When Felice Peretti was elected Pope Sixtus V April 24, 1585, he appointed his nephew, Alessandro Damasceni Peretti di Montalto (1571 - 1623), cardinal deacon in the consistory on May 13; the cardinal was then fourteen years old. The Republic of Venice inscribed the lad in the Libro d'Oro as a patrician of Venice that same year. Though he was made the permanent governor of Fermo the following year, and was often the papal legate in Bologna, he was not made a bishop until 1620.
Alessandro Peretti was born at Montalto, the son of Fabio Damasceni and Maria Felice Mignucci Peretti, who was a niece of the pope on her mother's side. Like his great-uncle before him, Alessandro Peretti was also known as Cardinal di Montalto. His primary works as a great patron were the Villa Lante at Bagnaia, where he contributed to the gardens a casino matching the earlier one, and the church (though not the facade) of San Andrea della Valle in Rome, (begun in 1591), where Carlo Maderna constructed at the Cardinal's personal expense the second-largest dome in Rome, 1608 to 1621.
His portrait bust by Gian Lorenzo Bernini is at the Hamburg Kunsthalle. Surviving books from Cardinal Alessandro's library reflect pride in his relationship to the Pope through elaborate armorials and his perfect taste.
Cardinal Montalto was in turn the uncle of Cardinal Francesco Peretti di Montalto (1595-1653), made a cardinal in 1641.
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