LAMBRUSCHINI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. - Theologian and bishop, elder brother of Card. Luigi, born at Sestri Levante on 28 Aug. 1755, died at Orvieto on 24 Nov. 1827. Appointed professor at the Seminary of Genoa, he became known for his opposition to revolutionary ideas and in 1797 was imprisoned in the fortress of Savona; when released, he was forbidden to return to Genoa. When political conditions changed in 1799, however, he returned there and was appointed vicar general.
When the situation was reversed once more, he took refuge in Rome, where the Pope first appointed him titular bishop of Azoto and then, in 1805, administrator and, on 14 Aug. 1807, bishop of Orvieto. There he received into his house Angelo Mai and several exiled Jesuits, among them Fr. Luigi Fortis, who subsequently became General of the Society. Having refused to take the oath required by the French government, he had to interrupt his pastoral visitation and go into exile at Turin in 1809, then at Bourg-en-Pressée, and finally at Belley. In 1814, having returned to Orvieto, he devoted himself ardently to the moral restoration of his diocese.
The fruit of his teaching consists in two compendia, one of the whole of dogmatic theology, Theologia dogmatica (Genoa, 1788), the other of De Gratia (ibid., 1789). His name, however, is associated with a small devotional work entitled Guida spirituale per la diocesi di Orvieto (Rome, 1823), published several times and translated into German.