Cesare della Valle

Cesare della Valle (1776/77 - 1860) was Duke of Ventignano. He is best known today as a playwright and librettist.
He wrote the libretto to Giacomo Rossini's opera "Maometto II", from his own drama tragedy "Anna Erizo" (1820). Both were based on real-life Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II who took Negroponte from the Venetians in 1470.
That opera was completely reworked a few years later into "Le siège de Corinthe" (1826), but based on the same characters and story created by della Valle.