Ercole Strozzi (Ferrara, September 2, 1473 - June 6, 1508) was an Italian poet and statesman in the duchy of Ferrara, good friend of Pietro Bembo, confidant of Lucrezia Borgia. biography
Ercole Strozzi was the son of the famous poet and statesman, Tito Vespasiano Strozzi. Following his father, he also wrote elegant poems. He did not do this without success. At the age of thirty he was considered a better poet and Latinist than his father.
Although he had to walk through a congenital abnormality, he had a great appeal to women.
As a politician, Ercole was not loved by the people. He had set high taxes and his performance was often hard. Nevertheless, he knew all high-ranking people from his time, from Isabella and Alfonso d'Este to Ariosto. From 1497 he left the office of Giudice dei XII Savi from his father who had to stop for health reasons.
In 1502, Ercole sought to become a cardinal. By that time, Lucrezia Borgia came to Ferrara because of her marriage to Alfonso d'Este. Due to his ambitions and Lucrezia's loneliness, he soon met her friend. Ercole loved expensive clothes and good perfumes, but he could not pay it. Becoming friends with a wealthy young woman helped not only her, but also herself. He made his plan to be cardinal. Whether he wanted to devote himself entirely to Lucrezia or he found it harder to become a cardinal than he had expected.
Algauw was useful to Lucrezia. He had an affair with a Venetian noble woman. As a result, he spent much time in Venice. During that time, the shops were filled with elegant, beautiful and exotic goods. Lucrezia, the Duchess, was expected to be a trendsetter. Ercole was shopping for Strozzi and of course got a reward for his services. That's how Strozzi soon came to Lucrezia Borgia's confidence circle.
Lucrezia was in love with Francesco Gonzaga, the marquis of Mantua. In the spring of 1508, Strozzi sent letters to Gonzaga, dictated by Lucrezia, under the name 'Zilio'. Because all the names in the letters were changed and the facts were kept superficial, these love statements could be sent without hesitation.
In the meantime, Strozzi was married to Barbara Torelli in September 1507. For this she was married, yet they and Ercole had a relationship for a couple of years. On May 24, 1508, she brought a daughter to the world. After the birth of Lucrezia, Strozzi wrote a genethliacon, a birthlil, in honor of her newborn son. At the time of his daughters birth he was busy with a poem about death.
He would never finish this elegance. On June 5, Ercole Strozzi, after a day of hard work, continued to create a gap in the evening. The next morning he was found dead. He had twenty-two knife sticks, his throat was open. Memorial for the murder of Ercole Strozzi in Via Savonarola in Ferrara
Although Strozzi was a confidant of Lucrezia, Alfonso d'Este did not take any action to detect the murderer. As a result, there were many theories in the world about Ercole's death. Was the duke himself in love with Barbara Torelli or was he jealous of Lucrezia's feelings towards Strozzi? Had Lucrezia commanded himself for the murder because Strozzi and Barbara's love resisted her? Or was it a political conspiracy to make Lucrezia's lonely position even more lucrative in the Ferrarese court?
After Ercole's death, the publisher Aldo Manuzio collated in 1513 the Ercole Strozzi poetry together with his father in the Strozii poet pater et filius bundle. Source listing
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