Pietro Riario

Tomb of Cardinal Pietro Riario in Santi Apostoli

Pietro Riario (1445 – 3 January 1474) was an Italian cardinal and Papal diplomat.

Biography

Born in Savona, he was the son of Paolo Riario and Pope Sixtus IVs' sister, Bianca Della Rovere. Sixtus nominated him in 1471 bishop of Treviso and cardinal, and, in 1473, archbishop of Florence. He was entrusted with Sixtus' foreign policy. To reinforce the alliance between Rome and Milan, he had his brother Girolamo married to the daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan.

He was a humanist known for his patronage of literature and the arts, as well as for his huge feasts and his luxurious behaviour. He had a large palace begun in Rome, near the church of Santi Apostoli (it was completed by his cousin Giuliano della Rovere, pope as Julius II). In 1473 he had the square before his palazzo transformed with painted canvas and wooden construction into temporary but luxurious lodging for the daughter of the King of Naples, who was entertained in June with an extravagant banquet with forty piatti that included roast stags, herons, the requisite roast peacock, even a roast bear. The bread was gilded.[1]

In 1473 he travelled to northern Italy to oversee the cession of Imola from Milan to the Republic of Florence. At his return to Rome, Riario died suddenly in his house. It was suspected that he had been poisoned, although an indigestion was more likely. He was buried in Santi Apostoli in a magnificent Renaissance tomb sculpted by Mino da Fiesole and Andrea Bregno. His role as Sixtus' collaborator was inherited by his cousin Giuliano della Rovere.

Notes

  1. John Dickie, Delizia! The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food, 2008, p65f.
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Francesco Barozzi (bishop)
Bishop of Treviso
1471-1472
Succeeded by
Lorenzo Zanni
Preceded by
Gerard de Crussol
Administrator of Valence and Die
1472-1474
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Basilios Bessarion
Patriarch of Constantinople
1472-1474
Succeeded by
Girolamo Landi
Preceded by
Lorenzo Zanni
Bishop of Split
1473-1474
Succeeded by
Pietro Foscari
Preceded by
Alonso de Fonseca y Ulloa
Archbishop of Seville
1473-1474
Succeeded by
Pedro González de Mendoza
Preceded by
Antoine de La Panouse
Administrator of Mende
1473-1474
Succeeded by
Giuliano della Rovere
Preceded by
Giovanni Neroni Diotisalvi
Archbishop of Firenze
1473-1474
Succeeded by
Rinaldo Orsini (archbishop)


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