ARCHETTI, GIOVANNI ANDREA. — Apostolic nuncio in Russia, born in Brescia in 1731, died in Ascoli in 1805. Having obtained a degree in utroque, he was appointed by Benedict XIV vice-legate in Bologna (1736). From there he went to the nunciature in Warsaw in 1776, where he remained until 1784. From June 1783 to May 1784 he was in Petersburg as extraordinary nuncio to Catherine II. He succeeded in resolving the complicated question of the ecclesiastical hierarchy in Russia by erecting the Catholic archbishopric of Mohilev and appointing its first incumbent. He was made a cardinal in 1784.
BIBL.: V. Neysatowicz, De archivo numizaturae Varsaviae, quod nunc in Archivo Secreto Vaticano servatur, Vatican City 1944.