Papal Conclave Elects Urban VIII

1623

Maffeo Barberini ascended to the papal throne as Urban VIII, a cultured Florentine who wrote Latin verse and befriended Galileo. He would fortify Castel Sant'Angelo, commission Bernini's baldachin in Saint Peter's, and eventually authorize the trial that silenced his old friend. The Barberini bees swarmed across Rome's monuments for two decades.