| Type: | Bishop |
| Honorific-Prefix: | Most Reverend |
| Guglielmo da Villanova | |
| Bishop of Trieste | |
| Church: | Catholic Church |
| Diocese: | Diocese of Trieste |
| Term: | 1327–1330 |
| Consecration: | 1307 |
| Consecrated By: | Nicolò Albertini |
| Death Date: | 1330 |
| Death Place: | Trieste |
| Previous Post: | Bishop of Sagone (1323–1327) auxiliary bishop of Khanbalik (1308–?) |
Guglielmo da Villanova di Francia or di Franchi, O. Min. (Latin: Guilelmus de Villanova) (French: Guillaume de Villeneuve) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Trieste (1327–1330), Bishop of Sagone (1323–1327), and as an auxiliary bishop of Khanbalik.[1]
Villeneuve was most likely from Villeneuve-les-Avignon.[2]
On 23 July 1307,[2] he was named by Pope Clement V along with six other Franciscan bishops (Andrew of Perugia, Andreuccio d'Assisi, Gerardo Albuini, Nicola da Banzia, Ulrico von Seyfriedsdorf, and Peregrino da Castello)[3] to travel to China to consecrate John of Montecorvino as Archbishop of Khanbalik.[2] He was consecrated in the same year by Niccolò Alberti, Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia.[4] He was unable to leave with the others and on 1 May 1308, Pope Clement V, instead ordered him to leave for Tartaria sine dilatione qualibet (without any delay).[2]
Although in January 1318, he appeared at the court of the Pope in Avignon (alongside Girolamo Catalano, former auxiliary bishop of Khanbalik and the first Bishop of Caffa, a Genoese colony in Crimea) using the title Episcopus apud Tartaros or "Bishop at Tartary" or "Bishop among Tartars", he remained a suffragan bishop of Montecorvino and did not hold an episcopal jurisdiction.[2] It is uncertain whether he actually travelled to China where Montecorvino was resident or was assigned a geographic area of responsibility with it being most likely that he worked as a missionary bishop traveling throughout the regions occupied by the Mongols.[2]
On 28 Feb 1323, he was appointed by Pope John XXII as Bishop of Sagone.[2] In 1324, he travelled with papal legate Bertrand du Pouget during the Papal Army's intervention in Lombardy.[2]
On September 25, 1327, he was transferred to the diocese of Trieste.[2] He died in Trieste in 1330.[2]
. Hierarchia catholica medii et recentioris aevi . Konrad Eubel. I. 428 and 477. 1913. Libreria Regensbergiana. Münster. second. (in Latin)