PRIULI, ALVISE. — Scholar and prelate, born in Venice at the beginning of the 16th century, died in Padua on 15 July 1560. He was part of that Paduan circle which gathered around Pietro Bembo to cultivate and love Latin and Italian literature; he was a friend of Antonio Brocardo, Trifon Gabriele, Lazzaro Bonamico, Benedetto Lampredio, Camillo Delminio, PATARINI (v.); he also had relations with Francesco Maria Molza, Francesco Berni, and Bernardo Tasso.
When Reginald Pole came to Padua, Priuli hosted him and later became his constant companion after Pole was created cardinal on 22 December 1536 and settled in Rome, as well as during his repeated papal legations. While Pole was legate in Viterbo, Priuli was in contact with Vittoria Colonna, Marco Antonio Flaminio, Pietro Carnesecchi, and others, and was accused of having supported with them those doctrines with a Lutheran flavor concerning Grace, for which Pope Paul IV later considered him suspect of heresy. Sent in 1542 to prepare for the Council of Trent, he was later joined there by Pole, who had been invited as legate for the first time. Both were in Viterbo in 1543; but Priuli accompanied Pole to Trent when he returned there as legate. He refused to be secretary of the Council and followed Pole when the latter left the Council on 28 June 1546. He was executor of Bembo’s will and in 1551 received from Julius III the right to the bishopric of Brescia, which had meanwhile been conferred on Cardinal Durante. In 1554 he followed Pole to England and shared with him the rigors imposed by Paul IV, which resulted in his being deprived of the see of Brescia in 1556. After Pole’s death in 1558, Priuli remained in England as his executor until the end of 1559. He was in Padua on 3 May 1560 and died there while his rehabilitation was being arranged. Apart from a few letters, only some Latin verse compositions by him survive.