British School at Rome: Papers of the British School at Rome (9.1920)

The Palazzo Odescalchi. 71
the preference over any other purchaser in case of the sale of the palace,
and to charge him the same price as that for which his brother, Cardinal
Ludovico Ludovisi, who had died in 1632, had sold it back to Pompeo's
father Pierfrancesco, and to indemnify him for all his expenditure past
and future on improvements. (Doc. 24 a, minute of the lease.)
Don Nicolo apparently paid the Abate a good price for what remained
of his lease : we find an undertaking by his legal representative, Ruggero
Bracciolini, dated February n, 1637, to execute the deed of sale of the
palace, the terms of which had been already agreed upon, as soon as
Don Nicolo demanded it, and a copy of the deed of surrender of the
palace (undated) for a consideration of 15,000 scudi, including the allow-
ance for the improvements made by the Abate for his whole lifetime and
two months after his death, by which deed the mother of Nicold, Lavinia
Albergati Ludovisi, Duchess of Fiano, was given possession of the palace
(Doc. 24 b, c). There is also a letter of Bracciolini written in May (?)
enclosing a minute of the deed of sale (the sale having occurred ‘ some
months before ’), and stating that he awaited the order to have it drawn
out in due form (Doc. 24 di).
We have already seen that Peretti, who became a Cardinal in 1641,
died in 1655 : and, at the beginning of 1661 Pompeo Colonna made a will
by which he left the use of the palace for life to Cardinal Flavio Chigi
(Papers, viii. 63).
One or two other points may be noticed, as to which it has been
possible to obtain additional information. Thus, a few objects from the
collection of antiquities formed by Queen Christina of Sweden, and bought
by Don Livio Odescalchi in 1691 (Papers, viii. 69), found their way into
Townley’s hands and are nowr in the British Museum.1
It is also worth mentioning that the collection of drawings was given
to Crozat; ‘il faut aj outer les desseins de Dom Livio Odescalchi, qui furent
donnes a M. Crozat, lorsque S.A.R. Monseigneur le Due d’Orleans, Regent,
acheta les Tableaux de ce prince ’ (Description des Desseins du Cabinet
de feu M. Crozat, p. x).
1 Two Egyptian altars, Catalogue of Greek and Roman Antiquities, iii. 2494, 2495;
Museum Odescalchum, ii. (ed. 1), Pls. 98, 90, 85, 97 : 89, 91, 100, 83 ; ii. (ed. 2), Pls. 42, 43,
47, 50: 44, 53, 48, 51 : there was a third altar representing Winter, the present locality of
which I do not know, represented in op. cit. ii. (ed. 1), Pls, 76, 84, 86, 89 (or 99); ii. (ed. 2),
Pls. 46, 52, 49, 44 (or 45); and a green basalt bath and a dark granite basin (ib. Nos. 2542,
2543) bought by Townley in .1776.