FREGOSO, FEDERICO

FREGOSO, FEDERICO. - Cardinal, b. in Genova c. 1480, d. in Gubbio on 22 July 1541. At the request of his uncle, the duke of Urbino, Giulio II appointed him archbishop of Salerno in May 1507, and in 1508 gave him the bishopric of Gubbio in commendam. Brother of the doge of Genova, Ottaviano, he assisted him in the government, also taking part in an expedition against corsairs.

In 1522 he had to leave Genova, besieged by the Spaniards, and fled to France, where he received from the king the abbey of S. Benigno at Digione. A friend of Card. Contarini, he took part with him in that spiritual movement which sought the reform of the Church, and shared his ideas on Grace. He was summoned to Rome in 1536 to the famous commission for the preparation of reform, together with Sadoleto, Carafa,

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Polo, and others. On 19 Dec. Paolo III created him cardinal. Pietro Bembo, who was his guest in Rome in 1513, made him an interlocutor in his Prose della volgar lingua; likewise Baldassar Castiglione in the Cortegiano, which he began to write in 1514. He left several works in print, including a Trattato dell'orazione (Venezia 1542 and 1543). He was buried in the cathedral of Gubbio, where he was bishop after having had to resign Salerno.