He was born at
Capodistria (
Koper), Istria, then part of the
Venetian Republic and studied jurisprudence in
Padua, where he delivered lectures in 1522. He also practiced law in
Verona, Padua, and
Venice. In 1526, he married Diana Contarini, whose early death was at least a partial cause of his entering an ecclesiastical career.
Papal nuncio His advancement was so rapid that as early as 1533 he was papal
nuncio to King
Ferdinand in
Germany, and he was there again in 1535 on business connected with the council. The nuncio's eagerness in the cause of the council brought him into a personal encounter with
Martin Luther at
Wittenberg. In 1554 and 1555 he talked Trubar to start the translation of the Bible into
Slovene. This resulted in Trubar's translation of the
Gospel of Matthew in 1555, which was the first integral translation of a part of the Bible to this language, and later led to Trubar translating the entire
New Testament into Slovene. A bust by Oreste Dequel was put on display in 1954 at
Vergerio Square () in
Koper, the main coastal port town of
Slovenia. While Vergerio never again set foot in Italy, in 1556 he made his way to
Poland, and conferred with
Duke Albrecht of
Prussia. He was in Poland in 1559 with the two-fold object of meeting the moves of the Nuncio
Alois Lipomano, and of working counter to
Johannes a Lasco. He sought permission to take part in the religious conference at
Poissy in 1560, but he was not allowed to appear at the
Council of Trent as the duke's delegate. During all these years he continued his polemical authorship and worked toward the publication of his
Opera, though only the first volume appeared (1563). He died in
Tübingen. ==See also==