1.
Pope
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The pope is the Bishop of Rome and, therefore, the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013, the office of the pope is the papacy. The pope is considered one of the worlds most powerful people because of his diplomatic and he is also head of state of Vatican City, a sovereign city-state entirely enclaved within the Italian capital city of Rome. The papacy is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in world history, the popes in ancient times helped in the spread of Christianity and the resolution of various doctrinal disputes. In the Middle Ages, they played a role of importance in Western Europe. Currently, in addition to the expansion of the Christian faith and doctrine, the popes are involved in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, charitable work, Popes, who originally had no temporal powers, in some periods of history accrued wide powers similar to those of temporal rulers. In recent centuries, popes were gradually forced to give up temporal power, the word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning father. The earliest record of the use of title was in regard to the by then deceased Patriarch of Alexandria. Some historians have argued that the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, the writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around AD180 reflect a belief that Peter founded and organised the Church at Rome. Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peters presence in the early Roman Church, Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, c. 96, about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the struggles in our time and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, first, the greatest and most just columns, the good apostles Peter and Paul. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement and in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did. Given this and other evidence, many agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero. Protestants contend that the New Testament offers no proof that Jesus established the papacy nor even that he established Peter as the first bishop of Rome, others, using Peters own words, argue that Christ intended himself as the foundation of the church and not Peter. First-century Christian communities would have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as leaders of their local churches, gradually, episcopacies were established in metropolitan areas. Antioch may have developed such a structure before Rome, some writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome probably did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view, Linus, Cletus and Clement were possibly prominent presbyter-bishops, documents of the 1st century and early 2nd century indicate that the Holy See had some kind of pre-eminence and prominence in the Church as a whole, though the detail of what this meant is unclear. It seems that at first the terms episcopos and presbyter were used interchangeably, the consensus among scholars has been that, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters whose offices were overlapping or indistinguishable
2.
Pope Innocent XII
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Pope Innocent XII, born Antonio Pignatelli, was Pope from 12 July 1691 to his death in 1700. He took a stance against nepotism in the church, continuing the policies of Pope Innocent XI. To that end, he issued a papal bull strictly forbidding it, Antonio Pignatelli was born on 13 March 1615 in Spinazzola to one of the most aristocratic families of the Kingdom of Naples, which had included several Viceroys and ministers of the crown. He was the fourth of five children of Francesco Pignatelli and Porzia Carafa and his other siblings were Marzio, Ludovico, Fabrizio and Paola Maria. He was educated at the Collegio Romano in Rome where he earned a doctorate in canon and civil law. At the age of 20 he became an official of the court of Pope Urban VIII, Pignatelli was the Referendary of the Apostolic Signatura and served as the Governor of Fano and Viterbo. Later he went to Malta where he served as an inquisitor from 1646 to 1649, shortly after this, he received his priestly ordination. Pignatelli was made Titular Archbishop of Larissa in 1652 and received consecration in Rome. Pignatelli served as the Apostolic Nuncio to Poland from 1660 to 1668 and he was transferred to Lecce in 1671. Pope Innocent XI appointed him as the Cardinal-Priest of San Pancrazio in 1681 and he was moved to his final post as Archbishop of Naples in 1686. Pope Alexander VIII died in 1691 and the College of Cardinals assembled to hold a conclave to select his successor, factions loyal to the Kingdom of France, Kingdom of Spain and the broader Holy Roman Empire failed to agree on a consensus candidate. After five months, Cardinal Pignatelli emerged as a compromise candidate between the cardinals of France and those of the Holy Roman Empire, Pignatelli took his new name in honour of Pope Innocent XI and was crowned on 15 July 1691 by the protodeacon, Cardinal Urbano Sacchetti. He took possession of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran on 13 April 1692, immediately after his election on 12 July 1691, Innocent XII declared his opposition to the nepotism which had afflicted the reigns of previous popes. Further, only one relative was to be raised to the cardinalate, at the same time he sought to check the simony in the practices of the Apostolic Chamber and to that end introduced a simpler and more economical manner of life into his court. Innocent XII said that the poor were his nephews and compared his public beneficence to the nepotism of many predecessors, Innocent XII also introduced various reforms into the States of the Church including the Forum Innocentianum, designed to improve the administration of justice dispensed by the Church. In 1693 he compelled French bishops to retract the four propositions relating to the Gallican Liberties which had been formulated by the assembly of 1682. In 1699, he decided in favour of Jacques-Benigne Bossuet in that prelates controversy with Fénelon about the Explication des Maximes des Saints sur la Vie Intérieure of the latter, Innocent XII also created 30 cardinals in four consistories. He canonized Saint Zita of Lucca on 5 September 1696, Innocent XII beatified Augustin Kažotić on 17 July 1701 and approved the cultus of Angela of Foligno in 1693
3.
Pope Innocent XIII
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Pope Innocent XIII was born as Michelangelo dei Conti and was Pope from 8 May 1721 to his death in 1724. He is the last pope to date to take the name of Innocent upon his election. Pope Innocent XIII was reform-oriented, and he imposed new standards of frugality, Michelangelo dei Conti was born on 13 May 1655 in Poli, near Rome as the son of Carlo II, Duke of Poli, and Isabella dMonti. Like Pope Innocent III, Pope Gregory IX and Pope Alexander IV, he was a member of the family of the Conti. He included the family crest in his coats of arms. Conti commenced his studies in Ancona and then with the Jesuits in Rome at the Collegio Romano, after he received his doctorate in canon law and civil law, he was ordained to the priesthood. Conti also served as the Referendary of the Apostolic Signatura in 1691, Conti was also the Governor of Campagna and Marittima from 1692 to 1693 and the Governor of Viterbo from 1693 to 1695. Pope Innocent XII selected Conti as the Titular Archbishop of Tarso on 13 June 1695, Conti was also the nuncio to both Switzerland and Portugal. On 7 June 1706, Conti was elevated to the cardinalate and was made the Cardinal-Priest of Santi Quirico e Giulitta under Pope Clement XI and his appointment came about as the replacement of Gabriele Filippucci who declined the cardinalate. He would receive his titular church on 23 February 1711, while in Portugal, he was witness to Father Bartolomeu de Gusmãos early aerostat experiments. He was also transferred to Osimo as its archbishop in 1709 and was later translated one last time to Viterbo e Toscanella in 1712. He also served as Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals from 1716 to 1717, after the death of Pope Clement XI in 1721, a conclave was called to choose a new pope. It took 75 ballots just to reach a decision and choose Conti as the successor of Clement XI, after all candidates seemed to slip, support turned to Conti. The curial factions also turned their attention to him, in the morning of 8 May 1721, he was elected. He chose the name of Innocent XIII in honour of Pope Innocent III, on the following 18 May, he was solemnly crowned by the protodeacon, Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili. In 1721 his high reputation for ability, learning, purity, and his pontificate was prosperous, but comparatively uneventful. He held two consistories that saw three new cardinals elevated on 16 June 1721 and 16 July 1721, the Chinese Rites controversy that started under his predecessor continued during his reign. Innocent XIII prohibited the Jesuits from prosecuting their mission in China, the pope also assisted the Venetians in their struggles and also assisted Malta in its struggles against the Turks
4.
