BONCOMPAGNI, FAMILY. — According to tradition, it originated in Umbria, but we find it in Bologna, where it belonged to the “middling class.” CRISTOFORO (b. 1470, d. 1546) was a merchant and secured a certain degree of prosperity for his family; he married Angela Marescalchi, by whom he had four children, one of whom, Ugo, later became Pope Gregorio XIII. At first, he showed himself reluctant to favor his relatives, but later contributed to establishing the family’s greatness. A second increase in its fortunes came when GREGORIO, Ugo’s son, married Ippolita Ludovisi (1681), the last heiress of that family; thus the B. became princes of Piombino and Venosa and added to the B.’s dragon with its severed tail the Ludovisi’s three gold bands in their coat of arms. The principality of Piombino remained with the B. until the Napoleonic invasion; they asserted their patrimonial rights at the Congress of Vienna (1815), with the settlement of a cash payment by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, into which Piombino was incorporated. In the eighteenth century PIETRO GREGORIO B., through his marriage to Maria Francesca, the last of the Ottoboni, added her surname to that of the Ottoboni, while adopting their coat of arms.
Although remaining faithful to Spain, the B. played no important part in the politics of their time.
GIACOMO B. was the son whom Ugo had in 1548, outside of lawful marriage, ten years before entering Holy Orders. After his father became Pope, he appointed him castellan of Castel S. Angelo in May 1572 and commander of the papal troops in April 1573. On the occasion of his marriage, on 25 February 1576, the Pope legitimized him; he married the wealthy Countess Costanza Sforza di S. Fiora and thereby entered the high Roman nobility. B. acquired his major possessions later: the marquisate of Vignola (in 1578), the duchy of Sora (in 1580), and the county of Arpino, all outside the Papal States, in whose government he played no part. He acquired the palace that was named after him, the Palazzo di Sora, near the Vallicella. Upon the Pope’s death he was forced to leave Rome and take refuge in Lombardy; he did not return to Rome until the pontificate of Clemente VIII. Soon afterward, however, he went to Sora, where he died on 26 August 1612, leaving his titles and possessions to his son.
FILIPPO B., the son of Boncompagno, the Pope’s brother, was created cardinal of the Holy State at the age of thirty-five on 15 May 1572, so that he might remain at his uncle’s side as cardinal-nephew; but, being as insignificant as he was inexperienced, he left the management of the Secretariat to Cardinal Gallio. He was legate to Venice to greet Enrico III, King of France, who had come from Poland in 1574; archpriest of S. Maria Maggiore (1581); and major penitentiary. Upon his uncle’s death he supported the Farnese candidacy, but later reached an agreement in favor of that of the Cardinal of Montalto. He died in Rome on 9 June 1586 and was buried at S. Maria Maggiore.
The Pope did not show the same favor toward CRISTOFORO B., Cardinal Filippo’s brother, who was appointed archbishop of Ravenna only on 15 October 1578 and went to take up his residence there at the beginning of 1579. The following year he began the pastoral visitation, which he conducted with great diligence; he repeated it in 1582. He also convened four diocesan synods and one provincial synod (1582), displaying genuine zeal in the governance of the diocese. He died in September 1604.
The cardinalate returned to the B. family with a grandnephew of Gregorio XIII, FRANCESCO; born at Sora in 1596, he was created cardinal by Gregorio XV on 19 April 1621 and appointed archbishop of Naples on 2 March 1626. He subsequently lived in a reputation for holiness on account of his piety and charity. He died on 9 December 1641. The B. family gave the Church three other cardinals. GIROLAMO, the preceding cardinal’s nephew, born at Isola di Sora on 22 March 1622, became archbishop of Bologna on 11 December 1651. He was major-domo of the Apostolic Palace in June 1660 and was created cardinal on 14 January 1664. He died at Bologna on 24 January 1684.
GIACOMO B., nephew of Cardinal Girolamo, born at Sora on 19 May 1653, a Knight of Malta and governor first of Orvieto and then of Fermo, was appointed archbishop of Bologna on 15 April 1690 and subsequently cardinal by Innocenzo XII on 12 December 1695. As the Pope’s legate, he blessed at Modena the marriage of the future Emperor Giuseppe I to Guglielmina Amalia of Brunswick-Luneburg, and received Maria Casimira, Queen of Poland, in Bologna with great magnificence. He had a more noble monument to Gregorio XIII erected in the Vatican Basilica. On 19 June 1724 he also received the suburbicarian see of Albano, and died in Rome on 24 March 1731.
IGNAZIO B. LUDOVISI, born in Rome on 18 June 1793, was vice-legate at Bologna and devoted himself extensively to hydraulic engineering for the regulation of the waters of that region. Created cardinal deacon of S. Maria in Portico (from which he later transferred to the Pantheon and then to S. Maria in Via Lata) on 17 July 1775 and published on 13 November, he went to Bologna as cardinal legate. Upon the death of Cardinal Pallavicino (23 February 1785), after much hesitation Pio VI appointed him Secretary of State in June; B., however, left Bologna only reluctantly, and, variously judged, on 17 August. He was a friend of Cardinal de Bernis and of Azara, the Spanish chargé d’affaires, and was agreeable to Giuseppe II. He did not lack intelligence or learning and took pleasure in the friendship of scholars; but he was accused of turning night into day and of having lax morals. He soon lost the Pope’s confidence, so that he resigned and left Rome on 12 June 1789, returning there in December “having become kinder and more courteous,” as Gaetano Marini wrote. Having gone to the Bagni di Lucca for treatment, he died there on 9 August 1790.
In more recent times, the family B. was honored by
Prince BALDASSARE, a distinguished scholar and researcher in the history of mathematics and the author of highly esteemed memoirs.
UGO B. LUDOVISI, born in 1856 to Rodolfo, Prince of Piombino; having been widowed twice, he became a priest and was made a Vatican canon and vice-camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church. He died in Rome on 9 November 1935.
He published: Ricordi di mia madre Ágnesa Borghese B. Ludovisi (Roma 1921); Lettere di una signora romana del sec. XVIII: Eleonora B. Ludovisi (ivi 1935); Roma nel Rinascimento (Albano-Laziale 1928-29), in four volumes, which did not meet with favor; Vita della ven. Camilla Orsini Borghese (Roma 1931), and several other hagiographical works. After the demolition of the Palazzo di Piombino in Piazza Colonna, he built the Palazzo B. on Via Vittorio Veneto.