Early Years: Family Background, Education, Giulio Romano

On the seventh of September of 1459, according to the contemporary chronicler Andrea Schivenoglia, the Duke of ‘Clenij’ or ‘Clunii’—in fact Johann i, Duke of Cleves—arrived in Mantua representing Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, at the Mantuan Council presided over by Pope Pius ii. During his visit he was lodged in the house belonging to the massaro of Mantua, an important financial officer of this small but powerful North-Italian state.1 The Duke’s host, Vivaldo della Strata, belonged to a family whose common ancestor, Lorenzo, had in 1228 been called from Brescia to serve as podestà of Mantua. In this he followed a tradition of his family, many members of which fulfilled similar functions in Lombardy and Piedmont.2 Until their extinction in an outbreak