Giambattista Orsini

Little is known from his education and childhood, with the exception of the fact that his family’s upper class status certainly favored his ecclesiastical career, as he became nominated at a young age to the roles of cleric of the apostolic chamber, auditor of the Roman Sacra Rota, and canon of the chapter of the Lateran Basilica.

In 1477, his uncle Latino Orsini resigned from his duty at the Benedictian monastery of San Salvatore Maggiore near Rieti, and shortly after Gianbattista was nominated as protonotary apostolic.

After being the abbot of Farfa in 1482, Orsini was nominated as the deacon cardinal of Pope Sixtus IV in the consistory of 15 November 1483, receiving the diakonia of Santa Maria in Domnica.

The Orsini were hostile to Pope Cybo, but Giovanni Battista proved his qualities as a peacemaker, avoiding too strong a fracture between the papacy and his family.

At the end of the year, he was nominated as the papal legate from Marche, and on January 22, 1485, he obtained from the pope the permit to fortify the region to resist the continuous attacks from the Ottomans.

He subsequently refrained from visiting King Charles VIII of France when he entered Rome on 31 December, 1494, because he preferred to take refuge with the pontiff in the Castel Sant'Angelo on January 7, 1495.

The participation in an Orsini family reunion near Lake Trasimeno, during which a conspiracy against Alexander VI was discussed, without success, caused him to become arrested by the later and led to his imprisonment first in Tor di Nona, and then, January 3, 1503, in Castel Sant’Angelo, where he died from poisoning twenty days later.

The pontiff ordered two doctors to write up a document that certified his death was from natural causes, and had a solemn funeral organized for the cardinal.

The election is notorious for allegations that Borgia bought the votes of his electors, promising them lucrative appointments and gifts.

Orsini received the fortified towns of Monticelli and Soriano, and the bishopric of Cartagena, with annual revenue of 5,000 ducats.

On February 27, 1493, Orsini opted for the order of cardinal priests and received the titular church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo.

[1] When Charles VIII of France came to Rome on December 31, 1494, as part of the Italian Wars, Cardinal Orsini went with the pope to the Castel Sant'Angelo.