Pazzi, Cosmo

Pazzi, Cosmo an Italian prelate, was born at Florence in 1467, and was on his mother's side a descendant of the Medicis. He was provided by pope Alexander VI with a canonicate in the church of Olron, in France, and soon after with its episcopal chair, of which he never took possession. The Florentines had already sent him, Sept. 14, 1496, to the emperor Maximilian to mediate concerning the war of Pisa and the league of Italy. On his return he was elected, April 17, 1497, bishop of Arezzo, and he renounced his pretensions to the seat of Oleron. Alexander VI charged him with a diplomatic commission to Spain, and then to France. Pope Julius II transferred him to the archbishopric of Florence, July 5, 1508, and premature death alone deprived Him of the purple, to which he would certainly have been raised by his maternal uncle, Leo X. Pazzi died at Florence April 9, 1515. He first became known by a Latin translation, the Dissertations of Maximus of Tyre. Three editions of this translation (Rome, 1517; Basle, 1519; Paris, 1554, fol.) preceded the publication of the original Greek text brought out by Estienne at Paris (1517, 8vo). The translation of Pazzi was published under the editorship of his brother, Pierre Pazzi. See Italia Sacra, 1:431; 2:182; Hist. de la Noblesse du Comtat Venaissin, vol. ii, s.v.; Combes-Dounous, Dissertations de Maxime de Tyr (Introd.).