Maffei, Bernardino, poet, orator, and antiquarian, b. at Bergamo, 27 Jan., 1514; d. at Rome, 1 Aug., 1549. He studied jurisprudence at Padua, and during the frequent absence of Dandino acted as secretary to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, and later to Paul III. On 12 March, 1547, he was made Bishop of Massa Maritima, then Archbishop of Chieti, and on 8 April, 1549, raised to the purple. He was on intimate terms with St. Ignatius Loyola and was highly esteemed by Julius III. His commentary on the “ Letters of Cicero’ is one of the best. He also wrote: “De inscriptionibus et imaginibus veterum, numismatum”.
Prtur in Kirchenlex., s. v.; Claconius, Vite et Res geste P. P., III,/737; Rom. Quartalschrift (1907), 50; Hurter, Nomenclator; Pastor, Papstgeschichte, V, passim.
Francis Mershman.