Enrico Caterino Davila (30 October 157626 May 1631) was an Italian historian and diplomat.
Life
Born in Piove di Sacco, near Padua, he was descended from a Spanish noble family and was the youngest son of Antonio Davila, Grand Constable of Cyprus. His name was given in honour of Henry III of France and Catherine de' Medici.
His immediate ancestors had been constables of the Kingdom of Cyprus for the Venetian republic since 1464. In 1570 the island was taken by the Turks; and Antonio Davila, the father of the historian, had to leave for Padua, despoiled of all his possessions. In 1583 Antonio took this son to France, where he became a page in the service of Catherine de' Medici, wife of King Henry II.
In due time he entered the military service and fought through the French civil wars until the peace in 1598. In 1599, he returned to Padua where he stayed until 1606. Subsequently, he travelled to Parma, Rome and Rovigo and finally settled to Tinos (1609–1615) where he held the post of governor. At Tinos he met and married his wife Ursula delli Ascuffi.
Later in his life Enrico was assigned as a governor of the Venetian possessions of Cattaro (1618–1621) and Zara (1623–1628). Also in 1621, he participated in a Venetian diplomatic mission to Florence, under the leadership of Alvise Valaresso.
Enrico Davila was murdered, while on his way to take possession of the government of Cremona for Venice in May 1631, by a ruffian, with whom a dispute arose about relays of horses ordered for his use by the Venetian government. Samuel Pepys was appreciative.
Lord Bolingbroke, in his fifth letter on the Study of History, recommends him very strongly as a writer equal in many respects to Livy. The American statesman and political thinker John Adams wrote his last work of political theory, the Discourses on Davila, as an extended commentary on Davila's history of the French civil wars, following the example of Machiavelli's Discorsi on Livy's history of Rome.
His name is often anglicised as Henry Catherine Davilla.
Works
- Theatro del Mondo (Unpublished, 1598–1599)
References
Sources
- Kitromilides, P., Κυπριακή Λογιοσύνη: 1571-1878 (Nicosia, 2002)