Luigi Lippomano

Luigi Lippomano (also Alvise, or Aloisio, in Latin Aloisius Lipomanus) (1496, Venice – 15 August 1559, Rome) was an Italian bishop and hagiographer.

Life Luigi Lippomano was the illegitimate son of Venetian patrician Bartolo Lippomano, who determined to provide an ecclesiastical career for his son. He graduated from the university at Padua and eventually entered into service at the papal court in Rome. Distinguished for his piety and integrity of character, he was among the first in Rome to join the "Oratorio della Carità" founded by Cajetan of Tiene, and composed of distinguished men, who in the Roman Curia were the leaven of Church reform, and afterwards took a prominent part in the Council of Trent. In 1528 he accompanied the court of Pope Clement VII to Orvieto after the sack of Rome by imperial troops. Later that year he sent his brother Thomas a detailed firsthand report of the great flood of the Tiber.

In 1538, he was consecrated titular Bishop of Methone by Cardinal Gian Pietro Carafa, future Pope Paul IV, and appointed coadjutor cum jure successionis to his cousin Pietro Lippomano, Bishop of Bergamo, who was also active in Catholic reform.

Works

Amid his numerous official duties, he did not neglect his studies, which, however, he directed towards spiritual edification. Thus he wrote "Catenae in Genesin" (Paris, 1546), "In Exodum" (Paris, 1550)—both works republished at Rome in 1557; (Venice, 1553). His chief work was Sanctorum priscorum patrum vitae (8 vols., Venice, 1551–60; 2 vols., Louvain 1564), for which he engaged the services of many learned men, and himself, on his travels, searched libraries and archives. This collection gave a great impulse to scientific hagiography, and opened the way for Surius and the Bollandists.