are the words: "He conceived the plan of the Ambrosian Library, which he built at great expense, and organized in 1609 with an equal activity and prudence".

While at the service of Federico Borromeo,

madrigals with contrafacta texts prepared by him, based on works by Claudio Monteverdi and others. Borromeo was the dedicatee of the first of Coppini's three collections of contrafacta.[20]

The effort to canonize Federico began soon after his death, and documents in support of his case were still being collected in the 1690s, but the process was never institutionalized by Church authorities due to the opposition of the Spanish crown.[21]

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b David Cheney. "Federico Cardinal Borromeo (Sr.)". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. Retrieved 20 October 2012.
  2. ISBN 88-7030-891-X
    .
  3. ^ a b c Prodi 1971.
  4. ^ a b c Shahan, Thomas (1913). "Federico Borromeo" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  5. ^ a b Mols 2003, p. 541.
  6. ^ Jones 1988, p. 261.
  7. OCLC 53276621
    .
  8. ^ D'Amico 2012, p. 113.
  9. ^ Simar, Théophile (1913). "Erycius Puteanus" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  10. ISBN 9780191626746
    .
  11. ^ Paredi 1983, p. 25.
  12. ^ In his book De pictura sacra (1624) Borromeo explains that the gallery was intended as a public resource in line with the Council of Trent's call for the faithful to be educated through images as well as words.
  13. ISBN 9780198206088
    .
  14. ISBN 9780297000990
    .
  15. ^ "The Colossus of Saint Charles in Arona". ambrosiana.it.
  16. ^ Findlen, Paula (1994). Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy. University of California Press. p. 34.
  17. ^ Mols 2003, p. 542.
  18. ^ Zaggia 2014, p. 195.
  19. ^ La Lombardia nel secolo XVII (Milan 1832, appendix D).
  20. ISBN 978-1135042929
    .
  21. ^ D'Amico 2012, p. 115.

Bibliography

External links

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