Editing Girolamo Aleandro

{{short description|16th century Venetian and Catholic Cardinal}}
{{about|the cardinal|his grandnephew, the scholar|Girolamo Aleandro (1574–1629)}}
[[File:Portret van Girolamo Aleandro, aartsbisschop van Brindisi, RP-P-OB-36.689.jpg|thumb|right]]
'''Girolamo Aleandro''' (also '''Hieronymus Aleander''';<ref>Aleandro, is sometimes called "the elder," to  distinguish him from his grand-nephew, also called [[Girolamo Aleandro, the younger|Girolamo Aleandro]] (1594–1629). The younger Aleandro was a very distinguished scholar {{harv|Chisholm|1911}}</ref> 13 February 1480 – 1 February 1542) was an Italian [[Renaissance humanism|humanist]], linguist, and [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|cardinal]].

==Life==
Aleandro was born on 13 February 1480 in [[Motta di Livenza]], in the province of [[Treviso]], part of the [[Republic of Venice]]. The son of a doctor, he studied medicine, philology, and theology in Padua.<ref name="BNPSupplI6">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Gall|first=Dorothee|title=Aleander, Hieronymus|encyclopedia=Brill's New Pauly, Supplement I, Volume 6: History of Classical Scholarship|location=Stuttgart|publisher=Brill|date=2014|doi=10.1163/2214-8647_bnps6_COM_00010}}</ref> In Venice he became acquainted with [[Erasmus]] and [[Aldus Manutius]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ledo |first=Jorge |date=2019 |title=Erasmus' Translations of Plutarch's Moralia and the Ascensian editio princeps of ca. 1513 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27172479 |journal=Humanistica Lovaniensia |volume=68 |issue=2 |pages=257–296 |jstor=27172479 |issn=0774-2908}}</ref> and at an early age was reputed one of the most learned men of the time, with a knowledge of Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Chaldaean.<ref name=BNPSupplI6/> In 1508 he went to [[Paris]] on the invitation of [[Louis XII of France|Louis XII]] as professor of ''belles lettres,'' and from 1513 to 1516 held the position of [[Rector of the University of Paris]] at the Sorbonne.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref name=BNPSupplI6/> Entering the service of [[Érard de La Marck]], [[prince-bishop of Liège]], he was sent by that prelate on a mission to Rome, where [[Pope Leo X]] retained him, giving him (1519) the office of librarian of the Vatican. 

In the following year he went to [[Germany]] to be present as papal [[nuncio]] at the coronation of Emperor [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]], and was also present at the [[Diet of Worms]], where he headed the opposition to [[Martin Luther]], advocating the most extreme measures to repress the doctrines of the reformer. His conduct evoked the fiercest denunciations of Luther, but it also displeased more moderate men, especially Erasmus. The edict against the reformer, which was finally adopted by the emperor and the diet, was drawn up and proposed by Aleandro. After the close of the Diet, the papal nuncio went to the Netherlands, where he instigated the executions of two monks of [[Antwerp]] due to their embrace of the Reformation, resulting in their being burnt in [[Brussels]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In August 1524 [[Pope Clement VII]] appointed Aleandro the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brindisi-Ostuni|Archbishop of Brindisi]], for which office he was [[Holy Orders|ordained]] to the [[priesthood (Catholic Church)|priesthood]] two months later.<ref name=CathH>[http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/balean.html Catholic Hierarchy, ''Girolamo Cardinal Aleandro'']</ref> The pope then sent him as nuncio to the court of King [[Francis I of France]]. He was taken prisoner along with that monarch at the [[Battle of Pavia]] in 1525, and was released only on payment of a heavy ransom. He was subsequently employed on various papal missions, especially to Germany, but was unsuccessful in preventing the German princes from making a truce with the reformers, or in checking to any extent the progress of the reformers' doctrines.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Aleandro was eventually [[consecration|consecrated]] a bishop on 28 February 1528 to fulfill the duties of his office. He was created a cardinal ''[[in pectore]]'' on 22 December 1536 by [[Pope Paul III]] (at the same time as [[Reginald Pole]]), which was published (i.e., publicly announced) only on 13 March 1538, at which time he was able to assume that office. He was given the rank of [[Cardinal Priest]], with his [[titular church]] in Rome as [[San Ciriaco alle Terme Diocleziane]], which was changed a week later to the Church of [[San Crisogono]].<ref name=CathH/>

Aleandro resigned as Archbishop of Brindisi on 30 January 1541. He died at [[Rome]] on 1 February 1542.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} His remains were initially buried in his titular church, but later were transferred to his hometown and re-buried there in the Church of San Niccolò.<ref>{{cite web|author-link=Salvador Miranda (historian) |last=Miranda |first=Salvador |title= ALEANDRO, Girolamo (1480-1542)|url=https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios1536.htm#Aleandro|work=The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church |accessdate=|publisher=[[Florida International University]]|oclc=53276621}}</ref>

==Writings==
Aleandro compiled a ''Lexicon Graeco-Latinum'' (1512) and an introductory Greek grammar, the ''Elementale introductorium in nominum et verborum declinationes Graecas'' (1509),<ref name=BNPSupplI6/> and edited Greek texts by [[Isocrates]], [[Plutarch]], and [[Lucian]] (1509–1510).<ref>{{cite book|last=Paquier|first=Jules|title=L'humanisme et la réforme: Jérôme Aléandre de sa naissance à la de son séjour à Brindes (1480–1529)|date=1900|location=Paris|publisher=E. Leroux|pages=x–xi|url=https://archive.org/details/lhumanismelarfo01paqugoog/page/n7/}}</ref>
Some of his Latin verses were included in the ''Carmina Illustrium Poetarum Italiorum'' of [[Joannes Matthaeus Toscanus]]. The Vatican Library contains manuscript letters and other documents written by him in connection with his various missions against Luther, which are important sources for the [[Reformation]] and [[Counter-Reformation]]; they were used by (among others) the church historian [[Francesco Sforza Pallavicino]] in his history of the council of Trent.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref name=BNPSupplI6/>

==See also==
* [[Hochstratus Ovans]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Aleandro, Girolamo|volume=1|page=538}}

{{Portal bar|Biography|Catholicism|Italy|Politics}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aleandro, Girolamo}}
[[Category:1480 births]]
[[Category:1542 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Motta di Livenza]]
[[Category:16th-century Italian cardinals]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic archbishops of Brindisi]]
[[Category:Venetian Renaissance humanists]]
[[Category:16th-century Italian Roman Catholic archbishops]]
[[Category:Apostolic nuncios to the Holy Roman Empire]]
[[Category:Burials at San Crisogono]]
[[Category:Italian librarians]]
[[Category:16th-century writers in Latin]]