Altieri family

Coat of Arms of the Altieri family
Details
Motto	Tanto alto quanto se puote ('As high as possible')

The Altieri family was an ancient noble family of Rome, present in the history of the city since the Middle Ages. In addition to the title of Prince granted by the Pontiffs, branches of the Altieri were also part of the aristocracy of Genoa and of Venice. The family consolidated its position in the ranks of the great senatorial and cardinal aristocracy thanks to dynastic marriages with families like the Colonna, Paluzzi, Chigi, Odescalchi, Doria-Pamphili, Ruspoli, Barberini, Borghese and in more recent times the di Napoli Rampolla, relatives of the famous Cardinal Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro, Secretary of State of Pope Leo XIII, not to mention a multitude of princely families of Europe. Their fiefs consisted of the principality of Oriolo Romano and Vejano and the duchy of Monterano in the Alto Lazio. The Altieri were among the protagonists of the history of the city from the earlier Middle Ages until the second half of the twentieth century, reaching the apogee of their power with Emilio Bonaventura Altieri, elected pope in 1670 with the name of Clement X.

The Altieri family, according to a custom quite common in the past among the Roman nobility, claimed to descend from a Lucius Alterius, the legendary founder of the Roman Gens Alteria: to demonstrate that, the Altieri were in possession of an ancient funerary urn bearing his name. According to the Renaissance humanist Marco Antonio Altieri, a member of the family, as expressed in his work Li Nuptiali (the Libro d'Oro of 16th-century Roman nobility), the family's origins dated back to the Gens Hostilia, which perpetuated a lineage already present in the annals of King Romulus and was numbered among the gentes originarie (the original families of Rome) of Livy. According to him the ancient surname of the Altieri was Lucii, descendants from the king of Rome Tullus Hostilius. From this stock, among others, would have descended also the Mancini family, to which belonged Maria Mancini, lover of Louis XIV and niece of Cardinal Jules Mazarin. But the origins of the family were much more likely Germanic. The name possibly came to southern Italy from northern France through the Normans. Etymologically, the name Altieri comes from the old German language, and is made of two words, the first being either alda ("old", "experienced") or audha ("riches", "power"), and the second haria ("to practise"): the meaning would be respectively "experienced person" or "person who works with richness", i.e. jeweler, goldsmith.

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