Filippo Antonio Gualterio

Filippo Antonio Gualterio (24 March 1660 – 21 April 1728) was made a papal nuncio to France (1700–1706) and a cardinal of the Catholic Church from 1706.

Life Descended from the ancient Gualterio family of Orvieto related to Pope Innocent X, he was the uncle of Cardinal Luigi Gualterio.

Born at Fermo, whose archdiocese was governed by his grand-uncle Cardinal Carlo Gualterio, he was the eldest of 17 children of Stanislao Gualterio, Gonfaloniere of Orvieto, and Anna Maria Cioli, noble of Todi. He befriended Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simonand, according to Boislisle, they maintained an encrypted correspondence that has now disappeared, probably destroyed at the Duke's request. Many of his letters are preserved in the British Library (London).

During his nunciature he established ties with prominent members of the European nobility and, in particular, with the Duc of Saint-Simon, who often mentions him in the Memoirs. In recognition of the esteem he gained from King Louis XIV, he was named the commendatory abbot of the Abbey of Saint-Remy in Rheims (1710) and of the Abbey of Saint-Victor in Paris (1713 or 1714).

Gualterio was transferred to the bishopric of Imola in 1701, with the personal title of archbishop. He was recalled from Paris to be created cardinal in the consistory of 17 May 1706 and sent as legate to Romagna, 25 June. He returned from his nunciature in Paris and arrived in Imola in December 1706, but did not stay long.

He was cardinal-priest of St. Chrysogonus in 1708, then of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere in 1724, and finally of Santa Prassede in 1726.

Gualterio was nominated Cardinal Protector of Scotland, as of 1706, and England, as of 1717, he was one of the closest advisers to the Stuart Pretender, James Stuart, the would-be James VIII of Scotland, who conferred upon his brother Giovanni Battista the Jacobite title of Earl of Dundee.

In 1709 Gualterio was transferred to the Diocese of Todi, with the personal title of archbishop, later resigning the see in favour of his brother, Ludovico Anselmo Gualterio, 5 December 1714. He participated in the Papal conclave, 1721, which elected Pope Innocent XIII and in the conclave of 1724, which elected Pope Benedict XIII.

Founder of a monumental library, now part of the Accademia dei Lincei, and of a vast collection of art, which after his death was partly acquired by Hans Sloane and is now at the British Museum.

Gualterio's remains were transferred to the tomb of his family in the Chapel of the Madonna di San Brizio in the Cathedral of Orvieto, alongside his uncle Gianotto Gualterio, his great-uncle Carlo, both archbishops of Fermo, and his brother Ludovico Anselmo, bishop of Todi. The Gualterio papers are conserved at the British Library.