Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger

From 1588 to 1591 he studied mathematics at the University of Pisa, where he became friends with Galileo Galilei and Maffeo Barberini, the future Pope Urban VIII.

After the wedding of Marie de' Medici and Henry IV of France in 1600, Buonarroti published a Description of the banquet and was soon commissioned to write court entertainments: Il natal d'Ercole (1605), Il giudizio di Paride (for the wedding of Cosimo II and Maria Maddalena, 1608, music by Jacopo Peri), La Tancia (1611) and Balletto della Cortesia (1614).

In 1612, Buonarroti began construction of a gallery (now the Casa Buonarroti) on the Via Ghibellino dedicated to his famous relative and commissioned numerous artists to paint murals, including Artemisia Gentileschi[1] (WP Commons gallery).

Buonarroti's career as a courtier took a turn for the worse when the Grand Duchess Christina of Lorraine took offense at salacious language in Fiera (1619).

In 1640 he lost his fortune in a bank failure at a time when the Wars of Castro (in which Rome and Florence took opposite sides) complicated relations with the Barberinis.