angels of Ponte Sant'Angelo and the colonnade of Saint Peter's Basilica. Somewhat unusually for Popes of the era, Clement IX did not have his name displayed on monuments he built. He also opened the first public opera house in Rome, and for the Carnival celebrations of 1668, commissioned Antonio Maria Abbatini of the Sistine Chapel Choir to set to music his free Italian translation of a Spanish religious drama La Baltasara. The production had sets designed by Bernini. Defence against the Turks Clement IX worked to strengthen Venetian defences against the Turks on the island of Crete. However, he was unable to get wider support for this cause. At the end of October 1669, Clement IX fell ill after receiving news that the Venetian fortress of Candia in Crete had surrendered to the Turks. Death and burial Clement IX died in Rome, allegedly of a broken heart, on 9 December 1669. His successor, Pope Clement X (r. 1670–1676), built him an ornate tomb in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Clement IX was seriously ill throughout the autumn in 1669 with a hernia and kidney stones. Despite his illness and his anxiety over the Turkish advances in Crete, he travelled on a pilgrimage to the seven Roman basilicas, however, that night, he had a severe apoplexy. On 29 November, just ten days before he died, he named seven new cardinals and announced one whom he had reserved "in pectore". However, the dying pope intended to create a "faction" for his nephew with which to use in the next conclave to defend his policies. Clement IX died of a stroke on 9 December, and it is believed this was perhaps brought on by learning of the defeat and expulsion of the Venetians from Crete. Following his death, the Florentine agent in Rome, writing to the Grand Duke a few days later, accuses the late Clement IX of having hidden the fact that he was epileptic, which would have, according to the canon law in place at the time, disqualified him from exercising any ecclesiastical functions, however, this has never been proven. Artistic works Libretti for Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger: I Pastori di Betlemme (1630) for Stefano Landi: Il Sant'Alessio (1631–2, 1634) for Michele Angelo Rossi: Erminia sul Giordano (1633) for (composer unknown): I Santi Didimo e Teodora (1635, 1636) for Marco Marazzoli and Virgilio Mazzocchi: Chi Soffre, Speri (1637, 1639) for Aurelio