As Pope, Clement IX has continued his…
December 1669 CE
As Pope, Clement IX has continued his interest in the arts, embellishing the city of Rome with famous works commissioned to Gian Lorenzo Bernini, including the angels of Ponte Sant'Angelo and the colonnade of Saint Peter's Basilica.
Somewhat unusually for Popes of the era, Clement IX does not have his name displayed on monuments he has built.
He has also opened the first public opera house in Rome, and for the Carnival celebrations of 1668, had commissioned Antonio Maria Abbatini of the Sistine Chapel Choir to set to music his free Italian translation of a Spanish religious drama La Baltasara.
The production had sets designed by Bernini.
Clement IX had worked to strengthen Venetian defenses against the Turks on the island of Crete.
However, he had been unable to get wider support for this cause.
At the end of October 1669, Clement IX had fallen ill after receiving news that the Venetian fortress of Candia in Crete had surrendered to the Turks.
He dies in Rome, allegedly of broken heart, in December of this year.
Nothing remarkable occurred under Clement IX's short administration beyond the temporary adjustment of the disputes between the Holy See and those prelates of the Gallican Church who had refused to join in condemning the writings of Jansen.
He had been mediator during the 1668 peace of Aachen, in the wars of succession between France, Spain, England and the Netherlands.