SPECIANO, CESARE. — Bishop and nuncio, born in Cremona in 1539, died there on 20 August 1607.
He was the first canon of the Milan Metropolitan Chapter with St Charles Borromeo, with whom he was very friendly. Sent to Rome, he held various positions; then Pius V assigned him as a consultor to the nunciature in Madrid, and Gregory XIII appointed him Bishop of Novara in 1584. He was later nuncio to Philip II for two years, and in 1591 Gregory XIV transferred him to the See of Cremona.
Soon after, Clement VIII sent him to Prague as legate to Emperor Rudolph II, where he remained from 1592 to 1598, carrying out intense activity for ecclesiastical instruction and for the conversion of the Utraquists and Hussites. Returning to Cremona, he devoted himself to the care of souls and founded a Jesuit college. He wrote a work (Proposizioni christiane), printed by Muratori in 1735.