“G. B. De Marini and the ‘Genoese Nation’ in Rome: Patronage, Piety and Politics”
A Paper Presented to the Early Modern Rome 3 Conference, in Rome, Italy, on 5 October 2017 by Peter S. Poulos
The cataclysm of the Ottoman conquest of the island Chios in 1566 caused an exodus of the Genoese colony that had ruled the island for centuries. Many of the refugees settled in Rome where their significant contributions to the life of the city are still not well understood. This paper centers on one such expatriate, the minor nobleman Giovanni Battista De Marini and his circle of relatives. Educated, pious, and astute as merchants and financiers, their influence on the economic, religious, and cultural fabric of Rome is undeniable, and reveals a strong identity and cultural connection with their ancestral home. The life and achievements of De Marini are recounted in several seventeenth-century printed works on Ligurian writers, in the published biographies of family members and associates of the time, and in contemporary histories of Rome.(1) Through these sources we learn that Giovanni was born in 1540 to Tomaso Castagnola and Angela De Marini on the island of Chios,(2) then a Genoese colony of the Giustiniani maona.(3)
Giovanni was possibly raised in Italy as a young boy under the guardianship of his distinguished maternal uncle, the Dominican Friar Leonardo De Marini, as events in the life of Giovanni are recorded in the wake of his uncle’s various roles as papal nuncio to the court of Spain, archbishop and papal legate to the Council of Trent.(4) Leonardo was born on Chios in 1509 and entered the convent of San Domenico of Chios before completing his studies in Bologna. He served as prior of Santa Maria di Castello in Genoa until 1549 and the following year was appointed Bishop of Laodicea in partibus by Pope Giulio III and suffragan in Mantua to Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga. With the Bull of March 23, 1553 Giulio appointed Leonardo the papal nuncio to the Spanish court in Madrid. The first evidence that the nephew was in the company of his uncle are from the reports by Giovanni’s biographers of his role as menino, or first page, to Prince Don Carlo of Austria, son of Philip II.(5) As a page in the royal household Giovanni would have received a comprehensive humanist education taught directly by the scholars from all over Europe who served at the court.(6) The curriculum consisted of “catechism, Latin and Castilian grammar, history, philosophy, heraldry, drawing, music and singing.”(7)
In 1558 Leonardo was recalled to Rome to be elevated to the bishopric of Lanciano in Abruzzo, by Pius IV at the suggestion of Philip II, the patron of that church. Leonardo was called on again by Pius, this time at the request of Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, to serve as a papal legate to the Council of Trent where he arrived on 26 March 1562. In Trent we again find Giovanni in the retinue of his uncle as a secular attendee at the council with the nobility title of Lord of Bomba, representing a barony in the Kingdom of Naples approximately thirty kilometers from Lanciano.(8) Perhaps Leonardo continued in a tutelary role or Giovanni served his uncle as an assistant or secretary. In any case, it is likely that Giovanni had not yet acquired the fiefdom as reported by the contemporary Genoese historian, Michele Giustiniani, as De Marini does not appear in the notarial records from the castle of Bomba until 1594.
In 1565 Leonardo was sent on two diplomatic missions to the imperial court at Vienna. It is uncertain whether or not Giovanni accompanied his uncle on these journeys, but his presence in Lanciano is suggested by the appearance of his name as the dedicatee of a book of madrigals published in Venice in 1564 by Aurelio Della Faya, chapel master of the church of Lanciano.(9) In his letter of dedication Della Faya praises the extensive knowledge and talent for the fine arts of his patron, a comment that suggests the exceptional education that Giovanni probably received as a page at the Spanish court. The service to the royal family and Philip II’s benefaction of the church of Lanciano, where Leonardo held the position of Archbishop, favor the identification of the former page as the dedicatee of the madrigal collection.
Further evidence of the life of the nephew secretary in the following years correlate with the assignments and travels of his uncle. In the summer of 1566 Leonardo was in Rome working to complete the text of the Roman Catechism. On October 7th of that year Pius V appointed De Marini to the diocese of Alba, and a few weeks later added the responsibility of apostolic visitor to 23 dioceses in northern and central Italy,(12) which he continued to administer until 1572. It is during the period of Leonardo’s tenure in Alba that we find the name «Giovanni Battista di Marino» in another letter of dedication, this time to a work of considerable historical interest, the History of the Life and Deeds of Christopher Columbus written by Ferdinand Columbus, son of the famous explorer.(13) The letter was addressed to the Genoese nobleman, physician and senator Baliano de Fornari,(14) by the Sicilian mathematician, Giuseppe Moleto. Fornari had acquired the manuscript of the life of Columbus from the grandson of Christopher Colombus, Don Luis Columbus.(15) Moleto relates that the seventy-year-old Fornari conveyed the manuscript to Venice where it could be translated from Castilian into Italian and Latin, and printed in all three languages so that «the true deeds of this courageous man, the rightful glory of Italy, and particularly of your Lordship’s homeland, might one day be revealed to everyone».(16) However, because of the time required to complete the edition and with numerous obligations in Genoa, Fornari entrusted the responsibility of overseeing the publication in the hands of Di Marino, whom Moleto refers to as «a gentleman adorned with the most excellent qualities, of great spirit and learning» and that Di Marino « . . . being my master and wishing me to aid in the execution of this project, I agreed thereto, knowing it would please both him and your Lordship».(17) The identity of the «Giovanni Battista di Marino» named in the letter and his importance in the publication of the Historie has been the topic of broad discussion by historians since the nineteenth century and linked to various theories regarding the transmission of the manuscript into Italy.(18) Di Marino was identified as the Genoese nobleman who served as a senator from 1543 to 1556.(19) However, this attribution came into dispute with the discovery of a manuscript that referenced an inscription indicating that the senator of that name had died in 1565 and was buried with his wife, and thus, likely before the transfer of the manuscript to Venice.(20)
Far more conceivable is that Leonardo dispatched his young nephew to accompany the aging Genoese senator on the long journey to Venice, to remain there to oversee the translation and printing of the precious manuscript. We can recall that the author of the Historie, Ferdinand Columbus, was also once a page to the prince of Spain, and so Giovanni’s role followed that of the prestigious author, and his education at the Spanish court equipped him with the social standing, authority, and expertise to serve as an agent in the business of publishing the important work.(21)
The text of the Historie was translated into Italian by Alfonso de Ulloa, a figure linked to Leonardo and Giovanni Battista De Marini through mutual contacts with the Gonzagas of Mantua and the royal court of Spain. Ulloa’s translations and historical works survey the religious and political upheaval of Europe of the time and the ongoing conflict between Christendom and the Ottoman Turks in the Mediterranean. They also expose the cultural and political bonds and tensions of Spain and Italy in the face of the peril to their mutual interests. Among the momentous events of the period that would have undoubtedly held deep patriotic and religious significance to the Genoese-Chian expatriates was the Ottoman Turks occupation of Chios in 1566, formerly controlled by the Genoese mahonesi. In the turmoil that ensued, the cathedral and church of San Domenico (whose convent Leonardo had entered early in his life) were ransacked and the latter turned into a mosque.(22) Members of the wealthier families were taken to Istanbul and then imprisoned in Kaffa on the Black Sea. As many as eighteen young male Giustiniani children were martyred when they refused to renounce their faith as a condition of being drafted into the sultan’s court.(23) The tragic circumstances of this latter event were reported soon after to the Consistory of Cardinals by Pius V on 6 September 1566, one month before the pope assigned Leonardo de Marini the diocese of Alba.(24) Accounts of the martyrdom of the Giustiniani children continued to survive in the collective memory of the Genoese in such works as Michele Giustiniani’s La gloriosa morte, written in part with the testimony of Giustiniani family members, among whom was Teodora Giustiniani, the wife of Giovanni Battista De Marini.(25)
While we cannot be certain that Leonardo De Marini and his nephew were involved with the printing of the Historie, it is clear that they were both linked to the circle of patrons, diplomats, noblemen, clergy and printers surrounding the translator of the text, Alonso de Ulloa. If Giovanni’s mission was to assist Fornari in finding a suitable translator, Ulloa’s experience in this area would have been an important factor. The works detailing the Ottoman threat to Christendom would have especially resonated with Leonardo, who as a papal diplomat was no doubt privileged to the efforts of popes Pius IV and V to maintain an alliance between the European superpowers of Spain, Venice, and the Vatican, as well as with Genoa, against continuing Ottoman hegemony. In light of this exigency, the commission in Venice might have been undertaken as an act of cultural diplomacy.
