Raffaele Riario

Raffaele Sansoni Galeoti Riario (3 May 1461 – 9 July 1521) was an Italian cardinal of the Renaissance, mainly known as the constructor of the Palazzo della Cancelleria and the person who invited Michelangelo to Rome. He was a patron of the arts. He was also the first adolescent to be elevated in the College of Cardinals in the history of the Holy See.

Early career and Pazzi Conspiracy Born in poverty in Savona, Riario was the son of Antonio Sansoni and Violante Riario, a niece of Francesco della Rovere, who became Pope Sixtus IV in 1471.

Being the relative of Pope Sixtus IV, he was created Cardinal of San Giorgio in Velabro on 10 December 1477 and was named Administrator of several dioceses: (diocese of Cuenca, diocese of Pisa, diocese of Salamanca, diocese of Treguier, diocese of Osma). These gave him a handsome income, and no obligations except to appoint a vicar. He was then only sixteen years old and a student of canon law at the University of Pisa. He left Pisa because of the plague.

Raffaele Riario is generally considered a prelate typical of his era: indifferent in religious matters, rather a statesman than a priest, rather a Maecenas than a theologian.

In popular culture Raffaele Riario appears in seasons 2 and 3 of the 2016 Medici tv series. He is played by Francesco di Raimondo in season 2 and Loris De Luna in season 3. He is played by American actor Scott William Winters in all three seasons of the Borgia television series, which aired in 2011 to 2014. In this adaptation he is a close conspirator of his distant cousin Giuliano della Rovere against Rodrigo Borgia and others in the Borgia family, though his political skill and usefulness lets him rise to Vice Chancellor of the church under Alexander's reign.

Raffaele Riario is a major character in the manga Cesare: Creator of Destruction, which focuses on Cesare Borgia's year studying at the University of Pisa in the year before his father was elected as Pope Alexander VI. In the manga, Riario is the Archbishop of Pisa, and Cesare lives with him in his palace. In the 2023 stage musical adaptation, Riario was played by Haruki Kiyama.