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Pier Luigi Carafa (1677–1755)

Italian cardinal

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ2661160 ↗
Source-derived summary

Pier Luigi Carafa, Junior (4 July 1677 – 15 December 1755) (sometimes spelled as Caraffa) was an Italian cardinal from the famous Neapolitan family of Italian nobles, clergy, and men of arts. He served the papacy as Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals and as Dean of same College. He is currently buried at Sant'Andrea delle Fratte in Rome.

Early Ecclesiastic Career

Born into an illustrious house of Naples, the family of Pier Luigi was not unaccustomed to high-ranking prelates. Other cardinals in the family consisted of Filippo Carafa della Serra; Oliviero Carafa; Gianvincenzo Carafa; Carlo Carafa; Diomede Carafa; Alfonso Carafa; Antonio Carafa; Giovanni Pietro Carafa (later Pope Paul IV); Pier Luigi Carafa, Senior; Carlo Carafa della Spina; Fortunato Ilario Carafa della Spina; Francesco Carafa della Spina di Traetto; Marino Carafa di Belvedere; and Domenico Carafa della Spina di Traetto. Also, a member of the family was Gregorio Carafa, Grand Master of the Order of St. John.

Pier Luigi was born on 4 July 1677 in Naples. He attended La Sapienza University in Rome where he was awarded a doctorate in both laws (civil and canon) on 19 October 1694. He was then ordained a deacon on 22 January 1713 and a priest on 19 February 1713.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Pier Luigi Carafa (1677–1755)” is italian cardinal. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Pier, Luigi and Carafa, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1677, 1755, 1694, 1713—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1677-07-04. For this dossier, Pier, Luigi and Carafa is the immediate research focus.
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The phrase “italian cardinal” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2661160. VIAF identifies the subject as 90259427. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1677, 1755, 1694 and 1713.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Pier Luigi Carafa (1677–1755)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.