CAMPANO, GIOVANNI ANTONIO. – Bishop and man of letters, born to a humble family in Cavelli (Capua) in 1429, died in Siena on 15 July 1477. Out of a love of study, at the age of fifteen he went to Naples, where he attended the humanistic lectures of Lorenzo Valla. Attacked by Aragonese soldiers while travelling to Siena, he took refuge in Perugia, where, generously welcomed into the household of Nello di Pandolfo Baglioni (1452), he was able to continue his studies and write the finest part of his works. In 1455 we know that he was public lecturer in eloquence at that University. In 1459 he was admitted to the retinue of Cardinal Calandrini, with whom he went to the Congress of Mantua. On that occasion he had the opportunity to win the papal court’s esteem through his learning and genial character; thus, having gained the favour of Pius II, he obtained the bishopric of Cotrone (1460) and then that of Teramo (1463). Pius II entrusted him with the correction of his Commentarii, which, fortunately, he did not touch. After having been in Rome and Germany, he successively became governor of Todi (1472–73), Foligno, Assisi, and Città di Castello, which was then highly turbulent. Having taken the side of those citizens against the papal army besieging the city, he was immediately replaced by Sixtus IV and never again forgiven (cf. for this episode his letters published in the appendix to vol. XXVII, part 3, fasc. 1, of the Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, Bologna 1922). Returning to Teramo (1474), he went, perhaps for health reasons, to Siena, where he was ill for a long time and where he died. He is buried in that Cathedral.
He wrote many works, including a philosophical treatise, De Jugienda ingratitudine, and a political one, De regendo magistratu; thirteen orations, which reveal a certain vis oratorical; the lives of Braccio da Montone and Pius II, displaying profound knowledge of particulars and chronological accuracy, but lacking critical insight; eight books of poetry, mostly amorous; and nine books of letters, containing approximately 400 epistles. All were printed and translated several times. The Opera omnia was first printed in Venice by Bernardino de Vianis, probably in 1502.