MICANZIO, FULGENZIO. – Servite, born at Passirano (Brescia) on 8 June 1570, died at Venice on 7 February 1654. He went to Venice for the sake of his studies and entered into a relationship with fra Paolo Sarpi, whose influence on him was decisive. Sarpi introduced him into literary and scientific circles, and at Padua M. met, among others, Galileo, with whom he thereafter always remained in contact, openly taking his side.
From 1597 to 1600 he was at Mantua teaching theology; in the spring of 1600 he played an important part in the General Chapter of his Order at Rome; on 6 July 1600 he obtained a degree in theology at Bologna and remained there, as professor of that discipline, until 1606, the year in which Sarpi summoned him to Venice to have him at his side during the struggle over the interdict. M. thus took part, together with Sarpi, in the struggle against Rome: he appears among the signatories of the Trattato dell'interdetto, a work by Sarpi, but presented as a collective declaration by seven theologians. He also defended Sarpi with a Confirmazione (Venice 1606) of the Considerazioni sopra le censure del Sarpi, attacked by the Carmelite G. A. Bovio. For this activity the government of the Republic granted him a stipend of 200 scudi in 1607, a sum doubled the following year. After the attempt on Sarpi’s life (5 October 1607), when the government of the Republic had granted the latter a house in Venice, M., at the government’s own request, lived there in order always to remain at his master’s side. In Rome it was feared that Sarpi and he were plotting to introduce and consolidate Protestantism in Venice. In fact, they maintained close relations with Protestants and Gallicans; and the chaplain of the English embassy, Guglielmo Bedell, who made no secret of it, placed great hopes in them. Like Sarpi, M. likewise had no intention of actually adhering to Protestantism, even though his Lenten sermons aroused grave suspicions in Catholic circles and lively hopes among Protestants, and even though accusations—apparently not unfounded—concerning his conduct further aggravated M.’s position. After Sarpi’s death, M. succeeded him as consultor, and the Signoria ordered that his consultations be collected in volumes and preserved in the “secret chamber” on account of their usefulness (Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Riform. d. Studio, busta 549). M. left a life of Sarpi, published in the Opere of Sarpi, VI, Helmstatt per Jacopo Mullero [but Verona per Jacopo Moroni] 1750, pp. 1-CVI.