GUIDO

BENTIVOGLIO (1579-1644)  , Italian cardinal, states-man and historian, was born at Ferrara in 1579 . After studying at Padua, he went to reside at Rome, and was received with great favour by Pope Clement VIII., who made him his private chamberlain . The next pope, Paul V., created him archbishop of Rhodes in 1607, and appointed him as nuncio to Flanders and afterwards to France; on his return to Rome in 1621 he was created cardinal and entrusted by Louis XIII. with the management of French affairs at the papal court . He became the intimate friend of Pope Urban VIII., who appointed him to the suburban see of Palestrina in 1691 . An able writer and skilful diplomatist, Bentivoglio was marked out as Urban's successor, but he died suddenly on the 7th of September 1644 at the opening of the conclave . Bentivoglio's principal works are: Della Guerra di Fiandria (best edition, Cologne, 1633-1639), translated into English by Henry, earl of Monmouth (London, 1654); Relazioni di G . Bentivoglio in tempo delle sue Nunziature di Fiandria e di Francia (Cologne, 163o); Lettere diplomatiche di Guido Bentivoglio (Brussels, 1631, frequently reprinted, best edition by L . Scarabelli, 2 vols., Turin, 1852) . The complete edition of his works was published at Venice in 1668 in 4to . A selection of his letters has been adopted as a classic in the Italian schools .