Ciro Spontoni

Ciro Spontoni (1552 – 1612) was an Italian advisor to rulers, diplomat, and historian.

Biography
Born in Bologna, Spontoni served as secretary to several high-placed dignitaries in Northern Italy, including the archbishop of Ravenna; the bishop of Policastro; the Duke of Nemours, Giacomo di Savoia (Jacques, Duke of Nemours); Rodolfo Gonzaga (1569-1593), marchese di Castiglione, and the Duke of Mantua. He traveled with the latter to Hungary and Transylvania. He also served as secretary to the Bolognese Senate. He also published a book on Metoposcopia (Metoposcopy), a mixture of astrology and phrenologic interpretation of forehead wrinkles.

Works
Among his works are:
 * Dodici libri del governo dello Stato (Verona, ad istanza di Giò. Battista Pigozzo e Andrea de Rossi, 1599).
 * Ragguaglio del fatto d'arme seguito nell'Africa tra Don Sebastiano, re di Portogallo (King Sebastian of Portugal) e Matei Auda Mlucco (Muley-Abdel Melck or Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik I Saadi) (1601, Bologna).
 * Azioni dei re dell'Ungheria (1602, Bologna).
 * Avvertimenti della storia di Gucciardini (1608, Bergamo).