Cardinal de Bouillon
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Emmanuel Théodose de La Tour dAuvergne was a French prelate and diplomat, known as the Cardinal de Bouillon. The son of Frédéric Maurice de La Tour dAuvergne, Duke of Bouillon and his mother was Eleonora Catharina of the Bergh. As a member of the House of La Tour dAuvergne, he was a Foreign Prince, in 1658, he was appointed a canon of Liège, in 1667 doctor of the Sorbonne. He played some part in Turennes conversion to Catholicism in 1668 and had an important rôle as intermediary between his uncle and Louis XIV, created a cardinal in 1669, at the early age of twenty-four, he was provided with several rich benefices. In particular he was made Grand Almoner of France in 1671 and his brother Godefroy Maurice de La Tour dAuvergne was the next Duke of Bouillon. His oldest sister Élisabeth, married Charles III, Duke of Elbeuf, son of Charles II, Duke of Elbeuf and this was used to effect Bouillons downfall at court. He carried out the nuptials between Philippe dOrléans, Duke of Chartres and Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Blois at Versailles on 18 February 1692, Mademoiselle de Blois was an illegitimate daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. The cardinal then put forth efforts to obtain the vacant Prince-Bishopric of Liège, but could not overcome the opposition of Louvois. He eventually regained the favour and was sent as ambassador to Rome. While there, Bouillon employed the sculptor Pierre Le Gros to carve the main components of the tomb he planned to erect for his parents at the Abbey of Cluny. Contrary to the wishes of his king, he championed the cause of Fénelon against that of Bossuet and did all he could to prevent the condemnation of Fénelons Explication des maximes des Saints. He was recalled to France, but he hesitated to obey the Royal order since he was next in line for the office of Dean of the Sacred College, the death of the pope and the subsequent conclave further delayed departure and Bouillons property in France was then seized. When he eventually submitted and returned to France, he was first exiled to his Abbey of Tournus, soon given a little freedom of movement. This prevented him from defending himself against the monks of Cluny who sought a parliament ruling against Bouillons rule over them, with similar motives in mind as for his tomb project in Cluny, i. e. After losing his appeal to uphold his rule over the Cluniac monks in 1710, Bouillon wrote an insulting letter to the king. A warrant for his arrest was issued by the Royal Parliament, only now, because of the dynastic pretentions expressed in them, Baluzes Histoire was banned and the building of the tomb at Cluny prevented. Bouillon soon went to take up his residence at Rome, where he spent his last days as a guest of the Jesuits in the Jesuit novitiate at SantAndrea al Quirinale, where he was eventually buried. While bishop, he was the consecrator of, Uldericus Nardi, Bishop of Bagnoregio, Giulio Dalla Rosa, Bishop of Borgo San Donnino
5.
Pope Alexander VIII
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Pope Alexander VIII, born Pietro Vito Ottoboni, was Pope from 6 October 1689 to his death in 1691. He is the last pope to take the name of Alexander upon his election to the papacy. Pietro Vito Ottoboni was born in 1610 of a noble Venetian family and his early studies were made with marked brilliancy at the University of Padua where, in 1627, he earned a doctorate in canon and civil law. He also served as the auditor of the Sacred Roman Rota, Pope Innocent X appointed him to the cardinalate and in 1652 at the request of the Venetian government and he was made the Cardinal-Priest of San Salvatore in Lauro. He was appointed as Bishop of Brescia in 1654 and later received episcopal consecration in the church of San Marco in Rome and he would spend a quiet decade in his diocese. He opted to be Cardinal-Priest of San Marco in 1660 and resigned as Bishop of Brescia in 1664, Ottoboni also opted to become Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Trastevere in 1677 and later as Cardinal-Priest of Santa Prassede in 1680. He later became the Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina in 1681 and then to Frascati in 1683 and his last swap was that of Porto e Santa Rufina in 1687. Ottoboni was also the Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals from 1687 to his pontifical election and he chose the pontifical name of Alexander VIII in gratitude to Cardinal Flavio Chigi, the nephew of Pope Alexander VII, who also had helped support his candidacy. Ottoboni was crowned as pontiff on 16 October 1689 by the protodeacon Cardinal Francesco Maidalchini, old but of a strong constitution, Alexander VIII was said to be an able diplomat. During his brief pontificate he managed to destroy most of his predecessors good work, all the money saved by Innocent XI was spent on enriching the Ottoboni family and to a cardinal he said, I have no time to lose, for me the day is almost done. Alexander VIII was almost an octogenarian when elected to the papacy, charities on a large scale and unbounded nepotism exhausted the papal treasury, reversing the policies of his predecessor. His nephew Giovanni Rubin was made secretary of state and bishop of Vicenza, out of compassion for the poor of the impoverished Papal States, he sought to help them by reducing taxes. He bought the books and manuscripts of Queen Christina of Sweden for the Vatican Library, Alexander VIII assisted his native Venice by generous subsidies in the war against the Turks, as well as sending seven galleys and 2,000 infantry for the campaign in Albania. In 1690 he condemned the doctrines of the so-called philosophical sin and he also held three consistories that saw 14 new cardinals elevated. Alexander VIII confirmed the cultus of Kinga of Poland on 11 June 1690 which served as the beatification, on 16 October 1690, he canonized several saints, Ss. Pascal Baylon, Lorenzo Giustiniani, John of Sahagun, John of God, Alexander VIII died on 1 February 1691. His grandiose tomb in St. Peters was commissioned by his grandnephew, Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, the bas-relief at the base and the flanking figures were sculpted by Angelo de Rossi, while the bronze statue of the pope was cast by Giuseppe Bertosi. Cardinals created by Alexander VIII Rendina, Claudio, attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Alexander
6.
