ALBANI, FAMILY. — Two Albanian refugees, Giorgio and Filippo di Michele de Lazi, who had already fought under Giorgio Castriota Scanderbeg, disdaining to remain in their homeland fallen under Turkish rule, took refuge in Urbino, where Federico and Guidobaldo di Montefeltro employed them in military and diplomatic negotiations. They took the surname Albanesi, which ALTOBELLO, son of Giorgio, changed to A. and passed on to his descendants, along with the considerable wealth accumulated in the hospitable duchy. From Altobello (1445–1564) was born Annibale (1530–91), and from Annibale, Orazio (1576–1653), who brought great distinction to the family because, sent as plenipotentiary by the last duke of Urbino to negotiate with Urban VIII the return of the State to the Holy See, he earned the honor of being elected a Roman senator. Of his sons, Annibale and Carlo, the former entered the ecclesiastical career and became prefect of the Vatican Library; the latter married a Mosca of Pesaro, a wealthy but non-noble family, and remained in Urbino to administer the family estates. Fortune was instead secured for the house by the son of Carlo I, Gian Francesco, who, leaving to his brother Orazio the task of perpetuating the lineage, became a priest and, settling in Rome, entered the government of the Papal State and rose to the summit of the papacy XI (v.).
According to the customs of the time, as a result of this election, the A. family obtained Roman patrician status, princely nobility, and curial offices, but not greater wealth, because Clement XI, faithful to the constitution of Innocent XII against nepotism, denied his brother and nephews both money and high dignities; only Annibale, son of his brother Orazio, was created cardinal; Alessandro, brother of Annibale, instead received the cardinalate from Innocent XIII. Of the other two cardinals of the A. family, Gian Francesco was the son of Carlo and Giuseppe of Orazio, brother of Cardinal Gian Francesco: both left a good memory of themselves. (For the individual cardinals see below).
The A. family died out in 1852 with Filippo, last son of Orazio III. Primogeniture and fideicommissa passed, not without disputes, to the Castelbarco-Simonetti-Visconti through Antonia Litta Arese, daughter of Elena, sister of Orazio III, and wife of a Castelbarco. The name nevertheless endures, not only because of the good pontificate of Clement XI, but also for the singular richness of the artistic collections that adorned the A. villa on the Via Salaria and the palace, formerly Mattei, at the Quattro Fontane. Unfortunately, these collections were dispersed, though in large part they ended up in the Vatican and Capitoline museums. A worse fate befell the library, which, sold to Prussia shortly after a century, was lost at sea off Civitavecchia. Even the library of Urbino, created by Clement XI, has in recent years been removed from its original location. — See Pl. XLVII.
Nobility: P. E. Visconti, *Storia di Roma. Titolo X. Famiglie Nobili*, III, Rome 1848, pp. 3–110, with reliable information drawn from family sources; F. Canuti, *Catalogo dei manoscritti che esistevano in Urbino nella biblioteca del papa Clemente XI*, Fano 1939, p. 13; Pastor, XIII, pp. 271–73; XV, p. 12.
Luigi Berra
Annibale. — Cardinal, b. at Urbino in 1682, d. at Rome in 1751. Brother of Alessandro and nephew of Clement XI, after serving as canon of St. Peter’s and president of the Apostolic Chamber, he was sent in 1709 as extraordinary nuncio to negotiate peace between the Austrian Empire and the German states, remaining in Vienna for two years. The result of his mission was the ratification of the election of Charles VI as emperor. He then went to the elector of Saxony, king of Poland, to regulate the situation of Catholics and, created cardinal in 1711, was first secretary of the Memorials, then camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church and archpriest of the Vatican Basilica. Bishop of Sabina in 1730, he held a synod whose decrees, published in 1737, were highly praised by Benedict XIV.
