DELFINO, GIOVANNI. - Cardinal, born in Venice to Nicola D., general of the Republic, and Elisabetta Priuli on 22 April 1617, nephew of a cardinal bishop of Brescia of the same name.
He took part in public life and was a senator when, on 23 June 1656, he was appointed bishop of T'agaste and coadjutor of Girolamo Gradenigo, patriarch of Aquileia; he succeeded him on 19 Dec. 1657, immediately assuming the government of the diocese. On 7 March 1667 Alessandro VII created him cardinal of S. Salvatore in Lauro. He visited the diocese, holding two synods there, in 1660 and 1669; their acts he had printed together in 1697 (cf. G. Marcuzzi, Sinodi aquileiesi, Udine 1910, p. 286). In the Conclaves of 1669 and 1689 he appeared close to the papacy. He died in Venice on 19 July 1699. He had some importance in the literary life of the seventeenth century. He studied in Padua and was a member of the Crusca; he composed dialogues on philosophical subjects, verses, and tragedies, without sending anything to print. His nephew Dionisio, patriarch, had four of his tragedies printed in Padua in 1733 (on these cf. A. Belloni, Il Seicento, Milano 1929, p. 257 ff.).