Don Geronimo Fonati’s Ascent and Ruin: A Spanish Jester in the Service of the Gonzagas

Abstract

The article traces vicissitudes and journeys, which involve the Spanish jester Don Geronimo Fonati through several sovereign states of the Italian peninsula, the southern Netherlands, France and Spain in a chronological arc of almost thirty years; a period in which he is officially at the service of the Gonzagas family and Duke Vincenzo I in particular. A foul-mouthed entertainer and an impenitent gambler, don Geronimo was made sign of a certain credit in the major courts of Europe because of his privileged relation with the lords of Mantua until his sudden fall into disgrace, imprisonment and final set- aside.