BIOGRAPHIES ROME

Giovanni Battista Pamphilj (Rome 7.5.1574 – 7.1.1655) had a degree in utroque jure (doctorate in civil and church law) and practiced law before being appointed consistorial lawyer by Clement VIII, on 25 January 1601, and became auditor of the Roman Rota in 1604. From March 1621 to March 1625 he was Papal Nuncio to Naples and legate to France and Spain; in January 1626, he was appointed Patriarch of Constantinople and sent in May of that year to Spain where he remained until 25 March 1630. In the meantime, on 30 August 1627, Urban VIII elevated him to Cardinal. When he returned to Rome, Giovanni Battista soon held offices in many official congregations and became the special advisor of Francesco Barberini, and in 1642, Cardinal Inquisitor of the Holy Office. He was elected pope with an overwhelming majority on 15 September 1644, after a long conclave divided into fierce factions following the death of Urban VIII. Giovanni Battista chose the name Innocent X. Although he was pugnacious and unyielding in managing the State, he adopted a policy of neutrality and maintained political balance in Italy, whereas his diplomacy was considerably hindered by the interminable conflict between France and Spain that began in 1635. Innocent X was a strenuous defender of threatened Catholicism and the 1650 Jubilee is known as his most important and undisputed success. With the papal Bull of Indiction Appropinquat dilectissimi filii of 4 May 1649, Pope Pamphilj proclaimed the Jubilee Year, which is considered the last great one of modern times, with seven hundred thousand pilgrims coming to Rome in the name of peace. In 1651 he drew up a Pamphilj deed of trust whereby he indissolubly bound the family property to the institution of primogeniture (the right of the firstborn), prohibiting the sale and division of inheritance. Innocent X died on January 7, 1655 at the age of 80. His portrait painted by Velázquez, reflects his life and personality in a startling and ingenious way, highlighting the austerity and restlessness that characterized his pontificate.

Olimpia Maidalchini (Viterbo 26.5.1592 – S. Martino al Cimino 26.9.1657) was a wealthy noblewoman from Viterbo and widow of Paolo Nini (d. 6.6.1611) when on 1 November 1612 she married Pamphilio Pamphilj (1563-1639), elder brother of the future pontiff Innocent X (Giovanni Battista Pamphilj, elected Pope on 15.9.1644). She had three children: Maria Flaminia (1619-1682/4), who married Andrea Giustiniani, Prince of Bassano on 12 October 1640; Camillo (1622-1666), Prince of Valmontone; and Costanza (1629-1665), who married Niccolò I Ludovisi, Prince of Piombino and Venusa on 21 December 1644. Following the death of Pamphilio in 1639, her brother-in-law, the cardinal, became head of the family and established a special status for Olimpia Maidalchini, who dealt with the administration of the family assets. Intelligent and astute, powerful and strong-willed, she was fiercely criticized and became the controversial target of the numerous enemies of her brother-in-law the Pope. In 1645, Innocent X gave Olimpia the title of Princess of San Martino al Cimino, a feudal property purchased shortly beforehand where she built a magnificent palace with modern engineering systems and a hamlet. Donna Olimpia attended numerous theatre performances in the most important homes in Rome and in many cases was both spectator and performer; she also wrote several provocative plays. Olimpia was a judicious art collector and among others she purchased the masterpieces by Caravaggio still in the collection. As one of the most influential figures of the Roman Curia during the pontificate of Innocent X, she was given many masterpieces that flowed into the fideicommissum established by the pontiff that remained for centuries in the family collection.

The death of Innocent X on 6 January 1655, the hostility of Alexander VII and the entire Curia, and the poor relationship with her son Camillo, forced Olimpia to retire permanently to San Martino al Cimino where she died of the plague, alone.

Camillo Pamphilj (Naples 21.2.1622 – Rome 26.7.1666), Prince of Valmontone from 1651, was son of the elderly Conservatore of Rome, Pamphilio (1563/65-1639) and Olimpia Maidalchini (1592-1657); his uncle Innocent X appointed him General of the Church, Commander of the Pontifical Fleet and Governatore di Borgo, and, on 12 December 1644, Cardinal Nephew. Against the will of the Pope and of his mother, however, on 21 January 1647, he renounced this title and on 10 February of the same year married Olimpia Aldobrandini (1623-1681), Princess of Rossano, the widow of Paolo Borghese, who brought into the family one of the largest estates of the Roman aristocracy.

