September 1590 papal conclave

The September 1590 papal conclave, attended by 54 cardinals, elected Cardinal Giovanni Battista Castagna as Pope Urban VII.^[1][2]

Papal conclave September 1590
Dates and location
7–15 September 1590[1] Apostolic Palace, Papal States
Key officials
Dean	Giovanni Antonio Serbelloni
Sub-dean	Alfonso Gesualdo
Camerlengo	Enrico Caetani
Protopriest	Mark Sittich von Hohenems Altemps
Protodeacon	Andreas von Österreich
Elected pope
Giovanni Battista Castagna Name taken: Urban VII
← 1585 October–December 1590 →

The conclave lasted a week, and was heavily swayed by the influence of the twenty-two Spanish cardinals.^[3][4][2] Castagna, who had been favored by Sixtus V as a successor and was on the list of candidates whom Philip II of Spain had approved, was a favorite from the beginning,^[1][2][5] although a significant opposing faction supported Marco Antonio Colonna.^[1][6] Castagna's poor health, which would ultimately kill him after a papacy of only thirteen days, made him a more palatable candidate to cardinals who were outraged at Philip's attempts to sway the election.^[2]

Contemporary newspapers reported that a disagreement between Cardinals Ascanio Colonna and Francesco Sforza di Santa Fiora during the conclave nearly became violent.^[7]

Diagram of the cardinals' cubicles at the 1590 papal conclave.

References

1. Platina (1685). The Lives of the Popes: From the Time of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, to the Reign of Sixtus IV. Christopher Wilkinson. p. 206.
2. Pattenden, Miles; Baker-Bates, Piers, eds. (17 February 2016). The Spanish Presence in Sixteenth-Century Italy: Images of Iberia. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781317015000.
3. Harbaugh, Jim (2003). The Conclave: A Sometimes Secret and Occasionally Bloody History of Papal Elections. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 123.
4. Jedin, Hubert; Dolan, John Patrick, eds. (1980). History of the Church: Reformation and Counter Reformation. Burns & Oates. p. 508.
5. Neligan, William H, ed. (1869). The Lives and Times of the Roman Pontifs, from St. Peter to Pius Ix, Volume 1, Issue 2. D. & J. Sadlier. p. 872.
6. Petrucci, Francesco, ed. (21 September 2013). Papi in Posa: 500 Years of Papal Portraiture. Gangemi Editore. p. 90. ISBN 9788849258769.
7. Hunt, John M. (11 March 2016). The Vacant See in Early Modern Rome: A Social History of the Papal Interregnum. Brill. p. 226. ISBN 9789004313781.