[1] Cicognani studied at the seminary in Faenza, and was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Gioacchino Cantagalli on 24 September 1904.

[2] He received his episcopal consecration on the following 1 February from Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, with Archbishops Rafaello Rossi, OCD, and Giovanni Zonghi serving as co-consecrators, in the chapel of the Pontifical Collegio Pio-Latinoamericano in Rome.

In April 1934, when Nuncio to Peru, he visited his brother, the Apostolic Delegate to the United States, whom Gaetano had not seen in seven years.

Cardinal Cicognani returned to work in the Roman Curia upon his appointment as prefect of the Congregation of Rites on 7 December of that same year.

He was appointed as prefect of the Apostolic Signatura on 18 November 1954 and was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 1958 papal conclave that selected Pope John XXIII.