PODOCATARO, LUDOVICO. - Cardinal, physician, papal secretary, born at Nicosia on the Island of Cyprus around 1430 into a noble family, died at Rome on 25 Aug. 1504.
Owing to the vicissitudes of his homeland, he came to Italy while still very young, where he studied Greek and Latin letters under Guarino at Ferrara, philosophy under Gaetano Thiene of Vicenza, and medicine under Matteolo da Perugia at Padua, of whose Studium he also seems to have been rector. He subsequently entered the service of Card. Rodrigo Borgia (later Pope Alessandro VI) as secretary and physician. Appointed bishop of Capaccio on 14 Nov. 1483, he restored the Cathedral there; and, after the death of Sisto IV, summoned to Rome by Innocenzo VIII, he was for many years papal physician and secretary. Alessandro VI employed him in various offices, created him cardinal of the title of S. Agata (28 Sept. 1500), and secretary of Briefs. His
name was put forward for the tiara in the Conclaves of 1503. Appointed archbishop of Benevento on 20 Jan. 1503, he never reached the see. He possessed a rich collection of books and manuscripts, which he bequeathed to his nephew Livio, archbishop of Nicosia (now partly in the Biblioteca Marciana of Venice). At Rome, in S. Maria del Popolo, a fine tomb, the work of Gian Cristoforo Romano, preserves his remains.
Renata Orazi Ausenda