STEFANESCHI, Giacomo. — Cardinal, b. in Rome c. 1270 to Pietro S. and Perna Orsini, d. 23 June 1343. Boniface VIII created him cardinal deacon of S. Giorgio al Velabro on 17 Dec. 1295. He was present at the attack on Anagni, perpetrated against the Pope by William of Nogaret (7 Sept. 1303), and defended the Pope’s memory during the trial conducted during the pontificate of Clement V, under pressure from Philip the Fair.
His markedly Ghibelline leanings deprived him of any political influence under Clement V, John XXII, and Benedict XII. He left important works that provide valuable historical and liturgical information on contemporary events. The *Opus metricum* is a historical poem of very complex structure that he did not have time to revise. The only critical edition is that of Fr. X. Seppelt in the *Monumenta Coelestiniana* (Paderborn 1921; V. the observations collected by R. Morghen, *Il card. Giacomo S. e l’edizione del suo Opus metricum*, in *Bull. Istit. stor. ital.*, 46 [1931], pp. 1-39). The *Opus metricum* includes a life of St. Peter Celestine composed before 17 Dec. 1295, a memoir on the election and coronation of Boniface VIII, completed after 1300, and another on the canonization of St. Peter Celestine. The work underwent revisions during the vacancy of the Holy See following the death of Celestine V. The author added a dedicatory letter, dated 28 Jan. 1319, to the Celestines of Sulmona. The Jubilee of 1300 provided the cardinal with the occasion to set forth in a pamphlet the origins and purposes of the Jubilee. His treatise *Liber de centesimo sive Jubileo anno* was printed several times: in *Bibliotheca maxima veterum Patrum* (XXV, Lyon 1677), in *Bessarione*, 7 (1900), pp. 299 ff.; Italian trans., Brescia 1950 (cf. also in *Bull. Istit. stor. ital.*, 61 [1949], pp. 163-72).
His *Cerimoniale romano* is a mine of important information on the usages of the papal court in the 14th century and on the differences between these and those of earlier periods. It was published by Mabillon, *Museum Italicum* (II, Paris 1689, pp. 241-443). Its composition dates from the years between 1304 and 1328. The original draft exists in ms. 1706 of the Avignon Library, of which some extracts were published by Fr. Ehrle, *Zur Geschichte des päpstlichen Hofzeremoniells im XIV. Jahrhundert*, in *Archiv für Literatur- und Kirchengeschichte*, 5 (1889), pp. 565-87; L. H. Lambarde, *Le cérémonial romain de Jacques Cajetan*, in *Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes*, 54 (1893), pp. 45-74; G. Mollat, *Miscellanea Avenionensia*, in *Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire*, 44 (1927), pp. 1-5; and by E. Müller, *Das Konzil von Vienne*, Münster 1934, pp. 671-78. M. Andrieu successfully refuted the thesis advanced by Fr. C. Colomban Fisher against the authenticity of the *Ordo XIV* published by Mabillon (*L’Ordinariae de la chapelle papale et le card. Jacques Gaétan S.*, in *Eph. lit.*, 39 [1925], pp. 230-260). A life of St. George the Martyr exists in codex 129 C of the Chapter Archive of the basilica of St. Peter in Rome and, according to Garampi (*Illustrazione di un sigillo della Gargagnana*, Rome 1759, p. 74), dates to 1316. Ms. lat. 5931, ff. 95-102v of the Bibl. nat. of Paris contains an account of a miracle that occurred in Avignon in 1320 through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin. — See pl. XC.