Beccadelli, Ludovico

BECCADELLI, LUDOVICO. - Apostolic nuncio; b. in Bologna on 29 January 1501, d. in Prato on 17 October 1572. He completed his literary studies in Padua under Benedetto Lampridio, from whom he learned Greek. In his youth he was a friend of Giovanni della Casa and later of Bembo, of Trifone Gabriele, of Cosimo Geri. When Gaspare Contarini, in 1534, was created cardinal, he wanted B. in his retinue in Rome, and there he began his friendship with Marcello Cervini and Bernardino Maffei, then papal secretaries. He was with Cardinal Reginald Pole when the latter went as legate to Charles V in 1539, and then with Contarini when, in 1540, he went as legate to Germany, and he accompanied him to Bologna in 1542. When Contarini died in that year, he moved to Reggio on the commission of Cardinal Cervini, who was its bishop, and remained there as vicar general, thus entering the ecclesiastical career. From there he passed into the service of Cardinal Morone when the latter, in 1544, was appointed legate of Bologna; but he remained there only a short time, because Paul III entrusted him with the education of his fourteen-year-old nephew Ranuccio Farnese. In the meantime he also received the commission to go to Trent for the Council (1545), where he was initially assigned as secretary, but he did not remain there. On 27 May 1549 Paul III gave B. the bishopric of Ravello, and Julius III, in March 1550, sent him as nuncio to Venice, where he remained until July 1554, carrying out his office with great prudence and to the satisfaction of that Signoria. On 16 June Julius III had meanwhile appointed him his vicarius in spiritualibus in Rome. In 1555 he accompanied Morone on the brief legation to Germany; then on 19 September 1555 he was transferred to the archbishopric of Ragusa in Dalmatia, where he went to reside; he left it and was present at the Council of Trent in 1561-62. Then, at the invitation of Cosimo I, Duke of Florence, he held the temporary governance of the archdiocese of Pisa and the education of the young Cardinal Ferdinando, son of Cosimo. He therefore renounced the archbishopric of Ragusa in December 1564 and was instead provided with the provostship of Prato, where he died in repute as an excellent prelate and a learned and capable scholar.

Pio Paschini