Boncompagni

The House of Boncompagni is a princely family of the Italian nobility which settled in Bologna in around the 14th century, but was probably originally from Umbria.

[1] In 1572 Ugo Boncompagni was elected pope, taking the name Gregory XIII, and the family prospered.

In 1579, the pope bought the Duchy of Sora from the Della rovere family for his son Giacomo, whose descendants reigned there as dukes until 1796.

[2] The Bolognese family, perhaps originally from Umbria, rose socially with the marriage of Cristoforo Boncompagni (1470 - 1546) to the noble Angela Marescalchi.

The princes Boncompagni-Ludovisi inherited a large (30 hectare) estate in Rome with vast collections of art; in 1883 they subdivided it and sold most of it, retaining and living in what became known as the Casino di Villa Boncompagni Ludovisi or Villa Aurora, which remained in the family until 2023, when it was put up for auction.