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243rd Roman Pontiff
Clement XI
CLEMENS Undecimus
Giovanni Francesco Albani
243rd Successor of St Peter · 1700–1721 · Italy · b. Urbino, Papal States
1700
Elected
1721
Reign ended
21 years
Length
17th
Century
The Life
Subject and later the sovereign of the Papal States. The Chinese Rites controversy.
Patronized the first archaeological excavations in the Roman catacombs and made the feast of Immaculate Conception universal. The Inquisition's ban on the reprinting of Galileo's works was lifted in 1718, when permission was granted to publish an edition of his scientific works (excluding the condemned Dialogue) in Florence.
Portrait: After Pier Leone Ghezzi / Wikimedia Commons