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Orsini Family
The House of Orsini is an Nobility of Italy, Italian noble family that was one of the most influential princely families in Middle Ages, medieval Italy and Renaissance Rome. Members of the Orsini family include five popes: Pope Stephen II, Stephen II (752–757), Pope Paul I, Paul I (757–767), Pope Celestine III, Celestine III (1191–1198), Pope Nicholas III, Nicholas III (1277–1280), and Pope Benedict XIII, Benedict XIII (1724–1730). The family also included 34 Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinals, numerous ''condottieri'', and other significant political and religious figures. The Orsini are part of the Black nobility who were Roman aristocratic families who supported the Popes in the governance of the Papal States. Origins According to their own family legend, the Orsini are descended from the Julio-Claudian dynasty of ancient Rome. The Orsini carried on a political feud with the Colonna family for centuries in Rome, until it was stopped by Papal Bull in 1511. In 1571 ...
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Black Nobility
The black nobility or black aristocracy () are Roman aristocratic families who sided with the Papacy under Pope Pius IX after the Savoy family-led army of the Kingdom of Italy entered Rome on 20 September 1870, overthrew the pope and the Papal States, and took over the Quirinal Palace, and any nobles subsequently ennobled by the pope prior to the 1929 Lateran Treaty. For the next 59 years, the pope confined himself to Vatican City and claimed to be a prisoner in the Vatican to avoid the appearance of accepting the authority of the new Italian government and state. Aristocrats who had been ennobled by the pope and were formerly subjects of the Papal States, including the senior members of the papal court, kept the front doors of their palaces in Rome closed to mourn the pope's confinement, which led to their being called the "black nobility". History Despite the relatively recent name, the Black Nobility had existed for centuries, originating in the baronial class of Rome an ...
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Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and surpass the ideas and achievements of classical antiquity. Associated with great social change in most fields and disciplines, including Renaissance art, art, Renaissance architecture, architecture, politics, Renaissance literature, literature, Renaissance exploration, exploration and Science in the Renaissance, science, the Renaissance was first centered in the Republic of Florence, then spread to the Italian Renaissance, rest of Italy and later throughout Europe. The term ''rinascita'' ("rebirth") first appeared in ''Lives of the Artists'' () by Giorgio Vasari, while the corresponding French word was adopted into English as the term for this period during the 1830s. The Renaissance's intellectual basis was founded in its version of Renaiss ...
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Colonna Family
The House of Colonna is an Italian noble family, forming part of the papal nobility. It played a pivotal role in Middle Ages, medieval and Roman Renaissance, Renaissance Rome, supplying one pope (Pope Martin V, Martin V), 23 cardinals and many other Catholic Church, church and political leaders. Other notable family members are Vittoria Colonna, close friend of Michelangelo, Marcantonio II Colonna (Marcantonio Colonna), leader of the papal fleet in the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and Costanza Colonna, patron and protector of Caravaggio. The family was notable for its bitter feud with the Orsini family over their influence in Rome, which was eventually settled by the issuing of the papal bull ''Pax Romana'' by Pope Julius II in 1511. In 1571, the heads of both families married nieces of Pope Sixtus V. Thereafter, historians recorded that "no peace had been concluded between the princes of Christendom, in which they had not been included by name". Today, the family is led by Don Prosper ...
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Ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC), the Roman Republic (50927 BC), and the Roman Empire (27 BC476 AD) until the fall of the western empire. Ancient Rome began as an Italic peoples, Italic settlement, traditionally dated to 753 BC, beside the River Tiber in the Italian peninsula. The settlement grew into the city and polity of Rome, and came to control its neighbours through a combination of treaties and military strength. It eventually controlled the Italian Peninsula, assimilating the Greece, Greek culture of southern Italy (Magna Graecia) and the Etruscans, Etruscan culture, and then became the dominant power in the Mediterranean region and parts of Europe. At its hei ...
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Julio-Claudian Dynasty
The Julio-Claudian dynasty comprised the first five Roman emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. This line of emperors ruled the Roman Empire, from its formation (under Augustus, in 27 BC) until the last of the line, Emperor Nero, committed suicide (in AD 68). The name ''Julio-Claudian'' is a historiographical term, deriving from the two families composing the imperial dynasty: the Julii Caesares and Claudii Nerones. Nomenclature '' Julius'' and ''Claudius'' were two Roman family names; in classical Latin, they came second. Roman family names were inherited from father to son, but a Roman aristocrat could—either during his life or in his will—adopt an heir if he lacked a natural son. In accordance with Roman naming conventions, the adopted son would replace his original family name with the name of his adopted family. A famous example of this custom is Julius Caesar's adoption of his great-nephew, Gaius Octavius. Primogeniture is notably absent in ...
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Papal States
The Papal States ( ; ; ), officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th century until the unification of Italy, which took place between 1859 and 1870, culminated in their demise. The state was legally established in the 8th century when Pepin the Short, king of the Franks, gave Pope Stephen II, as a temporal sovereign, lands formerly held by Arian Christian Lombards, adding them to lands and other real estate formerly acquired and held by the bishops of Rome as landlords from the time of Constantine onward. This donation came about as part of a process whereby the popes began to turn away from the Byzantine emperors as their foremost temporal guardians for reasons such as increased imperial taxes, disagreement with respect to iconoclasm, and failure of the emperors, or their exarchs in Italy, to pro ...
