est son of
Bernardino Blandrata. He graduated in arts and medicine at Montpellier
in 1533, and specialized in the functional and nervous disorders of
women. In 1544 he made his first acquaintance with Transylvania; in 1553
he was with Alciati in the Grisons; in 1557 he spent a year at Geneva,
in constant intercourse with Calvin, who distrusted him. He attended the
English wife (Jane Stafford) of Count Celso Massimiliano Martinengo,
preacher of the Italian church at Geneva, and fostered anti-trinitarian
opinions in that church. In 1558 he found it expedient to remove to
Poland, where he became a leader of the heretical party at the synods of
Pinczow (1558) and Ksionzh (1560 and 1562). His point was the
suppression of extremes of opinion, on the basis of a confession
literally drawn from Scripture. He obtained the position of court
physician to the queen dowager, the Milanese Bona Sforza. She had been
instrumental in the burning (1539) of Catharine Weygel, at the age of
eighty, for anti-trinitarian opinions; but the writings of Ochino had
altered her views, which were now anti-Catholic. In 1563 Blandrata
transferred his services to the Transylvanian court, where the daughters
of his patroness were married to ruling princes. He revisited Poland
(1576) in the train of Stephen Bathory, whose tolerance permitted the
propagation of heresies; and when (1579) Christopher Bathory introduced
the Jesuits into Transylvania, Blandrata found means of conciliating
them. Throughout his career he was accompanied by his two brothers,
Ludovico and Alphonso, the former being canon of Saluzzo. In
Transylvania, Blandrata co-operated with Francis David (d. 1579), the
anti-trinitarian bishop, but in 1578 two circumstances broke the
connexion. Blandrata was charged with "Italian vice"; David renounced
the worship of Christ. To influence David, Blandrata sent for Faustus
Socinus from Basel. Socinus was David's guest, but the discussion
between them led to no result. At the instance of Blandrata, David was
tried and condemned to prison at Deva (in which he died) on the charge
of innovation. Having amassed a fortune, Blandrata returned to the
communion of Rome. His end is obscure. According to the Jesuit, Jacob
Wujek, he was strangled by a nephew (Giorgio, son of Alphonso) in May
1588. He published a few polemical writings, some in conjunction with
David.

See Malacarne, _Commentario delle Opere e delle Vicende di G.
Blandrata_ (Padova, 1814);