Draft:Giovanni Battista Giovio

Giovanni Battista Giovio
Knight Count
Portrait of Count Giovanni Battista Giovio in the uniform of a Knight of Saint Stephen
Born	10 December 1748 Como
Died	17 May 1814 Como
Buried	Private chapel - Villa Giovio in Verzago
Spouse(s)	Chiara Parravicini
Father	Francesco Giovio
Mother	Felicia Della Torre di Rezzonico

Giovanni Battista Giovio, or Giambattista (Como, 10 December 1748 - Como, 17 May 1814), was an Italian nobleman and man of letters, Knight of the Order of Saint Stephen of Tuscany and Chamberlain to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria.

Coat of arms Count Giovio

Portrait of Giovanni Battista Giovio playing the lute, with the family motto on the column: Fato prudentia minor. Preserved at the Paolo Giovio Archaeological Museum in Como.

Portrait of Giovanni Battista Giovio. Preserved at the Paolo Giovio Archaeological Museum in Como.

Biography

Early years

Giovanni Battista Giovio was born in Como on 10 December 1748. He was the only son of Count Francesco Giovio, Rector of Isola Comacina, and Felicia Della Torre di Rezzonico, daughter of Teresa Odescalchi, cousin of Pope Innocent XI, born Benedetto Odescalchi. His mother Felicia died from complications during childbirth and his father passed away on 1 February 1753; Giambattista was therefore solely responsible for the survival of the main branch of the Giovio family.

Giovanni Battista, an orphan, was first entrusted to his great-uncle Count Ottavio Giovio (who died in 1757) and then to the guardianship of his cousin Cavaliere Fulvio Tridi until he came of age. Tridi felt the weight of the responsibility entrusted to him: to take care of the young count and administer the vast Giovio estate (Giovanni Battista later reproached him for his short-sighted management and poor administrative skills).. In 1757, Giovanni Battista was admitted to the College of Nobles in Brera, Milan, run by the Jesuit fathers. The young man followed the codified Jesuit ratio studiorum and was taught by members of the Society of Jesus such as Giuseppe Galeazzo Visconti d'Aragona, Guido Ferrari, Girolamo Tiraboschi, Ignazio Venini, Pasquale Bovio, and distinguished himself by attracting the attention of the plenipotentiary Carlo di Firmian, who asked his tutor to come and complete his studies at the college in Vienna, a project that ultimately failed. At the College of Brera, he took classes in science, theatre, rhetoric, French, dance, and fencing, but most beneficial and lasting was his closeness to Girolamo Tiraboschi, who passed on to him an interest in history and the tradition of Italian literature, as well as teaching him how to reconcile science and literature. In 1765, Giovanni Battista continued his studies at the Collegio dei Nobili in Parma. During his time in Parma, Giovio regularly visited his uncle Antongioseffo and his cousin Carlo Gastone della Torre di Rezzonico, one of the leading figures in European poetry in the second half of the 18th century.

The early works

In 1767, eighteen-year-old Giovanni Battista moved to Milan. In this lively and stimulating environment, among the literary salons of Pietro Verri's radical enlightened thinkers on one side and Giuseppe Parini's on the other, the Count began his career as a poet. His first works were the Poemetti filosofici (Philosophical Poems): in Sopra il Sole (About the Sun), addressed to Gastone Rezzonico, he criticises Descartes' crepuscularism and praises the heliocentric doctrine of Copernicus and Newton; in Le Stelle (The Stars), addressed to Alessandro Volta, he describes a journey through the celestial system and deals with the themes of oblivion and distance; Del mondo in generale, di lui origine e fine (On the world in general, its origin and end) is addressed to the Jesuit Francesco Le Cloarec and argues that, even if great inventors are the expression of man's ability to know and improve his condition, in order to know the profound truth of the world, one must turn to the Creator. In August 1772, on the occasion of the visit of Ferdinand Charles Anthony of Habsburg-Lorraine and Maria Beatrice d'Este, Giovanni Battista presented the Archdukes with his first publication: the celebratory sonnet Ferdinando Austriaco M. Beatrici Atestinae ornamenti Italie [...]. In 1773, he published the first version of his ‘Essay on Religion’; the work, divided into twenty chapters, is based on the assumption that human evolution and history are a succession of events preordained by Providence for the purpose of human happiness and the glory of God. Critics appreciated the clarity of style and the strength of the arguments in this work, counting it among the ‘few voices raised, at least in the native language, in opposition to the large number of books from beyond the mountains’.

Appointments

On 30 June 1773, he was appointed Knight of the Sacred Military Order of Saint Stephen of Tuscany. The commissioners sent by Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo were Lanfranchi and Panciatichi, who attested that Giovanni Battista was the son of noble parents whose families had “distinguished themselves for their noble customs”and attested to 4/4 nobility: the young man was ‘a gentleman of noble life, customs and qualities corresponding to his noble birth; that he was of handsome and pleasant appearance, commendably applied to his studies, healthy in body, apt for military and chivalrous exercises; that he was not tainted by infamy or heresy; that as far as wealth was concerned, he was one of the richest in his homeland’. The investiture took place on 2 May 1773 in the provostry of San Sisto in Como by Cav. Guicciardo Guicciardi. Giovanni Battista was very proud and attached to the Holy Order of St. Stephen, so much so that he stipulated in his will that he be buried in the knights' uniform.

