BRASCHI, FAMILY. - Leaving aside the supposed origins attributed to it, one may think that it derives from northern Italy, whence came to Romagna a captain FRANCESCO, whose son was in 1471 captain of Cesena.
A distinction must be drawn between the B. of the Tavernelle and those of the Servi, thus designated from the districts in which they lived. To the second house, for which documents exist concerning an ANDREA living in 1548, belonged the family of GIOVANNI ANGELO, later Pius VI. The latter, in order to avoid its extinction, called to continue it the sons of his sister Giulia Francesca, married to Count Girolamo Onesti.
The eldest of these, LUIGI, came to Rome in Nov. 1779, when his marriage to Costanza Falconieri was already being arranged for him, which was in fact contracted; in July 1781 he bought a fine estate at Terracina and was in negotiations for the purchase of Nemi from the Frangipani family.
On 8 Feb. 1783 Gaetano Marini, writing to his friend Fantuzzi, bitterly recalled the very rich gifts that Costanza B. had received from the court of France and those she awaited from the court of Spain: "thus to this family the funds of men's kindness will always be open, and it will become one of the principal families of the country at a time when the Popes can do so small a thing" (p. 227). In Jan. 1785 the B. received from the court of Turin the cross of St. Maurice with a pension of 2000 scudi (p. 259); in Dec. 1786 "he was declared duke of Nemi and grandee of Spain of the first class" (p. 283); in Feb. 1788 he was appointed senator of Bologna; he had his share in the Lepri donation, which gave occasion for so many discussions in those years. Marini wrote on 30 Apr. 1788: "The duke B. is truly marvellous at taking, and so he will be as long as God wills; there is no one who can boast of a conspicuous gift received from him, and say as much of all his family" (p. 302).
On 3 Feb. 1791, on the designs of the architect Cosimo Marelli of Imola, the grandiose family palace began to be built, destroying the palace of Prince Caracciolo of S. Buono at Parione; but the duke B., who had become unpopular also because of certain speculations, ran the risk of his life at the time of the French invasion. By letter of 12 Feb. 1797 Pius VI charged the B., together with Card. Mattei, with Mons. Caleppi and the Marquis Camillo Massimi, to negotiate peace with Napoleon, who had occupied the Legations. The very onerous treaty was signed by them at Tolentino on the 19th; but the house of B. had much to suffer in its substance from the French occupation under General Berthier. It was perhaps for this reason that when Napoleon as emperor constituted Rome an imperial city in 1809, taking it from the Pope, the B. accepted the new order and was maire of Rome.
With the return of Pius VII in 1814 he was pardoned like so many others; he died on 9 Feb. 1816 in Rome itself.
ROMUALDO, younger brother of Luigi, b. in 1753, was called to Rome, where, having become majordomo of his uncle in 1780, he was created cardinal deacon of S. Nicola in Carcere on 18 Dec. 1786 and was much celebrated for this. Marini announced a forthcoming consistory "perhaps to open the mouth of the nephew, after which think how much he will eat, having eaten so much and eating with his mouth closed"; he added however: "This new cardinal is at bottom most good and is universally loved" (p. 285). He took part in the Conclave of Venice after the death of his uncle; he passed to the deaconry of S. Maria del Pantheon on 3 Apr. 1800; he became secretary of the Briefs and camerlengo, was also grand prior of the Order of Malta and archpriest of the Vatican basilica; he accompanied Pius VII to Paris in Nov. 1804; in Feb. 1809 he was forced to leave Rome by order of Napoleon; he returned with the Restoration and died there on 30 Apr. 1817. He was buried in the Vatican grottoes.
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Pio Paschini