SIRLETO, GUGLIELMO

Cardinal, Tridentine scholar, Vatican librarian; b. Guardavalle, Calabria, Italy, 1514; d. Rome, Oct. 7,1585. After studying at Naples, where he became proficient in Greek, he continued his researches at the Vatican Library. Here he made the acquaintance of Cardinal Marcello Cervino (later Pope marcellus ii), presiding official at the intial phases of the Council of Trent. While remaining at Rome, Sirleto prepared extensive memoranda on many of the important questions discussed at the council. He similarly collaborated with the other cardinal legates, particularly Cardinal Girolamo Seripando, at the later phases of the council. As head of the Vatican Library, he catalogued all its Greek manuscripts. In 1565 he was made a cardinal; in 1566, bishop of San Marco, Calabria; and in 1568, bishop of his native diocese of

Squillace. However, even after his episcopal consecration he almost always resided in Rome. Here he was the central figure in editing the publications decreed by the council: the revised Missal and Breviary, the Roman Catechism, the Corpus Iuris Canonici, and the official texts of the Latin Vulgate and the Greek Septuagint.

Bibliography: h. hurter, Nomenclator literarius theologiae catholicae, 5 v. in 6 (3d ed. Innsbruck 1903–1913); v.1 (4th ed.1926) 3:258–261. j. mercier, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant, 15 v. (Paris 1903–50; Tables générales 1951–) 14.2:2174–75. w. koch, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. m. buchberger, 10 v. (Freiburg 1930–38)¹ 9:596–597. g. taccone gallucci, Monografia del cardinale Sirleto nel secolo 16 (Rome 1909). s. merkle, "Kardinal Sirleto," Beiträge zur Geschichte des christlichen Altertums und der byzantinischen Literatur: Festgabe, Albert Erhard (Bonn 1922).

[l. f. hartman]