A Jacobite Gazetteer - Rome

Convento dell' Orsoline, Via Nomentana 34

Bust and inscription of Queen Clementina

The Ursuline convent at Via Nomentana 34 contains several items connected with Queen Clementina (wife of King James III and VIII. These were formerly at the Ursuline convent on Via Vittoria (now the Accademia Musicale di Santa Cecilia) but were removed here when the sisters vacated that building late in the nineteenth century. ¹

In a reception room on the ground floor can be seen a life-size bust of the queen. The plaster bust covered in gold paint is now in need of repair. On the wall immediately behind the bust is a Latin inscription which was formerly in the sacristy of the convent chapel on Via Vittoria: ²

CLEMENTINÆ SOBIESKI MAGNÆ BRITANNIÆ
REGINÆ
QUOD SVA DIVTVRNA COMMEMORATIONE PRÆCLARISQUE
VIRTVTVM EXEMPLIS MONASTERIVM CELEBRIVS REDDITVM
DIGNIS REGALI SVA LIBERALITATE DONARIIS CVMVLAVERIT
MARIA IOSEPHA DE MIDDELBORG PRÆSES ET MONIALES
GRATI ANIMI MONIMENTVM POSVERE ANNO · D · MDCCXXXIV

The archives of the Ursuline sisters located at Via Nomentana, 236, include a number of items relating to Queen Maria Clementina.

Notes

¹Amy Vitteleschi, A Court in Exile (London: Hutchinson, 1903), I, 103.

² Gaetano Platania, La Politica Europea e il Matrimonio Inglese di una Principessa Polacca: Maria Clementina Sobieska, Conferenze 101, Accademia Polacca delle Scienze Biblioteca e Centro Studi a Roma (Rome: Vecchiarelli, 1993), 40.