Alessandro Orsini

Who was Alessandro Orsini?

Alessandro Orsini was an Italian Cardinal. He was a patron of Galileo, who dedicated his 1616 work on the tides to him, and requested that he pass it on to Pope Paul V. He belonged to the ducal family of Bracciano.

He was brought up at the court of the Grand Duke Ferdinand I of Tuscany, and in 1615 was created a cardinal by Paul V. As papal legate to Ravenna under Pope Gregory XV, he distinguished himself in 1621 by his charity on the occasion of the outbreak of an epidemic. Upon his return to Rome, he devoted himself to religion and to the practice of an austere asceticism. He asked permission of the pope to resign the cardinalate and to enter the Jesuit Order, but this was refused.