Editing Pope Alexander VII (section)

== Papacy ==
=== Election as pope ===
{{main|Papal conclave, 1655}}

When Innocent X died on 7 January 1655, Cardinal Chigi was elected pope after eighty days in the [[Papal election|conclave]], on 7 April 1655, taking the name of Alexander VII, in honor of [[Pope Alexander III]].<ref>J. P. Adams, [http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/SV1655.html ''Sede Vacante 1655''.] Retrieved: 19 March 2016.</ref>

On the morning of his election as he went to celebrate Mass before the final ballot, Chigi was greeted by his friend [[Luigi Omodei (1607–1685)|Luigi Omodei]] who, knowing that Chigi was soon to be elected, said: "At length that day has come, so desired by me, and so happy for the Church!" Chigi replied to Omodei by reciting [[Virgil]] and said: "That day I shall always recollect with grief; with reverence also for the gods so willed it". During the final ballot, Chigi had cast his vote for [[Giulio Cesare Sacchetti]] while in the accesso casting it for [[Giovanni Maria Battista Pallotta]]. Upon his election, one of the cardinals remarked: "What a singular thing! The Spaniards disinterestedly wished you to be pope; the French wished it, though they had at first excluded you; the young men chose a man already aged, and the Barberini a man who was not their own creature!"<ref name=UC>{{cite web|url=http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/People/Pope_Alexander_VII/Montor_bio*.html|title=Alexander VII|date=1911|publisher=|author=Alexis-François Artaud de Montor|accessdate=13 December 2022}}</ref>

Upon his election, he was crowned on 18 April 1655 by the Cardinal [[Protodeacon]] [[Gian Giacomo Teodoro Trivulzio]] before taking possession of the [[Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran]] on the following 9 May.

One of his first acts as pope was to order [[Olimpia Maidalchini]] (known popularly as "la papessa" due to her extraordinary influence over Pope Innocent X) to return to her native town of Orvieto.<ref name=EC>{{cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/alexander-vii|title=Alexander VII|author=|publisher=Catholic Encyclopedia|date=|accessdate=13 December 2022}}</ref> Maidalchini had been a rival of sorts since Chigi's office as Secretary of State commanded much power which Maidalchini hoped to utilize for her own ends while she worked with Cardinal [[Decio Azzolino]] to try to circumvent Chigi's authority with the hopes of having Chigi either effectively sidelined or replaced.

=== Nepotism ===
The conclave believed he was strongly opposed to the [[nepotism]] that had been a feature of previous popes. In the first year of his reign, Alexander VII lived simply and forbade his relatives even to visit Rome, but in the [[papal consistory|consistory]] of 24 April 1656, Pope Alexander announced that his brother and nephews would be coming to assist him in Rome. His nephew, Cardinal [[Flavio Chigi (1631–1693)|Flavio Chigi]] assumed the position of [[cardinal-nephew]]. The administration was given largely into the hands of his relatives,<ref>{{Catholic|no-icon=1| prescript=| wstitle=Pope Alexander VII}}</ref> and nepotism became entrenched as it had been in the Baroque Papacy. Cardinal Flavio began work on the Villa Chigi-Versaglia at Formello in 1664.<ref>Oliva Muratore, "Formello, Villa Versaglia," ''Methodical Approach to the Restoration of Historic Architecture'' (ed. Calogero Bellanca) (Firenze: Alinea Editrice, 2011), pp. 123–135.</ref>

When announcing to the cardinals in 1656 that he would summon his relatives to Rome, the pontiff asked that each cardinal provide his opinion on his suggestion. The cardinals agreed, but attached several conditions to ensure that nepotism did not run too rampant. The pope eventually received his relatives in an audience, however, the meeting was formal and his relatives were required to kneel for the entirety of the audience as the pope informed them of why they had been summoned and what was expected of them.<ref name=UC/>

=== Urban and architectural projects in Rome ===
[[File:Anselm van Hulle - Portrait of the Papal Nuntius Fabio Chigi.jpg|thumb|235px|right|Fabio Chigi as Papal Nuntius to the Peace of Westphalia negotiations, by [[Anselm van Hulle]] (c. 1646)]] [[File:Guidi Alexander VII.jpg|thumb|240px|right| Alexander VII, by Domenico Guidi]]

A number of pontiffs are renowned for their urban planning in the city of Rome—for example, [[Pope Julius II]] and [[Pope Sixtus V]]—but Alexander VII's numerous urban interventions were not only diverse in scope and scale but demonstrated a consistent planning and architectural vision that the glorification and embellishment of the city, ancient and modern, sacred and secular, should be governed by order and decorum.<ref>{{cite book |last=Krautheimer |first=Richard |title=The Rome of Alexander VII 1655–1667 |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1985 |isbn=978-0691040325 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Habel |first=Dorothy Metzger|author-link=Dorothy Habel |title=The Urban Development of Rome in the Age of Alexander VII |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0521772648 }}</ref>

Central to Alexander's urbanism was the idea of ''teatro'' or urban theatre<ref>Krautheimer 1985, 3–7</ref> whereby his urban interventions became the grand settings or showpieces appropriate to the dignity of Rome and the Head of the Catholic Church. Therefore, and although the scales are vastly different, the small [[Santa Maria della Pace]] and its piazza are as much a teatro as the imposing monumental colonnade that forms [[St. Peter's Square]] in front of [[St. Peter's Basilica]].