Urbino
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The town, nestled on a high sloping hillside, retains much of its picturesque medieval aspect, an illusion only slightly broken by the large car parks below the town. It hosts the University of Urbino, founded in 1506, and is the seat of the Archbishop of Urbino and its best-known architectural piece is the Palazzo Ducale, rebuilt by Luciano Laurana. The city is located in a hilly area, at the foothills of the Northern Apennines. The city is in the area of Montefeltro, an area classified as medium-high seismic risk. In the database of earthquakes developed by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology and they include 24 April 1741, when the shocks were stronger than VIII on the Mercalli intensity scale, with an epicenter in Fabriano. Though Pepin the Short presented Urbino to the Papacy in 754–56, independent traditions were expressed in its commune, until, around 1200, eventually, though, the Montefeltro noblemen took control once more, and held it until 1508. The most famous member of the Montefeltro family, Federico da Montefeltro, federicos brilliant court, according to the descriptions in Baldassare Castigliones Il Cortegiano, set standards of what would characterize a modern European gentleman for centuries to come. Cesare Borgia dispossessed Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, and Elisabetta Gonzaga in 1502, with the complicity of his father, Pope Alexander VI. They moved in 1523 the court in the city of Pesaro, the state was ruled since then by a papal legate, generally belonging to high ecclesiastical hierarchy. These works went on to form the core of the future Uffizi Gallery, among the works that went to Florence is the diptych of the Dukes of Urbino by Piero della Francesca. Other works of the Ducal Palace were brought to Rome, such as the Barberini Ex Tables of Fra Carnevale, the eighteenth century opened with the election to the papacy of Cardinal Giovan Francesco Albani Urbino, under the name of Clement XI. This was a windfall for the city and was its last great era, especially in terms of arts and culture, thanks to funding by Pope Albani and his family. In addition, due to the patronage of the Pope and of his family and this new age of splendor for the city ended with the death of Clement XI in 1721, placing the city in a long decline that has continued to the present day. After the Popes death, the Albani family remained the patron of the most significant works until the first half of the nineteenth century. In 1789, the collapse of the Cathedral dome following an earthquake led to the total renovation of the church. Between 1797 and 1800 the city was occupied by French troops, like much of northern and this event was a further cause of the impoverished local artistic heritage, already tried by the loss of the works following the devolution of the duchy in the seventeenth century. Sergius, now occupied by the Hotel Raffaello. This resulted in a new layout with the large spit of land below the Doges Palace incorporated into the city
7.
Papal States
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The Papal States, officially the State of the Church, were territories in the Italian Peninsula under the sovereign direct rule of the pope, from the 8th century until 1870. They were among the states of Italy from roughly the 8th century until the Italian Peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. At their zenith, they covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio, Marche, Umbria and Romagna and these holdings were considered to be a manifestation of the temporal power of the pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy. By 1861, much of the Papal States territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy, only Lazio, including Rome, remained under the Popes temporal control. In 1870, the pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all, Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini ended the crisis between unified Italy and the Vatican by signing the Lateran Treaty, granting the Vatican City State sovereignty. The Papal States were also known as the Papal State, the territories were also referred to variously as the State of the Church, the Pontifical States, the Ecclesiastical States, or the Roman States. For its first 300 years the Catholic Church was persecuted and unrecognized and this system began to change during the reign of the emperor Constantine I, who made Christianity legal within the Roman Empire, and restoring to it any properties that had been confiscated. The Lateran Palace was the first significant new donation to the Church, other donations followed, primarily in mainland Italy but also in the provinces of the Roman Empire. But the Church held all of these lands as a private landowner, the seeds of the Papal States as a sovereign political entity were planted in the 6th century. Beginning In 535, the Byzantine Empire, under emperor Justinian I, launched a reconquest of Italy that took decades and devastated Italys political, just as these wars wound down, the Lombards entered the peninsula from the north and conquered much of the countryside. While the popes remained Byzantine subjects, in practice the Duchy of Rome, nevertheless, the pope and the exarch still worked together to control the rising power of the Lombards in Italy. As Byzantine power weakened, though, the took a ever larger role in defending Rome from the Lombards. In practice, the papal efforts served to focus Lombard aggrandizement on the exarch, a climactic moment in the founding of the Papal States was the agreement over boundaries embodied in the Lombard king Liutprands Donation of Sutri to Pope Gregory II. When the Exarchate of Ravenna finally fell to the Lombards in 751, the popes renewed earlier attempts to secure the support of the Franks. In 751, Pope Zachary had Pepin the Younger crowned king in place of the powerless Merovingian figurehead king Childeric III, zacharys successor, Pope Stephen II, later granted Pepin the title Patrician of the Romans. Pepin led a Frankish army into Italy in 754 and 756, Pepin defeated the Lombards – taking control of northern Italy – and made a gift of the properties formerly constituting the Exarchate of Ravenna to the pope. The cooperation between the papacy and the Carolingian dynasty climaxed in 800, when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor, the precise nature of the relationship between the popes and emperors – and between the Papal States and the Empire – is disputed. Events in the 9th century postponed the conflict, the Holy Roman Empire in its Frankish form collapsed as it was subdivided among Charlemagnes grandchildren
8.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
9.
