Ferrante Pallavicino, an Italian author, born in Parma or Piacenza about 1615, executed at Avignon, March 5, 1644. He became an Augustinian friar, and at first was reputed one of the most devout and learned members of his convent; but falling in love with a fair Venetian, he plunged into a career of licentiousness, supporting himself for some time by writing immoral books. He afterward went to Germany as chaplain to the duke of Amalfi, but without interrupting his debaucheries, and on his return put secretly to press at Villafran-ca a satirical work entitled II corriere svalli-giato, to which the secretary of the Venetian republic had previously refused his imprimatur. The transaction being discovered, he was thrown into prison, but obtained his liberty mainly by the assistance of one of his mistresses. When the war broke out between Pope Urban VIII. and the duke of Parma, he wrote in favor of the duke, using the most violent expressions against the pope and his nephews the Barberinis, and among other pamphlets published II divorzio celeste, in which he intimated that a divorce had taken place between Christ and the church.

Afraid to remain in Italy, he resolved to visit France; but a fellow traveller betrayed him into the hands of the papal authorities at Avignon, and he was tried, condemned, and beheaded for apostasy and treason. His Opere permesse, edited by Brusoni with a life of the author (4 vols. 12mo), appeared at Venice in 1655, and his Opere scelte at Geneva in 1660.