In 1572 Leonardo embarked on another diplomatic mission to Spain and Portugal on behalf of Gregory XIII in an effort to secure the support of the monarchs Philip II and Sebastian for the Holy League alliance first organized by Pius V to counter Turkish control of the eastern Mediterranean. Leonardo returned to Rome on 9 June 1573, expecting to receive the long-delayed elevation to the cardinalate, but died two days later and was buried before the the main altar of the Dominican church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.(26) It is in Rome where Giovanni Battista would remain, devoting himself to a life of piety and patronage in the shadow of the Minerva, and where many years later he would also be interred beside his uncle.(27)
The first evidence of Giovanni’s life of religious and philanthropic pursuits in Rome is the annual stipend of 80 scudi donated to the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary in Santa Maria sopra Minerva in 1576 to provide dowries for two poor girls, reserving the right to make the nomination and election of the recipients of the donation.(28) True to his Genoese-Chian heritage De Marini stipulated a preference be given to Genoese maidens from the island of Chios living in Rome. The following year De Marini was elected to the first of two one-year terms (1577-1579) as governatore of the Confraternity of San Giovanni Battista dei Genovesi, namesake of the national patron saint. The confraternity was responsible for administering the church of San Giovanni Battista dei Genovesi, a national church of the Genoese populace in Rome, and an adjacent hospital for Genoese sailors located in via Anicia in the Trastevere quarter.(29) Two governatori served in the confraternity at any given time, a secular and an ecclesiastical, and their responsibilities included executive functions related to the operational and financial management of the organization.(30) By way of a decree by the Genoese Senate, the secular governor also served as an official consul of the Republic of Genoa, with the responsibility to tax ships landing at the port of Ripa Grande who were flying the Genoese flag, and other representational activities. Another duty of the governatori was to oversee the collection of alms, not only within their own church, but throughout other districts of Rome. De Marini’s role in these endeavors as well as his published treatise on charitable living likely resulted in the contemporary reputation of him as a great and beneficent man.(31) Within the hierarchy of the confraternity the governatori were subject to the authority of the cardinal protector of the brotherhood.(32) Besides overseeing the administration and representing the ultimate authority of the organization the cardinal protector also served the official role of ambassador to the papal court.
It was possibly through the confraternity that Giovanni first established contacts with other Genoese aristocrats living in Rome. Certain among these were Benedetto and Vincenzo Giustiniani, the wealthy Chian-born Genoese with whom Giovanni would later become linked through the bonds of marriage and patronage. Benedetto held the office of governatore in the Roman confraternity in the years directly following Giovanni’s tenure. The future cardinal returned from Genoa in 1579 where he earned a degree in law and soon rose through the ranks of the Papal Curia, first with posts within the Segnatura and papal chancery. By 1586 Giustiniani would be elevated to the cardinalate and later appointed Treasurer of the Camera and Questor of the pontifical treasury. Benedetto’s brother, the banker and polymath Vincenzo Giustiniani, also served six terms as governor of the Genoese confraternity between 1585 and 1600.(33) Furthermore, Vincenzo provided an annual endowment in perpetuity to the confraternity in his testament to be used as dowries for poor Genoese girls living in Rome.(34)
Giovanni would marry Teodora Giustiniani, niece of the great Dominican prelate Cardinal Vincenzo Giustiniani.(35) The De Marini-Giustiniani clan shared a common lineage as Chian-born Genoese nobility living in Rome, and a religious and cultural heritage expressed through their devotion to the Dominican Order. From their palazzo steps away from the Minervan church Giovanni Battista and Teodora De Marini raised a large family, most of whom devoted their lives to the mendicant society.(36) Among the better known of these was Ferdinand de Marini (1597-1669), who became the Master General of the Order of Preachers in 1650. Six daughters entered the two Dominican convents located in the Roman quarter of Magnanapoli. Of these Maria Giacinta De Marini was elected Prioress of the convent of San Domenico in 1648. We also learn that the dowry given for Colomba De Marini was 1000 scudi—among the costliest dowries for any convent in Rome, yet a figure that pales in comparison to the 3000-20,000 required for marriage into a family of the nobility of the time. The elaborate vestition ceremonies, on the other hand, afforded extraordinary access to the Roman nobility and papal hierarchy who attended these events.
