Although Alessandro Aldobrandini (1664-1734) was not the first
in the long history of Italy’s Aldobrandini family to traverse
the cursus honorum of the church’s hierarchy, his record of
achievement was substantial: educated first in the Seminario
Romano and later in the University of Pisa, where he attained
the degree of doctor utriusque juris, he was vice-legate in
Ferarra (1701), cleric of the reverend apostolic chamber (1706),
governor of Cesi (1707), and archbishop of Rodi (1707); he was
made a cardinal in 1730 – the same year that he became legate in
Ferrara. He was finally given the important title of the Sancti
Quattor Coronati in Rome in 1731. The career Aldobrandini
followed was a familiar mix of secular and ecclesiastical
offices in the Italian church of his day. The Catholic Church
itself governed much of central Italy through what were known as
the Papal States, administrative regions over which the Church
held sovereignty as a secular governor. For his part,
Aldobrandini had a hand in the governm