X-Nico

12 unusual facts about pope Urban VIII


1635: The Cannon Law

The book explores the reactions of the Roman Catholic hardliners to Pope Urban VIII's actions in tolerating the new freedom of religion taking root in Central Europe during the climax of The Galileo Affair.

1635: The Dreeson Incident

The novel takes place after the events of 1635: The Cannon Law, in which French Huguenot extremist Michel Ducos came close to assassinating Pope Urban VIII and forced to flee with his followers from Rome.

Battle of La Marfée

This demonstrated the power of Cardinal Richelieu, who dared to assassinate a Prince of the blood of France and go against Pope Urban VIII.

Fiori musicali

Fiori musicali was first published in Venice in 1635, when Frescobaldi was working as organist of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, under the patronage of Pope Urban VIII and his nephew Cardinal Francesco Barberini.

Francesco Vitelli

In 1643 Pope Urban VIII Barberini appointed him Governor of Rome, an honorary position that his absence as bishop of Urbino disabled him from taking up.

Marc'Antonio Pasqualini

He benefitted greatly from the generosity of his patrons, the Barberini family of Pope Urban VIII, who were enthusiastic supporters of early opera.

Napoleone Angiolini

He aided in the restoration of the Sala Farnese del Palazzo Comunale, including the restoration in 1852 of the monument to Pope Urban VIII, which had been vandalized by Napoleonic armies.

Pierre Gaultier

Active in Italy in the early 1630s, he probably made the acquaintance of his future patron, prince Johann Anton I of Eggenberg (1610–1649), then ambassador of the emperor Ferdinand III to Pope Urban VIII in Rome in 1638.

Pietro Paolo Floriani

Besides fortifications built in Italy and in Northern Europe for Pope Urban VIII, the King of Spain and the emperor Ferdinand II, he also designed the fortification walls on the south side of Valletta, the capital city of Malta.

Princess Luisa Cristina of Savoy

Maurice had previously been a cardinal and had to receive permission from Pope Urban VIII who consented to the match.

Roman Catholicism in Ethiopia

Due largely to the behaviour of the Portuguese Jesuit Afonso Mendes, whom Pope Urban VIII appointed as Patriarch of Ethiopia in 1622, Emperor Fasilides expelled the Patriarch and the European missionaries, who included Jerónimo Lobo, from the country in 1636; these contacts, which had seemed destined for success under the previous Emperor, led instead to the complete closure of Ethiopia to further contact with Rome.

San Sebastiano al Palatino

According to legend, it is built on the site of its dedicatee's martyrdom, with the first church constructed in the 10th century, and the second (and present) church being the result of Pope Urban VIII's 1624 rebuild.


Alidosi family

When Imola was stripped from them by Filippo Maria Visconti in 1424, they retreated to the countryside seigniory of Castel del Rio, in the Romagna Apennines, from which they were ousted in 1638 by Pope Urban VIII.

Clerics Regular of Our Savior

The constitutions and spirit of the congregation were those of the Congregation of Canons Regular of Our Savior, which had been established in 1623 as a reform of the various canonical monasteries in the Duchy of Lorraine by St. Peter Fourier, C.R.S.A., of the Abbey of Chaumousey, and confirmed by Pope Urban VIII in 1628.

Francesco Angelo Rapaccioli

In July 1643 Rapaccioli was elevated to cardinal by Pope Urban VIII, was made papal legate to the Province of Viterbo and Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Via Lata.

Jean de Montereul

The son of an advocate to the parlement de Paris, Jean was originally intended for a legal career himself, but in the course of a trip to Italy with Pomponne de Bellièvre (a nephew of pope Urban VIII) he was made a canon of Toul.

Teatro delle Quattro Fontane

The theatre opened in 1632 with the opera, Sant' Alessio (Saint Alexis; first performed in 1631), composed by Stefano Landi to a libretto by Giulio Rospigliosi, a protégé of the Barberini Pope Urban VIII, later himself elected Pope Clement IX.

Teimuraz I of Kakheti

Determined to eliminate the Safavid hegemony over Georgia, Teimuraz sent his ambassador, Niciphores Irbachi, to Western Europe and requested the aid from Philip IV of Spain and Pope Urban VIII.