Lodovico Sergardi

He befriended cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, and served him as Prefect of St. Peter's Basilica when he was elected pope as Alexander VIII in 1689.

An active member of the Republic of Letters, Sergardi soon became friends with such eminent scholars as Jean Mabillon[3] and Francesco Bianchini, the keeper of the Ottoboni Library.

During the seances of the Academy, Sergardi began a spirited debate with the famed jurist Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina.

Sergardi attacked Gravina in a series of bitter latin satires published under the pseudonym of Quintus Sectanus (1694).

[6] Sergardi also had artistic and medical interests; he designed the pavement for St. Peter's Square and the position of the Vatican Obelisk, and sketched the kidney stones found in Pope Innocent XI's body after his death.