VII. (Giovanni Battista Castagna), successor of Sixtus V., was born on the 4th of August 1521. He became governor of Bologna, archbishop of Rossano, and was long nuncio to Spain. Gregory XIII. made him a cardinal, 1583; and in 1590 he was elected pope by the Spanish faction, but died twelve days later, on the 27th of September 1S90, and was succeeded by Gregory XIV.
See Ciaconius, Vitae et res gestae summorum Pontif f. Rom. (Rome, 1601-2); Cicarella, continuator of Platina, De vitis Pontiff. Rom. (both contemporary; the latter prolix and tedious); Arrigho, Vita Urbani VII. (Bologna, 1614); and Ranke, Popes (Eng. trans., Austin), ii. 227.