On 11 November 1773, he received the key of Chamberlain to Her Imperial Highness Queen Maria Theresa of Austria, taking the oath in Milan before Carlo di Firmian and receiving congratulations on his appointment from the Austrian Chancellor Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz-Rietberg. With this honour, he joined the select circle of nobles who enjoyed access to the court of the Archduke of Milan.

The return to Como

The family villa's works

After leaving his apartment in Milan, Giovanni Battista received the house records and the memorandum for settling the estate from Fulvio Tridi on 31 January 1774, and settled permanently in Como.

Giovanni Battista devoted a great deal of energy and considerable capital to the renovation of the family's estates and villas. The first project was the renovation and expansion of the palace in the city, known as the Giovia, now the Paolo Giovio Archaeological Museum. The work took three years and involved both the architectural structure and the interior. He commissioned Giambattista Rodriguez, a pupil of Carlo Innocenzo Carloni, to paint four canvases as a celebratory cycle of the family: two depicting Paolo Giovio as ambassador to Francesco I and Leo X, one depicting Benedetto Giovio before Francesco II Sforza, and the last depicting himself as he sets off for the temple of glory, having overcome avarice, simulation and envy. At the same time as Giovia, the count began the renovation of the villa in Breccia, which underwent various interventions between 1775 and 1794 with a neoclassical reorganisation by Simone Cantoni, designed as a re-evocation of Paolo Giovio's museum. Also in 1775, he purchased the villa Grumello overlooking Lake Como from Carlo and Benedetto Odescalchi and commissioned renovation work. In 1777, he purchased the Balbiano villa from Carlo Tolomeo Gallio, returning it to the family after it had been sold by Ottavio Giovio in 1596. However, this was only for a short time, as in 1787 it was sold again to Cardinal Durini (the count's will mentions the pressure exerted by the cardinal to purchase it). As for the villa in Verzago, which became the property of the Giovio family in 1636 with the marriage of Ippolita Dugnani and Ottavio Giovio, he reorganised the entire structure, combining various buildings into a single palace and redesigning the gardens. He took particular care with this work, and his fondness for the villa in Verzago is evident in some of his letters: 'Forests in general have always pleased my soul, which is why I am so happy to live in Verzago, which is so wooded behind it' and from his wish to be buried in the chapel, in the tomb he had prepared.

Preserving the works of ancestors

His attachment and devotion to the dynasty and his ancestors led Giovanni Battista to continuously study, organise and preserve the documents and works of his predecessors. An example of this is the work, pursued for years but left incomplete, of recomposing and repurchasing the collection of the Paolo Giovio Museum, which originally included over four hundred portraits of famous writers, poets, philosophers, men of arms, rulers and powerful figures. After Paolo Giovio's death, the museum was run by the Giovio family until 1615, when Lodovico Giovio's sons sold it to Marco Gallio, son of Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio, who then razed it to the ground. The museum's rich collection, which included the series of portraits of illustrious men, was divided between the two branches of the Giovio family, which at that time (1600) had split into the main branch of the eldest son Ottavio, nephew of Benedetto Giovio and ancestor of Giovanni Battista, and the cadet branch of Lodovico Giovio, mentioned above. Giovanni Battista's programme was ambitious and costly, and his correspondence reveals his commitment and responsibility towards Como and the literary community. In a letter to Girolamo Tiraboschi, Giovio writes:

The tables are divided between the two lineages, most of mine are from the literati, the other Giovio counts have warriors [...]

The credit for that collection in those days was great, and rightly so. Giovio bought portraits wherever he found beautiful ones, or wherever he found a skilled artist to execute them. He also asked, with some audacity, forgivable in a collector, for several as gifts. He had some when Raphael had to paint the prodigious Stanze di Raffaello in the Vatican, on the orders of Pope Julius II and on the advice of his relative Bramante [...] Ferdinand of Austria, son of Emperor Ferdinand, begged my ancestor to allow one of his painters to copy many of our paintings, and the painter stayed in our house until the end of 1580, as I am certain from the courteous letters of that Archduke. In short, the museum's fame lasted for many years, and I have a letter from 1610 from Federigo Cardinal Borromeo (founder of the Ambrosiana Library) in which he asks my ancestor Francesco Giovio to send him an artist on his behalf. [...]

The Giovio museum is not a private matter, and Monsignor Paolo, with great expense, many friendships and some daring, was able to create it. He was a man who received gifts from America, and in his very rich will, among other riches, he mentions a heart-shaped emerald given to him by the famous Cortés, conqueror of Mexico.

