was Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza. As a composer he is known for writing madrigals and pieces of sacred music that use a chromatic language not heard again until the late 19th century. He is also known for killing his first wife and her aristocratic lover upon finding them
Gesualdo's family had acquired the principality of Venosa, in what is now the Province of Potenza, Southern Italy, in 1560.He was probably born on March 30, 1566, three years after his older brother, Luigi, though some sources have stated that he was born on March 8.[citation needed] Older sources give the year of birth as c. 1560 or 1561, but this is no longer accepted.[citation needed] A letter from Gesualdo's mother, Geronima Borromeo, indicates that the year is most likely 1566.[citation needed] Gesualdo's uncle was Carlo Borromeo, later Saint Charles Borromeo. His mother was the niece of Pope Pius IV.
Carlo was most likely born at Venosa, then part of the Kingdom of Naples, but little else is known about his early life.[citation needed] "His mother died when he was only seven, and at the request of his uncle Carlo Borromeo, for whom he was named, he was sent to Rome to be set on the path of an ecclesiastical career. There he was placed under the protection of his uncle Alfonso (d. 1603), then dean of the College of Cardinals, later unsuccessful pretender to the papacy, and ultimately Archbishop of Naples." His brother Luigi was to become the next Prince of Venosa, but after his untimely death in 1584, Carlo became the designated successor. Abandoning the prospect of an ecclesiastical career,[citation needed], he married, in 1586, his first cousin, Donna Maria d'Avalos, the daughter of Carlo d'Avalos, prince of Montesarchio and Sveva Gesualdo. They had one child, a son, Don Emmanuele.
Gesualdo had a musical relationship with Pomponio Nenna, though whether it was student-to-teacher, or colleague-to-colleague, is uncertain.[citation needed] Regardless of this, however, he had a single-minded devotion to music from an early age, and is said to have showed little interest in anything else.[citation needed] In addition to the lute, he played the harpsichord, and guitar. In addition to Nenna, Gesualdo's accademia included the composers Giovanni de Macque, Scipione Dentice, Scipione Stella, Scipione Lacorcia, Ascanio Mayone, and the nobleman lutenist Ettorre de la Marra..
