ALTIERI. – A Roman family, already known in the Middle Ages, belonging to the middle nobility, which took an active part in the life of the city. The first to make a name for himself in the literary field was Marco Antonio (1450–1532), a pupil of Pomponio Leto and a friend of Bartolomeo Platina, the author of a novella, *L'Amorosa*, and of a curious volume, *Li Nuptiali*, in which, while describing Roman customs regarding marriage, he found occasion to recall events, families, and figures of his own age. He also deserves credit for restoring peace among the Roman barons in 1511; he was castellan of the Rocca of Viterbo, conservator of Rome, and envoy to the imperial camp in 1527.
After him, the so-called humanist tradition was revived by Rutilio (d. 1600), professor and rector of the *Studio*, and by Mario (d. 1613), of whom a treatise *De censuris ecclesiasticis* is printed; but the A. family sought better fortune and in the 17th century took the path of the prelacy. Lorenzo, in fact, brother-in-law of Gentile Delfino, bishop of Camerino, set two of his sons, Giovanni Battista and Emilio, on this path. The former became one of the most influential cardinals at the papal court; the latter, through various stages from auditor of the Rota to nuncio, rose to the papacy under the name of Clement X at almost eighty years of age, but still in time to secure for the family, which had no direct descendants, continuity through the Albertoni. For it was into this latter family that Laura Caterina, the last of the A., had married, and her husband Gasparre, his father, and his uncle Paluzzo took her surname; the latter was created cardinal and Secretary of State (cardinal-nephew), and it was he who created the new fortunes of the house.
The A.-Albertoni, later simply called A., who had already given to the Church, besides the cardinals and the pope mentioned above, also a blessed, BARBO, LUDOVICO (v.), continued to produce cardinals in the following two centuries: Lorenzo (1671–1741), Giovanni Battista (1673–1740), Vincenzo Maria (1724–1800), and Ludovico (v. below).