24 Facts About Sixtus IV

Sixtus IV founded the Spanish Inquisition through the bull Exigit sincerae devotionis affectus, and he annulled the decrees of the Council of Constance.

Sixtus IV was noted for his nepotism and was personally involved in the infamous Pazzi conspiracy.

Sixtus IV was born in Celle Ligure, a town near Savona.

Sixtus IV went on to lecture at Padua and many other Italian universities.

Sixtus IV sought to strengthen his position by surrounding himself with relatives and friends.

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Secular fortunes of the Della Rovere family began when Sixtus IV invested his nephew Giovanni with the lordship of Senigallia and arranged his marriage to the daughter of Federico III da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino; from that union came a line of Della Rovere dukes of Urbino that lasted until the line expired, in 1631.

Sixtus IV replied with an interdict and two years of war with Florence.

Sixtus IV continued a dispute with King Louis XI of France, who upheld the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, which held that papal decrees needed royal assent before they could be promulgated in France.

Sixtus IV consented under political pressure from Ferdinand of Aragon, who threatened to withhold military support from his kingdom of Sicily.

Sixtus IV lined the coffers of the state by unscrupulously selling high offices and privileges.

Sixtus IV formally annulled the decrees of the Council of Constance in 1478.

The Sistine Chapel was sponsored by Sixtus IV, as was the Ponte Sisto, the Sistine Bridge, and the building of Via Sistina, a road leading from Castel Sant'Angelo to Saint Peter.

That was part of a broader scheme of urbanization carried out under Sixtus IV, who swept the long-established markets from the Campidoglio in 1477 and decreed in a bull of 1480 the widening of streets and the first post-Roman paving, the removal of porticoes and other post-classical impediments to free public passage.

At the beginning of his papacy, in 1471, Sixtus IV had donated several historically important Roman sculptures that founded a papal collection of art, which would eventually develop into the collections of the Capitoline Museums.

Sixtus IV had Regiomontanus attempt the first sanctioned reorganisation of the Julian calendar and increased the size and prestige of the papal chapel choir, bringing singers and some prominent composers to Rome from the north.

Sixtus IV named seven new saints, with the most notable being Bonaventure ; he beatified one person, John Buoni .

In 1477, Sixtus IV issued a papal bull authorizing the creation of Uppsala University – the first university in Sweden and in the whole of Scandinavia.

Sixtus IV felt unwell that evening and was forced to cancel a meeting he was to hold with his cardinals the following morning.

Sixtus IV created an unusually large number of cardinals during his pontificate who were drawn from the roster of the princely houses of Italy, France and Spain, thus ensuring that many of his policies continued after his death:.

Pope Sixtus IV is portrayed by Arthur Grosser in the short film Assassin's Creed: Lineage, a prequel to the video game Assassin's Creed II.

Pope Sixtus IV is portrayed by James Faulkner in the historical fantasy Da Vinci's Demons as having an identical twin, Alessandro.

Shortly after the true Pope Sixtus IV, Francesco, was elected on conclave, Alessandro usurped the Holy See and had his brother locked up in Castel Sant'Angelo.

The series implies that many of the more unsavoury parts of Sixtus IV' reign were really the work of his evil twin, who was out to gain power for himself.

Pope Sixtus IV is portrayed by Raul Bova in the second season, and John Lynch in the third season of the TV series Medici: Masters of Florence.