— Giovanni Battista Giovio, letter to Girolamo Tiraboschi, 29 agosto 1780, G. Min, 1, cc. 55-56

The count recovered and enriched Benedetto Giovio's epigraphic collection, reorganising it under the entrance portico of the palace in Como. A bibliophile and collector, Giovanni Battista continued to expand his collection of books, prints and maps, so much so that in 1780 he spoke of “over ten thousand volumes” collected in his libraries.

The years between study and family

The literary journey

On 3 September 1777, he set off on a trip to Switzerland with Alessandro Volta, Abbot Francesco Venini and Count Francesco Visconti. There were many significant encounters that we can retrace through the diary that the count kept of his journey: Salomon Gessner in Zurich, Albrecht Von Haller in Bern, Jacob Vernes in Geneva and, on 23 October, Voltaire.

Marriage and family

On 1 June 1780, Giovanni Battista married Chiara Parravicini, Dame of the Starry Cross, daughter of Pietro Paolo, major of the Austrian troops and Imperial Chamberlain, and Vincenza Carcano. The family and their eight children brought about a profound change in Giovanni Battista, who became an affectionate and modern father and took personal charge of their education and care. Even during the difficult years of the Republic, the count continued to take care of his villas, especially the palace in Como and the one in Verzago, in order to maintain the family's habits unchanged. He dedicated the summary of Il Rodriguez ossia La perfezione cristiana (The Rodriguez, or Christian Perfection), a text by the Jesuit Alfonso Rodriguez, to his children. The count often intervened in the unhappy marriages of Felicia, whose husband Innocenzo Porro Carcano squandered money, preventing her from living in financial peace, and Vincenzina, wife of Count Luigi Panigadi of Modena, who never found a job and had to move into the Giovio home. Relations between his two younger sons, Francesco and Paolo, were never easy: with opposite characters, their intemperance and excesses were often a cause of concern for their father. Although constant care and attention were given to all his children, there is no doubt that special consideration was reserved for his eldest son Benedetto. The Count tried to mould him in his own image and personally oversaw his education and aspirations, writing three pamphlets for him entitled L'uomo privato e pubblic (The Private and Public Man).

Works, studies, and epistolary correspondence

In the 1980s, the Count, who was just over thirty years old, began to realise his literary, ethical and political project: he decided to make his home a centre for promoting the ingenuity of Como and Italy, building links with patrician families, writers, scientists and educated men of the time. The Volta family, who had been close to Giovanni Battista for some time, were joined by the Cigalini, Ciceri, Passalacqua, Odescalchi and Raimondi families. A nest of “cultured patricians”, as defined by Franco Venturi, formed around Giovanni Battista Giovio. He initiated and intensified correspondence with the most illustrious figures of the time. As can be seen from his letters, he maintained long-lasting conversations with Girolamo Tiraboschi, Giambattista Roberti, Pietro Metastasio, Ippolito Pindemonte, Melchiorre Cesarotti, Saverio Bettinelli, Francesco Algarotti, and, last but not least, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Alessandro Volta and Ugo Foscolo.

In 1782, he published four eulogies dedicated to Francesco Algarotti, Andrea Palladio, Benedetto Giovio, and Paolo Giovio. The intent was to reaffirm the independence and stature of Italian culture, which was overshadowed at the time by that of France. He drew up a profile of Algarotti in which he appreciated the variety of his scientific, literary and historical interests, recognising his “sharp and brilliant vivacity of mind”. Palladio is presented as the “Virgil of architects”; Giovio states that, in light of the artistic heritage of the peninsula, Italy was the true heir to the arts.

But where does my love for my country and for truth take me? I must conclude my passionate speech and turn it instead to you, my fellow citizens, you who inhabit the shores of Lake Como and the lands subject to the Diocese of Como. Remember that you have always been considered rich in lively ingenuity and full of incomparable industry. Remember that since the time of the Lombards you have been skilled in the art of architecture, and that indeed the artists of those days and of the centuries that followed are referred to in ancient memoirs as nothing other than Comacine masters. Emulate, therefore, your ancestral prerogatives and surpass them; your character, nature, climate and blood conspire to favour you in your success.

— Giovanni Battista Giovio, Elogio di Andrea Palladio, pp. 32-33

This perspective is reflected in the praise given to the two members of the Giovio family: examples of leading figures in the cultural and historical life of Como and Italy. Benedetto is celebrated as the scholar who, far from vainglory, became “the excellent father of the family”, a forward-thinking administrator of the common good, with a universal literary profile: he knew Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and wrote the first history of Como (the Historie Patriae). the people of Como gave him the honour (never before granted to a layman) of being buried in the Cathedral. Paolo claimed an important role in Italian history and a contribution to European culture; he was close to the powerful figures of Europe (the Medici, Charles V, Hernan Cortes, etc.), but emphasised the centrality of Italy and Como: with the construction of the museum, he wanted to make Lake Como a significant destination for lovers of history, culture and nature.

