SIMONETTA, GIACOMO. — Cardinal, b. in Milan in 1475, d. in Rome on 1 November 1539.
From 1505 he was consistorial advocate and participated as an auditor of the Rota in the Fifth Lateran Council. He was elected bishop of Pesaro in 1529 by Clement VII, who made him a cardinal on 2 May 1535 and appointed him prefect of the Segnatura di grazia. On 20 December 1535 he transferred to the see of Perugia and subsequently administered the dioceses of Lodi in 1536–37 and Nepi in 1538. In 1538 he was appointed, together with Campegio and Aleandro, legatus a latere to the Council that was to be held at Vicenza. In the case of the divorce of Henry VIII, he opposed the King’s position. He composed the treatise De reservatione beneficiorum (Rome 1583).
BIBL.: A. Ciacconius, Vitae..., III, Rome 1677, pp. 570–571; F. Argelati, Scriptores mediolanensis, II, Milan 1745, col. 1399; Pastor, V, pp. 73–75, and passim; H. Jedin, Storia del Concilio di Trento, I, Brescia 1949, passim. Antonio Cistellini