Gibberti, Gian Matteo (GIBERTI, GIAN MATTEO) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VI, p. 252

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

GIBERTI, GIAN MATTEO. – Born in Palermo on 20 September 1495, died in Verona on 30 December 1543. Governor of Tivoli at the age of twenty. In Rome he was a close associate of Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, who, after being elected pope under the name Clement VII, appointed him datary. In 1524 he became bishop of Verona. His political activity was connected with the Holy See’s attempt to form an alliance with Francesco I. It was G. who urged the Pope to form an alliance with the king of France in January 1525. A supporter of the League of Cognac (1526), during the sack of Rome he remained shut up with the Pope in Castel S. Angelo (1527). Only after the collapse of his political hopes did he take up residence in the Veronese diocese (February 1528). In 1537 he tried to negotiate a truce between Carlo V and Francesco I: the attempt failed because Francesco I could not speak of peace unless Carlo V ceded the duchy of Milan or placed it in pledge with the Pope; equally unsuccessful was G.’s other attempt to induce Enrico VIII to renounce the schism.

Thus G. suffered complete disappointments in political life, a life to which, moreover, he did not feel inwardly drawn. His charitable activity and his Roman friendships (Jacopo Sadoleto, Gaspare Contarini, Gian Pietro Carafa, Reginaldo Pole, Girolamo Alcandro, Pietro Bembo, Vittoria Colonna) reveal propensities and affinities that were more spiritual and cultural than political. And indeed, although his political activity was a failure, his pastoral work was not. From the time he took possession of the episcopal see until his death, he worked tirelessly and enthusiastically for the ethical and religious renewal of his diocese: here lay his richest and most lasting work as a reformer, as an implementer of that renovatio which for many years had been desired by the spirits most deeply concerned with the fortunes of Catholicism. The Constitutiones, which he compiled for the needs of the diocese, were subsequently taken as a model by many in Italy and abroad.

Thrifty, quick to anger but also capable of self-control and of indulgence toward others, possessed of a rapid imagination and quick in the practical conduct of affairs, rich in fervor, he is among the most evocative figures of the Catholic reform.

BIBL.: T. Pandolfi, G. M. G. e l'ultima difesa della libertà d'Italia negli anni 1521-23, in Archivio della R. Società romana di storia patria, 34 (1911), pp. 131-237; G. B. Pighi, G. M. G., 2ª ed., Verona 1924; P. Paschini, S. Gaetano Thiene, Gian Pietro Carafa e le origini dei Chierici Regolari Teatini, Roma 1926, passim; G. M. Monti, La legazione del Polo e del G. in Francia e in Fiandra nel 1537, in Archivio storico italiano, 87 (1920), pp. 293-309; Pastor, IV, V, passim; L. Simoni, Un volume manoscritto di prediche attribuite al vescovo G., in Atti dell'Accademia di Verona, 1932, 5ª serie, vol. X, pp. 125-30; F. Pellegrini, Un consulto di Gerolamo Fracastoro per G. M. G. vescovo di Verona, Verona 1934; A. Grazioli, Nel centenario della morte di G. M. G. vescovo di Verona. La sua opera di riforma, in La scuola cattolica, 73 (1945), pp. 85-101; A. Cistellini, Figure della Riforma pretridentina, Brescia 1948 (v. indici); G. Barbieri, Aspetti sociali nell'opera riformatrice di G. M. G., in Saggi di storia economica italiana, Bari 1948, p. 73-88; H. Jedin, Il tipo ideale di vescovo secondo la Riforma cattolica, Brescia 1950, pp. 38-48.

Massimo Petrocchi