The various urban and architectural projects carried out during Alexander's reign were recorded in engravings by [[Giovanni Battista Falda]] and the first volume was published in 1665. The volumes were published by [[Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi]] under the title ''Il Nuovo Teatro delle fabriche et edificij in prospettiva di Roma moderna sotto il felice pontificato di N.S. Alessandro VII.''<ref>Full title: ''Il Nuovo Teatro delle fabriche et edificij in prospettiva di Roma moderna sotto il felice pontificato di N.S. Alessandro VII'', (The New Theatre of the building works and edifices of modern Rome under the happy pontificate of Our Lord Alexander VII), published by Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi</ref>  A rival publication documenting these projects was published by Rossi's cousin Giovanni Battista de Rossi who employed the young [[Southern Netherlands|Flemish]] architectural draughtsman [[Lieven Cruyl]] to produce drawings of Rome, 10 of which were published in 1666 under the title ''Prospectus Locorum Urbis Romae Insignium''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://michaelmillerliterary.com/publications/MiscTexts/Cruyl%20Prints%20acqu%20full.pdf |title=Lievin Cruyl, ''Prospectus Locorum Urbis Romae Insignium'' |access-date=2 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422215125/http://michaelmillerliterary.com/publications/MiscTexts/Cruyl%20Prints%20acqu%20full.pdf |archive-date=22 April 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

His preferred architect was the sculptor and architect [[Gian Lorenzo Bernini]]<ref>Charles Avery, ''Bernini: Genius of the Baroque'' (London: Thames & Hudson, 1997).  Franco Mormando, ''Bernini: His Life and His Rome'' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011).</ref> but he also gave architectural commissions to the painter and architect [[Pietro da Cortona]]. Of the three leading architects of the Roman High [[Baroque]], only [[Francesco Borromini]] fared less well under Alexander; this may be because he thought Borromini's architectural forms wilful but also Borromini could be notoriously difficult. Nonetheless, Alexander's family heraldic emblems of the mons or mountains with stars and oak leaves, adorn Borromini's<ref>Anthony Blunt, ''Borromini'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 1979), esp. pp. 111 ff.</ref> church of [[Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza]] and many other works of his reign.<ref>Alexander’s forebear, [[Agostino Chigi]], was banker to Julius II, who granted Agostino the right to a coat-of-arms which quartered the oak, the heraldic emblem of the [[della Rovere]], Julius’s family, with his own family's arms.</ref>

Alexander took a keen personal interest in his urban and architectural projects and made notes of these in his diaries.<ref>See {{cite book |last1=Krautheimer |first1=R. |last2=Jones |first2=R. B. S. |chapter=The Diary of Alexander VII, notes on Art, Artists and Buildings |title=Römisches Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte |volume=15 |year=1975 |isbn=978-3803045034 }}</ref> His projects in Rome included: the church and piazza at [[Santa Maria della Pace]]; the [[Via del Corso]], [[Piazza Colonna]] and associated buildings; reworking of the [[Porta del Popolo]], the [[Piazza del Popolo]] and [[Santa Maria del Popolo]]; [[St. Peter's Square]],<ref>Dorothy Metzger Habel,  ''"When All of Rome was Under Construction": The Building Process in Baroque Rome'' (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013),  pp. 85–132.</ref> the [[Scala Regia (Vatican)|Scala Regia]] and interior embellishments in the [[Vatican Palace]] and [[St. Peter's Basilica|St. Peter's]]; [[Sant'Andrea al Quirinale]]; part of the [[Quirinal Palace]]; the [[Arsenal of Civitavecchia]],<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/A7.html |title = Alexander VII ( Chigi )}}</ref> the obelisk and elephant in [[Piazza della Minerva]]; and the [[Chigi Palace]].<ref>Rossella Vodret Adamo, ''Palazzo Chigi'' (Milan: Electa, 2001).</ref>  The Palazzo Chigi in Rome is not to be confused with the Palazzo Chigi in S. Quirico d'Orcia in Tuscany,<ref>Odoardo Reali, ''Palazzo Chigi a San Quirico: un restauro in corso'' (San Quirico d'Orcia [Italy]:  Editrice DonChisciotte, 1997).</ref>  or the Palazzo Chigi di Formello.<ref>Iefke van Kampen, ''Il nuovo Museo dell'Agro Veientano a Palazzo Chigi di Formello'' (Roma: Quasar, 2012).</ref>