GAMBERA, Pietro Andrea (Gambarus, Gannarus, de Gamberinis). — Celebrated canonist, b. at Casal Fluminese, near Bologna, c. 1480, d. at Fano or Viterbo in Sept. 1528. He studied at Bologna, where his teachers were J. Campegio in civil law and A. M. Sala in canon law. He later taught canon law for a time until he was chosen by Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, Archbishop of Florence (later Clement VII), as his vicar general (14 June 1515).
Created an Auditor of the Roman Rota by Leo X, he took up his duties under Adrian VI (22 May 1522), whom he sent as legate to Hungary (June 1523–Jan. 1524). Clement VII appointed him Auditor of the Apostolic Palace and his vicar (1527), and the following year promoted him to Bishop of Faenza (7 Aug. 1528). He died while traveling to take possession of his diocese and was reportedly buried at Viterbo.
He compiled the decrees of the Provincial Council of Florence (1517–18), published in Florence (1504), and wrote a commentary on the *Extravagantes* of Julius II, *De electione simoniaca Romani Pontificis* (Rome 1528), arguing for the nullity of the election itself, but fearing that the new constitution might sow the seeds of a possible schism, he proposed its abrogation.
He also wrote: *Legali dialettica* (Bologna 1514); *De veritate et excellentia scientiae* (Basel 1543), almost a commentary on Aristotle’s *Topics*; another commentary: *In rubricam de rerum permutatione et in caput licet eodem titulo* (published in *Repetitiones in universas fere iuris canonici partes*, V. Venice 1587, ff. 103–70); a treatise *De officiis et auctoritate legati a latere*; another *Tractatus de beneficiorum permutatione*; and a third *De extensionibus*, all three published in the collection *Tractatus iuris universi* (XIII, I, Venice 1585, f. 150 ff.; XV, I, f. 208 ff.; XVIII, f. 247).