Caption: Urban VIII (1568--1644, pope 1623--1644) in the year of his accession 1623. His personal name was Maffeo Barberini.

The image is based on the Urban VIII engraving (19. by 13.7 cm, National Portrait Gallery, London) by Cornelis Galle the Younger (1615--1678), a Flemish engraver. I suppose the National Portrait Gallery, London is right, but Cornelis Galle the Elder (1576--1650) seems more likely to have made an engraving of the accession of the a pope in 1623. The engraving could've have been made a lot later than 1623 based on an earlier image.

Urban VIII probably never imagined that he would be most famous in history for his role in the Galileo affair (c.1610--1633) (see also The Galileo Project: Galileo Timeline).

Credit/Permission: © David Jeffery, 2003 / Own work.
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