A Jacobite Gazetteer - Bologna

Palazzo Angelelli Hercolani Fava Simonetti is located at Strada Maggiore 51. It was the palace of the Angelelli family before it was inherited by members of the Hercolani and Fava Simonetti families.

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 Angelelli (or sometimes Malvezzi Angelelli or Angelelli Malvezzi). A number of members of the family had ongoing relations with the Royal Family in the second half of the eighteenth century.

In the early 1750s, Roberto, youngest surviving son of Marchese Nerio Lorenzo Angelelli, was a member of the ecclesiastical household of Henry, Cardinal Duke of York (later King Henry IX and I).¹ He had a doctorate in canon law and was a member of the cathedral chapter in Bologna. One source says that he was Maestro di Camera (chief chamberlain) to Henry, but this must be an error.²

In January 1752, Francesco, Roberto's elder brother, was named Maestro di Camera (chief chamberlain) to Henry, Cardinal Duke of York, in succession to Giovanni Lercari. Francesco, then aged 44, was a married man, and the father of ten children (with three more still to be born). When Henry argued with his father about the dismissal of Lercari and left Rome, he stayed at Palazzo Angelelli, the home of Francesco's elder brother Achille, while he was in Bologna in August and September 1752.³ Henry was godfather to one of Francesco's daughters Maria Clementina Enrica (born in 1756);⁴ she was clearly named in honour of Henry and his mother Queen Maria Clementina. In April 1772 Francesco represented Henry when he welcomed King Charles III and Queen Louise to Rome at the Ponte Milvio.⁵

In August 1763 Henry, Cardinal Duke of York, visited Bologna for a second time. According to his diary he stayed for six days in "the Palace of the Angelelli family".⁶ One evening he "went to Santa Caterina" and another morning "he went to say mass at the nuns known as Santa Caterina".⁷ The church of Santa Caterina is located on Strada Maggiore immediately across the street from Palazzo Angelelli. On the left wall of the fourth chapel on the right of the church there are two inscriptions to members of the Angelelli family: the first a funerary inscription for Luigi Angelelli (1716-1796; Francesco's younger brother), the second an inscription recording that Massimiliano Angelelli (1716-1853; Francesco's grandson) acquired the patronage of the chapel in 1825.

In January 1766 King Charles III stayed in the Palazzo Angelelli on his way to Rome after the death of his father.⁸ In 1768 Marchese Giuseppe Angelelli (Francesco's eldest surviving son) 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 in Palazzo Angelelli but instead in Palazzo Vizzani; however, she wrote in a letter to the Cardinal Duke of York that "the Angelelli family have made me a thousand polite offers".⁹ 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.¹⁰

In 1784 Ottavio Angelelli (born 1751), Francesco's younger son, was made Maestro di Camera to the Cardinal Duke of York. On February 14, 1785, Ottavio was named Bishop of Gubbio. Henry consecrated him bishop on February 20, 1785, in the Cathedral of Frascati.¹¹