Carlo, Cardinal (1595-1666) 
- Name:
- Carlo di Ferdinando I de’ Medici
- Dates:
-
Florence, 19 March 1595 - 17 June 1666
- Attivitą:
- Cardinal
- Places:
- Florence, Rome
- Biographical information:
-
Carlo was the third son of the Grand Duke Ferdinando I and Christine of Lorraine. He was launched from a tender age on an ecclesiastical career which he pursued for over fifty years, obtaining many prestigious offices. Effectively, as early as December 1615, at the age of just twenty, he was appointed cardinal by Pope Paul V Borghese as titular of Santa Maria in Dominica.
He took part in the conclaves of 1621 and 1623, when Gregory XV and Urban VIII respectively were elected as pope. In 1623 he transferred his title to San Nicola in Carcere.
In 1635 he assumed the important office of “Protector” of the Spanish crown.
In 1644 he was the Cardinal Protodeacon at the conclave that elected Pope Innocent X. For a short time he had the title of Sant'Eustachio and later, in December of the same year, that of San Sisto with the appointment as Cardinal Priest.
In 1645 he became Cardinal Bishop with suburbicarian see at Sabina and seven months later at Frascati.
On 29 April 1652 Innocent X granted to Carlo de’ Medici the title of Cardinal Bishop of Porto and Santa Rufina and the office of Sub Dean of the College of Cardinals. By 23 September he had already become the Dean of the College of Cardinals and Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and Velletri.
In the same year he presided over the conclave that elected Alexander VII to the papal throne.
Carlo de’ Medici loved worldly pleasures: his favourite pastimes were hunting, society events, gambling, good food and wine and gallant conversation. A cultured man, a lover of music and theatre, he was also a sophisticated collector and commissioner. Thanks to the significant income deriving from his ecclesiastical offices, Carlo renovated and restored his various residences, embellishing them with monumental decorations: in Florence his own apartment in the Pitti Palace and the Casino di San Marco (purchased in 1621); in the Florentine countryside, the villa of Careggi, his favourite, and those of Cerreto Guidi and Cafaggiolo; in Rome, Palazzo Madama and the Villa Medici al Pincio.
In order to purchase the Casino di San Marco, on the death of Don Antonio de’ Medici he handed over to his nephew Ferdinando II Palazzo Medici and a part of the “old house”, which he had inherited from Ferdinando I.
He died in Florence in 1966 and was buried in the crypt of San Lorenzo.
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