Ardicio Rivoltella

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Ardicio de Rivoltela (died circa 1186) was an Italian cardinal from Piadena in Lombardy. He began as a subdeacon under Pope Eugenius III, dealing with disputes over tithes and charges of calumny. He was created cardinal on 21 December 1156 by Pope Hadrian IV, with his first cardinal signature on 4 January 1157. In 1158 he and Cardinal Odo of Brescia were sent as papal legates to Lombardy to try to reconcile Milan and Lodi, but they failed.

After Hadrian IV’s death, Ardicio supported Pope Alexander III in the 1159 election, opposing the imperial candidate Victor IV, and helped secure Alexander’s papacy. He was active in diplomacy: in 1160 he and Bishop Otho of Tivoli went to Constantinople to seek Emperor Manuel I’s support for Alexander; in 1162 he joined a delegation to Louis VII of France to argue for Alexander; and in 1165–66 he again traveled to Constantinople. From 1169 to 1173 he served as a papal legate with Cardinal Manfred of Lavagna and was involved in governance in Benevento, later becoming Rector there in 1171.

Ardicio attended the Third Lateran Council in 1179 and signed several bulls. In 1184 he was among eighteen cardinals who helped consecrate the cathedral of Modena, and in 1185 he subscribed a bull in Verona during the papal crises after Lucius III’s death. He probably attended the election of Urban III after Lucius III’s death. A 1182 letter mentions him as exercising a prelacy over the clergy of Platina for founding and funding the local church. His last known subscription was on 13 March 1186. His successor at S. Teodoro was Johannes Malabranca, who first subscribed in 1188 after Clement III returned to Rome.