CALEPPI, LORENZO. - Cardinal, b. at Cervia on 29 April 1741, d. at Rio de Janeiro on 10 Jan. 1817. After attending the college of nobles in Ravenna, he moved to Rome and devoted himself to the study of jurisprudence. He became a friend of Garampi, who, having been appointed nuncio to Warsaw in 1772, wanted C. with him as auditor of that nunciature and, again in Garampi's retinue, held the same office from 1776 to 1785 in Vienna. In June 1786 he was sent to Naples to conclude a concordat with that court. The Holy See's demands concerning the appointment of bishops, the direct dependence of the religious orders on Rome, the jurisdiction of the nuncio and the granting of ecclesiastical benefices, however, met with the opposition of the Neapolitan rulers, who tended to reassert the caesaropapism of Tanucci and the Marquis della Sambuca. The negotiations having therefore been broken off in Jan. 1788, C. returned to Rome. The confidence of Pius VI called him some years later to conduct other very delicate negotiations. In 1796 he was in fact in Florence to arrange with Bonaparte's plenipotentiaries the procedures for implementing the armistice of Bologna, and the following year he was part of the delegation that signed the treaty of Tolentino. In 1801 he became nuncio to Lisbon, succeeding B. Pacca, who had been created cardinal. When in 1808 Portugal was invaded by French troops, C. followed the royal family to Brazil. There he managed to win the esteem and gratitude of John VI, interposing his good offices for the successful outcome of the Anglo-Brazilian commercial agreement and of the dispute that had arisen between the regent and the administrators of the patriarchate of Lisbon. He was created cardinal in the Consistory of 8 March 1816.
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Silvio Furlani