We have seen that Giovanni Battista established an endowment for the confraternity of the Holy Rosary, whose chapel in the Minervan church was located in the important location at the right of the main altar. Both husband and wife appear to have also been active supporters of the confraternity of the Holy Savior, where Teodora acted as prioress. The sculpture of San Giovanni Battista in the chapel of the Holy Savior by Ambrogio Bonvicino was commissioned by the confraternity, perhaps in recognition of the piety and charity directed by the couple to the confraternity and church.(40) Giovanni and Teodora were also known for their benefaction extended to two Dominican Tertiary nuns of note, best known of whom is Maria Raggi, a Chian refugee of Genoese descent and widow of a Genoese nobleman.(41) Raggi reached Rome in 1584 and was soon invited by the De Marini family to live with them, where she remained until her death in 1600. Raggi led a life steeped in piety, humility, and self denial centered around the Minervan church. After her death a cause for canonization was initiated but never completed.(42) Among the numerous miracles attributed to Raggi were saving the lives of two of the De Marini children.(43) The fame of Raggi’s miracles, as well as the charity, piety and patronage of the De Marini family in Rome, was recounted in numerous prints of her biography including two initiated in Genoa between 1613 and 1614 that were clearly intended for a Genoese audience.(44, 45) Nearly fifty years after her death Raggi would be immortalized in the memorial by Bernini that was erected in Santa Maria.
The virtues of the devout life exemplified by Raggi were extolled by Giovanni in his treatise on the charitable living, the Dialogo della limosina, published in Rome in 1595, in which he lauds the «spiritual and temporal benefits» of «inciting every devotee to sympathize with the poor of Christ and to relieve them of their miseries».(46) In the letter of dedication to Cardinal Benedetto, Giovanni enumerates the requisites of his spiritual discipline: prayer; fasting; almsgiving.(47) These ideals reflected the pious concerns and altruistic philosophy of the famous Genoese cardinal, and signified the bonds of family, heritage, and the ideology of Christian assistance to the impoverished.
De Marini’s dedication also situated him as an actor within the theater of powerful Genoese in the papal curia and the circle of wealthy philanthropic patrons of the arts in Rome, among which Benedetto and his brother the Marquis Vincenzo were two of the most important. We know the brothers today through the collezione Giustiniani, one of the most impressive art collections in all of Italy of the time. Yet while they were the foremost patrons of the likes of Caravaggio and the Caracci, the brothers also favored the devotional paintings of the Genoese artists Cambiaso, Paggi, and Castello. It is within the Roman orbit of the Giustiniani that we are able to place Giovanni as the patron of a work of Genoese origins, the Madrigali a cinque voci published in 1615 by the Genoese chapel master Simone Molinaro. Despite the obscure beginnings of the Madrigali in Molinaro’s Ligurian printshop in Loano, the work is known to have passed through the hands of at least two composers in Rome of the time, Richard Dering and Cesare Zoilo, both of whom borrowed text and music from Molinaro’s collection for their own madrigal publications, and Molinaro’s connection to Rome seems to lead directly to the circle of Genoese patrons there.
Some years later in his Discorso sopra la musica Vincenzo would recall a Genoese singer by the nickname ‘Cicco’, who performed in a style of accompanied ornamented singing fashionable at the time.(48) The singer is identified in the pay records of Genoese Ducal Palace as Francesco Rubino, a musician who served with Molinaro in the musical chapel for two decades.
The appeal of Molinaro’s Madrigali to musicians in Rome may be owed in part to the poetry utilized in the work, much of which imitates the style of Giambattista Marino, the most important Italian poet of his day. In Rome Marino was connected to avant-garde artistic and literary circles, including Caravaggio as well as to the Genoese Castello and Paggi. Marino was also one of the early members and central figures of the Accademia degli Umoristi, the literary academy founded in Rome during the first years of the century. Marino would maintain a lifetime connection to the academy, eventually becoming elected principe in 1623.
Meetings of the Umoristi were held in the residence of Paolo Mancini, one of the founders of the academy. Nearby the palazzo Mancini on the Via del Corso was the Collegio Romano, another center of the Roman avant-garde. Within steps of these important pillars of the Roman cultural scene was the palace of the Genoese nobleman Giovanni Battista De Marini. It is difficult to imagine that our patron of madrigals, who himself published three spiritual canzoni in his treatise,(49) would have been oblivious to the cultural developments occurring a few doors away from his own palace. While we have no direct evidence that the patriarch of the De Marini in Rome was a member of the Accademia degli Umoristi,(50) the historian Michele Giustiniani, informs us that the son of Giovanni, Gabriele, was indeed «counted among the academy’s members».(51) Giustiniani goes on to report that Gabriele studied humane letters in the Jesuit College of Rome and composed «Diverse Canzoni, e Madrigali» «heard by me many times», works that are today not known to have survived.(52) Could the son of our patron have been the author of unattributed texts in the Madrigali? Perhaps the elder De Marini, as paterfamilias, lent his esteem and patronage to the endeavor on behalf of his son who, being only 23 or 24 years old and, by Genoese custom and patria potestas, was not accorded the honor to receive under his own name the dedication of a work by the famous chapel master.
In any case, the identification of the feudal baron and consul of Genoa as the dedicatee of the Madrigali, brings new insights into the lives of the Genoese in Rome. Giovanni’s eclectic interests were likely formed through a humanistic education at the Spanish royal court and by the example of learned patrons like Ercole Gonzaga in whose presence he passed during a peripatetic early life in the company of his archbishop uncle. Though Giovanni may never have stepped foot in his ancestral homeland, his patronage of religious institutions, artists, and musicians, reflected an intense identification with his Genoese heritage, not unlike that of his art-loving countrymen in Rome.
1 Camillo Fanucci, Trattato di tvtte l’opere pie dell’ alma citta di Roma. L. Facij & S. Paolini, Rome, 1601, 233; Michele Giustiniani, La Scio sacra del rito latino (Avellino: Heredi di Camillo Cavallo, 1658), 166; Michele Giustiniani, Gli scrittori Liguri: Parte prima. Appresso Nicolò Angelo Tinassi, Rome, 1667, 333-34; Giovanni Battista Pacichelli, Vita del Reverendissimo Padre F. Gio. Battista de Marini, Maestro Generale Dell’Ordine de’ Predicatori, Brevemente Descritta dall’abate Gio. Battista Pacichelli. Nicol’ Angeli Tinassi, Rome, 1670, pp. 2-5; Agostino Oldoini, Athenaevm ligvsticvm, sev Syllabvs scriptorvm ligvrvm nec non sarzanensivm, ac cyrnensivm, reipvblicae Genvensis svbditorvm. H.H. Laurentii Ciani & Franciscum Desiderium, 1680, repub., Hants., Eng., Gregg, Farnborough, 1969, 325.