In 1784, Giovanni Battista was accepted into the Academy of Venice and became a member of the Academies of Parma, Mantua, Pisa, and Siena. During those years, he composed Gli uomini della comasca Diocesi antichi e moderni nelle arti, e nelle lettere illustri (Men of the Diocese of Como, Ancient and Modern, Illustrious in the Arts and Letters). Dizionario Ragionato, an alphabetical directory of artists and writers from ancient times to the present day. In 1784, the work occupied two volumes of the Giornale modenese (XXVIII and XXIX); the success of the initiative prompted Giovanni Battista to collect material and publish a Supplement, which appeared the following year in two further volumes (XXX and XXXI). The work is presented as a collection of local glories to inspire and set an example to all the inhabitants of the Lario. Giovio hoped to encourage young people to love the history of their land and stimulate them to study.

The undersigned [...] in such a tumult of emotions does not know how to adequately express his gratitude for the honourable testimony obtained from the favour of the public [...] He will always keep the memory of the distinction accorded to him engraved in his heart, and will always devote himself to the service of a city that shows itself to be so grateful and sensitive [...] However, if such a position were compatible with his family's current circumstances, he would not hesitate to devote himself to it with the same zeal that has inspired him for his country on other occasions, particularly in the Social Deputation [...] But having tried in vain throughout these days to overcome the difficulties that have arisen, he begs the Illustrious General Council to dispense him in good time, offering to perform any other work for it here in his homeland [...]

— Giovanni Battista Giovio, lettera al Coniglio Decurionale, 21 febbraio 1791

Under the Arcadian name of ‘Poliante Lariano’, the count published Como e il Lario (Como and Lake Como). Divided into fifteen chapters, the book traces the works of those who wrote about Como, highlighting the importance of Lake Como's location and its history in Roman and medieval times. In the fifth chapter, there is a photograph of the city, and in a few pages, the count describes the cathedral, the other main churches, the palaces, the artistic and naturalistic collections that adorned the city's residences and villas on the lake, and the silk factories. In the ninth chapter, Giovio describes the beauties of Lake Como, the orography of the region, the character of the inhabitants, the crops, and the mines.

His works, which were well received by national and international critics, earned Giovanni Battista the reputation of Philosopher of Como.

Institutional assignments

The Decurionate and the Social Deputation

On 3 February 1774, Giovanni Battista joined the Decurional Council of Como, the city's administrative body, at a very young age, and was gradually called upon to hold various municipal offices. His first assignments saw him as delegate for Adda affairs, delegate for military housing and one of the city's magistrates. These offices brought him face to face with the strategic issue of communications, to which he always remained sensitive: from 1785 to 1796, he was royal judge and deputy councillor for roads. In the various reports that the count sent to the General Council, his firm awareness of the urgent need for intervention on the Larian road system and the need to enforce maintenance laws emerges clearly. In 1761, following a terrible flood of the lake, the Council commissioned him to draw up a report for the government in Vienna and propose solutions to the flooding: the draining of the Colico marshes, the installation of hydraulic machines in Lecco, and constant maintenance in the clearing of river beds.

In 1790, the new ruler Leopold II established the Social Deputation: a college formed by delegates from each of the six provinces of the State of Milan (Milan, Pavia, Cremona, Lodi, Como and Casalmaggiore) with the task of drawing up 20 points of common interest and a list of specific needs (the “Occorrenze”) of the various provinces to be presented in Vienna. The General Council of Como chose Giovanni Battista Giovio and Giorgio Porro Carcano, who, thanks to their past positions and lineage, have “access to the Royal Ducal Court”. On 28 June 1790, Giovio presented the text of the Occurrences of Como, which he had drafted, to the Deputation. Of the twenty points in the text, nine concern industry and production, mainly silk and wool, four concern taxes, three concern privileges, one concerns the structure of studies, one concerns the Diocese of Como and one final point proposes remedies for economic stagnation. Among the topics discussed were: exemption from market tax on trade, meat slaughtering, wheat and wine for weavers and spinners; disciplinary regulations for the silk industry; intervention on the single duty introduced in 1787, as it had not taken Swiss competition into account; the reintroduction of the Sant'Abbondio Fair in September (with the advantage of anticipating the Lugano Fair in October); the restoration of “ancient practices”, i.e. the return to the ancient powers of the decurions, removed by the reforms of Joseph II. But the most daring point that Giovio put forward was the proposal to eliminate the disproportionate valuation of land established by the land registry: he emphasised how the people of Como were subject to much higher taxation than other provinces (an example of this is the fact that mountainous, hilly and flat areas had the same classification, even though there was a clear difference in potential yield; which had greatly penalised the province of Como); to remedy this, Giovio called for the extinction of Como's public debt. When the Occorrenze were read in the Deputation, Milan's attack was frontal: the Milanese deputies saw Giovio's proposals as a clear advantage for Como and a clear disadvantage for Milan. In response to the objections raised by the other delegates, Giovio presented the Appendix to the Occorrenze. With the edict of 20 January 1791, Leopold II regulated matters of general interest in 56 articles and those relating to individual provinces in 66 articles. Most of the economic requests put forward by Giovanni Battista were accepted: reduction of duties on incoming and outgoing textile goods, wheat and wine; concession of the Sant'Abbondio Fair; the Government Council was tasked with drawing up a disciplinary plan for the Como silk industry; the Ospedale Maggiore and the Casa della Misericordia were returned to the city government; and the debt of twenty thousand lire contracted by Como with the Regia Camera was forgiven. In the political sphere, he restored the Decurioni government's powers over health, provisions and roads.

