Branda da Castiglione

Branda da Castiglione (Castiglione Olona, 4 February 1350 – Castiglione Olona, February 1443) was an early Italian humanist, a papal diplomat and a Roman Catholic cardinal, or pseudo-Cardinal, as he was raised to the cardinalate by John XXIII, later declared an anti-pope.

He was born to a Milanese noble family related to Goffredo Castiglioni, Pope Celestine IV. Branda was the eldest son of Maffiolo da Castiglione and his wife Lucrezia Porro, of the family of the counts of Polenta .

In 1374 he is documented as enrolled in the Collegio dei nobili Giureconsulti of Milan. He studied also at the recently founded University of Pavia, where he received a doctorate in civil and canon law in the academic year 1388/89 and then taught canon law at the University, supported by Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan.

In 1389 Gian Galeazzo Visconti sent him to Rome to the papal court of Boniface IX, entrusted with obtaining papal privileges for the University of Pavia, of authorization to teach theology and to enjoy the same conditions as the University of Bologna and that of Paris. Branda's abilities were quickly recognized in Rome. At the same time he was nominated to the position of auditore of the Collegio della Sacra Rota. He served as chaplain to Boniface IX, who sent him as legate to Germany. In 1393 he was made archpriest of San Martino di Legnano Veronese and a canon at the city of Tortona; in 1398 he possessed six benefices in the archdiocese of Milan and others beyond it. In 1419 he was made abbot in commendam of Tre Fontane Abbey.

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