BRASCHI, FAMIGLIA. — Setting aside the supposed origins attributed to it, one may suppose that it came from northern Italy, whence a captain named FRANCESCO came to Romagna; his son was captain of Cesena in 1471.
The B. of Tavernelle must be distinguished from those of the Servi, so designated after the districts in which they lived. The latter family, for which documents exist concerning an ANDREA living in 1548, was the family to which GIOVANNI ANGELO, later Pius VI, belonged. To prevent its extinction, he summoned to continue it the sons of his sister Giulia Francesca, who was married to Count Girolamo Onesti.
The elder of these, LUIGI, came to Rome in November 1779, when his marriage to Costanza Falconieri was already being arranged and was in fact contracted; in July 1781 he purchased a beautiful estate at Terracina and was negotiating the purchase of Nemi from the Frangipani family.
On 8 February 1783 Gaetano Marini, writing to his friend Fantuzzi, bitterly recalled the extremely rich gifts that Costanza B. had received from the court of France and those she expected from the court of Spain: « thus the sources of men’s benevolence will always remain open to this family, and it will become one of the principal families in the country at a time when the Popes can do so little » (p. 227). In January 1785 B. received from the court of Turin the Cross of S. Maurizio, with a pension of 2,000 scudi (p. 259); in December 1786 « he was declared duke of Nemi and a grandee of Spain of the first class » (p. 283); in February 1788 he was appointed senator of Bologna; he received his share in the Lepri donation, which gave rise to so many discussions in those years. Marini wrote on 30 April 1788: « The duke B. is truly marvellous at taking, and will remain so as long as God wills; there is no one who can boast of having received a substantial gift from him, and say the same of all his family » (p. 302).
On 3 February 1791 construction began, according to designs by the architect Cosimo Marelli of Imola and after the destruction of the palace of Prince Caracciolo di S. Buono in Parione, on the family’s imposing palace; but Duke B., who had also become unpopular because of certain speculations, was in danger of his life at the time of the French invasion. By a letter of 12 February 1797 Pius VI charged B., together with Cardinal Mattei, Msgr. Caleppi, and the Marquis Camillo Massimi, with negotiating peace with Napoleon, who had occupied the Legations. The extremely onerous treaty was signed by them at Tolentino on the 19th; but the B. family suffered greatly in its property from the French occupation under General Berthier. Perhaps for this reason, when Napoleon, as emperor, made Rome an imperial city in 1809, taking it from the Pope, B. accepted the new system of government and became maire of Rome.
With the return of Pius VII in 1814, he was pardoned like many others; he died in Rome itself on 9 February 1816.
ROMUALDO, Luigi’s younger brother, born in 1753, was summoned to Rome, where, having become his uncle’s majordomo in 1780, he was created cardinal deacon of S. Nicola in Carcere on 18 December 1786 and was much celebrated on that account. Marini announced an imminent consistory, « perhaps to open the nephew’s mouth, after which consider how much he will eat, having eaten so much and eating with his mouth closed »; he added, however: « This new cardinal is, at heart, an excellent man and is universally loved » (p. 285). He took part in the Conclave of Venice following his uncle’s death; he passed to the diaconia of S. Maria del Pantheon on 3 April 1800; he became secretary of Briefs and camerlengo, and was also
grand prior of the Order of Malta and archpriest of the Vatican basilica; he accompanied Pius VII to Paris in November 1804; in February 1809 he was forced to leave Rome by order of Napoleon; he returned with the Restoration and died there on 30 April 1817. He was buried in the Vatican grottoes.