Bernardino Maffei

Maffei, BERNARDINO, poet, orator, and antiquarian, b. at Bergamo, January 27, 1514; d. at Rome, August 1, 1549. He studied jurisprudence at Padua, and during the frequent absence of Dandino acted as secretary to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, and later to Paul III. On March 12, 1547, he was made Bishop of Massa Maritima, then Archbishop of Chieti, and on April 8, 1549, raised to the purple. He was on intimate terms with St. Ignatius Loyola and was highly esteemed by Julius III. His commentary on the “Letters of Cicero” is one of the best. He also wrote: “De inscriptionibus et imaginibus veteruni numismatum”.

FRANCIS MERSHMAN