CESARE BRANCACCIO (BRANCATIO). — Apostolic nuncio, born in Naples in 1515 or 1516. After taking part in the Neapolitan revolt against the Spaniards, he took refuge in France, from where he was recalled to Rome in August 1555 by Cardinal Carlo Carafa, his close friend. On 4 January 1556, Paul IV appointed him governor of Rome, and in October of the same year he was sent to Henry II with the mission of securing French aid against the Spaniards. In July 1557, he obtained permission to return to Rome, where, on 1 September, he was appointed superintendent of the Holy See and subsequently governor of the Marches. He shared the fate of Cardinal Carafa when the latter fell from the Pope’s favour. On 6 March 1558, he was stripped of all his offices, and two years later Pius IV confined him in Castel Sant’Angelo together with Cardinal Carafa. In 1563 he appears to have been in Paris. From that year onwards, his traces are lost.
BRANCACCIO (BRANCATIO), CESARE
BIBL.: R. Ancel, Nonciatures de France. Nonciatures de Papi, IV. Nonciatures de Sebastiano Gualtiero et de C. B., I, Paris 1909, pp. XXV-XXXI and passim; II, Paris 1911, passim; H. Baudet, Les nonciatures apostoliques permanentes jusqu'en 1645, Helsinki 1910, p. 100. Emma Santovito