Born as Carlo in 1620 into the prominent princely
Massimo family, he was educated at
La Sapienza University. He succeeded at age 20 to the estate of his cousin Camillo, from whom he derived his name. The elder Camillo had been the executor of the will of another great Roman collector, Marchese
Vincenzo Giustiniani. He started his ecclesiastical career as papal prelate at a young age and in 1651 he became cleric of the
Apostolic Chamber. On 15 December 1653 Massimo was made
titular Patriarch of Jerusalem and a year later as
Apostolic Nuncio to Spain. However,
Philip IV of Spain refused his appointment as nuncio, complaining he was too friendly with the French. He was forced to stop for a year in a small town between
Valencia and Madrid. Back in Italy Monsignor Camillo Massimo retired in semi-exile — from 1658 until the end of the pontificate of
Pope Clement IX in 1669 - in a town called
Roccasecca dei Volsci, in his 'Palazzo Baroniale'. On 22 December 1670
Pope Clement X elevated him to Cardinal with the title of
S. Maria in Domnica, which Massimo later changed to that of
Sant'Eusebio. He took part in the
1676 Papal conclave. In the same year he was opted for the title of
Sant'Anastasia al Palatino. He died in 1677 in Rome. Massimi's portraits were painted by both
Diego Velázquez and
Carlo Maratta. He reorganised the Roman academy of the
Umoristi. He had copies, made by Pietro Santo Bartoli, of the illustrations of an antique edition of
Virgil and drawings based on the ancient paintings found in the Tomb of the Nasonii in Rome. He was also aided the eccentric former Queen
Christina of Sweden with her library and collections. ==Sources==