PACCA, TIBERIO. — Prelate, born in Benevento on 31 Aug. 1786, died in Naples on 29 June 1837.
Nephew of Cardinal Bartolomeo Pacca, who was deeply attached to him, he followed him to the nunciature in Lisbon and shared his imprisonment with him in the fortress of Fenestrelle. Apostolic delegate in Civitavecchia in 1814, he came to prominence through the successful interception of the correspondence of Cardinal Fesch and Gioacchino Murat with Napoleon on the eve of the flight from Elba. His shrewd police skill made him a valuable informant on the activities of the secret societies and liberal movements within and outside the borders of the Papal States. Governor of Rome from 1816, in 1820 he was forced to leave Italy because of excessive prodigality and serious improprieties. Having taken refuge in Switzerland and France with the help of the Marquis of Montmorency, ambassador of France in Turin, he was able in February 1835 to obtain the position of director-general in the Ministry of the Interior of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Some information concerning alleged plots by the Marquises Saluzzo, which he provided, and the suspicion of intrigues in which he was thought to have participated, nevertheless led shortly afterward to his dismissal and to the fall of the minister Antonio Tonduti dell'Escarena (19 Apr. 1835). He withdrew to Naples, where he died of cholera.
Vittorio E. Giuntella