Pamphili

The Palazzo Pamphili.

The Pamphili (often with the final long i orthography, Pamphilj) are one of the papal families deeply entrenched in Roman Catholic Church, Roman and Italian politics of the 16th and 17th centuries ^[1].

Later, the Pamphili family line merged with the Doria and Landi family lines to form the Doria-Pamphili-Landi family line.

Family history

The Pamphili surname originated in Gubbio and went to Rome under the pontificate of Pope Innocent VIII (1484–1492).

The peak of Pamphili power came with the election of Giovanni Battista Pamphili as Pope Innocent X, who reigned from 1644–1655. Like the reign of his predecessor Pope Urban VIII (of the equally papal Barberini family) Innocent X's rule was littered with examples of nepotism and other Pamphili family members did exceptionally well from the Innocent X papacy.

Following family members were created cardinals:

• Camillo Pamphili (1644), his nephew and son of Olimpia Maidalchini, the Pope's sister-in-law and close adviser. He later renounced his cardinalate to marry Olimpia Aldobrandini, widow of Paolo Borghese
• Francesco Maidalchini (1647), nephew of Olimpia Maidalchini.
• Camillo Astalli (1650 as Camillo Astalli-Pamphili) a cousin of Olimpia Maidalchini whom the Pope had adopted as a Cardinal-Nephew. He was later deprived of this title due to his unloyalty towards Innocent X
• Benedetto Pamphili, son of Camillo Pamphili and Olimpia Aldobrandini, created by Innocent XI in 1681.

Like other Italian noble families, the Pamphili bought property (palazzo or "palaces" and other estates) and created self-styled principalities. Family members regularly had regal titles bestowed upon them by family patriarchs or matriarchs. Olimpia Maidalchini, received the honorific title of Princess of San Martino, effectively turning the small enclave of San Martino into a principality in its own right. After he left the cardinalate to marry, Camillo Pamphili was given the titles Prince of San Martino and Prince of Valmontone (he bought the Valmontone comune in 1634 from the Barberini family).

Family tree

Pamphili family tree^[2] from 1574 to 1760^[3]:

Pope Innocent X

Pamphilio Pamphili

Olimpia Maidalchini

Andrea Giustiniani

Anna Maria Pamphili

Niccolò Ludovisi

Costanza Pamphili

Camillo Pamphili

Olimpia Aldobrandini

Paolo Borghese[4]

Maffeo Barberini

Olimpia Giustiniani

Maria Borghese

Giovanni Borghese

Costanza Barberini

Camilla Barberini

Francesco Barberini

Urbano Barberini

Taddeo Barberini

Giambattista Pamphili

Giovanni III Doria Landi

Anna Pamphili

Benedetto Pamphili

Teresa Pamphili

Flaminia Pamphili

Doria-Pamphili-Landi

Wars of Castro

Between 1639 and 1649, the Pamphili fought the Wars of Castro alongside the Barberini against the Farnese dukes of Parma who controlled Castro and its surrounding territories. The conflict raged first under Barberini Pope Urban VIII and later under Pamphili Pope Innocent X.

Pope Urban VIII died in 1644 only two months after a peace accord was signed between the papal families and the dukes. Pope Innocent X was elected to replaced him. Innocent set about investigating some of the finances related to the conflict which had been administered by the Barberini. A number of Barberini family members were forced into exile but were later reconciled with the papacy and the Pamphili through the marriage of Maffeo Barberini (son of exiled Taddeo Barberini) and Olimpia Giustiniani, a niece of Pope Innocent X.

On the orders of Innocent X, Castro was razed on 2 September 1649 by troops of the Papal Army and never rebuilt.

Family property

Palazzo Pamphilj, by the architects Girolamo Rainaldi and Francesco Borromini, is located in the heart of Rione Parione, south of the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone in Piazza Navona, the Pamphili neighborhood of Rome, named for this reason Isola de' Pamphili. From 1652, on Saturdays and Sundays in August, the piazza was turned into a lake to celebrate the Pamphili family, a festival that was suppressed in 1866. Today, the palace functions as the Brazilian Embassy in Rome. The tomb of Innocent X is located in Sant'Agnese.

The Pamphilj bought the baronial palace in Valmontone, a town near Palestrina (Rome) in the year 1634: Camillo Pamphili was determined to create a sort of new “ideal city”, so the palace and the main church were rebuilt and decorated by important baroque artists, like the architect Mattia de Rossi (who rose to prominence under the mentorship of Bernini), and the painters Pier Francesco Mola, Gaspard Dughet, Guglielmo Cortese, Francesco Cozza and Mattia Preti.

References and notes

1. ^ The Telegraph - Who will inherit the Doria Pamphilj familys legacy?
2. ^ The Families And Descendants Of The Popes by George L. Williams
3. ^ This line of the Pamphili family ended in 1760 - no male heir of this generation had a male heir
4. ^ Olimpia Aldobrandini's first marriage was to Paolo Borghese; her second was to Camillo Pamphili