[2] The duchy's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family made it one of the main artistic, cultural, and especially musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole.

The last ruler of the family was the countess Matilde of Canossa (died 1115), who, according to legend, ordered the construction of the precious Rotonda di San Lorenzo (1082).

[5] On 16 August 1328, the last Bonacolsi, Rinaldo, was overthrown in a revolt backed by the House of Gonzaga, a family of officials, namely the 60-year-old Ludovico and his sons Guido, Filippino and Feltrino.

[6] Through a payment of 120,000 golden florins in 1433, Gianfrancesco was appointed marquis of Mantua by Emperor Sigismund, whose great-niece Barbara of Brandenburg he married.

[8] In 1624, Ferdinando Gonzaga moved the ducal seat to a new residence, the Villa La Favorita, designed by the architect Nicolò Sebregondi, in Porto Mantovano.

[9] As many as eight hundred persons, including writers, artists, musicians, and even a troop of commedia dell'arte actors, enjoyed Gonzaga patronage in the early seventeenth century.

[10] Duke Ferdinand Charles, an inept ruler whose only aim was to hold parties and theatrical representations, allied with France in the War of the Spanish Succession.