GRIMANI, GIOVANNI, patriarch of AQUILEIA. - Born in Venice around 1500 to Girolamo and Elena Priuli; he was the nephew of Cardinal Domenico and brother of Cardinal Marino; he received the bishopric of Ceneda on 28 March 1520, and the patriarchate of Aquileia on 23 Jan. 1545 through the resignation of his brother Marino, but took possession of it only upon the latter’s death (28 Sept. 1546).
He governed the diocese through vicars, never having resided there. Because of his contacts in Venice with persons accused of heresy, he was suspected of holding scarcely orthodox ideas, particularly after 1549, when he wrote a letter to his vicar concerning Grace and Predestination, for which he had to excuse himself before Giulio III. This hindered him from obtaining the much-desired cardinalate; he therefore sought a new examination under Pio IV (1561), but the opinion of the Inquisition proved unfavourable, and so he brought the case before the Council of Trent, which recognized his orthodoxy (17 Sept. 1563). Nevertheless, he was unable to obtain either the red hat or even the pallium as metropolitan. G. was a collector of medals and antiquities, a patron of artists; he built a palace in Venice and the façade of S. Francesco della Vigna. He died in Venice on 3 Oct. 1593.