In 1791, Vienna decided that delegates from the various provinces of Lombardy should be appointed to form the State Congregation. On 14 February 1971, in Como, twenty-one decurions elected Giovanni Battista Giovio as the city's first delegate, with 16 votes; Antonio Perti was chosen as second assessor. Giovanni Battista's appointment reflected the consideration and esteem for the energy he had expended in writing the Occorrenze. Giovio officially accepted the Council's appointment, but immediately afterwards he encountered opposition from his wife and family to moving to Milan. Putting the good of his family before that of the city, albeit with sincere regret and embarrassment, Giovanni Battista resigned from the State Congregation:

The whole city was filled with fearful, suspicious silence in the Broletto, where the Sixty [Decurions, ed.] were gathered, and the State Congregation, coming and going [...] Meanwhile, two fanatics enter the crowd and scatter that childish tricolour ribbon among the people, who pay no attention to it and abhor it, eliciting only a few bought cheers, similar to the squeaking of a hound in a distant forest. Meanwhile, the public representatives leave Porta Romana for the meeting, and I with them. I will never cease to marvel at how such a great city, which had a garrison and a castle, became a subject of the new Republic on that day. Three or four thousand tired, ragged, sleepy Frenchmen stood at the gate. Here comes Bonaparte the next day; he is greeted with compliments and the usual phrases about property, religion and respected customs, and the procession sets off for the archducal palace [...] Everywhere there were tables laden with immense loaves of white bread as white as snow, barrels of wine, and quartered oxen, so that from those days onwards we began to feed that band of heroes with our own resources [...] Led by General Despinoy, we visited Hannibal Italicus [...]

— Giovanni Battista Giovio, Ritratti delle cose lombarde

The Republican Years

The final years of the 18th century saw a radical political change: the French, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, arrived in Italy. In Giovanni Battista's eyes, Napoleon was not a liberator, but a plunderer like all other conquerors. Giovio commented on contemporary events and his own convictions in Ritratti delle cose lombarde (Portraits of Lombard Things) in 1796, 1797 and 1798 and in Giornale politico (Political Journal): with a series of “fairy tale” edicts, he writes, weapons were confiscated, palaces occupied and the artistic and cultural heritage plundered.

In 1796, he was appointed – as representative of the city of Como – together with Alessandro Volta, to pay homage, like all Lombard cities, to Napoleon who, following the battle of Lodi, entered Milan victorious at the head of the army of the French Republic. Giovanni Battista writes:

It seemed to me a duty of friendship to dedicate the first edition of this little work to you; but then I realised that it was a much greater duty not to associate the fame of others with the criticism deserved by the writer, nor the peace of others with the dangers that the principles and intent of my words might cause me from perhaps overly zealous interpreters. [...] The paternal examination that you, my lord and friend, made of my little book increased my gratitude and the rights you had over it; and since the doubts that initially discouraged me from associating your name with mine have partly ceased, I beg you to accept the reprint that I dedicate to you, as proof of my esteem and my desire to be loved by you.

— Ugo Foscolo, letter to Giovanni Battista Giovio, Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Ugo Foscolo. Firenze, Le Monnier, 1933-1994 - Volumi XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX.

A few days later, on 22 May, sixty French dragoons entered Como, took control of the city and seized almost 95,000 lire. During the Jacobin Triennium, most of the population of Como remained unaffected by the republican political upheavals (of 15,000 citizens, only 87 were politically active and registered as republicans and 28 as anti-republicans). In the 1798 information files, in which all citizens were registered according to their presumed political opinions in lists of “patriots” and “enemies of the public cause”, Giovanni Battista was listed as an “ex-noble” and “anti-republican”, but he was recognised as having “many talents”. Throughout the Triennium, Giovanni Battista remained under special surveillance, an insidious and irritating pro-Austrian aristocrat; he was targeted in the Giornale degli amici della libertà e dell'uguaglianza (Journal of the Friends of Liberty and Equality) by an anonymous Amico de' cavalieri (Friend of the Knights). On 27 August 1796, the Municipality of Como was renewed. Giovio wrote in Ritratti delle cose lombarde: “On the 27th, the new Municipality, composed of XII, was to be installed. Volta resigned, Odescalchi did not appear. Only I, of those seated, was to be dismissed. What an honour!”. On 28 August, the new city government, replacing the Municipal Congregation, saw a reduction in the presence of the nobility, and Giovanni Battista left the political scene, but access was still denied to the most active republicans. In October 1796, the Municipality of Como was replaced by 12 other citizens of republican orientation.

