GONZAGA, or Gonzugue, an old princely family of Italy, which traces its origin to the emperor Lothair, but first came into notice in the 11th century, after the overthrow of the imperial power in Italy, where they for some time disputed the sovereignty of Mantua with the Bonacosse. The long dispute was ended by the murder of Passerine de Bonacossi in 1328, after which the Gonzaga retained possession of Mantua for four centuries. Their claims were in 1354 confirmed to Ludovico I. (1267-1360) by Louis the Bavarian, who nominated him imperial vicar, and gave him also the sovereignty of Reggio and other towns. Petrino, youngest son of Ludovico, founded the countship of Novellara, which became extinct in 1728. The elder branch of the family was continued by Guido and his son Ludovico II., who, on his death in 1382, was succeeded by his brother Francesco. He was followed in 1407 by his son Giovanni Francesco (1394-1444), on whom, for his services in the Italian wars, the emperor Sigismund in 1433 bestowed the title of marquis. Ludovico III. (1414-1478), son of the preceding, surnamed, for what reason is not quite certain, the Turk, retained a body of troops which he granted on hire to neighbouring princes. The younger sons of this Ludovico, Giovanni Francesco anrl Rudolpho, founded the dukedoms of Gabioneta and Castiglione respectively, which were confiscated in 1692. The elder branch of the family was continued by Frederick I. (1439-1484), whose son, Giovanni Francesco II. (1466-1519), was in 1494 appointed to the supreme command of the united Italian army against Charles VIII. of France, and on the 6th of July of the following year gained the victory of Fornovo, and took prisoner the bastard of Bourbon. His son, Frederick II. (1500-1540), received in 1530 the title of duke ...from Charles V., and in 1536 the principality of Montferrat. A younger son, Ferdinand, was the founder of the Guastella branch of the family, which became extinct in 1746. Of the succeeding members of the elder branch, the only notable one was Vincenzo I. (1562-1612), to whom the Admirable Crichton was tutor, and by whom he was murdered from jealousy in 1582. This branch became extinct in 1627 through the death of Vincenzo II., sixth successor of Frederick II. The nearest heir was Carlo I., duke of Nevers, who was recognized by the Mantuans, but his claims were contested by Ferdinand II. of Guastella, who had the support of the emperor Ferdinand II. In the war which followed, the duke of Nevers obtained the assistance of Louis XIII. of France, but in 1630 Mantua was captured and pillaged by the imperial troops, and the duke was forced to retire to the States of the Church. In 1631 a treaty was, however, concluded between France and the emperor, by which the duke, on making submission, was reinvested with the duchies of Mantua and Montferrat. Anna, a daughter of Carlo I., became wife of Edward, elector-palatine of the Rhine, and after playing a distinguished part at the French court, died at Paris in 1684, leaving behind liera volume of interesting Memoirs (London and Paris, 1686). Carlo died in 1639, and was succeeded by his grandson Carlo III., who, on his death in 1665, was succeeded by his son Carlo IV. This duke married in 1670 Anna Isabella, eldest daughter of Ferdinand duke of Guastella; and on the death of Ferdinand in 1679, he endeavoured to obtain possession of that duchy, but was compelled to relinquish his claims to Vincenzo, a cousiu-germau of the deceased duke. He took part on the side of France in the Spanish succession war, and received a French garrison into Mantua. After the defeat of the French he was placed under the ban by the emperor Joseph I., whereupon Victor Amadeus of Savoy conquered Montferrat, and Austria, in agreement with France whom Carlo bad offended, took possession of Mantua. On his death without issue in 1708, the dynasty of the Gonzagas of Mantua became extinct.
GONZAGA, Thomaz Antonio (1744-1809), “the Portuguese Petrarch,” perhaps better known as Dirceu, was born at Oporto in 1744, and received his early education there and at Bahia, where his father, after having held various judicial appointments, became a member of the supreme court in 1759. Having completed his law studies at the university of Coimbra, which he attended from 1763 to 1768, Gonzaga in the latter year returned to Brazil, and after having acted for some years as juiz de fora or local magis träte at Beja and elsewhere he ultimately was appointed a judge (ouvidor) at Villa-Rica in the province of Minas, where he highly distinguished himself it is said both by his administrative ability and by the many excellences of his private character. He appears before this time to have developed some talent for versification, and his literary tastes soon brought him into intimate association with Claudio Manoel, Alvarenga Peixoto, and other writers of the so-called Minas school; but the love which makes the poet did not, in his own opinion at least, come upon him until he had made the acquaintance (about 1788) of D. Maria Joaquina Dorothea de Seixas, the “Marilia de Dirceu” to whom all his extant poems relate. He had just been nominated a member of the supreme court of Bahia, and was on the eve of his marriage, when discovery was made of the treasonable plot of Minas, and he was arrested on suspicion of having been implicated in it. On merely circumstantial evidence, and that of a very incon clusive kind, he was condemned, 18th April 1792, to banishment for life to Pedras de Angoche, a sentence which was afterwards commuted to one of ten years’ exile at Mozambique. Here he made some effort to practise as an advocate, but he never recovered from the wearing-out depression into which he had been thrown by his cruel lot; an attack of nervous fever undermined his health, and after years of an ever-deepening melancholy, which occasionally alternated with fits of acute mania, he died in 1809. n
His collection of poems, entitled Mαrιliα de L)ireeu, consists of two parts. In the first of these, the charms of Marilia and his own happiness in the love he bears to her are his endlessly varied theme. The second, written during his imprisonment, is full of laments over his terrible fate, protestations of his innocence, and many fine expressions of the support and comfort he still finds in the remembrance of his love. Almost everywhere these “lyras” plainly enough betray a conscious imitation of Petrarch or other models; but they also exhibit an imaginative charm, a naturalness and delicacy of feeling, a harmoniousness of diction, and a gracefulness of versification which, in the unanimous opinion of competent critics, entitle them to rank among the best love lyrics in the language. In Brazil their popularity, perhaps aided by feelings of sympathy for their unfortunate author, has from the first been very great. The editions are very numerous, the best probably being that of J. Μ. P. da Sylva which is accompanied with an historical and biographical introduction (1845). A critical notice, along with selections from the poems of Gonzaga, will be found in Wolf’s Brésil Littéraire (1863). They have been translated into French by Monglave and Chalas (1825), into Spanish by Vedia, and into Italian by Ruscalla.
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