A Jacobite Gazetteer - Bologna

In August 1763 Henry, Cardinal Duke of York (later King Henry IX and I) visited Bologna. According to his diary he stayed for six days in "the Palace of the Angelelli family".¹

The Angelelli were actually a cadet branch of the Malvezzi family. In 1691 Marchese Nerio Lorenzo Malvezzi became heir to Senator Angelo Maria Angelelli; thenceforth he and his descendants used the name Malvezzi Angelelli or Angelelli Malvezzi (sometimes spelling the name Angeletti).

In 1758 Nerio's younger son Francesco (then aged 50) moved to Rome to take up the post of Maestro di Camera (chief chamberlain) to Henry. Henry was godfather to one of Francesco's daughters Maria Clementina Enrica (born in 1756).² In 1772 Francesco welcomed King Charles III and Queen Louise to Rome at the Ponte Milvio.³

Alice Shield (whose works are somewhat unreliable) says that the Marchese Francesco Angelelli was named Henry's Maestro di Camera in 1752. She also says that Henry stayed in the palace of Francesco's brother when he was in Bologna in August and September that year.⁴

The identification of "the Palace of the Angelelli family" is unclear. It is probably Palazzo Angelelli (now called Palazzo Fava Simonetti) at Strada Maggiore 51. According to Henry's 1763 diary, one evening he "went to Santa Caterina" and another morning "he went to say mass at the nuns known as Santa Caterina".⁵ There is a church dedicated to Santa Caterina on Strada Maggiore immediately across the street from Palazzo Fava Simonetti. On the left wall of the fourth chapel on the right of the church there are two funerary inscriptions to members of the Angelelli family: one to Luigi Angelelli (1716-1796; younger brother of Francesco), the other to Massimiliano Angelelli (died 1825).

In 1784 Ottavio Angelelli (born 1751) was made Maestro di Camera to the Cardinal Duke of York (presumably after his father's resignation); Ottavio was later made Bishop of Gubbio.⁶

The relationship between the Royal Family and the Angelelli continued for many years. In January 1766 King Charles III stayed in the Angelelli Palace on his way to Rome after the death of his father.⁷ In 1768 Marchese Giuseppe Angelelli dedicated his book Tragedie e poesie (Roma: Generoso Salomoni, 1758) to the Cardinal Duke of York.

When Queen Louise (wife of King Charles III) visited Bologna in 1784, she did not stay with the Angelelli but instead at Palazzo Vizzani; however, she writes in a letter to the Cardinal Duke of York that "the Angelelli family have made me a thousand polite offers".⁸ In fact, the Marchese Angelelli was sending written reports to the Cardinal Duke of York about Queen Louise and her correspondence with Count Vittorio Alfieri.⁹