(64) 1. CAPRARA, Giovanni Battista (1733-1810)
Birth. May 29, 1733, Bologna. Of a noble family, his father was Count Francesco Raimondo Montecuccoli and his mother, from whom he took his last name, was Countess Maria Vittoria Caprara.
Education. Seminary of Bologna, Bologna; La Sapienza University, Rome (doctorate in utroque iure, both canon and civil law, September 23, 1755).
Early life. Vice-legate of Ravenna, 1757.
Priesthood. Ordained, December 22, 1765, Bologna. Referendary of the Supreme Tribunals of the Apostolic Signature of Grace and of Justice. Vice-legate in the province of Romandiola. Relator of the S.C. of the Sacred Consulta.
Episcopate. Elected titular archbishop of Iconio, December 1, 1766. Consecrated, December 8, 1766, Rome, by Pope Clement XIII. Assistant at the Pontifical Throne, December 8, 1766. Nuncio in Cologne, December 18, 1766. Nuncio in Switzerland, September 6, 1775. Nuncio in Austria, Hungary and Bohemia, 1785-1792; was very compliant to the ecclesiastical policies of Emperor Joseph II.
Cardinalate. Created cardinal priest in the consistory of June 18, 1792; received the red hat and the title of S. Onofrio, February 21, 1794. Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals, February 21, 1794. Participated in the conclave of 1799-1800, celebrated in Venice, which elected Pope Pius VII. Administrator of the diocese of Iesi, July 21, 1800. Transferred to the see of Iesi, with personal title of archbishop, August 11, 1800. At the request of Napoleon, was named legate a latere before the French Republic, August 24, 1801, and remained in the post until the imprisonment of Pope Pius VII, July 1809; his difficult legation had mixed results. He faciltated the translation the remains of Pope Pius VI to Rome, February 1802. After the approval of the 1801 Concordat between France and the Holy See, the restoration of Catholicism was solemnly celebrated by the cardinal, who pontificated in Notre Dame metropolitan cathedral, Paris, April 18, 1802, with the attendance of Napoleon and the state's higher officials. Transferred to the metropolitan see of Milan, May 24, 1802. He blessed the Iron Crown, with which Napoleon was crowned as the new King of Italy, May, 26, 1805. Poor health spared him from the difficulties of Napoleon's divorce and second marriage, April 1810. He willed his entire fortune to the hospital of Milan.
Death. June 21, 1810, Paris. Exposed in the church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, where the funeral took place, and buried in the church of Sainte-Geneviève (Panthéon), Paris.
Bibliography. Paschini, Pio. "Caprara, Giovanni Battista." Enciclopedia Cattolica. 12 vols. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l'Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949-1954, vol. III, cols. 718-719; Rinieri, I. "Un cardinale legato a latere a Parigi nell'ottubro del 1801." La Civiltà Cattolica, 18ª serie, 2 (1901, II), pp.37-51; Squicciarini, Donato. Nunzi apostolici a Vienna. Città del Vaticano : Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1998, p. 186-190.
Links. Biography, in English; another biography, in German; his tomb in the Pantheon, Paris; and his portrait with Pope Pius VII, by Jacques-Louis David.
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