Giulio Gabrielli the Younger

Giulio Gabrielli ("The younger"; 20 July 1748 – 26 September 1822) was an Italian cardinal in the Catholic Church. He spent most of his career in the Roman Curia.

Gabrielli was born in Rome to a princely family originally from Gubbio in the Papal States (nowadays in Umbria). His parents were marquis (later prince) Angelo Gabrielli and marquise Caterina Trotti-Bentivoglio, the most beautiful woman in the mid-18th century Rome, celebrated by Giacomo Casanova as the "marquise G.".

He studied law at the Sapienza University of Rome and, while still a layman, was appointed Protonotary Apostolic, Relator of the Sacred Congregation of the Good Government and, in 1787, Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Tridentine Council. He was ordained priest only on 23 March 1800,

In April 1814, after the abdication of Napoleon, he was liberated and returned to Rome, where the Pope appointed him Secretary of the Chancery of Apostolic Briefs and Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Tridentine Council (26 July 1814). In 1816 he resigned from the pastoral government of the diocese of Senigallia. In 1819 he became Cardinal Protoprete (Protopriest) and consequently opted for the titulus of San Lorenzo in Lucina, that two centuries earlier had belonged to his forebear and namesake Giulio Gabrielli the Elder (1604–1677). In 1820 he resigned from Prefect of the Congregation of the Council and was appointed Pro-Datary of His Holiness. He also served as Cardinal Protector of the Order of Saint Augustine.

Cardinal Gabrielli was considered as one of the most likely successors to Pius VII at the guide of the Church but predeceased the Pope by less than one year. After a short illness, he died at his country villa in Albano Laziale, in the Castelli Romani area, in late Summer of 1822. His body was exposed in the Palace of the Datary, and later in the basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, where his funeral took place on 1 October. He was buried in the Gabrielli chapel in that same church.

Family

His brother, Prince Pietro Gabrielli (1746–1824) was a notable supporter of Napoleon and during the French occupation of the Papal States served as deputy mayor (maire adjoint) of Rome. Pietro’s son, Prince Mario Gabrielli (1773–1841), was married in 1815 to Charlotte Bonaparte, elder daughter of Lucien Bonaparte and niece of the Emperor.