Santa Maria in Aquiro
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Santa Maria in Aquiro is a church in Rome, Italy. It is dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus, and is located on Piazza Capranica, the church is ancient – it was restored by Pope Gregory III in the 8th century, and thus must have existed before then. One theory is that it was the titulus Equitii, though San Martino ai Monti is a likely candidate. It is also referred to as Santa Maria della Visitazione, notably by Pope Urban VI in 1389, the origins of the name are nebulous, most attribute it to a corruption of the term a Cyro, perhaps referring in early days to a neighborhood resident. According to another theory Acyro refers to a curruption of the Latin word circus, a stadium for horse racing, in 1540 Pope Paul III granted the church to the Confraternity of Orphans, and it was restored in 1588. The most important work of art in the church is a 14th-century painting, in the apse, of the Madonna and Child with St Stephen, attributed to the school of Pietro Cavallini. This painting and the funeral monuments in the vestibule are from the medieval church of Santo Stefano del Trullo. There are also paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries, the facade was completed by 1774 by Pietro Camporese the Elder, based on designs of Giovanni Francesco Braccioli. The interior was redecorated by Cesare Mariani in 1866, formerly these paintings were thought to be by the hand of Gerard van Honthorst
10.
San Silvestro in Capite
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The Basilica of Saint Sylvester the First also known as is a Roman Catholic minor basilica and titular church in Rome dedicated to Pope Saint Sylvester I. It is located on the Piazza San Silvestro, at the corner of Via del Gambero and the Via della Mercede, built in the 8th century as a shrine for the relics of the saints and martyrs from the Catacombs, the church is the National church of Great Britain. The Latin words in capite refers to the title of Pope Sylvester the First, to which in capite means in First, in Chief. The basilica is famous for a relic, a fragment of a head purported to be that of Saint John the Baptist. A second Roman church dedicated to Saint Sylvester is San Silvestro al Quirinale, the last Cardinal-Priest of the titulus S. Silvestri in Capite was Desmond Cardinal Connell, Archbishop Emeritus Dublin, Ireland. He died on 21 February 2017, the church was rebuilt and the campanile with Romanesque arcades added in 1198 during the papacy of Innocent III, while in the 13th century the church was donated to the Poor Clares. It was rebuilt by the architects Francesco da Volterra and Carlo Maderno during 1591–1601, the relics of Pope Sylvester I, Pope Stephen I and Pope Dionysius were exhumed and re-enshrined beneath the high altar when the new church was consecrated in 1601. The church also contains the relics of Saint Tarcisius, the church of San Silvestro was granted to the English Catholics by Pope Leo XIII in 1890, and is now served by Irish Pallottine Fathers. Mass is thus regularly celebrated in the English language, the church is the National Church in Rome of Great Britain, although the structures of the Catholic Church continue to be organized separately for England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Scottish national church in Rome, SantAndrea degli Scozzesi, was deconsecrated in 1962, the Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Silvestri in Capite is Desmond Connell, former Archbishop of Dublin. He was appointed on February 21,2001 to succeed Basil Hume and it also serves as a church for the Philippine Community in Rome. The church has an atrium and narthex, which isolates the church from the square outside. There are fragments of early Christian sculpture, many with inscriptions and it is believed that the high altar, which predates the present church, was influenced by the style of Michelangelo. The interior is rich in marble, gilding, and artistic decoration, the nave has an Assumption with Saints frescoed by Giacinto Brandi. The main altar carved ciborium or canopy by Carlo Rainaldi, the cupola was frescoed by Cristoforo Roncalli. A Martyrdom of San Stephan I and a Messengers of Constantine call on San Silvestro were frescoed in the apse by Orazio Borgianni, in the baptistry apse, there is a Baptism of Constantine by Ludovico Gimignani. The transept has a History of San Silvestro also by Gimignani, in the first chapel to the right is a Madonna with Child & Saint Anthony of Padua & Stephen I and other saints by Giuseppe Chiari. In the second chapel is a Saint Francis receives stigmata by Orazio Gentileschi accompanied by paintings of the life of the saint by Luigi Garzi, in the third, a Pentecost by Giuseppe Ghezzi
11.
Vatican Library
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The Vatican Apostolic Library, more commonly called the Vatican Library or simply the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally established in 1475, although it is older, it is one of the oldest libraries in the world. It has 75,000 codices from throughout history, as well as 1.1 million printed books, the Vatican Library is a research library for history, law, philosophy, science and theology. The Vatican Library is open to anyone who can document their qualifications, photocopies for private study of pages from books published between 1801 and 1990 can be requested in person or by mail. In March 2014, the Vatican Library began an initial project of digitising its collection of manuscripts. The Vatican Secret Archives were separated from the library at the beginning of the 17th century, scholars have traditionally divided the history of the library into five periods, Pre-Lateran, Lateran, Avignon, Pre-Vatican and Vatican. The Pre-Lateran period, comprising the initial days of the library, only a handful of volumes survive from this period, though some are very significant. However, in year, the Lateran Palace was burnt. The Avignon period was during the Avignon Papacy, when seven successive popes resided in Avignon and this period saw a great growth in book collection and record keeping by the popes in Avignon, between the death of Boniface and the 1370s when the Papacy returned to Rome. The Pre-Vatican period ranged from about 1370 to 1446, the library was scattered during this time, with parts in Rome, Avignon and elsewhere. In 1451, bibliophile Pope Nicholas V sought to establish a library at the Vatican. Pope Nicholas also expanded his collection by employing Italian and Byzantine scholars to translate the Greek classics into Latin for his library, the knowledgeable Pope already encouraged the inclusion of pagan classics. Nicolas was important in saving many of the Greek works and writings during this period that he had collected while traveling. In 1455, the collection had grown to 1200 books, of which 400 were in Greek language. Nicholas death in 1455 prevented the completion of his vision of a library, but it was finished in 1475 by his successor Pope Sixtus IV. During the papacy of Sixtus IV, acquisitions were made in theology, philosophy, the number of manuscripts is variously counted as 3,500 in 1475 or 2,527 in 1481, when librarian Bartolomeo Platina produced a signed listing. At the time it was the largest collection of books in the Western world, during his reign, Pope Julius II commissioned the expansion of the building. Around 1587, Pope Sixtus V commissioned the architect Domenico Fontana to construct a new building for the library and it was after this the library became known as the Vatican Library
12.
