CAMPANO, Giovanni Antonio. – Bishop and man of letters, born into a humble family at Cavelli (Capua) in 1429, died at Siena on 15 July 1477. At the age of fifteen, driven by love of study, he went to Naples, where he attended the humanist lectures of Lorenzo Valla. While traveling to Siena, he was attacked by Aragonese soldiers and took refuge in Perugia, where he was generously welcomed into the home of Nello di Pandolfo Baglioni (1452) and was able to continue his studies and write the best part of his works. In 1455, he is known to have been a public lecturer in rhetoric at that university. In 1459, he was admitted to the household of Cardinal Calandrini, accompanying him to the Congress of Mantua. On that occasion, he won the appreciation of the papal court for his learning and cheerful character, so that, having gained the favor of Pius II, he obtained the bishopric of Cotrone (1460) and later that of Teramo (1463). Pius II entrusted him with the correction of his *Commentarii*, which, fortunately, he did not touch. After staying in Rome and Germany, he successively governed Todi (1472–73), Foligno, Assisi, and Città di Castello, which was then very turbulent. Having taken the side of the citizens against the papal army besieging the city, he was immediately replaced by Sixtus IV and never 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 in 1474, he went, perhaps for health reasons, to Siena, where he was long ill and died. He is buried in that cathedral.
He wrote many works, including a philosophical treatise, *De fugiendo ingratitudine*, and a political one, *De regendo magistratu*; thirteen orations, which reveal a certain rhetorical skill; the lives of Braccio da Montone and Pius II, marked by deep knowledge of detail and chronological exactness but lacking critical insight; eight books of poetry, mostly amorous, and nine books of letters, containing about 400 epistles. All were printed and translated many times. His complete works were first printed in Venice by Bernardino de Vianis, probably in 1502.