DE ZELADA, FRANCESCO SAVERIO. - Cardinal, b. in Rome on 27 Aug. 1717, d. there on 19 Dec. 1801.
Introduced to the ecclesiastical career by Card. Argenvilliers, he was numbered by Benedict XIV among his familiars as a supernumerary secret chamberlain. He subsequently became prelate of the Fabbrica of St. Peter (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), voter of the Segnatura di grazia (1767).
He was created cardinal by Clement XIV in the Consistory of 19 Apr. 1773 with the title of Sts. Sylvester and Martin ai Monti, which he retained in commendam when he opted for that of St. Praxedes. He played a significant part in the affairs of the pontificate of Clement XIV and was among the cardinals most opposed to the Society of Jesus. A member of the Congregation of cardinals and prelates deputed to give effect to the brief of suppression and to attend to the affairs of the Society, he obtained appointment as prefect of studies of the Roman College and of the Roman Seminary, becoming protector of the church and house of the Gesù. In 1780 he was named librarian of the Holy Roman Church and in 1788 major penitentiary. In the following year Pius VI wished him as his Secretary of State at a time of very particular difficulties, above all for relations between the Holy See and France. It suffices to recall that during the period in which De Zelada directed the Secretariat of State, the killing of Ugo Bassville occurred in Rome and the embassy to Paris of Cristoforo Pieraccini failed.
He took part in the Conclave of Venice, greeting the pontiff Pius VII, whom he had consecrated bishop in 1785, and by the new Pope he was named archpriest of the basilica of St. John Lateran.
A passionate cultivator of studies and a friend of the learned, De Zelada gathered a most select library, a museum of sacred and profane antiquities, a collection of coins and medals and one of physics machines among the finest and most perfect of his times. Near the nicchione of the Belvedere in the Vatican he built, on the advice of the Minim p. Jacquier, an observatory, furnishing it with the best astronomical instruments, among which an equatorial telescope by Dolland. He donated numerous anatomical wax pieces to the hospital of St. Spirito and to the University of Rome.
In his honor the following publication remains: De nummis aliquot aeneis uncialibus epistola (Rome 1778), with a catalogue of the coins collected by the cardinal, with the indication of the weights and values of each, compiled by the numismatist Pietro Borghesi.
Bibliography4 works
Mario De Camillis