Borghese

BORGHESE. -
We find this family in Siena, where its members appear in the 13th century as jurists, city officials, and orators. In the 15th century AGOSTINO had missions to Venice and was created a count by Emperor Sigismund with the right to bear an eagle in the family coat of arms. The B. subsequently held offices in Rome, until MARCANTONIO, to escape the city's tumults, moved there permanently around the middle of the 16th century and had his mother and sister come to join him there in 1554. He acquired such great standing as to become dean of the consistorial advocates and to be the defender of Cardinal Morone when the latter was accused before the tribunal of the Inquisition (d. 1574). From his marriage to Flaminia Astalli five children were born, of whom the third, CAMILLO, later became Pope Paul V, and two daughters, one of whom entered the Caffarelli household as a bride. Of the brothers, ORAZIO died still young; with Paul V, FRANCESCO was created general of Holy Church and married Ortensia Santacroce, while GIOVANNI BATTISTA became castellan of Castel Sant'Angelo and married Virginia Lante. From this marriage was born MARCO ANTONIO, who married Camilla Orsini and became prince of Sulmona and grandee of Spain; this was the first step toward entering the princely nobility. Their son PAOLO in turn married Olimpia Aldobrandini, heiress of Gian Giorgio, and through this the principality of Rossano in Calabria entered the house of B. Meanwhile, in 1637 MARCO ANTONIO had bought the fief of Palombara; and further acquisitions subsequently increased the splendor of the family, which continued without notable particular distinction 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 substance entered the house of B. Their children were: CAMILLO (d.

in 1825), who married Paolina, sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, by whom he had no children, and FRANCESCO, who married Adele Maria de la Rochefoucault and who, on his brother's death, assumed the title of prince B. When the latter died in 1839 he wished that the firstborn, MARCO ANTONIO, should continue to bear the name of the B., that CAMILLO should assume that of the Aldobrandini, and SCIPIONE that of the Salviati. It was these three gentlemen who helped keep alive the dignity of the high Roman nobility through the vicissitudes of the 19th century with sincere devotion to the papal cause.

MARCANTONIO, who had been born in Paris on 23 February 1814, had married there 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 a lively part in city life through the founding of popular schools and infant asylums, by contributing to the founding of the savings bank, and by encouraging attempts at land reclamation. Deeply attached to Pius IX and his reforms, he was conservator of Rome and deputy for Rome and Ronciglione; he later followed Pius IX to Gaeta; while in Rome the revolutionaries took their revenge by devastating his celebrated suburban villa and damaging his buildings. He proved himself a most beneficent gentleman and took an active part in the public life of the last decades of the Papal State. He died at Frascati on 6 October 1886.

His son PAOLO, b. in Rome in 1845, a promoter after 1871 of the participation of Catholics in the life of the Commune, founded in 1877, together with Marquis Baviera, C. L. Visconti and Paolo di Campello, that Unione romana which played so great a part in the public life of Rome until 1919.

CAMILLO ALDOBRANDINI, b. in Florence on 16 November 1816, was a colonel in the Civic Guard and minister of arms in the Antonelli cabinet in 1848 and later president of the Commission for the London universal exposition of 1862, in which the pontifical government took part; in 1867 he organized in the Aldobrandini palace at Sant'Agata dei Goti the work of the Relief Committee for the wounded; and after 1870, at the invitation of the Roman Union of Catholics, he took part in the Councils of the province and of the commune. He died in Rome on 5 June 1902.

SCIPIONE SALVIATI, b. in Paris on 23 June 1823, married Arabella Fitz-James in 1849; he had a great part after 1870 in the «Society for Catholic Interests» and with his wife founded the Bambino Gesù hospital for the care of children and gave it continual growth. Today it forms part of the pontifical charitable institutions. He died in Rome in July 1892.

Paolo Dalla Torre