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Clement XII

Pope
Clement XII
Bishop of Rome
Pope Clement XII, portrait.jpg
Papacy began 12 July 1730
Papacy ended 6 February 1740
Predecessor Benedict XIII
Successor Benedict XIV
Orders
Consecration 18 June 1690
by Flavio Chigi
Created Cardinal 17 May 1706
by Pope Clement XI
Personal details
Birth name Lorenzo Corsini
Born (1652-04-07)7 April 1652
Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Died 6 February 1740(1740-02-06) (aged 87)
Rome, Papal States
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Coat of arms {{{coat_of_arms_alt}}}
Papal styles of
Pope Clement XII
C o a Clemente XII.svg
Reference style His Holiness
Spoken style Your Holiness
Religious style Holy Father
Posthumous style None

Pope Clement XII (Latin: Clemens XII; 7 April 1652 – 6 February 1740), born Lorenzo Corsini, was Pope from 12 July 1730 to his death in 1740.

Clement presided over the growth of a surplus in the papal finances. He thus became known for building the new façade of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, beginning construction of the Trevi Fountain, and the purchase of Cardinal Alessandro Albani's collection of antiquities for the papal gallery. In his 1738 bull In eminenti apostolatus, he provides the first public papal condemnation of Freemasonry, helping bring about the Catholic Church's longstanding opposition to the order.

Lorenzo Corsini was born in Florence in 1652 as the son of Bartolomeo Corsini, Marquis of Casigliano and his wife Elisabetta Strozzi, the sister of the Duke of Bagnuolo. Both of his parents belonged to the old Florentine nobility. He was a distant relative of Saint Andrea Corsini.

Corsini studied at the Jesuit Collegio Romano in Rome and also at the University of Pisa where he earned a doctorate in both civil law and canon law.

Corsini practiced law under the able direction of his uncle, Cardinal Neri Corsini. After the death of his uncle and his father, in 1685, Corsini, now thirty-three, would have become head of the Corsini. Instead he resigned his right of primogeniture and from Pope Innocent XI (1676–89) he purchased, according to the custom of the time, for 30,000 scudi, a position of prelatial rank and devoted his wealth and leisure to the enlargement of the library bequeathed to him by his uncle. Corsini’s home on the Piazza Novona, was the center of Rome’s scholarly and artistic life.


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