BORGHESE. –
We find this family in Siena, where its members appear in the 13th century as jurists, civic officials, and orators. In the 15th century AGOSTINO undertook missions to Venice and was created a count by the Emperor Sigismund, with the right to bear an eagle in the family coat of arms. The B. subsequently held offices in Rome, until MARCANTONIO, in order to escape the civic disturbances, moved there permanently around the middle of the sixteenth century and brought his mother and sister there in 1554. He acquired great influence, eventually becoming dean of the consistorial advocates and defending Cardinal Morone when the latter was accused before the tribunal of the Inquisition (d. in 1574). From his marriage to Flaminia Astalli were born five children, the third of whom, CAMILLO, later became Pope Paul V, and two daughters, one of whom married into the Caffarelli family. Of the brothers, ORAZIO died while still young; under Paul V, FRANCESCO was created general of the Holy Church and married Ortensia Santacroce, while GIOVANNI BATTISTA became castellan of Castel S. Angelo and married Virginia Lante. From this marriage was born MARCO ANTONIO, who married Camilla Orsini and became prince of Sulmona and a grandee of Spain; this was the first step toward entering the princely nobility. Their son PAOLO in turn married Olimpia Aldobrandini, heir of Gian Giorgio, and for this reason the principality of Rossano in Calabria entered the B. family. Meanwhile, in 1637 MARCO ANTONIO had purchased the fief of Palombara; other acquisitions subsequently increased the family’s splendor, though it continued without any particularly extensive involvement in the public life of the time. Toward the end of the 18th century, another MARCO ANTONIO married Marianna Salviati, and through her the Salviati fortune entered the B. family. Their children were: CAMILLO (d.
in 1825), who married Paolina, the sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, by whom he had no children, and FRANCESCO, who married Adele Maria de la Rochefoucault and, upon his brother’s death, assumed the title of prince B. When he died in 1839, he wished the firstborn, MARCO ANTONIO, to continue bearing the name of the B., CAMILLO to assume that of the Aldobrandini, and SCIPIONE that of the Salviati. These three gentlemen helped to keep alive the dignity of the high Roman nobility through the events of the 19th century, with sincere devotion to the papal cause.
MARCANTONIO, who was born in Paris on 23 Febr.
1814, had there married Guendalina Talbot of Shrewsbury, a woman of the highest spirit and great charity; he moved to Rome at the invitation of Gregory XVI and took an active part in civic life by founding popular schools and nursery schools, helping to establish the savings bank, and promoting land-reclamation efforts. Deeply attached to Pius IX and his reforms, he was conservative of Rome and deputy for Rome and Ronciglione; he then followed Pius IX to Gaeta, while in Rome the revo-
His son PAOLO, born in Rome in 1845, promoted after 1871 the participation of Catholics in the life of the Municipality; in 1877, together with the march. Baviera, C. L. Visconti, and Paolo di Campello, he founded that Unione romana, which played such an important role in the public life of Rome until 1919.
CAMILLO ALDOBRANDINI, born in Florence on 16 November 1816, was a colonel in the Civic Guard and Minister of War in the Antonelli cabinet in 1848, and subsequently president of the Commission for the 1862 Universal Exhibition in London, in which the Papal Government participated. In 1867 he organized in the Aldobrandini palace at S. Agata dei Goti the work of the Committee for Assistance to the Wounded; and after 1870, at the invitation of the Unione romana dei cattolici, he took part in the councils of the province and municipality. He died in Rome on 5 June 1902.
SCIPIONE SALVIATI, born in Paris on 23 June 1823, married Arabella Fitz-James in 1849. After 1870 he played a major role in the « Società per gli interessi cattolici » and, together with his wife, founded the Bambino Gesù hospital for the care of children and continually expanded II. Today it forms part of the charitable institutions of the Holy See. He died in Rome in July 1892.