The literary, humanistic and classical upbringing of the prince as well as his interest in poetry, painting, music, architecture, mathematics and philosophy are well documented and proven by the number of volumes in his extensive library. He was a member of the Accademia degli Umoristi and a refined collector and purchaser of paintings by the greatest contemporary artists beyond the Alps, as well as owner of one of the largest Roman collections of ancient and contemporary sculptures. His uncle the pope assigned all the family assets to Camillo by endowing him with the birthright and giving him other assets inherited from clerics, enlarging the family properties with valuable masterpieces, property and palaces. From his successful marriage with Olimpia Aldobrandini five children were born: Giovanni Battista Pamphilj Aldobrandini (1648-1709), the future cardinal Benedetto (1653-1730) and three daughters: Flaminia (1651-1709), who married Prince Niccolò Pallavicini after her husband Bernardino Savelli died; Anna (1652-1728), who married Giovanni Andrea Doria, 3^rd Prince of Melfi on 25 October 1671; and Teresa (1654-1704) who married Carlo II Cibo Malaspina, Prince of Massa Carrara.

Olimpia Aldobrandini (Rome 20.4.1623 – 19.12.1681), Princess of Meldola, Sarsina and Rossano, was cultivated, intelligent and beautiful; she was the daughter of Giorgio Aldobrandini, Second Prince of Meldola, and of Princess Ippolita Ludovisi. In 1638, as last descendant and sole heir of the Aldobrandini family, she married Prince Paolo Borghese, who died on 24 June 1646. Resourceful and strong-willed, Olimpia caused an uproar by her excessively brief period of widowhood; on 10 February 1647 Camillo Pamphilj became her second husband, having renounced his status as Innocent X’s Cardinal Nephew.  Like Camillo, the Princess had a literary upbringing and shared his interests in poetry, painting and music. The marriage brought together two of the great fortunes of the period, laying the foundations for the creation of the Doria Pamphilj art collection, which has remained one the most important in the world. In 1648 Camillo and Olimpia settled in the palazzo on the Via del Corso, making substantial expansions and embellishments, and in time the bride’s art collection was displayed there together with the significant Pamphilj purchases made before and after the wedding. On Camillo’s early death in 1666, she continued work on this grand project, overseeing the completion of multiple buildings and enhancing the family’s prestige. The Pamphilj-Aldobrandini marriage produced five children, and the firstborn, Giovanni Battista, was the beneficiary of a dual inheritance (Pamphilj primogeniture and Aldobrandini secondogeniture), thus definitively uniting the goods of the two families.

Giovanni Battista Pamphilj Aldobrandini (Rome 24.6.1648 – 7.11.1709), oldest child of Camillo Pamphilj and Olimpia Aldobrandini and Duke of Carpineto, was the Pamphilj heir as well as being second son of the Aldobrandini family. At the death of his father Camillo in 1666, his boyhood inheritance included the titles of Prince of Valmontone and San Martino, and the family properties. He continued the work undertaken by Camillo, increasing the number of works of art and changing to his taste the furnishings and decorations of the family residences. In 1652, when still a child, he had the honour of laying the foundation stone for the construction of the Church of Sant’Agnese in Agone, under the patronage of the Pamphilj family, which was then completed and solemnly inaugurated by him on 17 January 1672. The prince carried out many other artistic projects and, like his father and grandmother, pursued “the ambitious goal of a life dedicated to supporting and celebrating the family glories, but above all to carrying out complex artistic projects using refined works of art and architecture”. As patron of the arts and in particular of music, which he also enjoyed playing, he attracted to his court the most important Roman musical talents of his time (Corelli, Scarlatti, Pasquini and Bononcini). He had five children by his wife Violante Facchinetti (1649-1716), whom he married by proxy on 17 July 1671: Olimpia (1672-1731), who married Filippo II Colonna, Prince of Paliano, on 25 November 1697; Innocenzo, a poet (1673-1695); Camillo (Filippo) junior (1675-1747) Prince of San Martino; Benedetto (born in 1676) who died in infancy; and Girolamo (1678-1760), Prince of San Martino, after whose passing the direct Pamphilj line became extinct.

