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Sunday, January 29, 2017


The episcopal ordination of Ciriaco Cardinal Rocci

My friend and colleague Angelo M. Tavazza has found the details of the episcopal ordination of another seventeenth century prelate:  Ciriaco Cardinal Rocci, cardinal and one time Apostolic Nuncio to Switzerland and to the Holy Roman Emperor.

Ciriaco Rocci, a Roman by birth, received episcopal ordination on 2 July 1628 in Ferrara, in the Church of the Gesù, by Giulio Cesare Cardinal Sacchetti, Bishop of Fano.  This information and other biographical details of Cardinal Rocci can be found in Mr. Tavazza’s latest article, Some notes on the life of Cardinal Ciriaco Rocci published on Academia.edu.              https://www.academia.edu/31107996

With the knowledge of his consecrator, we now know that Cardinal Rocci and his line of twenty nine bishops belong to the extinct line of Tolomeo Cardinal Gallio which now increases from 122 bishops to 152 bishops.

I am impressed by the research skills and scholarship which Mr. Tavazza has brought to this article and his previous article on Bishop Francesco Ravizza and I look forward to his future contributions in this area of study. 

Monday, January 9, 2017

Another change to the d’Estouteville line:
only three minor Roman-rite lines remain


In recent days my friend and colleague Angelo M. Tavazza of Milan was researching the episcopal ordination of Bishop Francesco Ravizza, Titular Bishop of Sidon, one time Apostolic Nuncio to Portugal, and the head of what was thought to be one of the four minor Roman-rite episcopal lines, the Ravizza line.

He discovered the consecrator of Bishop Ravizza and in doing so also discovered that the Ravizza line was never an independent line, but was part of the d’Estouteville line.  Thus, there are only three minor Roman-rite lines: d’Estouteville, von Bodman, and de Bovet.

The basic details of Bishop Ravizza’s ordination as bishop are found in a letter from Marquis Torquato Montauti, chargé d’affaires of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in Rome to his “illustrious and most respected Master.”  The manuscript letter, dated Rome, 22 March 1667, is conserved in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Medico del Principato, envelope 3389.

In it we find that Neri Cardinal Corsini conferred episcopal ordination on Msgr. Francesco Ravizza, Titular Bishop of Sidon, on 20 March 1667 in Rome. From another source we previously knew that the ceremony took place in St. Peter’s Basilica.  Cardinal Corsini was already known to be a member of the d’Estouteville line.

The story of how Cardinal Corsini came to be the consecrator of Bishop Ravizza is fascinating and is related in an article authored by Mr. Tavazza, The episcopal consecration of Bishop Francesco Ravizza, at: https://www.academia.edu/30834735  

The d’Estouteville line now has four more living members, increasing its total from forty-nine to fifty-three.  The von Bodman and de Bovet lines each have nine members.