The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

ALBANI ELECTED. 7
festivities.^ During the pontificate of Urban VIII. his grand-
father Orazio, a prominent lawyer, had conducted with the
Duke of Urbino the negotiations which led to the devolution
of that fief to the Church. As a reward Orazio was given the
dignity of a Roman Senator in 1633, and his son Carlo became
Maestro di Camera to Cardinal Francesco Barberini. Carlo
chose his wife, Elena Mosca, from a noble family of Pesaro ;
from this marriage sprang Gian Francesco, the future Pope.
Gian Francesco received a most careful education in Rome.
He acquired such mastery of the classical languages, as well
as of Italian literature, that when only seventeen years old
he was able to publish a Latin translation of a Greek sermon
of St. Sophronius and other works of this kind.^ Three years
later he was admitted into the learned Academy of Queen
Christine in which he soon played a prominent part.
Thoroughly acquainted with classical antiquity, and a poet
himself, he was also a skilful impromptu speaker. However,
he did not spend all his energies in literary efforts of this
kind but devoted himself wholeheartedly to the study of
philosophy, theology and law, though he put off for a con-
siderable time the choice of a career.^ He was twenty-eight
years old when he entered the Roman prelature. The applica-
tion to work of which he gave proof as referendary of both
segnatnras won for him the recognition and the friendship of
the celebrated canonist, Cardinal De Luca. As Governor of
Rieti, the Sabine province and Orvieto, Albani was able to
give proof of his ability as an administrator. On returning
to Rome he found a new patron in Cardinal Carlo Barberini
VlscoNTi, Famiglie nohili di Roma, I., i seqq. ; Reumont,
Beitrdge, V., 327 seq., 410 ;
46.
on the coat of arms, Pasini-Frassoni,
^ " *Allegrezze fatte in Urbino per resaltazione al pontificate
del card. Albani descritte dal p. Pier Girolamo Vernaccia,"
Communal Archives, Urbino, III., v., 146.
« NovAES, XII., 4 seq.
' His rich library in Castello di Imperiali, near Pesaro, was
recently sold by Count Castelbarco-Albani to the Catholic Univer-
sity of Washington.