In April 1800, the Austrians entered Milan and Como was abandoned by the French. Over the next thirteen months, Giovanni Battista returned to work, focusing mainly on writing La conversione politica o Lettere ai Francesi (Political Conversion or Letters to the French). In this work, the count gave vent to all the bitterness born of the personal wrongs he had suffered: he translated Giuseppe Gorani's nine Lettres aux Francais and expanded the project into fourteen letters: he attacks the “madness of atheism”, sees in democracy the limitation of “fearing even the shadow of authority” and the fear of authority crumbles into anarchy and from there “a master easily arises”. The last part is a direct attack on Napoleon's Italian campaign, which “ruined the whole peninsula”. On 16 June, Napoleon returned victorious to Italy; upon the return of the French, Giovanni Battista paid dearly for his statements: on 11 July, the military commander of Como, Cavaillé, arrested Giovanni Battista, who was imprisoned in the public jails for three days. Interrogated in Milan, he was released, but he never recanted the Letters.

The Second Cisalpine Republic and the Kingdom of Italy marked the decline of the political influence of the local nobility, with the city government becoming subordinate to the institutions. Giovanni Battista, however, did not choose a hermit's retreat: his sense of responsibility and his intention to support the choices of his sons, who, despite their father's opposition, enlisted in Napoleon's army, led him to resume publishing at the same pace as in previous years. Among his works from those years are: Iscrizioni Militari (Military Inscriptions, 1802, 1804), Lettere Lariane (Larian Letters, 1803) and the collection Opuscoli Patrj (Patriotic Pamphlets, 1804). The idea for the Iscrizioni Militari came from General Teulié, who asked Giovio to recommend the names of 24 men who had distinguished themselves in arms and military writers to decorate the walls of the soldiers' shelter at San Celso in Milan. The first 37 Inscriptions were followed by another 33; the subjects selected by Giovanni Battista assert the centrality of classical and Italian culture: alongside Homer are Xenophon, Polybius, Machiavelli, Dante and Francesco Algarotti. In the Opuscoli Patrij, Giovanni Battista criticises the republican era and at the same time writes how, after the abuses of the revolution and the general chaos, it is once again possible to work for the common good because much has been recovered from the past.

In 1804, he was appointed member of the Electoral Council of Landowners and the General Council of the Department of Como; in 1806, he was appointed Propodestà of Como. Although rehabilitated in the political arena, Giovanni Battista always opposed Napoleon's actions; Giovio received an invitation to Bonaparte's coronation in May 1805, but did not attend due to health problems. On 22 July 1806, he asked to be relieved of the office that had placed him at the head of the urban municipality. A year later, he was reinstated as a member of the General Council of the department and in 1810 he was elected president of the Departmental Council of Lario, a position to which he was re-elected four times in a row. Giovanni Battista was committed to education for the wider population and accepted the appointment as Prefect of Studies and, in 1810, as president of the Society of Sciences, Fine Arts and Letters and, subsequently, of the Gymnasium.

Giovanni Battista and Ugo Foscolo

We do not know exactly when the count and the young poet Ugo Foscolo first met, but it was certainly well before the summer of 1807 (the oldest surviving letter from the poet, addressed to Giovio, is dated 22 June 1807 and is in reply to a letter from the count); Foscolo wrote more than sixty letters to Giovio between 1807 and 1814, fifty-four of which were addressed to the Count, two to the Countess, two each to his sons Benedetto and Paolo, and three to his daughter Francesca. There was extensive correspondence between Foscolo and Count Giovanni Battista Giovio regarding the discussion of the Prolusione (inaugural speech for the poet's appointment to the chair in Pavia), recited by the poet at the University of Pavia on 22 January 1809. Count Giovio received a copy, sent to him by the author. In view of a new edition, Foscolo asked the count to subject it to critical examination, and Giovio presented the results in a letter addressed to the poet on 8 March 1809: 'You wish me to send you some of my observations on your Orazion dell'Origine e dell'ufficio della letteratura, of which you intend to publish a second edition, and to dedicate it to me as an act of kindness. ... But you want observations. It will be an act of friendship to comply with your request quickly'. He then set out all his considerations one by one, concerning the content, vocabulary and form of the work. Foscolo replied with a letter of defence, but also of gratitude:

[...] And I saw you again. I saw you again, my heart pounding, still hoping that you would welcome me more coldly. Instead, I found you kinder, sadder, and more tender; and I trembled to approach the games so as not to see you more closely, not to speak to you, not to betray myself forever. But I, condemned to the most stubborn struggles, only to give in perpetually to my weak heart, approached you, spoke to you, learned from your lips what I had known for so long from your gaze, learned that I was loved... in the midst of all my reserve, I loved you...; amidst the despair of my love, I knew I was loved, and loved by you! My heart, seeing you, rejoiced in this unique joy, and could not contain itself. [...] and many times your gaze, your pallor and your melancholy brought tears to my eyes: I trembled, I groaned, for you and for me [...] Back in Milan, I still had your pale appearance and your languid glances in my soul; and the last glance you gave me, leaning against the fireplace, as I walked out the door, afflicted me in all my thoughts [...] For almost the entire long time that you stayed in Verzago after my visit, I felt neither the courage nor the strength to write to the Count.

