mantua

n.
A woman's garment of the 17th and 18th centuries consisting of a bodice and full skirt cut from a single length of fabric, with the skirt designed to part in front to reveal a contrasting underskirt.

[Alteration (influenced by MANTUA) of MANTEAU.]

Surrounded on three sides by lakes formed by the Mincio River, the city of Mantua was almost impregnable militarily. The duchy of Mantua spread across the fertile Lombard plain. The prosperity of the city came from textile manufacturing, that of the countryside from agriculture. The city, which had a vibrant Jewish community, had about 40,000 people in 1550, which declined to 31,000 in 1600. Plague and siege between 1627 and 1630 devastated the city, whose population only recovered to 14,000 in 1650, then rose to between 21,000 and 24,000 in the eighteenth century. The duchy as a whole had some 300,000 people in 1600, but fewer after 1630.

The Gonzaga family, rulers of Mantua from 1328 to 1707, intermarried with other princely families of Italy. They also produced several cardinals and one saint, the Jesuit Aloysius Gonzaga (1568–1591). In the 1530s the Gonzaga acquired through marriage the marquisate of Montferrat in Piedmont, not contiguous with the duchy of Mantua. This included the town and fortress of Casale Monferrato, a coveted military position some 120 miles west of the city of Mantua. The Gonzaga family supported the Habsburgs in the dynastic struggles of sixteenth-century Europe, and individual Gonzagas served them as military commanders and administrators.

Mantua had one of the most splendid courts of Italy and Europe in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and early seventeenth centuries. As many as eight hundred persons—writers, artists, musicians, and even a troop of commedia dell'arte actors—enjoyed Gonzaga patronage in the early seventeenth century. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) came to paint. Mantua also played a key role in the development of opera; Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) lived there from about 1590 to 1612, and his Orfeo (1607) and other works were first presented there. In 1625 Duke Ferdinando (1589–1626; ruled 1613–1626) founded the University of Mantua, where Jesuits taught humanities and philosophy, while laymen taught law and medicine. In order to pay for their splendid court, Gonzaga dukes sold assets. In 1627 Duke Vincenzo II (1594–1627; ruled 1626–1627) sold the family collection of Renaissance paintings (works of Titian, Andrea Mantegna, Correggio, Raphael, and others) to Charles I of England.

Gonzaga dukes seldom lived long, and they produced few heirs. On the death of Vincenzo II on 26 December 1627 without an heir, rival claimants to the duchy appeared. Carlo I Gonzaga-Nevers (1580–1637; ruled 1628–1637) of the French branch, with strong support from the French crown, slipped into Mantua to claim the title ahead of the leader of a branch of Italian Gonzagas, who accepted the traditional alliance with the Habsburgs. The French held the fortress towns of Mantua and Casale Monferrato, key military positions threatening Habsburg control of northern Italy. The Habsburgs sent an army to take back Mantua, and the War of the Mantuan and Montferrat Succession (1628–1631), an episode of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), began.

Unfortunately, the foreigners—most likely the imperial army—brought the bubonic plague with them. Because bad harvests had already weakened the duchy's population, the plague of 1629–1631 killed one quarter to one third. The historical novel I promessi sposi (1825–1827; The betrothed) of Alessandro Manzoni (1785–1873) described the devastation and social dislocation in northern Italy as well as any historian could. The Habsburg army overwhelmed the duchy in October 1629 and blockaded the city of Mantua. After a long siege, the army sacked and looted the city on 18–20 July 1630. At least two-thirds of the city's inhabitants died as a result of plague, lack of food, and violence. The university closed, and the city and duchy never recovered their former glory. Carlo I and his heirs retained the duchy, now shorn of Casale Monferrato, as minor Habsburg clients.

In 1707 the Habsburgs exiled Ferdinando Carlo (1652–1708; ruled 1665–1708), the last Gonzaga duke, for helping the French in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) and incorporated duchy and city into the Austrian Empire. The Austrian government of Empress Maria Theresa (1717–1780; ruled 1740–1780) instituted governmental reforms and supported Mantuan learning and the arts to some extent. After the Austrians were driven out of northern Italy, the duchy of Mantua joined the kingdom of Italy in 1866.

Bibliography

Faccioli, Emilio, ed. Mantova: Le lettere. 3 vols. Mantua, 1959–1963.

Mozzarelli, Cesare. Mantova e i Gonzaga dal 1382 al 1707. Turin, 1987.

—PAUL F. GRENDLER

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The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: loose gown of the 17th and 18th centuries

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