The Cati family, also known as Cato or Cato (Cati), was an Italian family originating in Lendinara and active in Ferrara, Padua and the Polesine. The Ferrarese branch is the best documented and included sixteenth-century jurists, diplomats, administrators and men of letters connected with the House of Este.
The principal documented members of the Ferrarese line belonged to the legal and diplomatic world of the sixteenth century. Ludovico Cato, his sons Renato, Sigismondo and Ercole, and their descendants were active in university law, court service, diplomacy, translation, political writing and historiography. Older literary historiography also grouped Ludovico, Renato and Sigismondo among the jurists associated with the reputation of the University of Ferrara.
The spelling of the name varies. The Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani uses the form Cato (Cati) for Ludovico, Renato and Ercole, and notarial and genealogical material from the Polesine, Bologna, Ravenna, Venice and other Italian contexts records forms including Catti, Catta, Catto and de Cattis.
Cati/Cato of Lendinara and Ferrara
The earliest documented members of the family appear in the historical orbit of Lendinara, Ferrara and the House of Este. An early figure was Catone de' Cati of Lendinara, son of Benvenuto, a furrier. Sources state that he moved to Ferrara to practise as a notary; the first act bearing his signature is dated 1308. Emanuele Carletti describes him as a man of noble extraction who served the Este marquises of Ferrara as notary and chancellor, and later material associates him with the service of Aldobrandino II d'Este.
In 1320 Catone acquired land for an oratory dedicated to the Virgin Mary, later granted to the Servites. In his testament of 1358 he made economic and spiritual bequests to the same religious community and requested burial in their church.
An inventory of the Archivio di Stato di Modena, within the Archivio Segreto Estense, Cancelleria, Carteggio e documenti di particolari, records a file under the heading "Cati, Catti, Cato, Catto" in busta 337. The file contains fifteenth-century material under the names Ludovico, Baldassare, Bartolomeo, Battista, Gasparo and Leonello, and a parchment bifolio concerning Vincenzo and citizenship of the city of Lugo in 1581.
In the fifteenth century the family name is again documented in the educational and legal environment of Ferrara. Giorgio de' Cati of Lendinara appears in Giuseppe Pardi's study of the University of Ferrara as a student in 1466–1467, licensed in December 1470 and awarded doctoral insignia on 27 September 1471.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Luigi Napoleone Cittadella records Rinaldo Cati as giudice d'Argine, or judge of the embankments, in relation to expenses for the oratory of the Madonna del Salice beyond the Po at Ferrara in 1505.
A further Ferrarese member, Carlo Cati, was a professor of medicine at the Studio of Ferrara, the historical university institution of the city.
The best-documented Ferrarese line emerged in the early sixteenth century with Ludovico Cato, known as Ludovico Cati. He was born in Ferrara in 1490, son of Renato, from an ancient family from Lendinara. He studied law at Bologna and Ferrara and received his doctorate in utroque iure at Ferrara on 7 August 1516. He later became procuratore fiscale, reader of civil law at the University of Ferrara, and diplomat in the service of Alfonso I d'Este.
Ludovico served in diplomatic missions connected with the papal, imperial, Spanish and French courts. In 1522 Alfonso I sent him to Spain to pay homage to the newly elected Pope Adrian VI. Ludovico found the pope at Zaragoza and, on 2 June 1522, delivered a public oration on behalf of the duke of Ferrara. The speech was printed at Zaragoza and reprinted at Ferrara in the same year.
After following Adrian VI toward Italy, Ludovico arrived in Rome on 31 August 1522 and remained there as resident orator until March 1524. His Roman mission was directed toward the restoration and confirmation of Este rights after the conflicts with Julius II and Leo X, including questions concerning Nonantola, San Felice, the Este Romagna, Reggio and Modena.
During his Roman residence, Ludovico also appears as a contemporary witness to the artistic and courtly culture of papal Rome. A letter written from Rome to Alfonso I d'Este on 2 September 1523 reported that Pope Adrian VI had displayed in the Sistine Chapel the hangings made for Pope Leo X after designs by Raphael, describing them as an exceptional spectacle for human eyes. In another letter, dated 14 March 1524, Ludovico described a gathering at Villa Madama, then still incomplete, mentioning its fountains, sculptures, gardens and distinguished guests, including Paolo Giovio and Baldassarre Castiglione. The two letters document aspects of Ludovico's diplomatic residence in Rome and his observations on courtly and artistic life there.
At Granada on 30 September, he concluded the projected betrothal of Ercole d'Este to Margaret of Austria, although the marriage did not take place. He remained in Spain until the autumn of 1527.
Emperor Charles V made Ludovico a knight and count palatine. Ludovico and his descendants were associated in later sources with imperial privileges and with the use of the imperial eagle in the family arms, although the chronology of these honours is not uniform in the later tradition.
In 1529, Ludovico was sent as ambassador to the court of Francis I of France. His task was to protect the duke of Ferrara during the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Cambrai, but the clause safeguarding the duke's position was not included in the treaty. Ludovico remained in France until the summer of 1530.
