Giovanni Battista Spada senior was a prominent and respected jurist from Lucca. He became a Lawyer of the Apostolic Chamber, and of the Treasury in the Roman Curia. He served under Pope Clement VIII in the newly conquered city of Ferrara. Spada died in 1623 at the age of 68. The memorial was vandalized, the bust of the deceased is missing and the oval niche was filled with plaster. The top is decorated with the coat-of-arms of the Spada family.