Skip to content
Wellsprings
Pope Innocent VIII

Pope Innocent VIII

1432 CE1492 CE · Genoa

Born Giovanni Battista Cibo in Genoa, he served in the Neapolitan court before entering the Church and rising to cardinal under Sixtus IV. His election owed much to the maneuvering of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere. Innocent VIII openly acknowledged his children, advancing their fortunes through marriage—including an alliance with the Medici that helped make the teenage Giovanni de' Medici (later Leo X) a cardinal. His reign is associated with financial strain, the sale of offices, and the 1484 bull Summis desiderantes affectibus, which lent papal authority to witch-hunting and the Malleus Maleficarum, with grim long-term effects.

See Pope Innocent VIII’s journey on the map →

Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the map →

Stop 0 of 31432–1450Born

Genoa

We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.

About Genoa

Genoa, a port city and capital of Liguria, northwestern Italy. A major maritime republic in the Middle Ages, it was the birthplace or family seat of several popes (including the della Rovere and Cybo lines) and an important archiepiscopal see.

See other sages who lived in Genoa

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Pope Innocent VIII’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

In the same tradition

Pope Alexander VI, Pope Julius II

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Pope Innocent VIII’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works

No works attributed in the corpus yet.