DE ZELADA, FRANCESCO SAVERIO. — Cardinal, born in Rome on 27 August 1717, died there on 19 December 1801.
Initiated into an ecclesiastical career by Cardinal Argenvilliers, he was enrolled by Benedict XIV among his household as a supernumerary secret chamberlain. He subsequently became prelate of the Fabric of St Peter’s (1744) and of ecclesiastical immunity (1755), civil lieutenant of the tribunal of the Apostolic Camera (1758), auditor of the Rota (1760), archbishop of Petra and secretary of the Congregation of the Council and of the Residence of Bishops (1766), and voting member of the Segnatura di grazia (1767).
Clement XIV created him a cardinal in the Consistory of 19 April 1773, with the title of SS. Silvestro e Martino ai Monti, which he retained in commendam when he opted for that of S. Prassede. He played a prominent role in the affairs of Clement XIV’s pontificate and was among the cardinals most hostile to the Society of Jesus. A member of the Congregation of cardinals and prelates deputed to implement the brief of suppression and to attend to the affairs of the Society, he obtained appointment as prefect of studies of the Collegio Romano and the Roman Seminary, becoming protector of the church and house of the Gesù. In 1780 he was appointed librarian of the Holy Roman Church and in 1788 major penitentiary. The following year Pius VI chose him as his Secretary of State at a time of particularly grave difficulties, especially in relations between the Holy See and France. It is enough to recall that during the period in which D. Z. directed the Secretariat of State, the murder of Ugo Bassville took place in Rome and Cristoforo Pieraccini’s embassy to Paris failed.
He took part in the Conclave of Venice, greeting Pope Pius VII, whom he had consecrated bishop in 1785, and was appointed by the new Pope archpriest of the Basilica of S. Giovanni in Laterano.
A passionate devotee of scholarship and a friend of learned men, D. Z. assembled a highly select library, a museum of sacred and profane antiquities, a collection of coins and medals, and one of physical instruments, among the finest and most perfect of his time. Near the Belvedere niche in the Vatican, on the advice of the Minim Father Jacquier, he built an observatory, equipping it with the best astronomical instruments, including an equatorial telescope by Dolland. He donated numerous wax anatomical specimens to the hospital of S. Spirito and to the University of Rome.
The following publication remains in his honour: De nummis aliquot aeneis uncialibus epistola (Rome 1778), with a catalogue of the coins collected by the cardinal, indicating the weight and value of each, compiled by the numismatist Pietro Borghesi.