Anna Pamphilj (Rome 12.2.1652 – Genoa 21.3.1728), the third daughter of Camillo and Olimpia Aldobrandini, was married – after long and complex negotiations – to the Genoese prince Giovanni Andrea III Doria Landi. The marriage, declared by proxy in Rome on 25 October 1671 in the chapel of the Palazzo Pamphilj on the Via del Corso, was then grandly celebrated in Genoa, where the bride had arrived by sea, between 7 and 30 November 1671. Educated in literature, drama and music, Anna was fully assimilated by the Genoese aristocracy while never losing touch with her own family, and especially with her beloved brother, Cardinale Benedetto Pamphilj, one of the most cultivated and refined figures of late seventeenth-century Rome, to whom she sent a number of sets of Genoese majolica dishes, among other gifts. Although they had not been acquainted, the young couple grew into a loving relationship, and the felicitous marriage produced six children. This union ultimately made it possible for the Doria Landi family to inherit from the Pamphilj when the male line of the latter became extinct with the death of Girolamo in 1760.

Benedetto Pamphilj (Rome 25.04.1653 – 22.3.1730), son of Prince Camillo and Olimpia Aldobrandini, Princess of Rossano, received a broad and refined education and on 6 December 1676 he obtained his degree in philosophy and theology from the Roman College. In 1678, he was appointed Grand Prior of the Order of Malta and elevated to cardinal on 1 September 1681. On 23 March 1685 he became Prefect of the Tribunal of the Apostolic Segnatura (Court) of Justice. Between 1690 and 1693, he was legate to Bologna and from 1699, Archpriest of the Lateran Basilica. Innocent XII made him Superintendent of the Civitavecchia aqueduct (1696-1703) and the port of Anzio (1700-1726), and then appointed him Cardinal Librarian of the Holy Roman Church on 26 February 1704. He was a cultured librarian and a member of the Accademia degli Umoristi, a poet, and later a member of the Arcadian Academy, where he was known as Fenicio Larisseo. He wrote about one hundred essays (some of the most famous were put to music by Handel) and was protector and patron of artists and musicians; he also enjoyed playing the guitar and lute. The theatrical performances produced in the villas outside the city with spectacular staging designed by the most popular artists of the time were memorable.

He was a passionate art collector and purchased an impressive number of works: approximately four hundred canvases, mostly landscapes and still lifes. In 1709, on his deathbed, his brother Giovanni Battista entrusted his children and the family estate to Benedetto’s “care and rare cordiality”. When Cardinal Benedetto died without a will, all his properties passed to his nephews Camillo Filippo Jr. and Girolamo Pamphilj Aldobrandini.

Andrea IV Doria Pamphilj Landi (Genoa 30.10.1747 – Rome 28.3.1820) was baptized Giorgio, but changed his name in 1759, at the request of his father, Giovanni Andrea IV Doria Landi, after his two older brothers died. He spent his childhood in Fassolo, in the Ligurian family estate where he was privately tutored and cultivated his passion for music. He was given the title of Prince of Melfi in December 1764 and was the first of the family to add the surname Landi, due to hereditary circumstances following the death of the last member of the Roman branch of the family, Girolamo Pamphilj Aldobrandini. He received one of the most substantial inheritances of the Roman aristocracy and began a remarkable career with high-level positions and benefices thanks to his loyalty to Spain. His political career was complex, showing his ability to safeguard his interests even during such a difficult period for the aristocracy. In 1766, Charles III of Spain named him Grandee of Spain, first class. On May 17, 1767, he married Princess Leopolda of Savoy Carignano and they had nine children. He decided to take up residence in the Pamphilj Palace on via del Corso that had just been restored on 20 June of that year. The family’s social and cultural activities took on new strength and prestige, and exquisite receptions and celebrations were held in honour of Spain’s rulers. As evidence of the ongoing privileged relations between the prince and the Spanish court, on June 5, 1781, the King agreed to be godfather of the newborn Doria Pamphilj child, who was given the name Charles in his honour, and in 1789, Charles IV awarded Andrea IV the most prestigious European order of knighthood, the Order of the Golden Fleece. As a member of the Arcadian Academy he was known as Idaro Tessalico. He was also a member of the Guild of Saint Luke, and loved poetry, music and literature, amassing a great family library.

