ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Pope Urban VIII Barberini and his three nephews, to explore the role children played in the dynastic ambitions of papal families, the functioning of nepotism in papal government and the phenomenon of surrogacy in early modern Italy. The Barberini nephews, Cardinal Francesco, Don Taddeo and Cardinal Antonio, were elevated to some of the most important political positions in Rome and ecclesiastical positions in the Catholic Church. In many ways, Urban was remembered as the primary male role model for the Barberini nephews. Urban used poetry to educate, and tolerated pagan imagery only if it were put to 'positive Christian ends'. Francesco received a Jesuit education at the Collegio Romano, matriculating perhaps as young as seven years old. Taddeo studied with the Jesuits at the Collegio Romano, but by the age of sixteen he was living with his uncle.