— Ugo Foscolo, letter to Francesca Giovio, 19 agosto 1809, Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Ugo Foscolo. Firenze, Le Monnier, 1933-1994 - Volume XVI.

Statue of Ugo Foscolo in Villa Giovio del Grumello, Como

A mutual trust gradually developed between Giovanni Battista and Foscolo; the correspondence between Foscolo and Giovanni Battista was incessant and touched not only on personal matters, but also on cultural topics, an exchange of literary information of various kinds, literary judgements, and discussions of philosophical, religious and political principles. Invited by the count, the poet visited the Giovio family home for the first time on 30 July 1808, at Villa del Grumello, the Giovio family's summer residence, but he was often a guest of the counts at their villas in Como and Verzago. It was during these visits to the Giovio home that Foscolo fell in love with Giovanni Battista's daughter, Francesca. It was a mutual but troubled love, hindered by the difference in their social status, which tormented the poet's soul. He knew that he could never aspire to the hand of a count's daughter, and so he wrote to Francesca Giovio in a 30-page letter:

How can I ask for your hand in marriage, how can I hope for your parents' approval? I am not a nobleman, and you see how deeply rooted in your family is the superstitious and invincible esteem for every title, every idol, every shadow of nobility; insurmountable obstacles, compounded by your father's and the countess's aversion to my religious and political principles [...] My soul has made its last effort, and tears are dripping onto the words I write with the blood of my heart [...] I will always love you, I swear it from the bottom of my heart, I will love you until my last breath; and I swear not to marry until you belong to another. ...if you are your own mistress, if you are unhappy; if you lack a husband or a friend in this world, I will fly to you: I will be your husband, father, friend, brother. But you will not be my wife as long as I can appear vile before myself, seductive towards your relatives, and cruel to you. Farewell with all my soul, farewell.

— Ugo Foscolo, Letter to Francesca Giovio, Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Ugo Foscolo. Firenze, Le Monnier, 1933-1994 - Volume XVII.

Proof of how deep Foscolo's feelings for Francesca were can be found in the poet's desire to marry her, but this dream was to be shattered:

Ugo Foscolo suddenly appeared in my room today, 20 August 1813, at about midday. Seeing him, and the memory of my beloved Benedetto, whom he also loved, flooding back into my heart, my sighs and tears became one (Foscolo also wept profusely and hugged me and kissed my hand). Sunt lacrymae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.

— Giovanni Battista Giovio, letters

This idyll was brought to an abrupt end by Colonel Vittore Vautré of the Italian Army, who on 14 March 1810 sent Count Giovio a long letter asking for Francesca's hand in marriage. She resisted her father's wishes several times, refusing the proposal. Finally, on 12 September 1810, Countess Francesca Giovio married the colonel.

Foscolo also formed strong friendships with Giovanni Battista's other children, particularly his eldest son Benedetto. In fact, Foscolo portrayed him in the character of Guido in Ricciarda. Giovanni Battista wrote to the poet on 17 September 1813: 'I expect your Ricciarda to bring forth more sweet tears. I remember too well what you told me, and that you wanted to copy some of my son's character for your Guido'

The final years

In January 1808, his eldest son Benedetto, against his father's wishes, enlisted in the Dragoons of the Royal Guard of the Kingdom of Italy, ruled at the time by Viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais. In 1812, he left for Napoleon's Russian campaign and was appointed captain after valiant actions on the field of Weliza. However, during the disastrous retreat of Napoleon's army, Benedetto Giovio died of fever on 17 December 1812 in Gübingen, at the young age of 25.

Giovanni Battista suffered tremendously from the death of his eldest son and was never able to alleviate his pain. We are left with the description, among the count's papers, of his last meeting with Foscolo:

My dear sir, for several months now, not a day has gone by without my thinking of writing to you, as I have done for many years, ever since I met the Giovio family. I have been devoted to you, especially in times of misfortune and danger, and knowing that you, Count, are no longer in the best of health has caused me secret distress and continues to do so. [...] In short, I need peace, domestic peace, independence, not political, but personal in every way, until the necessary and sweetest day of eternal rest. [...] Here, Count, is the state of my life, which is now approaching its thirty-sixth year; compare it with yours and you will perhaps see that the evils of my imagination are worse than the evils of your infirmity. [...] This letter, my lord, is to be read only by you; and I regret having written it; who knows how sad the Countess would be if she saw it! – Now, Count, take courage now that Sol aureus exit; and that greater Sun that shines on the Universe from the last of the Heavens, and which you adore with a pious soul, will perhaps pour a few drops of balm on the pains of your body and your heart [...]