2 Pachichelli writes that Giovanni was born in Genoa, Giovanni Battista Pacichelli, Vita del Reverendissimo Padre F. Gio. Battista de Marini, Maestro Generale Dell’Ordine de’ Predicatori, Brevemente Descritta dall’abate Gio. Battista Pacichelli. Nicol’ Angeli Tinassi, Rome, 1670 , 3; however, he sites Michele Giustiniani who notes that Giovanni was born in Chios in 1540 and was taken to Italy as a young boy, Gli scrittori Liguri, 333. The birthplace of Chios is consistent with the events in the life of Giovanni’s uncle Leonardo de Marini, who was born in Chios in 1509 and entered the convent of San Domenico of Chios as a young man and, after completing studies in Bologna, held the position of prior of Santa Maria di Castello in Genoa from 1547 to 1549. See Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, s.v. “Leonardo Marini,” by Marco Maiorino, accessed January 9, 2012, http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/leonardo-marini_(Dizionario-Biografico)/. 
3 Thomas Allison Kirk Genoa and the Sea, Policy and Power in an Early Modern Maritime Republic, 1559-1684. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 25. 
4 The name and image of Marini were fashioned on a bronze medallion (ca. 1562) by the Roman metal engraver Pietro Paolo Galeotti. The front of the medallion with Marini in left facing profile reads “LEONAR. MARINVS ARCHIEPS. LANC” and the reverse with the image of Daphne transforming into a tree, with a town and mountains in the background “IN LEGE DNI. MEDITABITVR. ET. FOLIVM EIVS. NO DEFLV” (His thoughts shall be on the law of the Lord and his leaf shall not wither [Psalm 1, v. 2-3]. See Leonard Forrer Biographical Dictionary of Medallists: coin, gem, and seal-engravers, mint-masters, &c., ancient and modern: with references to their works, B.C. 500-A.D. 1900. Compiled by L. Forrer, Vol. II. London: Spink & Son LTD, 1904, p. 193. 
5 Michele Giustiniani, Gli scrittori liguri, 333; Giovanni Battista Pacichelli Vita, 3. An early definition of the term menino is “paggio che serve a’ figliuoli di Prencipe grandi”, in Lᴏʀᴇɴᴢᴏ Fʀᴀɴᴄɪᴏꜱɪɴɪ, Vocabulario italiano e spagnuolo, ultimamente con la correzione ed aggiunta de suo vero autore mandato in luce, parte prima. R. Cam. Apost., Rome, 1638, 990.
6 An expanded definition is later given by Franciosini as “paggio che s’allieva, e conversa con’ Principi grandi quando son piccioli, per dar loro trattenimento e servirgli.” See, Lorenzo Franciosini, Vocabulario español, e italiano, en esta ultima impression corregido, y añadido per su verdadero auctor, segunda parte. Por el Barezzi, Venice, 1645, 990.  During the monarchy of Isabella and Ferdinand it was the practice that the pages and other children of court nobles received the same education as the prince. The sons of the explorer Christopher Columbus, Diego and Ferdinand, who served as pages to prince Don Juan, were taught with the prince. See Mark P. McDonald, Ferdinand Columbus: Renaissance Collector (1488-1539). The British Museum Press, London, 2005, 36-37. 
7 Mark P. McDonald Ferdinand Columbus: Renaissance Collector (1488-1539), 36. The Gramática de la lengua castellana of Antonio de Nebrija and Erasmus’ Institutio principis Christiani were both written for the Spanish royal court and are likely texts that would have been part of the education at court. 
8 Writing in the seventeenth century the Genoese abbott and noble Michele Giustiniani validates these events, we learn, through the testimony of Giovanni’s son Ferdinando. In a summary of the Fathers of Chios present at the Council of Trent, Giustiniani writes: “Praeter supradictos Patres Chios, nempe Sebastianum Leccavelam, & Antonium Iustinianum arch. naxien [Naxos] Leonardum Marinum ar. lancianen. Timotheum Iustinian. ep calamon. [Calamigna] Vincen. Iustinianum ord. praed. general & Aurel. de Chio eiusdem ord. ac Angelum Iustinian or. min. de obs. interfuit, uti persona privata, Io. Baptista Marinus Chius dominus Bombae in regno neapol. nepos d. Leonardi, deinde pater Io. Baptistae gener. ord. praed. ac Dominici archiep. avenionen. defunctus romae 1631. vitae integritate conspicuus, teste eod. gen. Marino.” Michele Giustiniani. SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM TRIDENTINUM Eiusque PATRES, COADIUTORES, ET INTERPRETES In triginta quinque Indices dispositi. Opus nunc primum in lucem prodit, praeludens ad eorumdem Patrum vitas. AUCTORE ABBATE MICHAELE IUSTINIANO Patritio Ianuensi ex Chii Dynastis. ROME: Felicis Caesaretti, 1673, p. 461. During his novitiate Ferdinando changed his name to that of his father, Giovanni Battista. Giovanni Battista Pacichelli, Vita, 8. On Michele Giustiniani, see Maria Carla Italia «GIUSTINIANI, Michele» Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol 57, 2001, http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/michele-giustiniani_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/ 
10 The dedication letter is addressed to «ALL’ECCELLENTE SIGNORE IL SIGNOR GIOVAMBATTISTA MARINI». Aurelio Della Faya Il primo de madrigali a cinque voci de Don Aurelio Della Faya maestro di cappella della citta di Lanciano novamenti composto e dato in luci. Rampazetto, Venice, 1564.  The dedication letter reads as follows: «SOGLIONO Eccellente Signore, quelli i quali vogliono dare in luce le loro compositioni in quali si vogli scienza, e professione, dedicarle ad alcuno de raro giuditio, & autorità, sotto la cui protettione debbano esser difese dal le lingue delli detrattori. Havendo io questi anni della giovanezza mia consumati nell’arte della Musica, & volendo dar saggio al mondo delli miei sudori, & fatiche, m’è parso convenevole questi miei primi frutti donarli a persona, la qual sia capace non solamente del vero, è perfetto gusto, ma ch’ad altri ancora possi monstrar la perfettion d’essi. Essendo dunque V.S. Eccellente d’ingegno rarissimo & dotata di molte rare, & belle scienze, porge ardire, à chiunque la conosce porsi sotto la protettione del suo celebre nome. Io dunque sì per questo, sì anco per li favori da lei ricevuti, & molto piu per li suoi meriti, ho voluto questo mio primo Libro de Madrigali à cinque mandarli in luce sotto il suo nome, & benche rozzi, & mal composti, non si sdegnarà riceverli comunque eglino se siano, & se conoscerò essergli grati, pigliarò animo per l’avvenire porre il mio studio in piu alto, soggetto, & fatica, tenendo perciò sempre impressa ne l’animo l’Idea de V.S. Eccellente à la quale con tutto l’affetto d’esso resto servidore. Devotissimo servidore de V.S. Eccellente. Don Aurelio della Faya.» 