Teresa Orsini di Gravina (Gravina di Puglia 23.3.1788 – Rome 3.7.1829), was the oldest child of Domenico Prince of Solofra and Faustina Caracciolo of the princely della Torella family. She lost her father at the age of two and was entrusted by her grandfather Filippo to the Sisters of the Sapienza in Naples. Aged twelve, Teresa was sent to Rome to complete her studies with the Ursuline nuns and the Benedictines of Tor de’ Specchi. On 2 October 1808 she married Prince Luigi Giovanni Andrea V Doria Pamphilj Landi, by whom she had four children whom she loved dearly and brought up personally. The image of a Roman noblewoman – much courted, respected and admired, and honoured for her wealth, extraordinary beauty, and intelligence – she was totally committed to public charity, succouring the sick, the disenfranchised and those rejected by the society of her time. Although she belonged to one of the most illustrious Roman families, she successfully balanced social duties and charity work. She organized numerous charitable projects and was always present and ready to personally nurse both physical and spiritual wounds. On 16 May 1821, she founded the Congregation of Hospital Sisters of Mercy within Rome’s Hospital of San Giovanni, with the aim of bringing relief to those who had been abandoned in hospital. This was the first among the Roman female religious congregations, and on 11 July 1827 it received the approval of Pope Leo XII; it remains active worldwide. Known as the “martyr of charity”, Teresa died prematurely at the age of 41, mourned by the whole city and in the odour of sanctity. On 13 November 1998 Cardinale Camillo Ruini opened the Diocesan process of Teresa Orsini Doria Pamphilj Landi, Servant of God, and she was beatified on 15 May 2009.

Filippo Andrea V Doria Pamphilj Landi (Roma 28.9.1813 – 19.3.1876), Prince of Melfi, second child of Prince Luigi Giovanni Andrea V and Teresa Orsini of the Dukes of Gravina. The death of his older brother Andrea in 1836 and that of his father in 1838 left him with weighty responsibilities in the management of the extensive family properties. In 1839 he married Mary Alethea Beatrix Talbot of the Earls of Shrewsbury. Committed to social work, he had a deep interest in agricultural innovation and financial institutions; he also held important political posts and was appointed Papal Minister of Arms on 4 May 1848 and Senator of the new Kingdom of Italy on 1 December 1870, among the conservatives. He was involved with other nobles in guaranteeing a strong social and public presence alongside the pontifical court, becoming a lay representative of the city: contemporary records speak of his lavish hospitality but also of his commitment to charity, assuring him of popularity and approval from the people of Rome. Driven by a deeply devout character, he was against secular politics and opposition to the Papacy, and like other Roman nobles he partly rejected Italy’s evolution towards democracy, retiring to a quiet domestic life while retaining involvement in Rome’s city council, and spending long periods in Italian and foreign locations, above all in England. He had seven children: Teresa Maria (1840-1923), who married Duke Emilio Massimo; Giovanni Andrea VI (Giannetto, 1843-1890); Luigi Andrea (1845-1847); Guendalina (1846-1922), who married Gian Luca Cavazzi della Somaglia; Leopolda (1849-1850); Alfonso (1851-1914), Prince of Melfi; and Olimpia (1854-1929), who married Fabrizio Colonna, Prince of Avella.

Mary Alethea Beatrix Talbot of the Earls of Shrewsbury (29.5.1815 – Roma 18.12.1858), daughter of John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, “the most prominent British catholic” of his time, had an exemplary Catholic upbringing. As strong believers in the educational value of travel, the Talbots would spend a good part of the winter on the Continent, and their two daughters acquired a perfect command of French, German and Italian. As members of one of the most important British Catholic families, they were received by European nobility wherever they went. In 1832 Mary Alethea Beatrix was created princess by King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and on 4 April 1839 she married Prince Filippo Andrea V Doria Pamphilj Landi, by whom she had seven children. She was much loved in Rome – together with her sister Gwendolyn, wife of Marcantonio Borghese – for her religious devotion and charitable work. With the cooperation of wealthy Roman families, she regularly visited the homes of the poor and indigent, bringing food, clothing and medicine to the needy.

