SERBELLONI, FAMILY. - Of Milanese origin, it acquired importance in the 16th century.
CECILIA was the wife of Bernardino Medici and the mother of Pius IV. Cardinal Gian Angelo Medici, bishop of Foligno, resigned the bishopric in favor of his nephew GIOVANNI ANTONIO S. (b. in Milan in 1519), and, once elected pope, wished to have him near himself and created him cardinal together with his other nephew Carlo Borromeo on Jan. 13, 1560. He held no offices of importance in the Curia; on March 13, 1560, he left Foligno for Novara and held this see until Apr. 26, 1574, seeing to the introduction there of the Tridentine reform; in 1568 he held a Synod there and founded a Seminary. Bishop of Ostia on March 2, 1589, he died in Rome on March 18, 1591, and was buried at S. 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 charged with providing for the defenses of Castel S. Angelo and of the fortresses of the Papal State, and died in 1580. FABRIZIO in Oct. 1561 was sent to the defense of Avignon against the Huguenots, but he did not leave a good name for himself. GIOVANNI BATTISTA in Jan. 1560 was named castellan of Castel S. Angelo and then on Dec. 17, 1561, bishop of Cassano al Ionio, which he resigned on Feb. 6, 1579. In the 18th century FABRIZIO, b. in Milan on Nov. 7, 1695, took his degree in jurisprudence at Pavia; by Innocent XIII he was sent as vice-legate to Ferrara, where he remained from 1721 to 1728, when he was named inquisitor of Malta. Clement XII sent him as nuncio to Florence in 1731; from there he went to Cologne, to Poland and in 1746 to Vienna; on Nov. 26, 1753, he was created cardinal. Bishop of Ostia on Apr. 18, 1774, he died on Dec. 8, 1775. GIAN GALEAZZO, a politician, b. in Milan in 1744, d. there on March 7, 1802, was among the collaborators of Napoleon I.
Bibliography
Renata Orazi Ausenda