ROVERELLA, BARTOLOMEO. - Cardinal, b. at Ferrara in 1406, d. at Rome on 3 May 1476.
Private chamberlain and secretary to Eugenio IV, he received the bishopric of Adria in 1444 and, the following year, the archbishopric of Ravenna. Governor of Perugia (1448) and of Ascoli, he was sent by Niccolò V to Enrico VI of England. Papal legate at Benevento, he intervened with great skill in the struggle between Aragonese and Angevin claimants for the throne of Naples, succeeding in detaching the Duke of Taranto from the Angevin party and thus cooperating in the reunification of the Kingdom under Ferdinando I (1462). Endowed with a sound humanistic education and sincere piety, he was also a skilful politician in the offices entrusted to him, such as the reconquest of Viterbo, which the factions had detached from the dominion of the Holy See. Pio II created him cardinal on 18 Dec. 1461, with the title of S. Clemente. He subsequently held the government of the provinces of Umbria (1470) and of the March of Ancona (1472).