ADRIAN, cardinal priest, of the title of St Chrysogonus, was a native of Cornetto, in Tuscany. Innocent VIII. sent him nuncio into Scotland and into France; and after he had been clerk and treasurer of the apostolic chamber, Pope Alexander VI. whose secretary he had been, honoured him with the cardinal's hat. His life was a continued scene of odd alterations. He narrowly escaped death on the day on which Alexander VI. poisoned himself by mistake. Afterward he drew upon himself the hatred of Julius II. so that he was obliged to go and hide himself in the mountains of Trent. Having been recalled by Leo X. he was so ungrateful that he engaged in a conspiracy against him. The pope pardoned his fault; but the cardinal, not caring to trust to this, made his escape, and it could never be known exactly what was become of him. He was one of the first who effectually reformed the Latin style. He studied Cicero with great success, and made many excellent observations on the propriety of the Latin tongue. The treatise he composed, De Sermone Latino, et de modis Latine loquendi, is a proof of this. It was published at Rome in 1515, in folio. He also wrote, in elegant Latin, a treatise on the Christian religion, entitled De Vera Philosophia, printed at Cologne in 1548.