Girolamo Rusticucci

Girolamo Rusticucci (1537 – 14 June 1603) was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal and bishop. He was personal secretary to Cardinal Michele Ghislieri, later Pope Pius V, who made Rusticucci a cardinal. He occupied numerous important positions, including papal legate to France and Spain, Camerlengo (treasurer) and Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals, and Vicar General of Rome.

He built a palace near Saint Peter's Square in Rome, located on a new piazza that was named after the cardinal.

Girolamo Rusticucci was born in in 1537, the son of Ludovico Rusticucci, a famous jurisconsult, and his wife Diamante Leonardi. He was orphaned as a young man. As a young man, he studied literature and oratory.

Rusticucci traveled to Rome in 1557, entering the court of Cardinal Michele Ghislieri, who later became Pope Pius V, as the cardinal's personal secretary. When the cardinal became pope, he made Rusticucci a protonotary apostolic. Also, when Cardinal Michele Bonelli, Pope Pius V's cardinal-nephew, was absent, the pope put Rusticucci in charge of managing most of the church's affairs.

Pope Pius V made him a cardinal priest in the consistory of 17 May 1570. He received the red hat and the titular church of Santa Susanna on 9 June 1570.

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