Sacchetti family
The Sacchetti family is an Italian noble family originating in Tuscany, now resident in Rome, whose earliest documented member Merlo lived during the late 10th and early 11th centuries. The name of the family is derived from one or more members known as Sacchetto. According to Ugolino di Vieri,"nobile Sacchetti genus est, moenia primus romanus sangius".
In the 19th century, the Sacchetti inherited the title of Prince of Palestrina and permission to use the Barberini name.
History
The 17th century author, Eugenio Gamurrini in his Istoria genealogica delle famiglie nobili toscane et umbre claimed with little evidence that this family, like many others in Florence, had roots in prominent Roman families. He claimed the family derived from the "gens Cornelia", one of the most distinguished families of the Roman Republic, from who arose in 485 BC the consul Servius Cornelius Cossus Maluginensis. According to Gamurrini the Sacchetti descend from the Cornelii Merulae branch.The family was certainly well established in Florence during the 12th century. Dante Alighieri mentions the family in The Divine Comedy, Paradise Canto XVI in which Dante's great-grandfather, Cacciaguida degli Elisei, lists the ancient families of Florence In The Inferno, Canto XXIX:1–36, Dante recounted meeting his father's first cousin, Geri del Bello. He had been condemned to the ninth chasm for his disputes with the Sacchetti, most likely Brodaio Sacchetti, consul in 1203. At the time of Dante's vision the feud had not been settled. The families were finally reconciled in 1342.
Branches
Florentine Branch
According to Ugolino di Vieri the Sacchetti were among the families forced to relocate from Fiesole to Florence after the former was conquered in 1125. In 1137, the earliest document asserts Sacchetto and his brother Bernardino di Bonizo di Merlo contract a tower association with the Uberti family.. It was the descendants of Sacchetto that would eventually use this as a patronymic and become known as the Sacchetti. In 1197, Brodaio di Sacchetto was elected to the Council of the Florentine Republic. and in 1202, Consul. While Cingisallo and Albizzo di Rovinoso are listed among the Anziani for the year 1200. When Florentine society was divided between the political factions of the Guelf and the Ghibellines most members of the family sided with the Guelf party. In 1260 the Teghiaio and Giambeto Sacchetti fought in the Battle of Montaperti against Ghibelline Siena while Gaglia di Upizzino Sacchetti was one of the men charged with defending the Carroccio, a wheeled altar which was the rallying point for a medieval army. The Sienese defeated the Florentines and the Sacchetti were exiled but later returned with the eventual defeat of the Sienese and the final expulsion of the Florentine Ghibellines. Despite the family's support for Guelf party, the Sacchetti were barred from public office in the Ordinances of Justice in 1293 and 1295. The ordinances were intended to exclude Ghibelline sympathizers and nobles with a reputation for their bellicose nature and a predilection for violence to impose their will. Eventually the family returned to the council and the highest offices of the Republic. Antonio di Forese Sacchetti was appointed by the Signoria on July 7, 1375 as one of the eight members of a committee, that became known as the "Otto dei Preti", to carry out the taxation of the clergy in Florence and Fiesole. The tax was a forced loan to pay for the nonaggression pact with the mercenary Sir John Hawkwood at a cost of 130,000 florins. Antonio with the other members were excommunicated by Pope Gregory XI. The family has two main branches, one that remained in Florence up to the time of the hegemony of the Medici and relocated to Rome in the sixteenth century and the Neapolitan branch that went into the service of the Normans in southern Italy shortly after their forced transfer from Fiesole.Neapolitan branch
According to Eugenio Gamurrini, the Neapolitan branch of the Sacchetti family originated in the 12th century from Florentine members of the family who entered royal service in the Kingdom of Naples. The earliest recorded figures are Avellino Sacchetti and Lancillotto Sacchetti, sons of Sacchetto. Avellino received royal privileges from Roger II of Sicily in 1146, while Lancillotto was the father of Cesare Sacchetti, who became Bishop of Melfi.Avellino’s son Simone Sacchetti is documented in a notarial procuration dated 1161. Simone’s son Gezzolino Sacchetti was created Baron of Alessano by William II of Sicily in 1173 and is recorded as holding additional baronial lordships in Apulia, including Ceglie, Ginosa, Castrignano, Leverano, Oria, and Squinzano. Royal privileges confirmed his feudal possessions and the aggregation of the Sacchetti family into the Neapolitan nobility, with hereditary succession of titles and rights.
