Francesco Maria Brancaccio (15 April 1592, Canneto, near
BariBari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
- 9 January 1675) was an Italian
cardinalA cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
.
He was elevated to the rank of cardinal by
Pope Urban VIIIPope Urban VIII , born Maffeo Barberini, was pope from 1623 to 1644. He was the last pope to expand the papal territory by force of arms, and was a prominent patron of the arts and reformer of Church missions...
in his consistory of 28 November 1633. He became Bishop of Viterbo in 1638, then of Sabina (1666–68), and finally of Frascati (1668–71). He attended the
papal conclaveA papal conclave is a meeting of the College of Cardinals convened to elect a Bishop of Rome, who then becomes the Pope during a period of vacancy in the papal office. The Pope is considered by Roman Catholics to be the apostolic successor of Saint Peter and earthly head of the Roman Catholic Church...
s of
1667The Papal conclave, 1667 to determine the successor to the departed Pope Alexander VII resulted in the election of cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi, who took the name of Clement IX.-Divisions among cardinals:...
and
1669The papal conclave from December 20, 1669 to April 29, 1670 elected Cardinal Emilio Altieri as Pope Clement X.- Cardinal electors :-Absentee cardinals:...
, which elected popes Clement IX and Clement X respectively.
Patron of the arts
During his time in Rome he formed the
Biblioteca Brancacciana (which later moved to Naples and became that city's first public library - it is now part of the National Library of Naples) and housed the artist
Salvator RosaSalvator Rosa was an Italian Baroque painter, poet and printmaker, active in Naples, Rome and Florence. As a painter, he is best known as an "unorthodox and extravagant" and a "perpetual rebel" proto-Romantic.-Early life:...
.
In 1642
Giovanni GentileGiovanni Gentile was an Italian composer and music teacher.- Life and works :Two sources survive for his life and works : his only surviving work, a teaching-collection of music entitled Solfeggiamenti et ricercari a due voci ; and the inventory of printed works in the workshop of the Roman...
dedicated a teaching-collection of music entitled
Solfeggiamenti et ricercari a due voci (
SolfègeIn music, solfège is a pedagogical solmization technique for the teaching of sight-singing in which each note of the score is sung to a special syllable, called a solfège syllable...
s and ricercarA ricercar is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term means to search out, and many ricercars serve a preludial function to "search out" the key or mode of a following piece...
i for two voices - Lodovico Grignani, Rome, 1642) to him. The frontispiece gives him as "CARD. FRANCESCO MARIA / BRANCACCIO. / VESCOVO DI VITERBO" ("Cardinal Francesco Maria Brancaccio, bishop of Viterbo") and in the appendices is a
canonIn music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration . The initial melody is called the leader , while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower...
in two voices "Cavato dalle lettere vocali del nome, e cognome / DELL'EMINENTISSIMO E REVERENDISSIMO / CARDINALE BRANCACCIO" ("Based on the vocal letters of the name and surname of the most eminent and most reverend / cardinal Brancaccio").
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