ADELASIO, GIROLAMO

ADELASIO, GIROLAMO. — Political figure and priest, born in Bergamo on March 16, 1763, died there on April 7, 1828. After completing his studies in Rome at the Collegio del Nazareno, A. was elected in 1797 to serve on the provisional municipal council of the Bergamasque Republic following the decline of Venetian rule. As a representative of the Cisalpine Republic to the Swiss Confederation, minister of finance, and later a member of the Cisalpine Directory, A. did not oppose the coup d'état carried out by Trouvé. Upon the arrival of the Austro-Russian forces, he engaged in denouncing his former revolutionary companions, so that after the Battle of Marengo he was forced to flee to Venice. After the death of his wife, he found solace and peace for his past life only in the priestly ministry and was ordained in 1802. He named the episcopal seminary of Bergamo as the universal heir to his substantial estate.