Niccolò Ridolfi

Niccolò Ridolfi (1501 – 31 January 1550) was an Italian cardinal.

Early life Born in Florence, son of Piero Ridolfi and Contessina de' Medici (the daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici the Magnificent). His father was a Gonfaloniere of Justice. The family was wealthy and prominent. Pope Leo X was Niccolò's maternal uncle and granted him a quick ecclesiastical career. He was named governor of Spoleto in the period 1514-1516 and protonotary apostolic at the age of thirteen. Niccolò became a long time friend of humanist Gian Giorgio Trissino, who served Leo as his Nuncio in Germany.

Church career

Pope Leo X created him cardinal deacon in the consistory of 1 July 1517 at the age of sixteen with the deaconry of SS. Vito e Modesto.

Ridolfi was administrator of Forlì (16 April 1526 - 7 August 1528). During the Sack of Rome (1527) he was taken hostage to Hugo of Moncada with other cardinals. Later he was named administrator of Viterbo (16 November 1532 – 6 June 1533), administrator of the metropolitan see of Salerno (7 February 1533 - 19 December 1548) and administrator of Imola (4 August 1533 - 17 May 1546). Pope Clement VII opted him for the deaconry of Santa Maria in Cosmedin on 19 January 1534. A large armorial pitcher, currently held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art is believed to have been commissioned by Ridolfi on the occasion of Charles V's coronation in Bologna in 1530.