FREGOSO, PAOLO. – Cardinal, born in Genoa in 1430, died in Rome on 19 March 1498. Brother of Doge Pietro, he was elected archbishop of Genoa in 1450 and received the purple from Sixtus IV on 15 May 1480. A typical figure of an unscrupulous and ambitious politician, he succeeded in usurping the dogeship three times, in 1462, 1463, and 1483. He was driven out by popular fury in August 1488 and renounced the duchy on 31 October. In 1481 he was placed in command of the fleet that the pope had equipped in Genoa to drive the Turk from Otranto; he was beneath that city in August and remained there until the victory.
BIBL.: L. Levati, I dogi perpetui di Genova (1539-1570), Genoa 1930, pp. 406–42 (v. BIBLICA. ivi cit); P. Paschini, Il carteggio fra il card. Barbo e G. Lorenzi, Rome 1948, pp. 22, 31, 179.
Antonio Cistellini