Benedict Spinola

Who was Benedict Spinola?

Benedict Spinola, also called Benedick Spinola, and in Italian Benedetto Spinola, was a 16th-century Genoese merchant of the Spinola family who lived his whole adult life in the City of London, then the principal seaport of the Kingdom of England. Beginning his career as a clerk, he rose to become an exporter of woollen cloths and importer of wines and also served the English government as an agent and financier.

He never married and died of the plague in London in August 1580, shortly after his return from a mission to the Seventeen Provinces.