SERBELLONI, FAMILY. - Of Milanese origin, the family rose to prominence in the 16th century.
CECILIA was the wife of Bernardino Medici and mother of Pius IV. Cardinal Gian Angelo Medici, Bishop of Foligno, resigned the see in favor of his nephew GIOVANNI ANTONIO S. (b. in Milan in 1519), and upon being elected pope, summoned him to Rome and created him cardinal on 13 January 1560, together with his other nephew Carlo Borromeo. He held no important office in the Curia; on 13 March 1560 he left Foligno for Novara, where he remained until 26 April 1574, introducing the Tridentine reform; in 1568 he held a synod and founded a seminary. Bishop of Ostia on 2 March 1589, he died in Rome on 18 March 1591 and was buried at Santa Maria degli Angeli.
Together with Giovanni Antonio, his brother GABRIO came to Rome in 1559; he was captain of the papal guard, a renowned military engineer tasked with fortifying Castel Sant’Angelo and the fortresses of the Papal States, and died in 1580. FABRIZIO, in October 1561, was sent to defend Avignon against the Huguenots but left a poor reputation. GIOVANNI BATTISTA, in January 1560, was named castellan of Castel Sant’Angelo and later, on 17 December 1561, Bishop of Cassano al Jonio, which he resigned on 6 February 1579. In the 18th century, FABRIZIO (b. in Milan on 7 November 1695), earned a law degree at Pavia; Innocent XIII sent him as vice-legate to Ferrara, where he remained from 1721 to 1728, after which he was appointed Inquisitor of Malta. Clement XII sent him as nuncio to Florence in 1731, from there he moved to Cologne, Poland, and in 1746 to Vienna; on 26 November 1753 he was created cardinal. Bishop of Ostia on 18 April 1774, he died on 8 December 1775. GIAN GALEAZZO, a politician born in Milan in 1744 and died there on 7 March 1802, was among the collaborators of Napoleon I.