Italians
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Italians are a nation and ethnic group native to Italy who share a common culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a native tongue. The majority of Italian nationals are speakers of Standard Italian. Italians have greatly influenced and contributed to the arts and music, science, technology, cuisine, sports, fashion, jurisprudence, banking, Italian people are generally known for their localism and their attention to clothing and family values. The term Italian is at least 3,000 years old and has a history that goes back to pre-Roman Italy. According to one of the common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The Etruscan civilization reached its peak about the 7th century BC, but by 509 BC, when the Romans overthrew their Etruscan monarchs, its control in Italy was on the wane. By 350 BC, after a series of wars between Greeks and Etruscans, the Latins, with Rome as their capital, gained the ascendancy by 272 BC, and they managed to unite the entire Italian peninsula. This period of unification was followed by one of conquest in the Mediterranean, in the course of the century-long struggle against Carthage, the Romans conquered Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. Finally, in 146 BC, at the conclusion of the Third Punic War, with Carthage completely destroyed and its inhabitants enslaved, octavian, the final victor, was accorded the title of Augustus by the Senate and thereby became the first Roman emperor. After two centuries of rule, in the 3rd century AD, Rome was threatened by internal discord and menaced by Germanic and Asian invaders. Emperor Diocletians administrative division of the empire into two parts in 285 provided only temporary relief, it became permanent in 395, in 313, Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity, and churches thereafter rose throughout the empire. However, he moved his capital from Rome to Constantinople. The last Western emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed in 476 by a Germanic foederati general in Italy and his defeat marked the end of the western part of the Roman Empire. During most of the period from the fall of Rome until the Kingdom of Italy was established in 1861, Odoacer ruled well for 13 years after gaining control of Italy in 476. Then he was attacked and defeated by Theodoric, the king of another Germanic tribe, Theodoric and Odoacer ruled jointly until 493, when Theodoric murdered Odoacer. Theodoric continued to rule Italy with an army of Ostrogoths and a government that was mostly Italian, after the death of Theodoric in 526, the kingdom began to grow weak
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Albanians
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Albanians are an ethnic group, native to Albania, Kosovo and neighboring countries. The term is used to refer to the citizens of the Republic of Albania. Ethnic Albanians speak the Albanian language and more than half of ethnic Albanians live in Albania, a large Albanian population lives in the Republic of Macedonia and Italy, with smaller Albanian populations located in Serbia and Montenegro. The majority of Albanians are nominally Muslims, and a minority are nominally Christians, during the 17th and 18th century Albanians in large numbers converted to Islam, often to escape higher taxes levied on Christian subjects. As Muslims, some Albanians attained important political and military positions within the Ottoman Empire, Albania gained its independence in 1912 and between 1945–1992, Albanians lived under a repressive communist regime. Between the 11th and 18th centuries, sizable numbers of Albanians migrated from the area of contemporary Albania to escape either various socio-political difficulties and/or the Ottoman conquest. Another population, who became the Arbëreshë settled in southern Italy and form the oldest continuous Albanian diaspora producing influential, smaller populations dating to migrations during the 18th century are located on Croatias Dalmatian coast and scattered communities across southern Ukraine. The Albanian diaspora also exists in a number of other countries, one of these is located in Turkey. Due to the Ottoman legacy, smaller populations of Albanians also exist in Egypt, in Western countries, a large and influential Albanian population exists in the United States formed from continuous emigration dating back to the 19th century. The Albanians and their country Albania have been identified by many ethnonyms, from these ethnonyms, names for Albanians were also derived in other languages that were or still are in use. The term for a people located in the area of contemporary Albania is first encountered in the works of Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates. He referred to them as Albanoi having taken part in a revolt against the Byzantine Empire in 1043 and these references have been disputed as to whether they refer to Albanians in an ethnic sense. A later reference to Albanians from the same Attaliates regarding the participation of Albanians in a rebellion around 1078 is undisputed. In later Byzantine usage, the terms Arbanitai and Albanoi with a range of variants were used interchangeably, the first reference to the Albanian language dates to the latter 13th century. The ethnonym Albanian has been hypothesized to be connected to and stem from the Albanoi, linguists believe that the alb part in the root word originates from an Indo-European term for a type of mountainous topography, of which other words such as alps is derived from. Through the root word alban and its rhotacized equivalents arban, albar, and arbar, the Albanian language was referred to as Arbnisht and Arbërisht. Two etymologies have been proposed for this ethnonym, one, derived from the etymology from the Albanian word for eagle, in Albanian folk etymology, this word denotes a bird totem, dating from the times of Skanderbeg as displayed on the Albanian flag. The other is within scholarship that connects it to the verb to speak from the Latin excipere, in this instance the Albanian endonym like Slav and others would originally have been a term connoting those who speak
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Pesaro
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Pesaro is a town and comune in the Italian region of the Marche, capital of the Pesaro e Urbino province, on the Adriatic. According to the 2011 census, its population was 95,011, making it the second most populous city in the Marche, Pesaro is known as City of Bicycle, thanks to its big net of bicycle paths. The city received this award by Legambiente, the most important ecologist society in Italy, in 2015 and it is also known as City of Music thanks to the bond with Gioacchino Rossini, the famous composer born in Pesaro. For this reason, in 2015, the Italian Government officially candidate Pesaro as Creative City in the group of World Heritage Sites of UNESCO, fishery, furniture industry and tourism are the main strengths of the local economy. The city was founded as Pisaurum by the Romans in 184 BC as colony in the territory of the Picentes, a settlement of the Picentes tribe has been found at Novilara. The northern Picentes were invaded in the 4th century BC by the Gallic Senones, earlier by the Etruscans, within it the Gauls at least were still distinct, as the Romans separated them out and expelled them from the country. Under the Roman administration Pesaro, a hub across the Via Flaminia, became an important center of trading, after the fall of the Western Empire, Pesaro was occupied by the