Of Interest to Collecgors of Napoleonia and Medicine
 
Italian cardinal; archbishop of Bologna; archchancellor of the Pontifical University of Bologna.
 
DS – Document Signed, three pages, 6 July 1826, bound in red leatherette folder.  Signed as archchancellor of the Pontifical University. The University bestows the degree of medicine. Signed on the last page by Oppizzoni and bearing his blind-embossed, paper and wax seal.  Boards, interior front and back decorated panels, and text clean and fresh.
 
Oppizzoni was the son of Count Francesco Oppizzoni and Marchese Paolo Trivaulzio. Ordained in 1793 and, in 1799, named a leader of the Chapter of Canons of the Cathedral of Milan.In 1802, Oppizzoni was named archbishop of Bologna. Two years later Pope Pius VII raised him to cardinal. Napoleon named him senator in his arranged Kingdom of Italy, and a member of the Order of the Iron Crown. However, he attempted to resist some of the political maneuvers of Napoleon and, in 1808, tried to restore the rights of the church and refused to attend the wedding of Napoleon with Marie Louise Habsburg in 1810. As a result, he and several other opposing cardinals were stripped of their property and forced to wear black robes, thus making them "the Black Cardinals". He was subsequently imprisoned in the Castle of Vincennes for nearly five years. He returned to Bologna in 1815.
 
Oppizzoni fulfilled several roles in the subsequent papal administrations, mostly while residing in Bologna. He also served as a papal legate in various provinces.