Paolo Morigia

Paolo Morigia (1 January 1525 – 1604) was an Italian scholar and a Jesuate. His prolific writings focus on the history of his native city on the one hand, and of the Catholic Church, its saints and its religious practices on the other.

Biography Paolo Morigia was born in Milan in 1525 to a wealthy and noble family. At the age of seventeen he entered the order of the Jesuati, founded by Giovanni Colombini of Siena in 1360.

A prolific author, he is best remembered for his works on the history of Milan. A meticulous historian, Morigia "diligently searched through public and private archives for 'contracts, privileges, epitaphs, and other authentic [i.e., nonnarrative] writings,' from which he quoted abundantly. And he read carefully through all of the ancient and modern historians who had ever said anything about Milan."

Morigia wrote also a popular devotional work called the Giardino spirituale which included prayers, daily meditations, preparations for confession and communion, and a discourse on dying well.

He died in Milan in 1604 and was buried in the church of the convent of San Girolamo, belonging to the order.

Morigia was on friendly terms with several important personalities of his time, including Gabriele Paleotti, Giulio Sfondrati and Charles Borromeo. He was one of Fede Galizia's earliest patrons, and in his La Nobiltà di Milano (The Nobility of Milan), a collection of short biographies of Milanese writers and artists published in 1595, he wrote that she showed signs of "becoming a truly noble painter." Galizia also made a portrait of Morigia.

Works

Chapters XVI to XIX, are an important source for the history of Late Renaissance art.