
The Archives
Because of the role played by the Doria and Pamphilj families in Italian history over the centuries, the Doria Pamphilj Historical Archives are not only a collection of documents relating to the history and affairs of the family, but also a source of national preeminent interest.
The Archives consist of tens of thousands of documents belonging to various Italian noble families (Della Rovere, Aldobrandini, Pamphilj, Doria Landi, Doria Pamphilj, Facchinetti, Colonna, Borghese, Savoia, and many more) that were collected through their marriages and inheritances, to form an extraordinarily rich resource.
The Doria Archives were first created in Genoa by Admiral Andrea Doria (1466-1560), and include both paper and parchment documents produced from the 9th to 20th centuries relating to the assets and activities of the family. Prince Giovanni Andrea II Doria enriched the Archives with the Landi records through his marriage to Maria Polissena, sole heir of Federico Prince of Valditaro and Lord of Bardi and Compiano, in 1627.
The Pamphilj family owed much of its fortune to a shrewd marriage policy. Amongst the most renowned of these unions was that between Pamphilio Pamphilj and Olimpia Maidalchini in 1612, which essentially gave birth to the dynasty. Donna Olimpia was a cunning businesswoman; she furthered the successful ecclesiastic career of her brother-in-law Giovanni Battista Pamphilj, later elected Pope Innocent X (1644-1655). Another illustrious marriage was celebrated in 1646 between Prince Camillo and Princess Olimpia Aldobrandini, sole heiress to one of most important Italian artistic and financial fortunes of the time. Thanks to the union between Giovan Battista Pamphilj and Violante Facchinetti in 1671 the Facchineti family records were added to the Archives, and other masterpieces became part of the Pamphilj collection. The marriage between Giovanni Andrea III Doria Landi and the great-niece of Pope Innocent X, Anna Pamphilj, celebrated in 1671, led, one hundred years later, to the fusion of the two sources that make up the present Doria Pamphilj Historical Archives, which has continued to grow since then thanks to the documents produced by the subsequent generations of the family to this day.
The Archives’ current site was built by the architect Andrea Busiri Vici in 1876, when all of the documents stored in Genoa and in the family’s various Italian estates and properties, were brought to Rome and summarily inventoried.
The Doria Pamphilj Archives are open to academics and researchers by appointment. For further information please contact: archivio@doriapamphilj.it