Italian prelate who played a notable role in the liberalization of the Vatican under Leo XIII.

On completing his studies at the Capranica College in Rome and taking orders, Rampolla trained for a diplomatic career in the church at the College of Ecclesiastical Nobles. In 1875 he was appointed counselor to the papal nunciature in Madrid. After serving on the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome in 1877, he returned to Madrid as nuncio (1882–87). On March 14, 1887, he was created cardinal and two months later was appointed by Leo XIII as papal secretary of state.

Alive to the political and social realities of his age, especially the currents of republicanism and socialism, Cardinal Rampolla assembled the ideas for the encyclical Rerum Novarum (“New Things”), issued by Leo in 1891, emphasizing the obligations of governments and employers to the working class. On Leo's death in 1903, it was widely anticipated that Cardinal Rampolla would succeed to the Holy See, but the Austrian emperor Francis Joseph threatened a veto; Pope Pius X, who subsequently abolished the princely right of veto, made Rampolla head of the Congregation of the Holy Office.