Abstract

This paper intends, firstly, to present the current state of research in Iacobo de Gratiis (Modena, 1517-Madrid, 1619), of whom very little is known. At the service of Giovanni Battista Castagna (future Pope Urban VII), nuncio to Madrid (1565-1572), de Gratiis was known by the name «Caballero de Gracia» for being a member of the Portuguese Order of Christ (1571). He kept this name, until his death, for the many years he spent in the Spanish capital. The research first identifies the student friend group established in Bologna at the time of the Council of Trent, around the personality of Gabriele Paleotti, and from fragmentary information contained in the «Relación de la ejemplar vida y muerte» (1620). The research was carried out using unreleased juridical documentation in the famous «Studium» of Bologna, and would appear to enable the hypothesis that he was a certain «dominus Jacobus de Grassis», who graduated in utroque iure in 1548, and consequently studied with his first noble patron and protector