11 Della Faya is believed to possibly have been of Spanish origin. See Iain Fenlon «Della Faya, Aurelio». Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed July 15, 2016, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/07477. 
12 Marco Maiorino, s.v. «Leonardo Marini», «Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani». 
13 Fernando Colombo Historie del S.D. Fernando Colombo; Nelle quali s’ha particolare, & vera relatione della vita, & de’ fatti dell’Ammiraglio D. Christoforo Colombo, suo padre: et dello scoprimento, ch’egli fece dell’Indie Occidentali, dette Mondo Nuovo, hora possedute dal Sereniss. Re catolico: Nuovamente di lingua Spagnuola tradotte nell’Italiana dal S. Alfonso Ulloa. Francesco de’ Franceschi Sanese, Venice, 1571. 
14 On Baliano de’ Fornari see Ilaria Caraci Luzzana, Colombo vero e falso. La costruzione delle Historie fernandine. Sagep Editrice, Genoa, 1989, pp. 42-43, notes 2 and 3. 
15 Don Luis traded the manuscript to settle a debt of 2400 owed to the Genoese nobleman. See Ilaria Caraci Luzzana, Colombo vero e falso. La costruzione delle Historie fernandine. Sagep Editrice, Genoa, 1989, p. 44. 
16 «Desideroso, che la gloria di un cosi eccel. huomo resti sempre immortale, non havendo riguardo all’età sua di LXX anni, ne alla stagione, ne alla lunghezza del viaggio, venne da Genova a Venezia, con proponimento di far stampare il suddetto libro, cosi nella lingua Castigliana, nella quale su scritto, come nell’Italian, & appresso con fine di farlo tradurre nella latina; accioche per tutto potesse la verità de’ fatti di cosi valoroso huomo, honore veramente dell’Italia, & specialmente della patria di V. S. farsi chiara, & aperta.». Fernando Colombo Historie del S.D. Fernando Colombo, pp. iij-iiij. 
17 «. . . gentil huomo ornato di nobiliss. parti, di molto valore, & studioso molto: il quale essendo come è molto mio Sig. ha voluto che’n buona parte la cura di tal negotio fosse mia, ne io ho voluto a ciò mancare, conoscendo di far appiacere al sudetto S. & che a V.S. non doveva ciò essere discaro, osservandola io come so». Fernando Colón The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son Ferdinand. Translated and annotated by Benjamin Keen. New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1959, xxiv. 
18 A summary of these theories is given in Ilaria Caraci Luzzana, 
19 A reference to the senator is given in Angelo M. G. Scorza Le famiglie nobili Genovesi. E. Oliveri & C., Genoa, 1924, p. 152. 
20 For this information Henry Harrisse cites the Origine e fasti delle nobili famiglie di Genova authored by Giacomo Giscardi. However, it is not clear that Harrisse had first-hand knowledge of Giscardi’s text as he notes «Extrait envoyè par M. Canale. Celui que nous avait précédemment adressé M. le prof. Celesia (copié des pages 1311 et 1318 du vol. III de l’Origine) est ainsi conçu: «Nella chiesa di S. Brigida, Sepoltora di Gio. Batta de Marini, e di Luchenitta sua moglie,1565». Henry Harrisse «L’Authenticité des ‘Historie’ attribuées à Fernand Colomb» in Extrait du Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de Paris, April, 1873, p. 5, n. 3. This inscription is later cited in an apparently edited version as «nelle chiesa Santa Brigida sepoltura di Gio. Battista de Marini e di Lucchinetta sua moglie 1565» in Ilaria Caraci Luzzana Colombo vero e falso. La costruzione delle Historie fernandine. Sagep Editrice, Genoa, 1989, p. 43. 
21 Rumeu De Armas attributes the relatively slight mention in the dedication letter to Marini by Moleto to the fact senator had died in 1565 and had little involvement in the publication, though the passing reference may also imply the minor status of the Leonardo’s nephew. See Antonio Rumeu De Armas Hernando Colón, historiador del descubrimiento de América. Instituto De Cultura Hispanica, Madrid, 1973, p. 332-33.
22 Philip Argenti Chius Vincta or The Occupation of Chios by the Turks (1566) & Their Administration of the Island (1566-1912). Described in Contemporary Diplomatic Reports and Official Dispatches. Edited with an introduction by Philip P. Argenti, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1941, cviii. 
23 Philip Argenti Chius Vincta, cxiii-cxvi. 
24 The address is reproduced in Philip Argenti Chius Vincta, 177. 
25 Giustiniani claimed to have based his La Gloriosa Morte on historical accounts as well as on the testimony of family members. In his later La Scio Sacra Giustiniani utilized both Giustiniani family and Turkish documents. Michele Giustiniani was the son of Vincenzo Giustiniani, the last podestà of Chios. See Mɪᴄʜᴇʟᴇ Gɪᴜꜱᴛɪɴɪᴀɴɪ, La Gloriosa Morte De’ Diciotto Fanciulli Giustiniani Patritii Genovesi De’ Signori di Scio, Camillo Cavallo, Avellino, 1656, p. 167; Mɪᴄʜᴇʟᴇ Gɪᴜꜱᴛɪɴɪᴀɴɪ, La Scio Sacra del Rito Latino, Heirs of Camillo Cavallo, Avellino, 1658, pp. 124-26; Pʜɪʟɪᴘ Aʀɢᴇɴᴛɪ, Chius Vincta or The Occupation of Chios by the Turks (1566) & Their Administration of the Island (1566-1912). Described in Contemporary Diplomatic Reports and Official Dispatches. Edited with an introduction by Philip P. Argenti, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1941, cxiii-cxvi and cxiii, note 2. 
26 De Marini was to be appointed to the cardinalate upon his return to Rome by Gregory XIII. Marco Maiorino, s.v. «Leonardo Marini», «Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani». 
27 The death of Giovanni Battista De Marini was noted in the book of the dead of the convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva «Die 31. mensis maii 1631. hora prima noctis die Sabati obiit Illustrissimus D. Ioan. Baptista de Marinis, recepit omnia sacramenia Ecclesia, e magna veneratione ob sanctitatem vita suae, sepultus fuit in nostra Ecclesia aute Altare maius in suae lapide, e obiit anno aetatis suae 91». Reported in Michele Giustiniani, Gli scritti liguri, 334. 
28 Camillo Fanucci, Trattato di tutte l’opere pie del alma città di Roma. Lepido Facii & Stefano Paolini, Rome, 1601, p. 223. 