In the early 13th century, Alberico Sacchetti received an imperial diploma from Emperor Frederick II in 1224 confirming his lands, jurisdictions, and feudal rights, and associating him with imperial administration connected to Tusculum.
Under the Angevin kings of Naples, members of the family held royal offices. Angelo Sacchetti and Giovanni Pietro Sacchetti were appointed castellans and governors of Gaeta by royal provision. Pietro Antonio Sacchetti later served as Governor of L’Aquila under Charles II of Anjou.
The Neapolitan branch also produced several high-ranking ecclesiastics, including Cesare Sacchetti, Bishop of Melfi; Ottone Sacchetti, Latin Patriarch of Antioch during the period when the Latin Patriarchate functioned largely in exile following the loss of Antioch to Muslim forces.; Ludovico Sacchetti, Archbishop of Melfi; and Alessandro Sacchetti, Abbot of San Benedetto of Manfredonia. Francesco Antonio Sacchetti Bishop of San Severo and Troia in the Ecclesiastical province of Foggia-Bovino in Puglia. His Principal Consecrator was Cardinal Giulio Cesare Sacchetti.
Gamurrini notes that by the late 15th century certain lines of the Neapolitan Sacchetti had become extinct, with their genealogy reconstructed from surviving royal, imperial, and ecclesiastical records.
Roman branch
The Roman branch is descended from Giovanni Battista Sacchetti, the son of Matteo Sacchetti and Nanna Carducci. He was a trading partner of the Barberini family of Pope Urban VIII and married Francesca Altoviti, the daughter of Alessandro Altoviti. The marriage had the effect of transferring to the Sacchetti financial resources, property, profitable links with the curia and client relations already established by the Altoviti. They move to Rome from Florence and together they had nine children Matteo, Bindo, Vincenzo, Clarice, Sandrina, Marcello, Alessandro, Ottavia, Matteo, Gianfrancesco and Giulio Cesare. Giulio Cesare became an influential cardinal, and in 1644 and 1655 included in the French Court's list of acceptable candidates for the Papacy.Gianfrancesco was the Commissary General of the Papal troops in Valtellina in 1623 and 1626; and was created Marquis of Rigattini in 1632 and a Marquis of the Baldachin in 1633 giving him the rank of Prince at the papal court. The current Roman branch is descendant from Matteo and his wife Cassandra Ricasoli-Rucellai. Their son Don Giovanni Battista and Caterina Acciaioli inherited his uncle's title and their son Matteo who married Chiara Orsini exchanged the Marquisate of Castel Rigattini for the Marquisate of Castel Romano.
Their son Giulio married Maddalena Azzan. Their son Scipione became the Chief Quartermaster of the Apostolic Palaces in 1794, a title held by the family until the dissolution of the papal court in the 1968. Scipione married Eleonora Cenci Bolognetti daughter of Girolamo Prince of Vicovaro. Their son Urbano married Beatrice Orsini, daughter of Domenico Duke of Gravina and Principe of Solofra and Maria Luisa Torlonia of the Dukes of Poli and Guadagnolo. Their younger son Luigi married Maria Colonna-Barberini, Princess and heiress of Palestrina and with a decree from the Italian state Luigi assumed his wife's titles and assumed the surname Barberini. The eldest son of Urbano and Beatrice Orsini, Giulio married Teresa, the daughter of the Marquis Antonio Gerini and his wife Anna Maria Borghese. Their son Giovanni Battista was a Councilor to the State of the Vatican and married Matilda Lante Montefeltro della Rovere. Their son Giulio, the last Chief Quartermaster of the Vatican, married Giovannella Emo Capodilista, the daughter of the Count Alvise and Maria Henriqueta Alvares Pereira de Mello of the Dukes of Cadaval. Giulio and Giovannella had five children. The current head of the family is their son Urbano. File:Palazzo sacchetti.jpg|thumb|Palazzo Sacchetti, via Giulia, Rome begun by Antonio da Sangallo, the younger for himself. The palace houses some of the most significant cycles of Mannerism, with works by Francesco Salviati, to which the splendid frescoes of the Audience Hall, Pietro da Cortona and Jacopino del Conte. Palazzo Sacchetti was used for the 2013 film, La Grande Bellezza : "Viola, a rich and depressed friend, lives alone with her psychopathic son at Palazzo Sacchetti, in Via Giulia, where she organises a lunch where no one will be present .