Ostrogoths, and destroyed by Vitigis in the course of the Gothic War. Hastily rebuilt five years later after the Byzantine reconquest, it formed the so-called Pentapolis, after the Lombard and Frankish conquests of that city, Pesaro became part of the Papal States. During the Renaissance it was ruled successively by the houses of Malatesta, Sforza, in 1475, a legendary wedding took place in Pesaro, when Costanzo Sforza and Camilla DAragona married. On 11 September 1860 Piedmontese troops entered the city, and Pesaro was subsequently annexed to the new Kingdom of Italy, rocca Costanza - Massive castle built by Costanzo I Sforza, it has a square plan with four cylindrical corner towers and a wide dry moat. Its sunken court is the precedent for the more famous one at the Roman Villa Giulia. Rooms are frescoed by prominent Mannerist painters Bronzino, Francesco Menzocchi, Girolamo Genga, mura Roveresche - Della Rovere Walls, demolished in the early 20th century), only two gates, Porta del Ponte and Porta Rimini, and a short section remain. Birthplace of Gioacchino Rossini- Now a museum dedicated to the composer and it has a museum with manifestoes, prints, portraits and his spinet. Among the masterpieces is the Pesaro Altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini, oliveriani Museum and Library- Archaeological Collection and Manuscript Library, founded in 1756 by Annibale degli Abati Olivieri. Cathedral of Pesaro Romanesque-Gothic Basilica built over remains of a late Roman edifice, the façade, in Romanesque-Gothic style, is unfinished, it has a simple ogival portal surmounted by a band of small arches. A recent restoration has brought to light floor mosaics, the Baroque Sanctuary of Beata Vergine del Carmelo. Rossini Opera Festival has taken place every summer since 1980 in Pesaro, Pesaro hosts the home games of Victoria Libertas basketball team, better known across Europe as Scavolini Pesaro. Adriatic Arena, third biggest Italian indoor arena behind Mediolanum Forum in Milan, among the town industries is the motocross and enduro brand of TM Racing, a small manufacturer of race-ready motorbikes based in the coastal town since 1978
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Albani family
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The Albani were an aristocratic Roman family of Albanian origin who originally moved to Urbino from the region of Malësi e Madhe in Albania. Originally having the surname Chigi, the members of this family attained the highest dignities in the Roman Catholic Church, one, Giovanni Francesco Albani, the Albani library was sold between 1864 and 1928, and part of it was purchased by The Catholic University of America. This collection contains a section concerning the Jansenist controversy and the Chinese Rites controversy, as well as Canon Law. The manuscript material purchased in 1864 by Theodor Mommsen on behalf of the Prussian government was lost at sea on its way to Germany, the House of Albani ended with the death of Don Filippo Albani, Prince of Soriani, in 1852
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Albania
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Albania, officially the Republic of Albania, is a country in Southeastern Europe. It has a population of 3.03 million as of 2016, Tirana is the nations capital and largest city, followed by Durrës and Vlorë. The country has a coastline on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic Sea to the west. Albania is less than 72 km from Italy, across the Strait of Otranto which connects the Adriatic Sea to the Ionian Sea. In antiquity, the area of Albania was home to several Illyrian, Thracian. After the Illyrian Wars, it part of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia, Macedonia and Moesia Superior. In 1190, the first Albanian state, the Principality of Arbanon was established by archon Progon in the region of Krujë, the territory of Albania was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, of which it remained part of for the next five centuries. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, following the Balkan Wars, the Kingdom of Albania was invaded by Italy in 1939, which formed Greater Albania, before becoming a Nazi German protectorate in 1943. The following year, a socialist Peoples Republic was established under the leadership of Enver Hoxha, Albania experienced widespread social and political transformations in the communist era, as well as isolation from much of the international community. In 1991, the Socialist Republic was dissolved and the Republic of Albania was established, Albania is a democratic and developing country with an upper-middle income economy. The service sector dominates the economy, followed by the industrial. After the fall of communism in Albania, Free-market reforms have opened the country to foreign investment, especially in the development of energy, Albania has a high HDI and provides universal health care system and free primary and secondary education to its citizens. Albania is a member of the United Nations, NATO, WTO, World Bank, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and it is also an official candidate for membership in the European Union. Albania is one of the members of the Energy Community, Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. It is home to the largest lake in Southern Europe and one of the oldest lakes in Europe, Albania is the Medieval Latin name of the country. The name may have a continuation in the name of a settlement called Albanon and Arbanon. During the Middle Ages, the Albanians called their country Arbëri or Arbëni, Albanians today call their country Shqipëri. As early as the 17th century the placename Shqipëria and the ethnic demonym Shqiptarë gradually replaced Arbëria, the two terms are popularly interpreted as Land of the Eagles and Children of the Eagles
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Roman College
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The Roman College was a school established by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1551, just 17 years after he founded the Society of Jesus. It quickly grew to include classes from school through university level. It moved to different locations to accommodate its growing student population. The college, renamed Gregorian University in 1584 after its benefactor, since then the Gregorian University has occupied new quarters, but the buildings on this full square block memorialize the early commitment of the Society of Jesus to education. With the burgeoning student population the Jesuits in 1626 replaced the chapel of the Annunziata with the church of St. Ignatius on the premises, in 1787 the college added an observatory that became preeminent. With the Capture of Rome in 1870, the building was taken over by the Italian government, currently, its eastern wing houses the headquarters of the Ministry of Heritage and Culture and the wing that overlooks the square is home to the high school Ennio Quirino Visconti. The first university founded by the Jesuits was the College of Messina in 1548, the funding came from Francis Borgia, 4th Duke of Gandía. He had been a member of the Society of Jesus since 1548 but secretly, he retained his rank while attending to his obligations. In 1551 the Collegio Romano was a small, rented building at the base of the Capitoline Hill, polanco wrote of teaching Latin and Greek and later Hebrew, Christian doctrine is taught. Above the door of the school a sign says, a school of grammar, humanism. Jesuits were the first pupils, Edmond Auger, Emmanuel Gomez, John Egnazi, within its