BONFADO, JACOPO. - Italian man of letters and humanist, b. at Salò on Lake Garda around 1500, d. in 1550. He is counted among the earliest followers of the Protestant movement in Italy. He was a friend of Pietro Carnesecchi and, in a letter written to him from Salò, recalls with heartfelt nostalgia the days spent with him in Naples; he was a great admirer of Giovanni Valdés; he wrote the annals of the Genoese republic (Annalium Genuensium libri quinque, Pavia 1586), as well as Lettere e poesie volgari (Genova 1870). He died by beheading at Genova, not for heresy, but on very grave charges of immorality. The court of Rome wrote to the government
of Genova, complaining that « ancorché (il B.) allegasse esser prete, l'avevano fatto morire senza dargli tempo di provar questo ».