Lelio Falconieri
Lelio Falconieri (1585–1648) was an Italian Catholic Cardinal. Family and early life Falconieri was born in 1585 in Florence, the tenth of the thirteen children of Paolo Falconieri and his second wife Maddalena degli Albizzi. He was the brother of Don Orazio Falconieri who purchased the Villa Falconieri and commissioned Francesco Borromini to renovate it. Orazio later commissioned Borromini to renovate the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini to build a Falconieri family chapel for the burial of the two brothers. He studied law at the University of Perugia and went on to take a doctorate in canon and civil law from the University of Pisa. At a young age he went to Rome and became an advocate at the Roman Curia and papal prelate during the pontificate of Pope Paul V. In 1619 he became Governor of San Severino and a referendary of the Tribunals of the Apostolic Signatura of Justice and of Grace. He became Governor of Spoleto (1621), Vice-governor of Benevento (1622) and Governor of the Campagne and Maritime Province (1622). Pontificate of Urban VIII Maffeo Barberini was elected Pope Urban VIII at the Papal conclave of 1623 and during his pontificate, Falconieri became the relator of