BUSSI, GIOVANNI ANDREA. – Humanist, born in Vigevano in 1417, died in Rome in 1475. Having obtained his doctorate at the Sorbonne, he taught at the Genoese Studium; Pope Niccolò V summoned 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 Aletta. As prefect of the Vatican Library, he was extremely active in collecting and revising ancient codices, for which he prepared splendid editiones principes for the Roman printing house of Swayne and Pannartz. His personal library, rich in rare and precious exemplars, was famous. Among scholars he was known by the title of episcopus aleriensis, or also as Vigecius (from his homeland).
BIBL.: F. Fossati, Nuovi particolari su G. A. de' B., in Vigevano, 1907; H. Quentin, Etui de critique textuelle, Paris 1926, pp. 165–77. Carmine Starace