Giovanni Maria Riminaldi (4 October 1718 - 11 October 1789) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Biography

He was born in

Ferrara Ferrara (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main ...

to an aristocratic family. He studied at the Collegio di San Carlo in Modena during 1732–1738, but returned to the

University of Ferrara The University of Ferrara () is the main university of the city of Ferrara in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. In the years prior to the First World War the University of Ferrara, with more than 500 students, was the best attended of ...

to study under Domenico Borsetti and Ippolito Gratiadei. He then moved to Rome and entered positions of leadership within the Vatican hierarchy by the mid 1740s, serving as Auditor of the

Camerlengo Camerlengo (plural: , Italian for " chamberlain") is an Italian title of medieval origin. It derives from the late Latin , in turn coming through the Frankish , from the Latin which meant "chamber officer" (generally meaning "treasure chamber"). ...

from 1748 to 1759. He became auditor of the Sacred Roman Rota in 1759; later, became its dean. While living in Rome, he was named by Pope

Clement XIV Pope Clement XIV (; ; 31 October 1705 – 22 September 1774), born Giovanni Vincenzo Antonio Ganganelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 May 1769 to his death in September 1774. At the time of his elec ...

as President of the Pontifical

from 1763 to 1781. He was an avid collector of books, artworks, and antiquities; and donated his collection to institutions in the city. On February 14, 1785 he was elevated to cardinal by

Pope Pius VI Pope Pius VI (; born Count Angelo Onofrio Melchiorre Natale Giovanni Antonio called Giovanni Angelo or Giannangelo Braschi, 25 December 171729 August 1799) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to hi ...

. He died in Perugia. He was a close friend of

Anton Raphael Mengs Anton Raphael Mengs (12 March 1728 – 29 June 1779) was a German Neoclassicism, Neoclassical painter. Early life Mengs was born on 12 March 1728, at Ústí nad Labem in the Kingdom of Bohemia, the son of Ismael Mengs, a Danish-born painter wh ...

. He is said to have played a role in 1754, while magistrate of the Camerlengo along with Cardinal

Luigi Valenti Gonzaga Luigi Valenti Gonzaga (15 October 1725 – 29 December 1808) was a Cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was elected to the Roman Curia and the Papal diplomacy, and was also nuntius of Switzerland and Spain. Valenti Go ...

and the painter Francesco Mancini (the then-Principe of the

Academy of St Luke The Accademia di San Luca () is an Italian academy of artists in Rome. The establishment of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma was approved by papal brief in 1577, and in 1593 Federico Zuccari became its first ''principe'' or director; ...

) in establishing an Accademia del Nudo inside the Vatican under the protection of Cardinal

Girolamo Colonna Girolamo Colonna (23 March 1604 – 4 September 1666) was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and member of the noble Colonna family. Biography Colonna was born at Orsogna into the Colonna family and his extended family included m ...

during the papacy of

Benedict XIV Pope Benedict XIV (; ; 31 March 1675 – 3 May 1758), born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 17 August 1740 to his death in May 1758. Pope Benedict X (1058–1059) is now con ...

. He was the owner of a lithotheque or stone sampler, now on display in the Musei Civici di Arte Antica in Ferrara.Art of the Royal Court: Treasures in Pietre Dure from the Palaces of Europe
by Wolfram Koeppe, Anna Maria Giusti, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), page 284.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riminaldi, Giovanni Maria 1718 births 1789 deaths 18th-century Italian cardinals Religious leaders from Ferrara Cardinals created by Pope Pius VI