October–December 1590 Conclave

elected Gregory XIV

8 October – 5 December 1590 · The early modern conclaves · Apostolic Palace, Papal States

Urban VII was elected as pope on 15 September 1590. On 27 September 1590, he died due to malaria infection after only 12 days of his pontificate before he could be crowned, giving him the shortest papacy in history.

Elected pope

Gregory XIV

Niccolò Sfondrati

Succeeded

—

Duration

59 days

Cardinal electors

—

locked in under conclave rules

Key officials

Dean	Giovanni Antonio Serbelloni
Camerlengo	Enrico Caetani

Ballot-by-ballot tallies are destroyed by design — the paper is burned in the stove whose smoke announces the result — so this entry records what the Church documents: the dates, the electors, the number of ballots where known, and the man who walked out onto the balcony.