29 On the history of the confraternity see Mirella Mombelli Castracane, La confraternità di S. Giovanni Battista dei Genovesi in Roma: inventario d’archivio, Firenze 1971, pp. 11-77.
30 On the duties of the governors see Mirella Mombelli Castracane, La confraternità di S. Giovanni Battista dei Genovesi in Roma: inventario d’archivio, Firenze 1971, pp. 44-49, 56-60. 
31 Michele Giustiniani, Gli scrittori ligure, descritti dall’ abbate Michele Giustiniani, p. 334. This comment by Giustiniani has led some authors to report that Marini was the Grand Almoner of the Pope, but nowhere in the contemporary literature have I found that Marini held this title. Furthermore, the Grande Elemosiniere del Papa was typically a leading prelate of the pontifical hierarchy with the ecclesiastical rank of Archbishop. See Gᴀᴇᴛᴀɴᴏ Mᴏʀᴏɴɪ, Dizionario di erudizione storico ecclesiastica, XXI, Venezia 1843, pp. 152-174. Aɴᴅʀᴇᴀ Lᴇʀᴄᴀʀɪ «De Marini, Giovanni Battista», in Dizionario Biografico dei Liguri dalle origini ai nostri giorni, v, Genova (Consulta Ligure) 1999, pp. 363-366. Hᴀʀᴜʟᴀ Eᴄᴏɴᴏᴍᴏᴘᴏᴜʟᴏꜱ «Il San Giovanni Battista di Ambrogio Bonvicino nella cappella del SS. Salvatore in Santa Maria sopra Minerva e la sua committenza» in Vox clamantis in deserto: San Giovanni Battista tra arte, storia e fede, ed. Mᴀɴʟɪᴏ Sᴏᴅɪ — Aʀɪᴀɴɴᴀ Aɴᴛᴏɴɪᴜᴛᴛɪ — Bᴇʀᴛ Tʀᴇꜰꜰᴇʀꜱ, Monumenta studia instrumenta liturgica 73, Città del Vaticano, Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013, p. 60. In Florentine confraternities, the term Limosinieri referred to officers elected by the organization to distribute alms and provide other charitable services. See Dᴏᴜɢʟᴀꜱ N. Dᴏᴡ. Confraternal Piety and Corporate Patronage: A Reconstruction of the Art and Oratory of the Company of San Giovanni Battista Dello Scalzo, Florence. Ph.D. Dissertation (The Pennsylvania State University 2006), pp. 29, 39. 74-75. 
32 Mirella Mombelli Castracane, La confraternità di S. Giovanni Battista dei Genovesi in Roma: inventario d’archivio, Firenze 1971, p. 56. 
33 Fᴀʙʀɪᴢɪᴏ Bᴏɢɢɪᴀɴᴏ-Pɪᴄᴏ «Elenco cronologico dei governatori ecclesiastici e secolari» in Mɪʀᴇʟʟᴀ Mᴏᴍʙᴇʟʟɪ Cᴀsᴛʀᴀᴄᴀɴᴇ, La confraternità di S. Giovanni Battista dei Genovesi in Roma: inventario d’archivio, Leo S. Olschki, Firenze 1971, p. 204. 
34 Fᴀʙʀɪᴢɪᴏ Bᴏɢɢɪᴀɴᴏ-Pɪᴄᴏ «Inventario» in Mɪʀᴇʟʟᴀ Mᴏᴍʙᴇʟʟɪ Cᴀsᴛʀᴀᴄᴀɴᴇ, La confraternità di S. Giovanni Battista dei Genovesi in Roma: inventario d’archivio, Leo S. Olschki, Firenze 1971, p. 101. 
35 Teodora Giustiniani was the daughter of Gabriele and Giorgetta Giustiniani, and the niece of Cardinal Vincenzo Giustiniani. Her brother was Vincenzo Giustiniani, the Dean of the Referendaries of the Apostolic Signatura. See Mɪᴄʜᴇʟᴇ Gɪᴜꜱᴛɪɴɪᴀɴɪ, Gli scrittori liguri, pp. 192, 287. 
36 P. Innocenzo Taurisano, La serva di Dio Suor Maria Raggi da Scio, Terziaria Domenicana, Rome, 1958, p. 18, n. 1, traces the location of the Palazzo de Marini to Largo S. Caterina da Siena, No. 46 before it was razed in the 19th century. 
37 On this figure see Gɪᴏᴠᴀɴɴɪ Bᴀᴛᴛɪꜱᴛᴀ Pᴀᴄɪᴄʜᴇʟʟɪ, Vita del Reverendissimo Padre F. Gio. Battista de Marini, Maestro Generale Dell’Ordine de’ Predicatori, Brevemente Descritta dall’abate Gio. Battista Pacichelli. Nicol’ Angeli Tinassi, Rome, 1670. 
38 The daughters Prassede, Maria Giacinta, Columba, and Orsola Maria entered the convent of San Domenico, while Maria and Maria Candida became members of the convent of Santa Caterina da Siena. See Gɪᴏᴠᴀɴɴɪ Bᴀᴛᴛɪꜱᴛᴀ Pᴀᴄɪᴄʜᴇʟʟɪ, Vita del Reverendissimo Padre F. Gio. Battista de Marini, Maestro Generale Dell’Ordine de’ Predicatori, Brevemente Descritta dall’abate Gio. Battista Pacichelli. Nicol’ Angeli Tinassi, Rome, 1670, pp. 4-5. Prassede de Marini joined the convent of San Domenico e Sisto in 1594 and maintained a particular devotion to the Virgin of the Rosary. Her brother, Fra Giovanni Battista De Marini, bestowed to the convent a copy of an image of Saint Dominic in Soriano for an oratory dedicated to the saint located in a dormitory at the convent. See Hᴇʟᴇɴ Hɪʟʟꜱ, «The Housing of Institutional Architecture: Searching for a Domestic Holy in Post-Tridentine Italian Convents» in Domestic Institutional Interiors in Early Modern Europe, ed. Sandra Cavallo and Silvia Evangelisti. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2009, pp. 138- 139. 
39 The lives of Maria Giacinta, Prassede, and Columba Maria De Marini in the convent of San Domenico are chronicled in manuscripts held in the archives of the Holy Rosary of the Dominican monastery of Monte Mario. The daughters were likely trained in music as we learn that they were accomplished singers of plainchant and polyphonic music. See Raimondo Spiazzi, ed. Cronache e fioretti del monasterio di San Sisto all’Appia, Edizioni Studio Domenicano, pp. 464-468,470-474. 