— Ugo Foscolo, Letter to Giovanni Battista Giovio, 27 march 1814., Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Ugo Foscolo. Firenze, Le Monnier, 1933-1994 - Volume XVIII.

The last letter written by Foscolo to Giovanni Battista Giovio is dated 27 March 1814 and contains warm expressions of affection and good wishes for the count's health, shaken by the death of Benedetto:

On the evening of 17 May 1814, Giovanni Battista Giovio, torn by grief for his lost son and physically weakened by illness, died. He is buried in the chapel of Villa Giovio in Verzago, as per his will, in the tomb he himself had prepared. On the tomb one can read the epigraph: IO BAP IOVIVS COMITIS FRANCISCI F SI MAIORVM SVORVM NOVOCOMII VETVSTVM ANTIQVARETVR HOC SIBI POSTERIQVE.

Writings

• Gli uomini della comasca diocesi nelle arti, e nelle lettere illustri (1784)
• Lettere lariane, raccolta (1802 - 1813)
• Opuscoli Patrii (1804)
• Como e il Lario (1805)
• Viaggio pel Lago di Como (1795)
• Commercio Comasco (1786)
• Pensierii varii, raccolta (1781)
• Lettere elvetiche - diario di viaggio in Svizzera del 1777 con Alessandro Volta, diario (1777)
• Poesie del conte Gio. Battista Giovio, raccolta di poesie (Locatelli, 1774)
• Saggio sopra la religione del conte Giambattista Giovio, Cavaliere del S.M. Ordine di S. Stefano e Ciambellano attuale delle LL.MM.II.R.A., saggio (1774)
• Idee sulla felicità (1774)
• Discorso sopra la pittura (1776)
• Perfezion cristiana (1800)
• Pensieri di Hervey sulle tombe (1809)
• Manuale cristiano o Enchiridion (1811)
• Tristezza (1812)
• Del mondo in generale, di lui origine e fine, poemetto (1773)
• Sopra il sole. Di lui materia, la luce, colori, moto, l'ombra di Swinden, poemetto (1773-1774)
• Le stelle, poemetto
• Elogio funerale a Maria Lucrezia Anastasia Marchesa Porro Odescalco dama dell'Imperial Ordine della Crociera, elogia (1778)
• Elogio del conte Francesco Algarotti, elogia (1782)
• Elogio di Andrea Palladio architetto, elogia (1782)
• Abbozzo di memorie sopra mio suocero, il Maggiore Don Pietro Paolo Parravicini Ciambellano imperiale, elogia
• Elogio di Benedetto Giovio, elogia (1782)
• Elogio di monsignor Paolo Giovio il giovane vescovo di Nocera, elogia (1782)
• Iscrizioni pegl'invalidi di Milano (1802)

Descent

• Benedetto Giovio, primogenito † 1812
• Francesco Giovio, secondogenito e successore di G.B., sposa Clelia dei marchesi Cigalini
• Paolo Giovio, sposa Luigia dei conti Caroelli
• Felicia Giovio, sposa il marchese Carlo Innocenzo Porro
• Carolina Giovio, sposa il barone colonnello Gaetano Bianchi
• Luigia Giovio, sposa Baldassarre Lambertenghi
• Vincenza Giovio, sposa il conte Luigi Panigadi di Modena
• Francesca Giovio, sposa il barone colonnello Vittore Vautré

Honors

Cavaliere del Sacro Militare Ordine di Santo Stefano di Toscana - ribbon for ordinary uniform	Cavaliere del Sacro Militare Ordine di Santo Stefano di Toscana

Bibliography

• Luigi Dottesio (1847). Notizie biografiche degli illustri comaschi. Capolago.
• Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. 1960–2020. OCLC 883370.
• Giovanni Battista Giovio. Lettere elvetiche - diario di viaggio in Svizzera del 1777 con Alessandro Volta.
• Giovanni Battista Giovio (1784). Gli uomini della comasca diocesi nelle arti, e nelle lettere illustri.
• Giovanni Battista Giovio (1827). Lettere Lariane.
• Carlo Volpati (1936). "L'innamorata d'un poeta, poi consorte d'un uomo d'arme".
• A. Scotti. "Il carteggio di Giambattista Giovio". Tesi di dottorato di ricerca, Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza".
• Ettore Brambilla (1901). "Ugo Foscolo in casa Giovio e i suoi amori".
• Francesco Casnati (1953). Lettere di G. B. Giovio al Foscolo.
• Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Ugo Foscolo. Vol. XIV: Epistolario I, Volume XV: Epistolario II, Volume XVI: Epistolario III, Volume XVII: Epistolario IV, Volume XVIII: Epistolario V, Volume XIX: Epistolario VI.
• Alessandra Mita Ferraro (2018). Il diritto e il rovescio - Giambattista Giovio, un europeo di provincia nel secolo dei lumi.