Francesco Sforza Pallavicino

Francesco Maria Sforza Pallavicino or Pallavicini (28 November 1607 – 4 June 1667), was an Italian cardinal, philosopher, theologian, literary theorist, and church historian. A professor of philosophy and theology at the Roman College and a fixture of important academies such as the Accademia dei Lincei and the Academy of Prince Maurice of Savoy, Pallavicino was the author of several highly influential philosophical and theological treatises (praised among others by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Benedetto Croce and Eugenio Garin) and of a well-known history of the Council of Trent that remained authoritative until the late 19th century. Pallavicino was born in Rome on November 28, 1607. He was the firstborn son of Marquis Alessandro Pallavicino and his second wife, Francesca Sforza di Santa Fiora, widow of Ascanio della Penna della Cornia. He belonged to the Parma branch of the ancient and noble Pallavicini family. He was baptized with the names Francesco Maria Sforza; the last one was in honor of Sforza Pallavicino, a famous Italian condottiero, Captain-General of the Republic of Venice, who had adopted Marquis Alessandro, leaving him all his wealth and titles. An eldest son, he renounced the right of primogeniture and entered the priesthood. Pallavicino studied literature, philosophy, and jurisprudence at the Roman College, and received his doctorate in philosophy in 1625 at the age of eighteen. His thesis, De Universa philosophia, was printed in the same year in the presses of Francesco Corbelletti. Soon afterward, Pallavicino started studying theology in the same college under John de Lugo, earning his doctorate in 1628. The young Pallavicino was soon introduced to the leaders of Roman cultural life. He was elected Member of the Accademia degli Umoristi and became friends with the poet Virginio Cesarini and with some of the most prominent personalities of italian baroque, including Agostino Mascardi, Fulvio Testi, John Barclay and Giulio Strozzi. Alessandro Tassoni praised him in a verse of his mock-heroic poem La secchia rapita.