PIGNATELLI, GIACOMO. - Canon lawyer, b. at Grottaglie (Taranto) on 8 Apr. 1625, d. at Rome in 1698.
A priest and member of the chapter of the collegiate church of Grottaglie, he took his doctorate in utroque iure at Rome. Having become a parish priest, he distinguished himself by his learning and zeal to such an extent that he was appointed camerlengo of the Roman clergy. He repeatedly refused appointment as bishop and, when, after much insistence, he accepted the see of Gravina (1685), he had to relinquish it as a result of calumnies; he then became parish priest of S. Maria del Pianto in Rome, where he died and was buried.
His principal writings are: the Consultationes canonicae, which for a long time held authority in the Sacred Congregations, in ecclesiastical tribunals, and even in the works of Benedetto XIV (Rome 1668, 1675, Venice 1687); the Novissimae consultationes canonicae (Rome 1723, Venice 1736); Compendium seu index ad consultationes canonicae, edited by Abbot Carmine Tommaso Pascucci (Rome 1699, Cologne 1700, Venice 1733).