Filippo II Colonna (7 April 1663 – 8 November 1714) was an Italian nobleman of prominent

Colonna family The House of Colonna, also known as ''Sciarrillo'' or ''Sciarra'', is an Italian noble family, forming part of the papal nobility. It was powerful in Middle Ages, medieval and Roman Renaissance, Renaissance Rome, supplying one pope (Pope Martin ...

. He was the 9th Duke and Prince of Paliano.

Biography

Born in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Filippo was the son of Don

Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna (1637–1689) was an Italian nobleman of the Colonna family. He was the 8th Duke and Prince of Paliano and hereditary Grand Constable of the Kingdom of Naples. He was also a Knight of the Golden Fleece. Biography Colonna ...

, hereditary Grand

Constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...

of the Kingdom of

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, and

Maria Mancini Anna Maria (Marie) Mancini (28 August 1639 – 8 May 1715) was the third of the five Mancini sisters; nieces to Cardinal Mazarin who were brought to France to marry advantageously. Along with two of their female Martinozzi cousins, the Mancini ...

, a niece of

Cardinal Mazarin Cardinal Jules Mazarin (, also , , ; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino () or Mazarini, was an Italian cardinal, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis X ...

. The

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

had ruled Naples since the early sixteenth century, and the Colonna were prominent servants of the Spanish crown in Italy. In 1687, while his father served as head of the interregnum council of Naples, Filippo was appointed commander of a company of

lancer A lancer was a type of cavalryman who fought with a lance. Lances were used for mounted warfare in Assyria as early as and subsequently by Persia, India, Egypt, China, Greece, and Rome. The weapon was widely used throughout Eurasia during the M ...

s. In 1689 he succeeded his father as Grand Constable and Duke-Prince of Paliano. As a patron of the arts, Filippo had the art gallery in the family's Roman palazzo refurbished. He opened the gallery in 1703. The composer

Giovanni Bononcini Giovanni Bononcini (or Buononcini) (18 July 1670 – 9 July 1747) (sometimes cited also as Giovanni Battista Bononcini) was an Italian Baroque composer, cellist, singer and teacher, one of a family of string players and composers. Biography E ...

wrote six serenatas, an oratorio and five operas while in his service (1692–1697). Filippo was a member of the

Academy of Arcadia The Accademia degli Arcadi or Accademia dell'Arcadia, "Academy of Arcadia" or "Academy of the Arcadians", was an Italian literary academy founded in Rome in 1690. The full Italian official name was Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi. History F ...

, which had been established in Rome in 1690. Among his other titles, Filippo was Prince of Castiglione, and Duke of Marino, Miraglia and

Tagliacozzo Tagliacozzo (Marsicano: ') is a town and ''comune'' in the province of L'Aquila, Abruzzo, central Italy. History Tagliacozzo lies in an area inhabited in early historic times by the Aequi and the Marsi, although the first mentions of the town ...

. He was made a knight of the

Order of the Golden Fleece The Distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece ( es, Insigne Orden del Toisón de Oro, german: Orden vom Goldenen Vlies) is a Catholic order of chivalry founded in Bruges by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1430, to celebrate his marriage ...

by Spanish king

Carlos II Charles II of Spain (''Spanish: Carlos II,'' 6 November 1661 – 1 November 1700), known as the Bewitched (''Spanish: El Hechizado''), was the last Habsburg ruler of the Spanish Empire. Best remembered for his physical disabilities and the War of ...

in 1679. In 1710 he became the first Colonna to be appointed hereditary Prince Assistant to the Papal Throne. Don Filippo married the Spanish aristocrat Lorenza de la Cerda in Madrid in 1681, but she died without issue in 1697. Later that year in Rome he wed his second wife, the Italian aristocrat Olimpia

Pamphilj The House of Pamphili (often with the final ''long i'' orthography, Pamphilj) was one of the papal families deeply entrenched in Catholic Church, Roman and Italian politics of the 16th and 17th centuries. Later, the Pamphili family line merged ...

(1672–1731), by whom he had several children. The Prince suffered from painful bladder stones and diseased kidneys prior to his death at Rome in 1714. His son Fabrizio II Colonna succeeded him in his hereditary titles. Fabrizio also commissioned a tomb for his father in the church of Sant’ Andrea in the family seat of

Paliano Paliano is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Frosinone, in the Lazio region of central Italy. History Paliano was the seat of a branch of the powerful Colonna family whose head was Lord, then Duke, then Prince of Paliano. Their fortress ...

, which was executed by the sculptor

Bernardino Ludovisi Bernardino Ludovisi (c. 1693 – 11 December 1749), also called Bernardo, was an Italian sculptor. Life and work Little is known of his life. The Ludovisi were an ancient Italian family, originally from Bologna. Bernardino seems to have spent ...

and installed in 1745.

References

* Robert Enggass, “Ludovisi’s Tomb for a Colonna Prince” Burlington Magazine, CXXXV (1993): 822–824.
V. Gazzaniga & S. Marinozzi, "Nephrology in the Lancisi Medical Dictionary (1672-1720)" ''Journal of Nephrology'', 19 (2006): 44–47.

Opera Today: Bononcini: La nemica d’Amore fatta amante
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colonna, Filippo II Filippo II Colonna Knights of the Golden Fleece 17th-century Italian nobility 18th-century Italian nobility 1663 births 1714 deaths