Giovanni Francesco Negroni

Giovanni Francesco Negroni (1629 – 1713) was a Catholic cardinal who served as Bishop of Faenza from 1687 to 1697, and as Legate (i.e. Governor) of Bologna from 1687 to 1690.

Giovanni Francesco Negroni
Cardinal, Bishop of Faenza
Church	Catholic Church
See	Faenza
Appointed	7 July 1687
Term ended	11 November 1697
Predecessor	Cardinal Antonio Pignatelli del Rastrello
Successor	Cardinal Marcello Durazzo
Other posts	Cardinal Priest of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli
Orders
Consecration	20 July 1687 (Bishop) by Marcantonio Barbarigo
Created cardinal	2 September 1686 by Pope Innocent XI
Personal details
Born	October 3, 1629 Genoa
Died	1 January 1713 (aged 83) Roma
Buried	Church of the Gesù

Life

Giovanni Francesco Negroni was born in Genua on 3 October 1629 to an senatorial family.[1] He graduated in utroque iure in Perugia.[2]

He took up a career in the administration of the Papal States: governor of Terni in 1658, Vice-legato of Romagna in 1661, Governor of Jesi in 1663, Governor of Orvieto in 1664, Governor of Spoleto in 1665 and in the same year he was appointed Protonotary apostolic. Governor of Perugia in 1668.[3]

In 1669 or 1670 he purchased the title of clerk of the Apostolic Camera in Rome.[2] In October 1679 in Rome he took the offices of Prefect of the Annona with the responsibility for the grain supply to the city of Rome, and in 1681 he became General Treasurer of the Apostolic Camera, working with Pope Innocent XI to reduce the expenses of the Papal States, and in that position he succeded to perform a restructuring of the debt of the State.[2]

On 2 September 1686, Pope Innocent XI appointed him Cardinal deacon with the title of San Cesareo de Appia.[4]

On 7 July 1687 he was appointed bishop of Faenza. His episcopal consecration followed on 20 July in Rome by the hands of cardinal Marcantonio Barbarigo. On 10 November 1687 he was appointed Legate (i.e. Governor) of Bologna. This office, as usually, lasted three years.[3]

Negroni paid and organized the renovation of the chapel of S. Francesco Saverio in the Church of the Gesù,[5] the main church of the Jesuits, also to reaffirm his status of Cardinal Protector of the Jesuits.[2]

During the 1691 papal conclave, Negroni wrote a manifesto for the faction of the zelanti cardinals, who desired that the election of the Pope were free from nepotism and from the interferences of France, Spain and Holy Empire.[6] In the same conclave, with compromising documents he stopped the candidature of Paluzzo Paluzzi Altieri degli Albertoni, the Cardinal-Nephew to Pope Clement X.[2]

As bishop of Faenza he lived in that town only occasionally, and in 1694 he held a diocesan synod.[2]

On 2 January 1696 he was promoted to Cardinal priest with the title of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli.[4] He resigned the bishopric of Faenza on 11 November 1697, passing the last years in Rome, where he died on 1 January 1713.[4] He was buried in the chapel of S. Francesco Saverio in the Church of the Gesù.[1]

References

1. Salvador Miranda. "Negroni, Gianfrancesco". Retrieved 8 September 2020.
2. Giannini, Massino Carlo (2013). "NEGRONI, Giovanni Francesco". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 78: Natta–Nurra (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana.
3. Weber, Christoph (1994). Legati e governatori dello Stato della Chiesa [1550–1809] (in Italian). Rome: Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali. pp. 157, 183, 225, 277, 323, 368, 388, 395, 798.
4. David Cheney. "Gianfrancesco Cardinal Negroni". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
5. Canepa, Susanna (2007). "Monsignor Giovanni Francesco Negrone: "spirito e fuoco" per la Chiesa del Gesù in Roma" (PDF). La Casana : Periodico Bimestrale della Cassa di Risparmio di Genova (in Italian) (2): 12–23.
6. Brancatelli, Stefano (2012). "Dallo Squadrone Volante Alla Fazione Zelante. Continuità E Discontinuità Nel Collegio Cardinalizio Della Seconda Metà Del XVII Secolo". Archivum Historiae Pontificiae (in Italian). 50: 24. JSTOR 44627092. Retrieved 12 September 2020.