Antonio Seripando (1476–1531) was an Italian Renaissance humanist and book collector. Seripando was the eldest son of Giovanni Ferdinando and Isabella Luisa Galeota, minor nobility living in the

Porta Capuana The Porta Capuana is a Renaissance city gate in Naples, Italy, originally passing through the medieval city walls, of which two bastions remain to the sides. The gate also gives its name to the zone, which is one of the ten boroughs of Naples. Th ...

district of

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

. His parents died not long after the birth of his brother Troiano in 1493. As a result, responsibility for raising the child fell to him. In September 1506, when Troiano tried to join the

Dominicans Dominicans () also known as Quisqueyans () are an ethnic group, ethno-nationality, national people, a people of shared ancestry and culture, who have ancestral roots in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican ethnic group was born out of a fusio ...

Santa Caterina a Formiello Santa Caterina a Formiello is a church in Naples, in southern Italy, located at the extreme eastern end of the old historic center of the city, on Via Carbonara and Piazza Enrico de Nicola, near the gate called Porta Capuana. The term ''Formiello' ...

, Antonio brought him back. In March 1507, however, he approved his entrance into the

Augustinian friars The Order of Saint Augustine (), abbreviated OSA, is a mendicant religious order of the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1244 by bringing together several eremitical groups in the Tuscany region who were following the Rule of Saint Augustine ...

San Giovanni a Carbonara San Giovanni a Carbonara is a Gothic church in Naples, Southern Italy Southern Italy (, , or , ; ; ), also known as () or (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern Regions of Italy, regions. The term "" today mostly ...

, which was more congruent with Antonio's intellectual interests. He was already a member of the circle around

Giovanni Gioviano Pontano Giovanni Pontano (1426–1503), later known as Giovanni Gioviano (), was a humanist and poet from Cerreto di Spoleto, in central Italy. He was the leading figure of the Accademia Pontaniana after the death of Antonio Beccadelli in 1471, and the ...

and a friend of

Jacopo Sannazzaro Jacopo Sannazaro (; 28 July 1458 – 6 August 1530) was an Italian poet, humanist, member and head of the Accademia Pontaniana from Naples. He wrote easily in Latin, in Italian and in Neapolitan, but is best remembered for his humanist classic ...

. In 1512, Seripando joined the entourage of Cardinal

Luigi d'Aragona Luigi d'Aragona (1474–1519) (called the Cardinal of Aragón) was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal. He had a highly successful career in the church, but his memory is affected by the allegation that he ordered the murder of his own sister and ...

as a secretary and lived in Rome. He did not travel with the cardinal but received a copy of

Antonio de Beatis Antonio de Beatis was an Italian canon (priest), canon best known for his travel diary of 1517–1518, a work of major value in art history. Life De Beatis was born in Molfetta, but the date of his birth is unknown. He served as a secretary to Car ...

' travel diary. In 1518, he was ordained a priest. Following the cardinal's death in January 1519, he returned to Naples, but intellectual pursuits brought him back to Rome in March 1521. In 1522, the humanist

Aulo Giano Parrasio Giovan Paolo Parisio (1470–1522), who used the classicised pseudonym Aulo Giano Parrasio or Aulus Janus Parrhasius, was a humanist scholar and grammarian from Cosenza, in Calabria in southern Italy. He was thus sometimes known as "Cosentius". H ...

bequeathed his collection of 1,500 books to him. Many volumes from Seripando's collection still bear his '' ex libris'', "Antonii Seripandi et amicorum". When Antonio died in 1531, his library passed to his brother. His tomb is the centrepiece of the Seripando Chabel constructed by his brother after 1560.

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Bibliography

* * * {{morecat, date=April 2025 Neapolitan nobility 1476 births 1531 deaths Catholics by nationality Italian Roman Catholic clergy