CASANATE, GIROLAMO. - Dominican cardinal, born in Naples to an ancient and noble Spanish family on 13 February 1620, died in Rome on 3 March 1700.
In 1635 he earned a degree in utroque iure at the University of Naples. Having taken the Dominican habit, in 1645 he went to Rome where Innocent X, who as a cardinal had taken a liking to him, appointed him honorary chamberlain; subsequently Casanate entered the prelature and became assistant at the Roman court. In 1648 he was elected governor of Sabina, where he remained for four years, earning appreciation for his intelligent administration.
In 1652 governor of Fabriano, in 1656 governor of Ancona; at the beginning of January 1658 the cardinal Secretary of State called him back to Rome. He remained free of office for a few months, during which he was able to devote himself to his preferred studies among the numerous books he had already collected. On 23 September he left Rome to take up the post of inquisitor of Malta. He returned to Rome on 7 June 1663, and in the decade 1663–73 he was assigned to various high offices, including that of governor of Borgo (1663–1667), governor of the Conclave (2 June 1667), assessor of the Holy Office for more than five years, and secretary of the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, until on 6 June 1673 Clement X created him cardinal with the title of S. Maria in Portico. He was assigned to five of the most important Congregations, including that of the Holy Office. In 1693 Innocent XII appointed him librarian of the Holy Roman Church, and in this dignity his reputation as a patron of learning was consolidated. Eager to publish the unpublished ancient works of the Vatican Library, he commissioned the vice-librarian, Abbot Zaccagni, to produce a series of volumes under the title Collectanea monumentorum veterum Ecclesiae graecae et latinae, which, however, remained suspended after the first volume due to Casanate’s death.
In the political sphere, Casanate’s work was notable during the Holy See’s conflict with Louis XIV, and it was largely due to him that Innocent XI firmly upheld the rights of the Church, so much so that Casanate incurred the hatred of the King of France, who in the subsequent conclaves up to 1700 imposed the veto against him, even while admiring his learning and intellect. He played a major role in the condemnation of Miguel de Molinos and in securing the declaration of heresy against the doctrines of the Quietists through a bull whose draft he himself wrote (1687).
Casanate is one of the greatest ecclesiastical figures of the 17th century; of particular note is his role as a scholar: a collector of books, a researcher of ancient documents, he had assembled a library rich in more than 25,000 volumes, including many valuable manuscripts, which he bequeathed to the Dominicans of the Minerva, adding the sum of 160,000 Roman scudi for the foundation of a great public library beside the convent (the Bibliotheca Casanatensis). He also allocated other revenues for the establishment of a college of Dominican theologians (theologi casanatenses) for the study of theology and two chairs for the teaching of the Summa of St. Thomas.