The palace was built at the end of the 16th century for the Corcos, a wealthy family of Jewish merchants who had lived in Rome since the Middle Ages. Despite its name, the building never belonged to the historic Roman Boncompagni family, but derives from the fact that Salomon Corcos, educated by the Filippini, converted to Christianity and, in honour of the reigning Pope Gregory XIII Boncompagni, took the Pope's name and surname, namely Ugo Boncompagni.
The palace was then purchased by the Scarinci family and later by the Camerata family, who kept it until the mid-18th century, when the Accademia degli Infecondi, a congregation of virginity fanatics who extolled their purity in poetry, took up residence there. In the early twentieth century, the building became the property of the De Sangro family.
The palace has a façade consisting of two floors plus two mezzanines, one on the mezzanine floor and the other between the first and second floors, resulting in alternating rows of large and small windows. The portal is splendid and imposing, with columns supporting a balustraded balcony; between the columns is a large shell from which two festoons hang, while the capitals are dragon heads, the heraldic symbol of the Boncompagni family, which also appear on the cornice. Other decorations include masks within the curved tympanums of the first floor windows and female heads within clypeus on the top floor windows. Cantonal ashlars of sloping thickness rise up to the crowning.
Information
Il Palazzo è la sede del Consiglio Nazionale Forense.
Location
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