Giacomo SIMONETTA. — Cardinal, b. in Milan in 1475, d. in Rome on 10 Nov. 1539.
From 1505 he was an advocate at the Roman Rota and served as auditor at the Fifth Lateran Council. He was elected Bishop of Pesaro in 1529 by Clement VII, who created him cardinal on 21 May 1535 and appointed him prefect of the Apostolic Signature. On 20 Dec. 1535 he was transferred to the see of Perugia and later administered the dioceses of Lodi (1536-37) and Nepi (1538). In 1538 he was named, together with Campeggio and Aleandro, legate a latere to the council that was to be held at Vicenza. In the matter of Henry VIII’s divorce, he opposed the king’s thesis. He composed the treatise *De reservatione beneficiorum* (Rome 1583).
BIBL.: A. Ciacconius, *Vitae...*, III, Rome 1677, pp. 570-571; F. Argelati, *Scriptores mediolanenses*, II, Milan 1745, cols. 1399; Pastor, V. pp. 73-75, and passim; H. Jedin, *Storia del Concilio di Trento*, I, Brescia 1949, passim. Antonio Cistellini