Giuseppe (Andrea) Albani (13 September 1750 – 3 December 1834) was an Italian Roman Catholic Cardinal. He played an important role in the elections of Leo XII, Pius VIII and Gregory XVI.
Biography
Albani was born in Rome into a noble family who produced a number of clergy. His great-uncle was Pope Clement XI (r. 1700–1720) and three other relatives were prominent cardinals: two nephews of Pope Clement, Annibale Albani (1682–1751) and Alessandro Albani (1692–1772), and Alessandro's nephew Gianfrancesco Albani (1720–1803), who was Giuseppe's uncle.[1]
He studied for the priesthood in Siena, but in his early twenties he returned to Rome to be a domestic prelate for Pope Clement XIV. He gained experience in the practice of canon law. He held major offices in the Roman Curia from a relatively early age. During the French occupation of Rome at the end of the 18th century, he took refuge in Vienna, where he became allied with the Habsburg monarchy. The Habsburgs claimed the right to exercise over papal election, the jus exclusivae, and he served as their intermediary in subsequent papal conclaves when they chose to exercise that right.
The French invaders had removed many works of art from the Villa Albani, which had been built for Alessandro Albani, who filled it with his collection of antiquities and ancient Roman sculpture. In 1815 Giuseppe Albani reclaimed them but sold them rather than pay the costs of transporting them to Rome. Some remained in Paris and several entered the collection of Ludwig I of Bavaria.[2][3]
Albani's other appointments included Secretary of Secret Domestic Briefs on 30 January 1824, as Legate in Bologna on 10 December 1824, Secretary of State to Pius VIII from 31 March 1829 until 30 November 1830, and as Secretary of Apostolic Briefs from 15 April 1829 until his death. He was also Librarian of Holy Roman Church beginning on 23 April 1830. In 1831 he was also appointed Legate in Urbino and Pesaro,[6] and was the commissary extraordinary charged with reestablishing order in the Legations of the Papal States. He was one of Pope Gregory's advisors responsible for assessing the flood risk posed by the River Aniene to the east of Rome.[7]
He died in Pesaro on 3 December 1834. He was buried in the family chapel in the cloisters of the Church of San Pietro in Urbino.
^George L. Williams, Papal Genealogy:The Families and Descendants of the Popes, (McFarland & Company Inc., 1998), 117.
^Pope Gregory XVI, Ci è stato, published by the Holy See, issued on 9 June 1832, accessed on 29 September 2024
Sources
Philippe Boutry, Souverain et Pontife: recherches prosopographiques sur la curie romaine à l'âge de la restauration, 1814–1846, École française de Rome, Rome, 2002, pp. 301–302.
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