His uncle Cesare Brancadoro on his maternal side was a cardinal that Pope Pius VII named in 1801 and his brother Alessandro became a bishop.

[1] He was appointed as the pro-legate to Ferrara from mid-1815 until 1816 and held a series of other positions such as Governor of Rome and Vice-Camerlengo from 1820 until 1826 despite not having been an ordained priest at that stage.

His diplomatic duties also extended to being made an ambassador to the coronation of Czar Nicholas I of Russia in 1826 and he left Rome on 13 June to join Cardinal Tommaso Arezzo.

He arrived in Rome not long after and months later received his red biretta and his title as Cardinal-Deacon of San Cesareo in Palatio.

In 1836 he left the Secretariat of State and in 1844 was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor for the Apostolic Chancery; in 1844 he opted to become the Cardinal-Deacon of San Lorenzo in Damaso reduced pro illa vice.