Domenico Grimani

Domenico Grimani (19 February 1461 – 27 August 1523) was an Italian nobleman, theologian and cardinal. Like most noble churchman of his era Grimani was an ecclesiastical pluralist, holding numerous posts and benefices. Desiderius Erasmus dedicated to Grimani his Musica.

Born in Venice, he was the eldest of five sons of Antonio Grimani, the oldest elected Doge of Venice, and his wife Catarina Loredan. Antonio was elected doge in 1521, when Domenico was already a cardinal.

He exhibited an early predilection for humanist studies, which was encouraged by teachers in his native Venice and then in the ambit of the Medicean academy in Florence, where he moved in the circle of Lorenzo de' Medici among scholars like Pico della Mirandola and Poliziano. He obtained a doctorate in canon law at the University of Padua on 23 October 1487 and was elected a Senator of Venice that same year.

He became a cardinal in 1493, an appointment paid by his father with a sum of around 25,000/30,000 ducats. Grimani was not ordained a priest until 1498. After the election of Pope Julius II he became cardinal priest of San Marco.

After a period as apostolic administrator in Nicosia, starting from 1498 he was Patriarch of Aquileia, a position he abandoned in favor of his nephew Marino (later also cardinal) in 1517. In 1508 he was named cardinal bishop of Albano, and was also administrator of the diocese of Urbino (from 1514) and bishop of Ceneda (1517-1520). Grimani was already ill in the 1521 conclave, and died one year and a half later; he was buried in the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Rome, but later his remains were moved to San Francesco della Vigna.

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