Giambattista Orsini, Cardinal
Giambattista Orsini had been elected Cardinal in 1483. Pope Innocent VIII made him a papal legate
for Romagna, the Marches, and Bologna, and was entrusted with the administration
of these provinces of the Ecclesiastical States. In the conclave of 1492, the
election of Pope Alexander Vi was almost entirely due to him. However, not only
he had espoused the case of the Florentines and the French in the Italian wars,
but had also taken part in the Diet of La Magione. And so he was taken prisoner
in the Vatican at the command of Pope Alexander VI and thrown into the dungeon
of Castel Sant'Angelo, where he died on February 22, 1503. The report was current
that he had been poisoned by Alexander VI.