Over the following few years he became a close advisor to Cardinal Emilio Altieri. At the papal conclave of 1669–1670 Altieri was elected as Pope Clement X. On the day of his election, since there were no more male descendants in the Altieri family, he adopted Paluzzo and he changed his name to Paluzzo Paluzzi Altieri degli Albertoni in honour of his new adoptive uncle. Thereafter he became Clement's Cardinal-Nephew.[1] In May 1670 he was appointed Bishop of Ravenna and papal legate in Avignon.
Between 1673 and 1677 he was made legate in Urbino and during that period he was made Secretary of the Apostolic Briefs, resigned the diocese of Ravenna and, when Pope Clement died, he participated in the conclave of 1676 which elected Pope Innocent XI.
Altieri was appointed, or appointed himself, to so many positions he was accused by his contemporaries of megalomania. Though he had established a well-regarded ecclesiastic career, his limited diplomatic experience caused problems for the Pope and for the Holy See, even after Clement's death.[2]
Six months later, on 29 June 1698, he died suddenly at his dinner table. He was waked in the Church of Santa Maria in Campitelli and buried in the chapel of St. John the Baptist (Italian: San Giovanni Battist) which he had commissioned at the church.[1]
Altieri’s death inventory lists in great detail the contents of his collection of paintings and furniture displayed in his apartment in the Altieri palace in Rome.[3]
^Court and politics in papal Rome, 1492-1700 by Gianvittorio Signorotto & Maria Antonietta Visceglia (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
^Lisa Beaven, Karen J. Lloyd. (2016). "Cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi degli Albertoni Altieri and his picture collection in the Palazzo Altieri: the evidence of the 1698 death inventory: Part I." Journal of the History of Collections, V.29 (July): 175–190; Lisa Beaven, Karen J Lloyd. (2019). "Cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi degli Albertoni Altieri and his collection in the Palazzo Altieri: the evidence of the 1698 death inventory, Part II." Journal of the History of Collections V 31 (March): 1–16.