40 See Hᴀʀᴜʟᴀ Eᴄᴏɴᴏᴍᴏᴘᴏᴜʟᴏꜱ, «Il San Giovanni Battista di Ambrogio Bonvicino nella cappella del SS. Salvatore in Santa Maria sopra Minerva e la sua committenza» in Vox clamantis in deserto: San Giovanni Battista tra arte, storia e fede, ed. Manlio Sodi, Arianna Antoniutti, Bert Treffers, Monumenta studia instrumenta liturgica 73, Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, pp. 17-79. 
41 Gɪᴏᴠᴀɴɴɪ Bᴀᴛᴛɪꜱᴛᴀ Pᴀᴄɪᴄʜᴇʟʟɪ, Vita del Reverendissimo Padre F. Gio. Battista de Marini, Maestro Generale Dell’Ordine de’ Predicatori, Brevemente Descritta dall’abate Gio. Battista Pacichelli. Nicol’ Angeli Tinassi, Rome, 1670, p. 4. 
42 Pᴇᴅʀᴏ Jᴜᴀɴ Zᴀʀɢᴏᴢᴀ ᴅᴇ Hᴇʀᴇᴅɪᴀ Vida de la bendita soror María Ragi, beata de la Tercera orden de penitencia del glorioso santo Domingo, que murio en Roma à 7. de henero del año santo de 1600, escrita en el de 1604 por el Maestro Fray Pedro Juan Çaragoça de Heredia, Rector del Collegio de nuestra Señora del Socorro, y de S. Ioseph de la ciudad de Origuela de la Orden de Predicadores. Con un sermón de todos santos a la postre (Orihuela: Agustin Martinez, 1612). Raggi was buried in the former Chapel of the Magdalen in Santa Maria sopra Minerva. A Memorial to Maria Raggi by Gian Lorenzo Bernini was completed sometime between 1647 and 1653. See Judith Bernstock «Bernini’s Memorial to Maria Raggi» The Art Bulletin, Vol. 62, No. 2 (Jun., 1980), pp. 247-249. 
43 Among the miracles involving children of the de Marini household is an incident of the one-year-old Vincenzo, having eaten a whole whole chestnut and choking to death, came back to life after the prayers of Raggi. Another son, Gabriele, being stillborn came to life only after Raggi took him in her hands and asked God to deign to grant life to the child. The headaches of the daughter Caterina were reportedly cured after Raggi laid hands on her. See Paolo Minerva da Bari’s Italian translation of Ribera, Miguel Llot De Ribeira Vita della venerabile suor Maria Raggi da Scio, del terzo ordine di San Domenico, trans. Paolo Minerva da Bari, Carlino and Vitale, Rome, 1609, pp. 100-104. 
44 Andrea Lercari «La Nobilità civica a Genova e in Liguria dal comune consolare alla Republica Aristocratica», in Marino Zorzi, Marcello Fracanzani, Italo Quadrio (a cura di), Le aristocrazie cittadine. Evoluzione dei ceti dirigenti urbani nei secoli XV-XVIII. Atti del Convegno (Venezia, 20 Ottobre 2007). La Musa Talìa, Venezia, 2009, p. 264, n. 56. The name of Luciano Raggio in the dedication may refer to Maria Raggi’s father Luciano Raggi, a descendent of Genoese nobility. See Leone Allaci Vita della venerabile serva di Dio, Maria Raggi da Scio, del terzo ordine di S. Domenico Mascardi scritta da Leone Allacci. Rome, 1655, p. 2. Allacci dedicated his biography of Maria Raggi to Ferdinand de Marini, the son of Giovanni Battista de Marini: «AL PADRE REV.mo / MAESTRO GENERALE / DELL’ ORDINE DE PREDICATORI / F. GIO: BATTISTA MARINI». 
45 Michele Giustiniani, Gli scrittori liguri, p. 280. 
46 Giovanni Battista Marini, Dialogo della limosina, nel quale si dimostrano i meravigliosi frutti di essa, e l’utilità spirituale, e temporale, che si cava da questo santo essercitio per incitar’ ogni divoto a compatir’ à i poveri di Christo, e souvenir liberamente alle miserie loro. Gabbia, Rome 1595. 
47 «ALL’ILLUSTRISS.mo ET R.mo. SIG. / IL SIG. CARD. / BENEDETTO / GIUSTINIANO. Tre sono le più famose strade, Illustriss. Signore, di pervenire al regno de’ cieli, l’oratione, il digiuno, e la limosina, l’oratione è de’ pochi, e d’ huomoini essercitati nelle cose spirituali, il digiuno è pur de’ radi, ercioche altri si scusano con l’età, altri con la infirmità, e altri per varii accidentisma la limosina è piu agevole da farsi, massimamente da gl’huomini del secolo, quali tal’ hora si scusano di non poter star troppo in oratione, e di non poter digiunare, e da essa non possono scusarsi altri che li mendici che la ricevono. quindi il saggio Daniele non seppe dar consiglio più utile è men degno di scusa, al Re supervissimo Nabucdonosor, se non che con le limosine pagasse il debbito de’ suoi peccati; e il Signor nel Vangelo commendò sopra tutti gl’ altri la povera Vedova, che gettò nel Gazofilatio del tempio due soli minuti che haveva, come che havendo dato poco con cuore, e affetto grande, havesse dato più di tutti: Questa limosina dunque all quale son tenute tutte le persone che possono, hò voluto io commendare al mondo in un dialogo, essortando tutti con molte ragioni, e essempi ad entrare in questa via facilissima del Cielo; e se bene molti Dottori, cosi Greci, come Latini, hanno lasciati i libri pieni delle lodi di questa benedetta limosina, e hanno gareggiato trà di loro per essaltarla, e certo con gran ragione, tuttavia perche non tutti possono volgere quelle carte, in questo mio dialogo ho voluto abbracciare quanto ho potuto di esse, e farne parte ad ogni forte d’huomini, acciò tutti meglio possano esercitarsi in cosi ricco traffico e in cosi sicura mercantia, con la quale non si compra stato temporale, ma il regno de cieli; e per essere piu facilmente inteso da tutti, anco dal piu basso volgo ho voluto accomodarmi a un stile vulgare della lingua nostra Italiana lassando da parte il più puro, e più forbito Toscano; e per dare a questa mia opera qualche splendore hò voluto dedicarla a V. S. Illustrissima, e honarla de nome suo, promettendo mi certo, che non le sarà discara, attesa la molta pietà e il vivo affeto che verso li poveri di Christo ha dimostro sempre tutta casa sua: Degnesi donque accetare questo picciol segno del la molta riverenza e devotione mia verso di lei alla quale pregando da N. S. ogni colmo di felicità, le bacio humilmente le mani. Di V. S. Illustriss. e R. Humiliss. servitore Gio. Battista Marini» Giovanni Battista Marini Dialogo della limosina, Gabbia, Rome 1595, pp. 3-6. 
