BECCADELLI, LODOVICO

BECCADELLI, Lodovico. - Apostolic nuncio; b. in Bologna on 29 Jan. 1501, d. in Prato on 17 Oct. 1572. He completed his literary studies in Padua under Benedetto Lampredio, from whom he learned Greek. In his youth he was a friend of Giovanni della Casa and later of Pietro Bembo, Trifone Gabriele, and Cosimo Geri. When Gasparo Contarini was created cardinal in 1534, Beccadelli joined him in Rome and there began friendships with Marcello Cervini and Bernardino Maffei, then papal secretaries. He accompanied Cardinal Reginald Pole when the latter was sent as legate to Charles V in 1539, and then Contarini when he was sent as legate to Germany in 1540, accompanying him to Bologna in 1542. After Contarini’s death that year, Beccadelli went to Reggio at the request of Cardinal Cervini, who was bishop there, and remained as his vicar general, thus entering ecclesiastical career. From there he passed into the service of Cardinal Morone when the latter was appointed legate of Bologna in 1544, but stayed only briefly because Paul III entrusted him with the education of the fourteen-year-old Ranuccio Farnese, his nephew. Meanwhile he was also tasked with going to Trent for the Council (1545), initially designated as secretary, but he did not remain there. On 27 May 1549 Paul III gave Beccadelli the bishopric of Ravello, and Julius III in March 1550 sent him as nuncio to Venice, where he remained until July 1554, performing his office with great prudence and to the satisfaction of that Signory. On 16 June Julius III had meanwhile appointed him his vicar in spiritualibus in Rome. In 1555 he accompanied Morone on the brief legation to Germany; then on 19 Sept. 1555 he was transferred to the archbishopric of Ragusa in Dalmatia, where he took up residence; he left and was present at the Council of Trent in 1561–62. Later, at the invitation of Cosimo I, Duke of Florence, he temporarily governed the archdiocese of Pisa and educated the young Cardinal Ferdinando, Cosimo’s son. He therefore resigned the archbishopric of Ragusa in Dec. 1564 and instead was provided with the prepositura of Prato, where he died in the reputation of an excellent prelate and learned and able scholar.