BETTINI (Bertieri), Antonio. – Jesuit bishop, b. in Siena in June 1396, d. there on 22 Oct. 1487. In Siena he earned a doctorate in canon law and taught. In 1439 he entered the Jesuits at the convent of San Gerolamo. Sent to Rome, he obtained favors for his Order from Nicholas V, undertook important missions at the Council of Mantua, served as nuncio to France and to Sforza in Milan, and as general collector of Lombardy. Pius II named him Grand Penitentiary of Italy in 1459 and in 1461 bishop of Foligno.
In Foligno he founded Italy’s second *Monte di Pietà*, consolidated all the city’s hospitals into that of San Giovanni, secured exemption of the clergy from taxation, welcomed the Jesuits, reformed the administration of ecclesiastical property, and established a confraternity among the priests of his cathedral. During long absences that left his diocese under vicars and provoked discontent, he visited and reformed the abbeys of Chiaravalle near Milan in 1465 and of Settimo near Florence. Siena twice sent him as ambassador: in 1466 to negotiate an alliance with the Duke of Milan and in 1482 to the Emperor Frederick III. In 1485 he sought to resign his see (his resignation was accepted in 1486) and retired to Siena, where he died in a reputation for holiness at the age of ninety-one in the convent of San Girolamo.
Noteworthy is his literary activity in ascetic and mystical theology. His works include: *De divina preordinatione vitae et mortis humanae* (Florence, 1480, according to J. G. Th. Graesse); *Il Monte santo di Dio* (Florence, 1477), with drawings by Sandro Botticelli and engravings perhaps by Baccio Baldini. Posthumous works often reprinted: *Della presenza di Dio*; *Esposizione della domenicale orazione*.