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Enciclopedia Italiana
Institute Giovanni Treccani for the publication of the Italian Encyclopedia (), also known as Treccani Institute or simply Treccani, is a cultural institution of national interest, active in the publishing field, founded by Giovanni Treccani and Giovanni Gentile in 1925. It is known for publishing the first edition and the subsequent ten supplements of the ''Italian Encyclopaedia of Science, Literature and Arts'' (). History The Institute of the Italian Encyclopaedia was founded in Rome in 1925 by Giovanni Treccani, with the philosopher Giovanni Gentile as editor-in-chief. The first publication by the Institute was the ''Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti'' (). This encyclopaedia, best known as ''Enciclopedia Italiana'' or the ''Great Encyclopaedia'', is an Italian-language encyclopaedia and is regarded as one of the great encyclopaedias, being international in scope, alongside ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' and others. Since the 1990s, Treccani has been playing ...
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Condottieri
Condottieri (; singular: ''condottiero'' or ''condottiere'') were Italian military leaders active during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The term originally referred specifically to commanders of mercenary companies, derived from the Italian word ''condotta''—the contract under which they served a Italian city-states, city-state or lord. The word ''condottiero'' thus meant 'contractor'. Over time, however, in Italian usage, ''condottiero'' came to mean any 'commander' or 'military leader'. Mercenary captains Background In the 13th and 14th centuries, the Italian city-states of Republic of Venice, Venice, Republic of Florence, Florence, and republic of Genoa, Genoa were very rich from their trade with the Levant, yet possessed woefully small armies. In the event that foreign powers and envious neighbours attacked, the ruling nobles hired foreign mercenaries to fight for them. The military-service terms and conditions were stipulated in a (contract) between the city ...
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Cardinal (Catholic Church)
A cardinal is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. As titular members of the clergy of the Diocese of Rome, they serve as advisors to the pope, who is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. Cardinals are chosen and formally created by the pope, and typically hold the title for life. Collectively, they constitute the College of Cardinals. The most solemn responsibility of the cardinals is to elect a new pope in a conclave, almost always from among themselves, with a few historical exceptions, when the Holy See is vacant. During the period between a pope's death or resignation and the election of his successor, the day-to-day governance of the Holy See is in the hands of the College of Cardinals. The right to participate in a conclave is limited to cardinals who have not reached the age of 80 years by the day the vacancy occurs. With the pope, cardinals collectively participate in papal consistories, in which matters of im ...
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Pope Benedict XIII
Pope Benedict XIII (; ; 2 February 1649 – 21 February 1730), born Pietro Francesco (or Pierfrancesco) Orsini and later called Vincenzo Maria Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 May 1724 to his death in February 1730. A Dominican friar, Orsini focused on his religious responsibilities as bishop rather than on papal administration. Orsini's lack of political expertise led him to increasingly rely on an unscrupulous secretary (Cardinal Niccolò Coscia) whose financial abuses ruined the papal treasury, causing great damage to the Church in Rome. In the process towards sainthood, his cause for canonization opened in 1755, but it was closed shortly afterwards. It was reopened on 21 February 1931, but it was closed once again in 1940. It was opened once more on 17 January 2004, with the official process commencing in 2012 and concluding later in 2017. He now has the posthumous title of Servant of God. Early life He was born in Gravina in ...
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Pope Nicholas III
Pope Nicholas III (; Wiktionary:circa, c. 1225 – 22 August 1280), born Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 November 1277 to his death on 22 August 1280. He was a Roman nobleman who had served under eight popes, been made Cardinal-Deacon of ''San Nicola in Carcere, St. Nicola in Carcere Tulliano'' by Pope Innocent IV (1243–1254), protector of the Franciscans by Pope Alexander IV (1254–1261), Grand Inquisitor, inquisitor-general by Pope Urban IV (1261–64), and succeeded Pope John XXI (1276–1277) after a six-month vacancy in the Holy See resolved in the Papal election, 1277, papal election of 1277, largely through family influence. Personal life Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, was born in Rome, a member of the prominent Orsini family of Italy, the eldest son of Roman nobleman Matteo Rosso Orsini by his first wife, Perna Caetani. His father was Lord of Vicovaro, Licenza, Cantalupo in Sabina, Cantalupo, Roccagiovine ...
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Pope Celestine III
Pope Celestine III (; c. 1105 – 8 January 1198), was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 30 March or 10 April 1191 to his death in 1198. He had a tense relationship with several monarchs, including Emperor Henry VI, King Tancred of Sicily, and King Alfonso IX of León. Early career Giacinto Bobone was born into the noble Orsini family in Rome. He was appointed as cardinal-deacon in 1144 by Celestine II or Lucius II. Considered by the Roman Curia as an expert on Spain, Bobone conducted two legatine missions to Spain in (1154–55) and (1172–75) as the Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. Pontificate Celestine was elected on 29/30 March 1191 and ordained a priest 13 April 1191. He crowned Emperor Henry VI a day or two after his ordination. In 1192, Celestine recognized Tancred as king of Sicily, despite Henry VI's wife's claim. He threatened to excommunicate Henry VI for wrongfully keeping King Richard I of England imprison ...
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