POGLIASCA, GIOVANNI FRANCESCO. – Scholar and jurist, born in La Spezia. Died in 1561. He served as chaplain to Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere and later as referendary of the two Signatures, as well as master and preceptor of the Hospital of S. Spirito in Rome.
On behalf of the Holy See, he engaged in diplomatic activity, mediating peace between Spain and France. Paul III, in recognition of his merits, created him bishop of Luni-Sarzana on 29 December 1537. The diocese had hitherto been governed by Bishop Silvestro Benetti (d. 1537), of whom no historian has preserved a favorable memory. Moreover, owing to the plague that raged in Lunigiana from 1522 to 1528, many families perished and the episcopal city itself and numerous hamlets were left nearly deserted. Pogliasca, sensitive to such calamities, labored with love and zeal to restore religious spirit and general well-being; he set an example of unblemished and so frugal a life as to arouse suspicion of avarice. His known works include De duello, published in Rome, and Compendiaria moralis vitae, posthumous, dedicated to Urban VIII.