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Biography
Birth and elevation
Originally named Scipione Caffarelli, he was born in Rome, the son of Francisco Caffarelli and Ortensia Borghese.
His father ran into financial difficulties, so Scipione's education was paid for by his maternal uncle Camillo Borghese. Upon Camillo's election to the papacy as Pope Paul V in 1605, he quickly conferred a cardinalship on Scipione and gave him the right to use the Borghese name and coat of arms.
In the classic pattern of papal nepotism, Cardinal Borghese wielded enormous power as the Pope's secretary and effective head of the Vatican government. On his own and the Pope's behalf he amassed an enormous fortune through papal fees and taxes, and acquired vast land holdings for the Borghese family.
| Styles of Scipione Caffarelli-Borghese |
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| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | Bologna |
Cardinal
Scipione received many honours from his uncle. He became superintendent general of the Papal States, legate in Avignon, archpriest of the Lateran and Vatican basilicas, prefect of the Signature of Grace, Abbot of Subiaco and San Gregorio on the Coelian, and librarian of the Roman Catholic Church. He also assumed the offices of Grand penitentiary, secretary of the Apostolic Briefs, Archbishop of Bologna, protector of Germany, of the Orders of Dominicans, Camaldolese and Olivetans, of the Shrine of Loreto and of the Swiss Guard, and numerous other ecclesiastical positions. In each of these offices the cardinal received stipends. His income in 1609 was about 90,000 scudi, and by 1612 it had reached 140,000 scudi. With his enormous wealth, he bought the villages of Montefortino and Olevano from Pier Francesco Colonna, Duke of Zagarolo for 280,000 scudi
Private life
Contemporaries, including the Catholic writer Gaetano Moroni, commented on the near-public scandals that resulted on occasions from Scipione's likely personal homosexuality. In 1605, Scipione angered his uncle the pope by bringing Stefano Pignatelli to Rome, to whom he was closely attached[1]. According to Moroni, Scipione:
mindful for Stefano's affection, invited him to Rome and admitted him to his court, where Stefano acquired such an ascendancy over the cardinal that he did everything according to his advice. It was enough for envy and jealousy among courtiers to utter malicious and venomous calumnies against him, which prompted cardinals and ambassadors to report to the pope that Stefano was full of loathsome vices, and that for his nephew's honour, it was necessary to banish him entirely.
Scipione subsequently fell into a long and serious illness, and only recovered when Pignatelli was allowed to return. The pope decided to keep a check on Pignatelli and had him ordained, the beginning of a career which led to him becoming a cardinal in 1621. [2] There is, nevertheless, no hard evidence for an active sexual relationship between the pair.
Another Italian historian Lorenzo Cardella[3] indicates that although Pignatelli was twice accused of having "improper influence" on Cardinal Borghese, in both cases he was cleared of the accusations.
Death
Cardinal Scipione Borghese died in Rome in 1633 and is buried in the Borghese chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore.
Building projects
Borghese’s first work after entering the Sacred College where he studied was the building and decoration of the oratory chapels of St. Andrew and St. Sylvia beside San Gregorio Magno al Celio. For Borghese to complete such a project declared his devotion to the city’s Christian heritage, while also marking a gesture of respect for the great Church reformer of the previous generation. The restoration of San Sebastiano fuori le mura (November 1607-1614), a church built under Constantine (c. 312) housing the greatest collection of relics known at the time. San Sebastiano was in addition one of the seven churches in Rome and its restoration was a key element in the pilgrimage-driven revival of the circuit. Borghese’s restoration was in effect a complete modernization: rebuilding the main façade, adding a rear entrance, and thoroughly overhauling the interior in a modern decorative idiom.
Titular duties
In the first half of his career, Scipione’s church building was associated with his commendatrial or titular duties; in the latter half his public patronage was more wide-ranging, intervening at San Crisogono, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Santa Chiara a Casa Pia, San Gregorio Magno, as well as building new churches in the nearby towns of Montefortino and Monte Compatri. During the Ludovisi papacy the major focus of Borghese’s ecclesiastical patronage was on commemorative projects. The first was the embellishment of the Caffarelli chapel in Santa Maria sopra Minerva (1620-23). The second was the massive timber catafalque decorated with life-size plaster figures designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, erected in Santa Maria Maggiore (1622).
The most striking feature of the restoration is the incidence of Borghese’s name and symbols. Atop the portico's parapet stand eagle and dragon (the Borghese symbols) statuettes; underneath is the façade dedication: Scipione Borghese, Grand Penitentiary, Cardinal and Priest of the Holy Roman Church, A.D. 1626. His coat of arms in the major panels of the ceiling's long axis is mounted not as normal in excucheons, but directly in the frame, the keystone of the proscenium arch at the end of the nave; underneath an inscription at the base of the baldachin dome there is another inscription.
Art collector
The Cardinal was a great collector of modern and ancient art: he built the Villa Borghese and improved the Villa Mondragone to house his collection.
The Borghese Collection began around a collection of paintings by Caravaggio, Raphael, and Titian, and of ancient Roman art. Scipione also bought widely from leading painters and sculptors of his day, and his commissions include two portrait busts by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
His collection was poetically described as early as 1613 by Scipione Francucci. In 1607, the Pope gave the Cardinal 107 paintings which had been confiscated from the studio of the painter Cavalier D'Arpino. In the following year, Raphael's Deposition was secretely removed from the Baglioni Chapel in the church of San Francesco in Perugia and transported to Rome to be given to Scipione through a papal motu proprio, though it later had to be returned.
| Preceded by Alfonso Paleotti |
Archbishop of Bologna 1610–1612 |
Succeeded by Alessandro Ludovisi |
| Preceded by Cinzio Passeri Aldobrandini |
Grand penitentiary 1610–1633 |
Succeeded by Antonio Marcello Barberini |
| Preceded by Giacomo Sannesio |
Chamberlain of Sacred College of Cardinals 1621–1623 |
Succeeded by Maffeo Barberini |
References
- ^ V. Castronov, 'Borghese Cafarelli, Scipione', Dizionario biografico degli italiani, Vol. 12 Rome, 1970
- ^ G. Moroni, 'Pignatelli, Stefano, cardinale', Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica, Vol 53, Venice, 1851
- ^ Lorenzo Cardella, Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa, Rome 1794, vol. VI, p. 216-217
