ALBERINI, MARCELLO. — Chronicler and keeper of memories, Roman historian, b. 1511, d. 1580. As a youth he witnessed the horrors of the Sack of Rome in 1527 and was deeply affected in his affections and possessions. He held honourable offices in the Commune of Rome. In 1570 he was superintendent of the printing house established by Paul IV, and in 1580, the year of his death, he was Conservator.
In 1547 he began to write a diary in the vernacular, which has come down to us in various manuscripts under the title Ricordi. In it he recorded public and private events, dwelling especially on the Sack of Rome. This often tendentious diary was widely drawn upon by contemporary and later chroniclers.
BIBL.: D. Orano, Il Sacco di Roma del 1527. Studi e documenti, I: «I Ricordi di M. A.», Roma 1901.