In 1534, he returned to France to announce the death of Alfonso I and the succession of Ercole II, and in 1539 he addressed the doge and the Venetian Senate during a Ferrarese legation. This Venetian oration is recorded by EDIT16 as a printed work dated to around 1539, concerning the question of precedence between the legates of the duke of Ferrara and those of the duke of Florence. An inventory of the Archivio Segreto Estense records a Venetian diplomatic file for Ludovico Cati, consisting of five dispatches and five ducal minutes dated between 22 April and 2 May 1545.
Ludovico was also active in juristic controversy. After visiting Andrea Alciato at Bourges in 1530, he published at Ferrara in 1533 a respectful but critical admonition concerning Alciato's interpretation of the law of the five-foot prescription. The two jurists later taught together at Ferrara between 1542 and 1546.
In 1543, Ludovico's interpretation of the first law of the title De edendo in the Justinianic Code was challenged at Ferrara by the jurist Mario Arca of Narni. The dispute concerned whether a defendant could be compelled to produce an extract of accounts, especially in matters involving deposits and banking relations. Pietro Aldobrandini, a devoted pupil of Ludovico, defended his interpretation in a letter directed against Arca. Treccani records that the dispute attracted attention in Ferrarese legal circles.
Ludovico married Ippolita Nigrisoli and the couple had four sons, three of whom were Renato and Sigismondo, who became jurists, and Ercole, who became a man of letters. A near-contemporary biography of Ludovico, written by Bonaventura Angeli, was printed in Ferrara in 1554 under the title Vita di Lodovico Cati giurisconsulto ferrarese.
Renato served the Este court as ducal secretary, secret councillor and diplomat. He was sent on missions to Rome, Vienna and the imperial court. In 1570 he became resident orator at the imperial court, where he was involved in the Este struggle for precedence against the Medici and in the recognition of ducal titles such as "altezza" and "serenissimo". A study of diplomacy and musical patronage by Franco Piperno cites letters sent in January 1571 from Prague by Renato Cato and Alessandro Fieschi, Ferrarese ambassadors at the imperial court, to Alfonso II d'Este, in connection with the Virginia Vagnoli affair and secret consultations between Pesaro and Ferrara.
Sigismondo Cato belonged to the same generation. A manuscript attributed to him, entitled Viaggi et negotii da me Sigismondo Cato fatti et trattati dopo che servo questa Serenissima Casa, records travels and negotiations undertaken in the service of the Este house. The manuscript concerns events from 1568 to 1604 and refers to service under Cardinal Luigi d'Este, Duke Alfonso, Duke Cesare, Prince Alfonso and the Infanta.
Sigismondo is less treated in modern biographical reference works than Ludovico, Renato and Ercole, but the manuscript tradition places him in the same Este diplomatic and courtly environment. Older Ferrarese literary historiography also placed him among the learned jurists of the family. The surviving manuscript concerning Sigismondo's travels and negotiations provides direct evidence of his service to the Este house.
Sigismondo is also recorded as a jurist and as a counsellor connected with the diplomatic activity of Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, including diplomatic travel to France and the Republic of Siena.
Ercole Cato, also known as Ercole Cati, was a son of Ludovico Cato and Ippolita Nigrisoli. In 1563 he entered the service of Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este as secretary and lived with him between Rome, Tivoli and Ferrara. After the cardinal's death in 1572, Ercole delivered his funeral oration.
Ercole was active as a writer, translator and political agent. He translated works by Charles Estienne, Henri Estienne, Louis Le Roy, Jean Bodin and Justus Lipsius, reflecting the literary and political culture of the late Este court.
Ercole's attachment to Lendinara also emerged in local historiographical controversy. In 1584 he published, under the pseudonym Zago di Santa Rentua, an Apologia sopra l'Historia del sig. Andrea Nizolio, directed against Andrea Nizolio's history of Rovigo and written in defence of Lendinara. The work reflects Ercole's association with Lendinara and the local historical controversies of the Polesine.
After the death of Alfonso II d'Este, Cesare d'Este sent Ercole, together with his brother Renato, to Venice to seek support against papal claims over Ferrara. After Ferrara passed to the Papal States, Ercole accepted the new papal government while maintaining good relations with the Este court. In 1604 he was appointed noble councillor of the city of Ferrara.
Ercole is also important as the author of the family memoir studied by Angela Ghinato. Through this work, the Cati preserved a narrative of their family history, social identity and service between Lendinara, Ferrara and Padua.
Crollalanza describes Ercole as a knight created by the Venetian doge Sebastiano Venier and as one of the founders of the Accademia degli Intrepidi.
Ercole Cato was connected with the literary circle of Torquato Tasso. In 1581 he took part in a poetic exchange with Tasso: Tasso replied to a sonnet by Ercole Cato with the sonnet Quella che nome aver di dea non merta, accompanied by an interpretation and commentary. The exchange is documented in modern Tasso scholarship and in bibliographical records of the 1585 Ferrarese edition of Tasso's Rime e prose, which include sonnets by Ercole Cato and replies by Tasso.
Ercole also moved within the Venetian editorial world of Aldo Manuzio the Younger. The second part of Tasso's Rime included a dedication by Aldo Manuzio to Ercole Cati, dated 7 October 1581.