ALBANI, a powerful family of Rome, which has supplied the Roman Catholic Church with several cardinals. Two of them are well known as patrons of the fine arts: (1) Albani, Alessandro, born in 1692; died in 1779; he was a great virtuoso, and possessed a collection of drawings and engravings which, at his death, was purchased by George III. for 14,000 crowns. (2) Albani, Giovanni Francesco, nephew of the former, born 1720; a great friend to the Jesuits, but in other respects liberal and enlightened. His palace was plundered by the French in 1798, when he made his escape to Naples, stripped of all his possessions. Died in 1803.