Girolamo Aleandro, the younger


Girolamo Aleandro, the younger was a very distinguished Italian scholar. His grand-uncle Girolamo Aleandro, the elder is better known and was the first cardinal appointed in pectore.

Biography

Girolamo Aleandro was the son of Scipio Aleandro and Amaltea Amaltei, the daughter of the celebrated poet Girolamo Amaltei, and was born at Motta di Livenza in Friuli, on the twenty ninth of July, 1574. Like the cardinal, he displayed great precocity of intellect, and at the age of sixteen he composed seven beautiful odes in the form of paraphrases on the seven penitential psalms, which were afterwards printed at Rome under the title of Le Lagrime di Penitenza: he had previously written a paraphrase of the same psalms in Latin elegiac verse. The epigram upon the death of Camillo Paleotto, printed among his Latin poems, is stated to have been composed in his sleep.
Being designed for the church, he was sent at the age of twenty to the University of Padua, where, under the guidance of Guido Panciroli, he applied himself with great ardour to the study of belles-lettres, jurisprudence, philosophy and theology. At the age of twenty six he published his Commentary upon the Institutes of Gaius, which was well received, and the public professorship of jurisprudence was offered to him by several universities. These invitations he declined, and went to Rome on the suggestion of his uncle, Attilio Amalteo, who speedily obtained for him the office of preposito of Saint Philip and Saint James of Brescia.
He joined the Accademia degli Umoristi, just then instituted at Rome, and embracing all the most learned men in that city, and became one of its most active members; his academical name was Aggirato. He had not long resided at Rome when Cardinal Ottavio Bandini appointed him his secretary, in which post he continued twenty years, notwithstanding the numerous solicitations from other cardinals who were anxious to obtain his services. During this long period he devoted all his leisure to the pursuit of literature and antiquities.
In 1624 Pope Urban VIII succeeded in drawing him from Cardinal Bandini, and made him his own secretary: he also acted as secretary for his nephew Cardinal Barberini, and accompanied him in this capacity and as councillor upon his being sent, in 1625, as legate a latere to France for the purpose of negotiating a peace between France, Spain and Genoa. Up to this period Aleandro, whose constitution was naturally delicate, had accustomed himself to great regularity and simplicity of life; but in France the necessity to which he was subjected of living more freely, threw him into an ill state of health, which compelled him, instead of accompanying the cardinal, who proceeded into Spain, to return to Rome, where he died on the ninth of March 1629.
His loss was deeply felt by Cardinal Barberini, who was greatly attached to him, and, as a mark of respect, ordered him a splendid funeral. His funeral oration was pronounced by Gaspar de Simeonibus. Aleandro was buried in the Basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura. Cardinal Barberini paid for his grave monument; the bust is a work by Antonio Giorgetti.
Baillet, on account of his early proofs of genius, has placed him among his Enfans célèbres par leurs Études. He was one of the most learned men of his time, and his style is commended by De Rossi as pure and elegant.

Works

Aleandro's main works are:
He also left in manuscript Commentarius in Legem de Servitutibus, various treatises on antiquarian subjects, poems in Latin and Italian, a particular account of which is given by Mazzucchelli.