first year the building could not accommodate the influx of students and Ignatius sought a larger facility. Without leaving the center of Rome, in September 1551 he rented a building on Via del Gesù behind the ancient church of Santo Stefano del Cacco and this second home of the Roman College was called the House of Frangipani after the famous family which owned it. This then was the home of the Roman College. Despite the cost, Ignatius wanted to begin teaching philosophy and theology in the school year 1553–1554 and this increased the student body, both of Jesuits and externs. At this time also Ignatius founded the print shop which over the years introduced new typefaces, the Roman College was here for only four years when it became too small for the growing number of students and larger premises were sought. The building was demolished when Salviati built the new Roman College, in 1560, Vittoria della Tolfa, Marchesa della Valle, a relative of Paul IV, donated an entire city block and its existing buildings to the Society of Jesus. This remained the site of the Roman College until the takeover of its buildings by the Italian government in 1870, Ignatius of Loyola had died on 31 July 1556 and was succeeded by Fr. James P. Laynez, a companion of Ignatius and a papal theologian during the three periods of the Council of Trent
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Christina, Queen of Sweden
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Christina reigned as Queen of Sweden from 1632 to 1654. She was the surviving legitimate child of King Gustav II Adolph. At the age of six, Christina succeeded her father on the throne upon his death at the Battle of Lützen, Christina is remembered as one of the most educated women of the 1600s. She was fond of books, manuscripts, paintings, and sculptures, with her interest in religion, philosophy, mathematics and alchemy, she attracted many scientists to Stockholm, wanting the city to become the Athens of the North. She was intelligent, fickle and moody, she rejected what the role of a woman was at the time. She caused a scandal when she decided not to marry and in 1654 when she abdicated her throne and she changed her name from Kristina Augusta Wasa, adopting the name Christina Alexandra. At the age of 28, the Minerva of the North moved to Rome, the Pope described Christina as a queen without a realm, a Christian without faith, and a woman without shame. Notwithstanding all that, she became a leader of the theatrical and musical life and protected many Baroque artists, composers, being the guest of five consecutive popes, and a symbol of the Counter Reformation, she is one of the few women buried in the Vatican grotto. Her unconventional lifestyle and masculine dressing and behavior have been featured in novels, plays, opera. In all the biographies on Christina her gender and cultural identity play an important role, Christina was born in the royal castle Tre Kronor. The king had already sired two daughters – a nameless princess stillborn in 1620 and then the first princess Christina, who was born in 1623, excited expectation surrounded Maria Eleonoras third pregnancy in 1626. When the baby was born it was first thought to be a boy as it was hairy and screamed, with a strong and she later wrote in her autobiography that, Deep embarrassment spread among the women when they discovered their mistake. The king, though, was happy, stating, Shell be clever. From most accounts, Gustav Adolf appears to have been attached to his daughter. Her mother remained disappointed that Christina was a girl and her mother, of the House of Hohenzollern, was a woman of quite distraught temperament and was melancholic. It is possible she was insane, after the king died on 6 November 1632 on the battlefield, his corpse was brought home in a coffin, with his heart in a separate box. Maria Eleonora ordered that the king should not be buried until she could be buried with him and she also demanded that the coffin be kept open, and went to see it regularly, patting it and taking no notice of the putrefaction. Eventually, the embarrassed Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna, saw no other solution than to have a guard posted at the room to prevent further episodes, as a result, he was not buried until 22 June 1634, more than eighteen months later
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Rieti
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Rieti is a city and comune in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 47,700. It is the capital of province of Rieti and see of the diocese of Rieti, the town centre rests on a small hilltop, commanding from the southern edge the wide Rieti valley, at the bottom of Sabine mountains and of monti Reatini, among which mount Terminillo. The plain was once a lake, drained by ancient Romans. Only the small Ripasottile and Lungo lakes remain of the large one. According to the legend, Reate was founded by Rea, a divinity and it was founded at the beginning of the Iron Age. Probably in earlier times the lands around Rieti were inhabited by Umbri, then by Aborigines and later on by Sabines, Reate was originally a major site of the Sabine nation well before the foundation of Rome. According to the legend, when Romulus founded Rome, Romans kidnapped Sabine women in order to populate the town, so there was a war between Romans and Sabines. The battle of the Lacus Curtius came to an end only when the women threw themselves among the armies, Romulus and Titus Tatius reprieved and a collaboration between the two people started. According to a version based on history, Sabines settled on the Quirinale because of their continuous need. Many lands of Reate and Amiternum were confiscated and allocated to Romans, at the very beginning, Sabines were offered Roman citizenship but with no right of voting, but yet in 268 BC they gained the full citizenship, being included in two new tribes. Curius Dentatus drained a large portion of the lake by making the Velino a distributary of the Nera river, the wide area once occupied by the lake turned into a fertile plain. Following Roman customs, the land was split into characteristic square allotments, the town itself underwent significant development, being re-organised according to typical Roman urbanistic standards, and was fortified with strong walls. A stone bridge was laid across the Velino river, and a viaduct was built to bring goods from the Salaria road directly to Rietis southern door. Roman Reate receives a number of mentions in Latin literature, thanks to its soil, its valued assets. Cicero, for instance, describes the tensions between Reate and Interamna following the drainage, and refers to the country houses that his friend Q. One of the most important Sabine families that gained success in Rome was the Gens Flavia, the Reatin poet and writer Marcus Terentius Varro was born in 116 BC and he is usually referred to as the father of Roman erudition. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire Rieti suffered destruction by Barbarians, under the Franks, it was county capital. It was sacked by the Saracens in the 9th and 10th century, the city was rebuilt with the help of the Roman comune, and from 1198 was also a free commune, of Guelph orientation, with a podestà of its own
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Sabina (region)
