Orazio Falconieri was an Italian nobleman

Nobility of Italy

The Nobility of Italy consisted of individuals and their families of Italy recognized by sovereigns, such as the Holy Roman Emperor, the Holy See, Kings of Italy or certain other Italian kings and sovereigns as members of a class of persons officially enjoying hereditary privileges which...

 from Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and owner of the Villa Falconieri

Villa Falconieri

The Villa Falconieri is a villa in Frascati, Italy.-History:The villa was originally called Villa Rufina, having been was initially built by Monsignor Alessandro Rufini. Later it was enlarged thanks to Pope Paul III, dates back to 1546. In 1628 Orazio Falconieri purchased the villa and commissioned...

. His heraldic

Heraldry

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...

 symbol was a falcon

Falcon

A falcon is any species of raptor in the genus Falco. The genus contains 37 species, widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America....

Family

Falconieri was the son of Paolo Falconieri and Maddalena Albizzi and the brother of Lelio Falconieri

Lelio Falconieri

Lelio Falconieri 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...

 who was later elevated to Cardinal.

In 1615 he married Ottavia Sacchetti (1590 - 1645), sister of Cardinal Giulio Cesare Sacchetti

Giulio Cesare Sacchetti

thumb|Cardinal Giulio Cesare Sacchetti, Pietro da Cortona, 1626Giulio Cesare Sacchetti was an Italian Catholic Cardinal and was twice unsuccessfully nominated by France for election as Pope.-Early life:...

 who would later consecrate Orazio's brother Lelio. The Sacchetti and Falconieri were already close; Orazio's father had made his fortune importing salt

Salt

In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...

 and as a result Orazio had business connections to Ottavia Sacchetti's father. When Ottavia's first husband, Piero Alberti, died, marriage to Orazio was considered an excellent option for both families. Records indicate they had at least one son (Paolo Francesco Falconieri) who took ownership of the Villa Falconieri and took his father's titles.

Commissions

Falconieri purchased the Villa Falconieri

Villa Falconieri

The Villa Falconieri is a villa in Frascati, Italy.-History:The villa was originally called Villa Rufina, having been was initially built by Monsignor Alessandro Rufini. Later it was enlarged thanks to Pope Paul III, dates back to 1546. In 1628 Orazio Falconieri purchased the villa and commissioned...

 and commissioned Francesco Borromini

Francesco Borromini

Francesco Borromini, byname of Francesco Castelli was an architect from Ticino who, with his contemporaries, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pietro da Cortona, was a leading figure in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture.A keen student of the architecture of Michelangelo and the ruins of...

 to renovate it. Orazio later commissioned Borromini to renovate the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini

San Giovanni dei Fiorentini

San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, St John of the Florentines, is a church in the Ponte rione or district of Rome. Dedicated to St John the Baptist, the protector of Florence, the new church for the Florentine community in Rome was started in the 16th century and completed in early eighteenth and is the...

to build a Falconieri family chapel his burial and the burial of his brother Lelio Falconieri.