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| Montechiarugolo: the Noble and the Court |
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Pomponio
Torelli (1539 - 1608)
Born at Montechiarugolo in 1539 to Paolo and Isabella Contrari,
he completed his intellectual education at Padua.With his return
to Parma in 1561, he frequented the court of Ottavio Farnese,
obtaining considerable posts and carrying out delicate affairs
of state.
In 1585 he brought to a positive conclusion the talks with Filippo
II for the restitution of the citadel of Piacenza and then became
the preceptor of the Duke Ranuccio in 1583.
With the Duke's increase of age and the change in cultural climate
at the Farnesian court, he withdrew to the residence of Montechiarugolo,
where he cultivated with greater intensity his interest in the
arts, literature and philosophy. He died at Parma in 1608 and
is buried in the family chapel in the church of the Annunziata.
A refined patron, between the end of the sixteenth century and
the start of the seventeenth century he commissioned Cesare
Baglione and other artists to decorate the halls of the castle
of Montechiarugolo with the splendours of the Torelli family.
Under his administration, Montechiarugolo assumed its current
urban layout and the court reached its height. Known to and
esteemed by his contemporaries, Pomponio Torelli participated
in the debate on the origins and the nature of power, with a
controversial line against the theories of Machiavelli, and
he dedicated himself to poetry following the Petrarchan model.An
ecelectic intellectual, he was above all a moralist who wrote
treatise and tragedy.
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