For their wedding celebrations, the old residence of the Mancini family was enlarged by the acquisition of four adjoining houses and a new building designed by the architect Carlo Rainaldi.

The building features a facade with "bugne lisce", or 'fishbone'-style ashlar, with the central door surmounted by a rich balcony supported by brackets decorated from Cupids.

The Palazzo was eventually acquired in 1737 by order of Louis XV and adapted to its new function.

In 1798 the academy returned to the Palazzo, but after the French defeat by Suvorov in 1799 the building was occupied and pillaged.

In 1803 the academy was moved to the Villa Medici and in 1818 the Palazzo was bought by Louis Bonaparte, who ten years' later ceded it to Maria Theresia of Austria-Este, the widow of Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia.