ALDOBRANDINI

ALDOBRANDINI. — Florentine family, to which, more than ancient nobility of blood or the importance of offices held, its fame was given by the man who was raised to the tiara. The first to give it some distinction was SILVESTRO (1499–1558), chancellor of the Riformagioni of Florence, a skilled jurist, expelled by the Medici and having taken refuge in Rome under Paul III. There, having entered the papal magistracies, he earned the vicegerency of Bologna and, after brief absences during which he served the dukes of Ferrara and Urbino, became a consistorial advocate; under Paul IV, he was an instrument, in the hands of Cardinal Carlo Carafa, of anti-Spanish policy. Having fallen into disgrace with Paul IV and soon dying, he left six children, of whom one, TOMMASO, was secretary of Briefs (d. 1572), a second, GIOVANNI, was bishop of Imola and cardinal (d. 1573), a third, PIETRO, was fiscal advocate (d. 1587), and a fourth, IPPOLITO, was a consistorial advocate, auditor of the Rota, datary of Sixtus V, cardinal, and finally pope under the name of Clement VIII.
The latter was lavish in granting favors to his closest relatives: PIETRO, the son of his brother Pietro, was a cardinal and Secretary of State (v. sotto); CINZIO, the son of his sister Giulia, who had married Aurelio Personeni da Ca Passero, was likewise a cardinal and, together with his cousin, Secretary of State (v. sotto); GIAN FRANCESCO, husband of his niece Olimpia, destined to continue the family line, was for this reason amply provided with revenues. The latter had twelve children; of these, SILVESTRO was made a cardinal at the age of sixteen, IPPOLITO was a cardinal under Gregory XV, MARGHERITA was married to the duke of Parma, Ranuccio Farnese, and ELENA was given in marriage to a Carafa, a man of free morals. With the death of Cardinal Ippolito in 1637, the male line, so promising, became extinct, and the considerable wealth passed to OLIMPIA, daughter of Gian Francesco, who had first entered the Borghese family and then the Pamphili family. Finally, the inheritance passed to the Borghese princes. As a belated acknowledgment, in 1839 Prince Camillo Borghese assumed the name Aldobrandini, a name that also remained, most honorably, among later generations, attached to the urban villa from which the celebrated Nozze Aldobrandine came to light, and to the Tusculan villa, one of the largest and most splendid of the sixteenth century.