ARCIMBOLDI, GIOVANNANGELO. – Papal legate, born in Milan around 1485, died in the same city on 6 April 1555. Nephew of Cardinal Giovanni Arcimboldi, he earned a degree in law and for some time held positions under the Duke of Milan, Massimiliano Sforza, in whose service his father was. He then came to Rome, where Leo X appointed him protonotary and, in 1514, apostolic nuncio. In this capacity and with the mission of spreading the indulgence for the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica, he was sent to the Low Countries, Germany, and finally to the Scandinavian countries. Recalled to Italy, he remained in Milan and was sent, in 1522, by Francesco Sforza to Spain to congratulate, on behalf of the duke, the newly elected Pope Adrian VI. Returning to Rome, he continued as a legate and was appointed by Clement VII, in 1526, Bishop of Novara. In 1550 he was transferred to the archbishopric of Milan.
He wrote: *Statuto Ripariae s. Iitlii*; *Ordinationes pro Clero et sua Dioecesi*; *Catalogus Haereticorum* (Milan 1554); and “collegit atque correxit” the new Milanese constitutions.
