PIO da CARPI, FAMIGLIA. — One may consider as its founder a PIO who was podestà of Modena in 1177. One of his descendants, EGIDIO, was expelled from Modena in 1264 together with other Ghibelline leaders. In 1331 GUIDO, Egidio’s son, and his cousin MANFREDO were vicars of Modena for Giovanni of Bohemia and became its lords, but the league formed against Giovanni compelled them to surrender the city to the Este family, receiving Carpi in exchange for Manfredo and S. Felice for Guido. For almost two centuries the P. family found itself in conflict with the Este family, who aspired to dominion over Carpi and offered other fiefs in the Modena region in compensation. In 1450 ALBERTO P., a captain in the service of Francesco Sforza, abandoned him for the Savoy family, who granted him permission to add Savoia to his name.
Roberto Palmarocchi
The family was made illustrious in the sixteenth century by ALBERTO, born around 1475 to Lionello I and Caterina Pico, sister of the celebrated Giovanni. His teachers included Aldo Manuzio, whom he always protected, and Gregorio di Spoleto. He collected Latin, Greek, and Hebrew books, was a friend of Ariosto, and acquired a reputation as a “distinguished theologian.” He married Cecilia Gonzaga of Mantua and became involved in family disputes fomented by the Este family of Ferrara, who had designs on his fief of Carpi. He went to Maximilian, King of Germany, in 1500 and represented him at the Curia on the occasion of the league against Venice in 1508–10. In 1512 he was the imperial ambassador in Rome and stood very high in the favor of Leo X. During the Conclave of 1523 he sided with the Medici and with the French party, of which he was a strong supporter, together with Gian Matteo Giberti and Lodovico di Canossa, bishop of Bayeux. With them he worked to keep Clement VII on an anti-imperial policy, which led the envoy of Charles V to report: “Carpi is a devil: he knows everything and meddles in everything; the Emperor should win him over or annihilate him.” He was with Clement VII in Castel S. Angelo during the sack of 1527, and was sent by him to King Francis I. Charles V then deprived him of Carpi, which on 8 April 1530 he enfeoffed to Alfonso d’Este. Alberto died in Paris in January 1531, leaving two daughters. A diplomat and humanist, in 1526 he sent Erasmus of Rotterdam a manuscript Responsio accurata et parenetica to one of his letters; it was printed in Paris in 1529 together with Erasmus’s reply. Alberto answered him with his XXIII Libri in locus lucubrationum variarum Erasmi Roterodami (Paris and Venice 1531); he intended to combat Luther through criticism of Erasmus. Against him, already dead, Erasmus then wrote an Apologia (Basel 1531).
RODOLFO, cardinal, son of Lionello II (Alberto’s brother) and Maria Martinengo, born on 2 May 1500,
a doctor of philosophy at Padua and a Knight of Malta, he was secret chamberlain to Clement VII (1523–34), who employed him in diplomatic maneuvers. Appointed bishop of Faenza on 13 November 1528, he governed it through vicars. Concerned to free it from the penetration of Protestantism and to eliminate its abuses, he had a reform synod celebrated there in August 1533. He resigned this diocese in favor of his brother Teodoro (10 October 1544) and, through the favor of Charles V, received that of Agrigento, where likewise he did not reside. Nuncio in France on 26 July 1530, he went to Savoy on 29 May 1533 on the occasion of the meeting at Nice between the Pope and the King, and returned to Rome with the Pope on 21 November 1533. He was again appointed nuncio in France by Paul III on 9 January 1535, with the task of announcing the Council, defending the Pope’s neutrality, eliminating England’s political influence, and seeking support against corsair incursions. Created cardinal on 12 December 1536 together with Pole, Carafa, Sadoleto, del Monte, and Aleandro, he left France in April 1537. He was sent there again on 19 December 1537, charged with conducting negotiations for peace between Charles V and Francis I, which were continued by the Pope at the second meeting at Nice in May–June 1538. Paul III left him as his legate in Rome on 12 August 1541, when he went to the meeting at Lucca, and in February 1543, when he went to Bologna and then to Busseto. Rodolfo was again legate in France under Julius III in September 1551. He belonged to the imperial party, and in addition to several letters, there survives in manuscript a Discorso a Carlo V Cesare del modo di dominare, written in 1543. With this inclination he took part in the Conclave of 1550; in that of 1559, on 6 September, an attempt was made to elect him pope by homage, an attempt repeated unsuccessfully on the following days.
He belonged to the Roman Inquisition as early as the time of Paul III and, during the subsequent pontificates, was an authoritative member and zealous promoter of the Catholic Reform. As protector of the Capuchins, he summoned their superiors to Rome in 1542 on the occasion of Ochino’s apostasy, in order to guarantee their faith. He was also the only protector the Jesuits had and the first member of the Company of Grace founded by s. Ignatius. He rendered valuable services to the sanctuary of Loreto. A son of his century, he built a vineyard on the Quirinal and gathered in his palace at Campo Marzio a library (which he left to the scholar Latino Latini), as well as statues, bronzes, various antiquities, and paintings. Bishop of Ostia and dean on 18 May 1562, he died in the Curia on 2 May 1564, leaving a reputation as “a man of great virtue, learning, and prudence in affairs, experience, and judgment.” On his tomb at S. Trinità dei Monti, Pius V, who had been his very close friend, had a monument erected. Felice Peretti (Sixtus V) had also enjoyed his support.
From the branch of the P. family of Savoy transplanted to Ferrara came CARLO EMANUELE, born in 1578 and created cardinal deacon by Clement VIII on 9 June 1604. He lived permanently in the Curia and generously supported Abbot F. Ughelli for his Italia sacra; he died bishop of Ostia on 1 July 1641. His nephew, son of Ascanio and Porzia Mattei, CARLO the younger, born on 9 April 1622, after spending his youth in the military, became a cleric of the Apostolic Camera and treasurer, until Innocent X created him cardinal deacon on 2 March 1654. On 2 August 1655 he was appointed bishop of Ferrara and died bishop of Sabina on 13 February 1689.