He was a relative of the Cardinal Ulderico Carpegna of the Holy Roman Catholic Church who died in 1679.

Cardinal Carpegna firmly held the vicarage until death, for over forty years, well below the following five popes: Clement X, Innocent XI, Pope Alexander VIII, Innocent XII, and Clement XI.

He was a member of the cultural Arcadia Society in 1695, skilled in court maneuvers, very severe in repressing abuses, and also attempted to gain the papacy in the Conclave of 1689, which ended up elevating Alexander VIII Ottoboni.

The hostility of France and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany to his candidacy blocked Carpegna's election.

Incapacitated in 1707 by a stroke, he died on 6 April 1714 at the age of eighty-nine, and was buried in the family tomb in Santa Maria in Vallicella.