CONTI, SIGISMONDO de. - Born about 1440 at Foligno into a noble local family; died 18 February 1512. He studied at the University of Perugia; he held many offices, first in his own city, then in Rome, where he entered the pontifical secretariat in the time of Sisto IV and rapidly advanced, especially through the support of card. Giuliano Della Rovere, who later appointed him his domestic secretary when he became Pope Giulio II; he also carried out diplomatic missions and was prefect of the Fabbrica di S. Pietro.
He was an esteemed humanist and writer, although today he is remembered only for the unfinished historical work Historiae sui temporis libri XIX (1475-1510), which, though accurate and elegantly written, is nevertheless the work of a humanist and wholly favorable to the Della Rovere and the Riari. Bembo imagined that one of his dialogues took place in C.'s apartment in the Vatican and included him among the interlocutors; Raffaello portrayed him in the celebrated Madonna di Foligno; in Rome he was everywhere well received.