Pope Urban VIII in the context of "Cardinal Mazarin"

A papal bull is a type of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by the pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the leaden seal (bulla) traditionally appended to authenticate it.

The Duchy of Urbino (Italian: Ducato di Urbino) was an independent duchy in early modern central Italy, corresponding to the northern half of the modern region of Marche. It was directly annexed by the Papal States in 1631.

It was bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Republic of Florence in the west and the Papal States in the south. In 1523 the capital was moved from Urbino to Pesaro. After the short rule by Cesare Borgia in 1502–08, the dukedom went to the della Rovere papal family, who held it until 1625, when Pope Urban VIII annexed it to the Papal States as Legazione del Ducato di Urbino (later Legazione di Urbino).

Francesco Barberini (23 September 1597 – 10 December 1679) was an Italian Catholic Cardinal. The nephew of Pope Urban VIII (reigned 1623–1644), he benefited immensely from the nepotism practiced by his uncle. He was given various roles within the Vatican administration but his personal cultural interests, particularly in literature and the arts, meant that he became a highly significant patron. His secretary was the antiquarian Cassiano dal Pozzo who was also a discerning patron of the arts. Francesco was the elder brother of Cardinal Antonio Barberini and Taddeo Barberini who became Prince of Palestrina.

Matthaeus Greuter (1564–1638), known in Italian as Matteo Greuter, was a German etcher and engraver who worked in Rome. He is known for his cartographical prints.

Born in Strasbourg, Greuter worked in France, in Avignon and Lyon. Apparently to escape the "strong intellectual and commercial pressure of Dutch cartographic publishing", in 1606, he went to Rome where he produced works for Cardinal Scipione Borghese, Pope Paul V, for the Accademia dei Lincei, and Pope Urban VIII. He created the copperplate etchings of sunspots for Galileo's Letters on Sunspots and the illustrations for Christoph Scheiner's Rosa Ursina.

The Pietà (Italian pronunciation: [pjeˈta]; meaning "pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary cradling the mortal body of Jesus Christ after his Descent from the Cross. It is most often found in sculpture. The Pietà is a specific form of the Lamentation of Christ in which Jesus is mourned by the Virgin Mary alone. However, in practice works called a Pietà may include angels, the other figures usual in Lamentations, and even donor portraits.

An image consisting only of a dead Christ with angels is also called a Pietà, at least in German, where Engelpietà (literally "Angel Pietà") is the term for what is usually called Dead Christ supported by angels in English.