Il caso delle prelature personali dei Genovesi nella Roma tardo-barocca

This essay publishes the preliminary findings of a study of the personal prelatures established in Rome between the seventeenth and eighteenth century by some cardinals belonging to the Genoese aristocracy. Of particular importance in this context are the Pallavicino and Spinola prelatures, respectively founded by cardinals Lazzaro Pallavicino (in 1679) and Gio. Battista Spinola ‚il giovane‘ (in 1707). These ecclesiastical positions were established by means of a bequest assigning a significant annual income (alongside the use of a prestigious residence, fully furnished and endowed with a library, in the case of the Spinola prelature) to the kinsman who in each generation showed most promise among those who had entered the clergy. Above all, Lazzaro and Gio. Battista desired the beneficiaries of the bequest to take up permanent residence at the Papal court, thereby establishing a firm connection between the family and the Curia. Personal prelatures thus appear to be a further part of the larger social, political, and cultural picture of the nationes in Rome. The Spinola prelature, in particular, responded to the more specific aim of establishing a Cardinal’s court as a site of diplomacy, with spaces suitable for socializing and political negotiation.