Alfonso Doria Pamphilj Landi (Roma 25.9.1851 – 5.12.1914), Duke of Avigliano second son of Filippo Andrea V, took the title of Prince of Melfi in 1890 on the death of his brother Giovanni Andrea VI. He and his wife Emily were the parents of Filippo Andrea VI (1886-1958), Orietta (1887-1969), who married Count Febo Borromeo d’Adda on 8 January 1906, and Giovanni Andrea (1890-1895). After the occupation of Rome in 1870 Prince Alfonso spent time in voluntary military service in northern Italy. On his return to the new capital, he played a special role, like other Roman nobles, in the liaison and mediation between Crown Prince Umberto and the city, at various social levels: both aristocratic, maintaining the family tradition of lavish hospitality, and popular, where by similar tradition the family continued to exert influence in the world of charity. Established charitable institutions were now accopmanied by new initiatives: Prince Alfonso became the first president of the National Social Security Fund for aged and infirm workers, vice-president of the Red Cross, and among the founders of a school for professional nurses, an institute for foundlings, a public limited company for the housing of the working class and poor, and a mutual aid society. Apart from the management of his extensive properties (in 1902 he received a gold medal for agricultural merit) and a flourishing new activity as horse breeder, the prince, supported by a broad range of acquaintances in England, made a decisive move away from banking and finance to business. He was on the board of several companies, including the Lloyd Italiano shipping line, and was involved with building businesses and industry. In 1894 he became a Senator of the Kingdom, and maintained a great interest in art.

Emily Augusta Mary Pelham Clinton of the Dukes of Newcastle-under-Lyne (London 28.4.1863 – Roma 23.12.1919) married Prince Alfonso in London on 24 June 1882, and they had three children:  Filippo VI (1886-1958), Orietta (1887-1969) and Giovanni Andrea (1890-1895), who died prematurely. A Catholic, she was beautiful and cultivated, and devoted her life to charitable activities; during the First World War she headed the Roman Committee for Soldiers’ Funds and the Women’s Workshops for Civil Assistance, which had their headquarters in the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in the years 1915-1919.

Filippo Andrea VI Doria Pamphilj (Rome 1.3.1886 – 13.2.1958), Prince of Melfi, son of Alfonso and Emily Pelham Clinton of the Dukes of Newcastle.

He suffered ill health due to a chronic disease of the spine and led a particularly reserved life. He married a Scotswoman, Gesine Dykes, and they had one daughter, Orietta, in 1922. Upon his father’s death in 1914, he inherited the great family wealth, consisting mainly of land and housing estates, and dedicated his entire life to managing them and supporting numerous charitable organisations and cultural institutions, especially in Rome. He became increasingly isolated with the advent of Fascism which he deeply and openly opposed in both word and deed. His most resounding act of opposition occurred on 18 November 1935, when he refused to hang the Italian flag from the windows of his palace, on the occasion of the donation of wedding rings in the nearby Piazza Venezia, provoking violent Fascist reactions; during the same period, he refused to let Hitler visit the palace. On 1 September 1939, after King Vittorio Emanuele III refused to receive him, he sent a letter to the King begging him not to involve the Italians in a tragic venture alongside Germany, and on 13 August 1940, on Mussolini’s direct order, he was exiled, though later released in November 1941 for health reasons. During the German occupation, he hid in the Roman neighbourhood of Trastevere, but continued secretly to help the poor. The Allies defined him a man of other times (“a true mediaeval saint, with an immaculate reputation”, in the words of the British statesman Harold Macmillan) and, with the consent of the Prime Minister Ivanoe Bonomi and of the National Liberation Committee, he was appointed mayor of Rome on 13 June 1944. Filippo Andrea VI went down in the history of the city for having concluded his first speech to the population with the plea “volémose bene!” (“let’s love each other!”, in Roman dialect), which was an invitation to stay united when facing the grave and widespread problems of post-war reconstruction, and he always remained true to his ideal of the city’s apolitical unity. The mayoral elections of 1946 exacerbated the complex municipal administration and therefore, at the end of that year, Filippo Andrea resigned and retired again to his private life, devoting his energy to charity.