GIOVANNI ANDREA BUSSI. Humanist, b. at Vigevano in 1417, d. at Rome in 1475. Having taken his doctorate at the Sorbonne, he taught at the Genoese Studium; Pope NICHOLAS V called him to Rome in 1451 to serve in his secretariat; in 1461 he was consecrated Bishop of Accia in Corsica and shortly thereafter promoted to Archbishop of the diocese of Aleria. Prefect of the Vatican Library, he was extremely active in collecting and revising ancient codices, for which he supervised splendid editio principes from the Roman press of Sweynheym and Pannartz. His personal library was famous for its rare and precious exemplars. Among scholars he was known by the title episcopus aleriensis, or also as Vigevius (from his native place).
Bibl.: F. Fossati, Nuovi particolari su G. A. de' B., in Vigevanum, 1907; H. Quentin, Essai de critique textuelle, Paris 1926, pp. 169-77. Carmine Starace