POGLIASCA, GIOVANNI FRANCESCO. - Man of letters and jurist, born at La Spezia. He died in 1561. He was chaplain to Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, then referendary of the two Segnature, master and provost of the hospital of S. Spirito in Rome.
On behalf of the Holy See he carried out diplomatic activity in the mediation of peace between Spain and France. Paolo II, in recognition of his merits, created him bishop of Luni-Sarzana on 29 Dec. 1537. Until then the diocese had been governed by Bishop Silvestro Benetti (d. 1537), of whom no historian has preserved a favourable memory. Moreover, because of the plague which had ravaged Lunigiana from 1522 until 1528, a great many families died out, and the episcopal city itself and numerous villages remained almost devoid of inhabitants. Sensitive to so many calamities, P. worked with love and zeal to revive religious spirit and general prosperity; he was an example of blameless life, and so poor as to give rise to suspicions of avarice. Of his works there are known: De duello, published in Rome, and the posthumous Compendiaria moralis vitae, dedicated to Urbano VIII.