Pacifico Bizza

This is part 35 in a series on Daniel Farlati’s Illyricum Sacrum.

Pacifico Bizza came from a nobile family in Rab, Croatia. Born in 1696, this is the first Archbishop Farlati writes about who is younger than himself. Pacifico studied at Padua, where he combined his efforts with Filippo Riceputi in collecting material on the History of Illyria. The preface to the first edition is written to him, where Farlati credits many of the manuscripts to have been written down by Pacifico himself. For his contribution Farlati calls him a founder of Illyrian History.

He became bishop of Rab in 1738, and then Archbishop of Spalato in 1746. Bizza was fluent in Slavonic, and in 1750 opened a seminiary for Slavonic priests near Omiš. He Lived to see the first two volumes of Illyricum Sacrum published. He passed away in 1756.