Urban VIII (pope)
1568 – 1644 Italian Pope (1623-1644)
Baroque pope who condemned Galileo and lavished wealth on his family.
- Religion
- Catholic; Bishop of Rome
- Affiliations
- The papacy; House of Barberini
Urban VIII presided over the trial that forced Galileo to recant his claim that the Earth moves around the sun, and put him under house arrest in 1633. A great patron of Baroque art, he backed Bernini, who built the huge bronze canopy over the altar of St. Peter's, partly by melting bronze from the Pantheon. His enormous spending on his Barberini relatives and on war drained the treasury and damaged the papacy's standing.
Connections
- rival of Galileo Galilei — His court tried and condemned Galileo in 1633.