Giovanni Dolfin (or Delfino) (

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, 22 April 1617 - Udine, 20 July 1699) was an Italian Catholic

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

Biography

The nephew of Giovanni Delfino seniore, he was at first

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

of the ''Republic of Venice'', then, after various ecclesiastical duties he was consecrated titular bishop of

Tagaste Thagaste (or Tagaste) was a Roman- Berber city in present-day Algeria, now called Souk Ahras. The town was the birthplace of Saint Augustine. History Thagaste was originally a small Numidian village, inhabited by a Berber tribe into which Augu ...

on 30 November 1656 by

Carlo Carafa della Spina Carlo Carafa della Spina (1611–1680) was a Roman Catholic cardinal. Biography On 1 Jan 1645, he was consecrated bishop by Ciriaco Rocci, Cardinal-Priest of San Salvatore in Lauro, with Fabio Lagonissa, Titular Patriarch of Antioch, and Alfonso ...

Bishop of Aversa The Diocese of Aversa ( la, Dioecesis Aversana) is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory in Campania, southern Italy, created in 1053. It is situated in the ''Terra di Lavoro'' (Liburia), seven miles north of Naples, and eight miles south of C ...

. In 1656 Girolamo Gradenigo wanted him as

coadjutor The term coadjutor (or coadiutor, literally "co-assister" in Latin) is a title qualifier indicating that the holder shares the office with another person, with powers equal to the other in all but formal order of precedence. These include: * Coadj ...

in the Patriarchate of Aquileia. He succeeded him as patriarch two years later. He governed the patriarchate through his brother and nephew, who were his coadjutors with right of succession. On the request of the Republic of Venice, on 18 July 1667 Pope

Alexander VII Pope Alexander VII ( it, Alessandro VII; 13 February 159922 May 1667), born Fabio Chigi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 April 1655 to his death in May 1667. He began his career as a vice- papal legate, an ...

appointed him Cardinal-Priest of San Salvatore in Lauro and then Cardinal-Deacon of

Santi Vito, Modesto e Crescenzia Santi Vito e Modesto is a Roman Catholic church, and appears to have two facades, a 20th-century marble facade on Via Carlo Alberto, but a rustic brick older entrance, in reality the apse, on the Via San Vito in the Rione Esquilino of Rome, Italy. ...

. He was

commendatory abbot A commendatory abbot ( la, abbas commendatarius) is an ecclesiastic, or sometimes a layman, who holds an abbey ''in commendam'', drawing its revenues but not exercising any authority over its inner monastic discipline. If a commendatory abbot is an ...

of Rosazzo from 1668 until his death. He took part in the conclave of

1667 Events January–March * January 11 – Aurangzeb, monarch of the Mughal Empire, orders the removal of Rao Karan Singh as Maharaja of the Bikaner State (part of the modern-day Rajasthan state of India) because of Karan's derelic ...

, that of 1669–1670, that of

1676 Events January–March * January 29 – Feodor III of Russia, Feodor III becomes Tsar of Russia. * January 31 – Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, the oldest institution of higher education in Central America, is fo ...

, that of

1689 Events January–March * January 22 (January 12, 1688 O.S.) – Glorious Revolution in England: The Convention Parliament is convened to determine if King James II of England, the last Roman Catholic British monarch, vacated th ...

and finally that of

1691 Events January–March * January 6 – King William III of England, who rules Scotland and Ireland as well as being the Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, departs from Margate to tend to the affairs of the Netherlands. * January 14 – A ...

; during the latter he was among the principal

papabili ''Papabile'' (, also , ; ; or "able to be pope") is an unofficial Italian term first coined by Vaticanologists and now used internationally in many languages to describe a Catholic man, in practice always a cardinal, who is thought a likely ...

, but his election was blocked by the

Spaniard Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both ind ...

s who did not see favorably a Venetian on the papal throne. While bishop, he was the

principal consecrator A consecrator is a bishop who ordains someone to the episcopacy. A co-consecrator is someone who assists the consecrator bishop in the act of ordaining a new bishop. The terms are used in the canon law of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, ...

of Alvise Sagredo, Patriarch of Venice (1678). He is buried in the tomb of his ancestors in the church of San Michele in Isola.

Works

Giovanni Delfino wrote three historical tragedies based on the traditional

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) a ...

conflict between

reason of state ''The Reason of State'' (Italian: ''Della Ragion di Stato'') is a work of political philosophy by Italian Jesuit Giovanni Botero. The book first popularised the term '' Reason of State'' and became a political 'bestseller', going through severa ...

and love or personal ethics: ''Cleopatra'', ''Lucrezia'', ''Creso''; and a free adaptation from ''Ariosto'', ''Medoro'', all printed posthumously. The ''Cleopatra'' was first printed in Scipione Maffei's collection ''Teatro italiano''. The four tragedies were published in Utrecht in 1730 and re-edited in a much more correct edition by Comino in Padua in 1733 together with an apologetic ''Dialogo sopra le tragedie''. Delfino left two manuscripts containing ten philosophical and scientific Dialogues in prose. He appears to be very well versed in the New Science, discusses Pierre Gassendi’s and

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...

’s theories and Lucretius' atomism. Only one of his prose Dialogues - dedicated to astronomy - has been published.Giovanni Delfino, "Della Terra", a c. di F. Anselmo, Messina, (Peloritana Editrice, 1962).

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Delfino, Giovanni 17th-century Italian cardinals 17th-century Italian dramatists and playwrights 1617 births 1699 deaths Republic of Venice clergy 17th-century Venetian people 17th-century Venetian writers