48 «e di più in questo stile si è introdotto a cantare, o alla spagnola o all’italiana a quella simile, ma con maggior artificio et ornamento, tanto in Roma, come in Napoli e Genova, con invenzioni nuove in roma il Todesco della Tiorba nominato Gio. Geronimo. In Napoli cominciò il Gutierrez, e poi hanno seguitato Pietro suo figlio e Gallo et altri; et in Genova un tal Ciccio per eccellenza compone e canta, porgendo gran diletto a quelle signore nelle conversazioni e nelle veglie, ch’ivi più che altrove si costumano». In Vincenzo Giustiniani, Discorsi sulle arti e sue mestieri, ed. Anna Banti, Sansoni Editore, Florence 1981, p. 32. 
49 The three canzoni are in praise of Charity, Alms, and Hospitality, representing the three themes of De Marini’s Dialogo della limosina. Each canzone includes poetic descriptions of musical instruments, choirs, and singing. Francesco Mango noted that the songs «contain the germs of beautiful sacred poetry». The critic also falsely attributed the Dialogo della limosina to the poet Giambattista Marino, even going as far to say that the three canzoni in Marino’s Strage degl’ Innocenti, «Della Fede», «Della Speranza», and «Della Carità», were «by far inferior to those on hospitality and alms» from the Dialogo. See Francesco Mango, Il Marino Poeta Lirico, Avvenire di Sardegna, Cagliari 1887, pp. 116-118. The confusion may, in part, be attributed to the connections and affiliations within the circle of Genoese patrons, artists, and writers between Rome and Genoa during the first decade of the century shared by the poet and the patron. Furthermore, similarities in the spelling of the names of the poet and patron appear in contemporary publications as in: Girolamo Aleandro, Difese dell’Adone poema del Cav. Marini di Girolamo Aleandri per risposta all’occhiale del Cav. Stigliani, Giacomo Scaglia, Venice 1629; and «Signor Gio. Battista Marini» on the title page of the Dialogo della limosina. Later prints follow this orthography: «Cavalier Giovan Battista Marini» and «Signor Giovan Battista Marini» cited in Michele Giustiniani, Gli scrittori liguri, pp. 265, 334; an identical Latin spelling for both figures «IO: BAPTISTA de MARINIS» is later used in Agostino Oldoini, Athenaeum ligusticum, pp. 325-326, where Marino is referred to as «poetica laurea illustris» and «nobilis Genuensis». Despite these commonalities and the inherent Marinism of the texts used by Molinaro, the question of whether the poet and patron were one and the same individual must, for now, be rejected. We recall that in his dedication letter signed in November 1615, Molinaro stated that «last summer» his patron became interested in having some madrigals composed in the «modern way». Was Molinaro referring to the summer just passed in 1615 or of the previous year? No matter, because Marino was still in Turin in 1615 and from there he left for Paris, not to return to Italy until 1623, and we only find evidence of the Madrigali having circulated in Rome. Furthermore, there is no indication that the famed poet asked the Genoese chapel master to create musical settings of his poetry, a request that would have certainly resulted in more than the single poem attributable to Marino in the contents of the Madrigali. Lastly, Marino acquired a knighthood from the Duke of Savoy in 1609, a title he proudly bore and that appears in the title pages of editions of the Lira and L’Adone, printed during his lifetime. However, the dedication letter of the Madrigali does not use the honorific «Cavalier» but rather «Signor», a title that appears several times in reference to De Marini, and the letter concludes with a conventional statement of subservience found in such dedications by artists and musicians to their patrons «e come a tale m’inchino, e bacio con ogni riverenza le mani» that would have been unthinkable if the addressee had the same social status as the author. 
50 We do not come across the name De Marini, for example, among the list of members of the Umoristi compiled from the «decreto fatto ed accettato sotto il dì 27 Marzo 1608» published in Michele Maylender, Storia delle Accademie D’Italia, vol. V, Rinomati-Zitoolei, Cappelli, Bologna 1930, pp. 374-381. 
51 «GABRIELE de Marini, patritio Genovese, nato in Roma figliuolo di Gio. Battista, Signore di Bomba, e di Teodora Giustiniani, patritia Genovese, studiò lettere humane nel Collegio Romano, e dilettandosi di poesia, fù annoverato trà gli Academici Humoristi. Si diede poi à coltivare la devotione dell’ Anime del Purgatorio con tal fervore, che invitava, e consigliava quanti gli capitavano avanti alla stessa, anzi in beneficio di quelle non solo spendeva la maggior parte delle sue entrate, mà haveva incominciato ad alienare ancora parte del capitale. Morì egli divotamente in Roma nel 1637. à 4. di giugno, e fù sepellito nella Chiesa della Minerva nel Sepolchro de’ suoi maggiori. Hà composto, e da me più volte sentite. Diverse Canzoni, e Madrigale. Epistola ad Lectores libri. Hippica Francisci Sacci.» in Michele Giustiniani, Gli scrittori Liguri: Parte prima, Appresso Nicolò Angelo Tinassi, Rome 1667, pp. 257-258. The esteem with which Gabriele De Marini was held among academy members is suggested by Luigi Mannucci, that besides the Pope and the Cardinals, he was one of the most prominent: «Fra gli accademici più in vista a quel tempo, oltre il Papa stesso e i Cardinali, erano il poeta Gabriel De Marini, patrizio genovese, . . .». See Francesco Luigi Mannucci, La vita e le opere di Agostino Mascardi con appendici di lettere e altri scritti inediti e un saggio bibliografico, Società Ligure di Storia Patria, Atti., vol. XLII, Genoa p. 181. 
52 In an index of his works, Michele Giustiniani notes that he had begun a history of the academy, «Degl’Academici Humoristi», which, along with the assertion that he had heard the canzoni and madrigals of De Marini many times, leaves open the possibility that they were performed at a meeting of the academy. Giustiniani was also the cousin of the Umoristi member Bartolomeo Giustiniani. See Piera Russo, «L’Accademia degli Umoristi. Fondazione, strutture e leggi: il primo decennio di attività» in Esperienze letterarie, vol IV, 1979, p. 49, and Michele Maylender, Storia delle Accademie D’Italia, Vol. 5 Rinomati-Zitoolei, Cappelli, Bologna 1930, p. 375. 
53 On the concept of patria potestas in Italian Renaissance society see Thomas Kuehn, Family and Gender in Renaissance Italy, 1300-1600, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2017, pp. 70-102.
Peter S. Poulos, PhD 