ABSTRACT
The visit to Cremona by Margaret Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Spain on 26 November 1598 could be considered a minor ceremonial event in the context of the Queen’s journey through Italy in the years 1598–1599. This essay examines the ambitious festival designed for the visit of Margaret of Austria, against the backdrop of the Cremonese artistic and ceremonial culture. Both the intrinsic and the occasional reasons why it was never fully achieved will be explored here, in keeping with the purpose of interpreting the documentary sources and their most apparent inconsistencies as loose parts of an incomplete ensemble. As I have dealt with this journey on former occasions, 1 and as Margaret’s progress is already known, I shall not dwell upon these matters. Cremona is the case in point here. We need only remember that Margaret’s marriage by proxy to the young King of Spain, Philip III, had just been celebrated by Pope Clement VIII in Ferrara, on 15 November, together with that of Albert Archduke of Austria to the Spanish Infanta, Isabella Clara Eugenia, the daughter of Philip II. In consequence, Margaret was expected to make her entrance into Cremona as a queen in a city of her own, the first city of the State of Milan she would encounter on her route from the duchy of Mantua to the capital (Milan).