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For the Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox Saint, see at the Basilica of Santa Sabina, and for Hadrians wife, see Vibia Sabina. Sabina, also called the Sabine Hills, is a region in central Italy. It is named after Sabina, the territory of the ancient Sabines and it was separated from Umbria by the River Nar, todays Nera, and from Etruria by the River Tiber. Today, Sabina is mainly northeast of Rome in the regions Lazio, Umbria, upper Sabina is in the province of Rieti. Sabina Romana is in the province of Rome, part of Sabina is in the regions of Umbria and Abruzzo. Some Sabines who lived in two of the Seven Hills of Rome formed part of the postulation of Rome at the time of its foundation, the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, was from Cures, the capital of Sabina. During the reigns of the Roman kings Ancus Marcius and Tarquinius Priscus the Sabines attacked roman territory several times and this also occurred during the early period of the Roman Republic. After the Third Samnite War, the Romans moved to crush the Sabines, the Roman consul Manius Curius Dentatus pushed deep into Sabina in the area between the rivers Nar and Anio and the source of the River Avens. Spurius Carvilius confiscated large tracts of land in the plain around Reate and Amiternum, florus did not give the reasons for this campaign. The modem historian Salmon speculates that it might have been because of the part they had played or failed to play in the events of 296/295. That is, they let the Samnites cross their territory to go to Etruria and join forces with the Etruscans, Umbrians, forsythe also speculates that it may have been a punishment for this. Livy mentioned that Dentatus subdued the rebellious Sabines, the Sabines were given citizenship without the right to vote, which meant that their territory was effectively annexed to the Roman Republic. Reate and Amiternum were given full Roman citizenship in 268 BC, in the Augustan division of Italy, Sabina was included in the region IV Samnium. With Diocletians late 3rd-century administrative reforms, Italy became a Roman diocese and was subdivided into Roman provinces, Sabina became part of the province of Samnium. Constantine the Great turned Italy into a praetorian prefecture and subdivided it into two dioceses, Sabina fell under the diocese of Italia suburbicaria as the province of Valeria. With the Lombard invasion of Italy in the Early Middle Ages, with the Byzantine reconquest of central Italy, it came under the Duchy of Rome of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna. With the rise of the Papal States, Sabina was governed directly by the pontificate or indirectly, by the counts of Sabina, a title of the noble Crescentii family in the 10th and 11th centuries. During the late 9th to early 10th century, the region was, along much of central Italy
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Orvieto
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Orvieto is a city and comune in the Province of Terni, southwestern Umbria, Italy situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff. The site of the city is among the most dramatic in Europe, the ancient city, populated since Etruscan times, has usually been associated with Etruscan Velzna, but some modern scholars differ. Orvieto was certainly a centre of Etruscan civilization, the archaeological museum houses some of the Etruscan artifacts that have been recovered in the immediate neighbourhood. Orvieto was annexed by Rome in the third century BC, because of its site on a high, steep bluff of tufa, a volcanic rock, the city was virtually impregnable. It was last conquered by Julius Caesar, by the thirteenth century, three papal palaces had been built. In the 13th century bitter feuds divided the city, which was at the apogée of its wealth but found itself often at odds with the papacy, Pope Urban IV stayed at Orvieto from 1262-64. The city became one of the cultural centers of its time when Thomas Aquinas taught at the studium there. A small university, had its origins in a studium generale that was granted to the city by Pope Gregory IX in 1236. The territory of Orvieto was under papal control long before it was added to the Papal States, it remained a papal possession until 1860. The design has often attributed to Arnolfo di Cambio. The church is striped in white travertine and greenish-black basalt in narrow bands, similar in ways to the cathedral of Siena. In the following decade, cathedral authorities called Sienese architect and sculptor Lorenzo Maitani to stabilize the building and he enlarged the choir and planned a transept with two chapels, spaces that were not finished until long after his death. The Cathedral has five bells, tuned in E flat, which date back to the renaissance, the façade is particularly striking and includes some remarkable sculpture by Lorenzo Maitani. Inside the cathedral, the Chapel of San Brizio is frescoed by Fra Angelico and with Luca Signorellis masterpiece, from the 11th century onward, the popes maintained an aggressive political presence in the papal territory which occupied central Italy. Together with his court, the pope moved from palace to palace in the manner of his European secular counterparts, several central Italian cities hosted the pope and his retinue during the years of wandering, housing them in the bishops palace. Outside Rome, only Orvieto and Viterbo had papal palaces, Pope Adrian IV was the first pope to spend significant time in Orvieto. His successor, Pope Innocent III, was a militant opponent of the Cathar heresy, which had infiltrated the city, in 1227, Pope Gregory IX confirmed the Dominican studium generale in Orvieto, a school of theology, and one of the first in Europe. Pope Urban IV, a Frenchman who was crowned in the Dominican church in Viterbo, in 1263, he began a papal palace, perhaps the first outside Rome, and consecrated the new Dominican church in Orvieto
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Papal conclave, 1700
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The conclave of 1700 was a papal conclave convened following the death of Pope Innocent XII. It ended in the election of Pope Clement XI, one of Innocent XIIs last acts as pope was linked to the Spanish succession. The Habsburg Charles II of Spain was dying at this time and had no children, at Charles request, Innocent advised that the throne pass to Philip of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV of France, due to the close kinship between Louis and Charles. Philip succeeding to the Spanish throne was seen as a threat to the balance of power by other European nations, with continent-wide war looming, Innocent died and the papacy became vacant. The conclave opened on 9 October, with Galeazzo Marescotti as the main candidate - he was an apostolic nuncio in Austria, Poland. However, his chances of being elected fell due to Frances veto, other likely candidates included Carlo Barberini, Leandro Colloredo, Bandino Panciatichi, Giambattista Spinola, Marcello Durazzo, Jacopo Antonio Morigia and Niccolò Acciaiuoli. During the night between 19 and 20 November 1700, news reached Rome of Charles IIs death and this news caused a sudden change of tack on all sides - fear of war led to reconciliation between the conclaves factions and the almost-unanimous election of cardinal Giovanni Francesco Albani. After the conclave had arrived at the majority needed for election, Albani was ordained a bishop. The 1700 conclave forms the background for the 2006 Italian novel Secretum by Rita Monaldi, gregorio Leti, Histoire des conclaves depuis Clément V jusquà présent, Volume 2, Kolonia 1703 Ludwig von Pastor, History of the Popes
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope Clement XI". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "
