The role of Forier Maggiore of the Sacred Apostolic Palaces (in Latin, Forerius Major; suppellectilis Pontificiae Domus procuram) had an important place of presedence. Also called the Major Forier of the Pope, this lay role was the first Palatine official of the Papal Family after the position of the Majordomo (whose functions he assumed in case of absence or holiday).
Being in this position had an added honor. It was the second lay secret valet with sword and cloak, after the Grand Master of the Sacred Hospice. The man in this role was appointed for life at the discretion of the pope, at least from the time of Julius III and Paul IV. He was initiated with an oath in the hands of the Pontiff himself.
It was also a paid position in the Papal Court, given the important weight of its administrative duties. In previous times the Foriere was paid a monthly salary of approximately 74 scudi. He was in charge of the custody of the Apostolic Palaces of the Vatican, including Castel Gandolfo, and before the Revolution of 1870, also the Quirinale.The dignity of this high up role was originally granted to various families of the Roman nobility or acquired as such such by local patrician families such as the Chigi Montoro, the Massimo, and the Capponi. However, it ended up being continually entrusted to the Sacchetti family until 1968, when Pope Paul VI, vitiated by a spirit of revolution and disdain for old things, abolished the hereditary lay pontifical positions.
The Marquis Don Giulio was a descendent of one of the most noble families in Rome. After the Papal Court was abolished, he was kept on by the Vatican after his role was done away with. Paul VI liked him and made him a "special delegate," an administrative role the Pope carved out for him to keep him employed.
Indeed, Don Giulio remained at the top of the Vatican City administration for over thirty years until his retirement in 2001. He was the only layman after the suppression of the Papal Court who, at the age of forty-two, was given an administrative management position in the Vatican. He was thus installed in April 1968 and his office moved to the Governor's Palace in the Vatican Gardens, with the title of special delegate of (the Cardinals') Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State.
He therefore succeeded Count Enrico Pietro Galeazzi, the Vatican's leading lay figure appointed under the reign of Ven. Pius XII who retired in March 1968. This was and remains to this day the top civilian job in the administration of the Papal State.
His new role entailed a mixture of duties and honors. Under his control were the Swiss and Palatine Guards, as well as the Annona that issued Vatican coins and stamps He was then in charge of the management of Vatican personnel, the conservation of buildings, etc.
He was also made responsible for the formal reception of foreign heads of state, who were accompanied by him to the door of the papal apartments, where private audiences and state visits took place behind closed doors. During those confidential conversations, Don Giulio remained outside to entertain the wives and companions of the dignitaries with his charm and wit.
The Marquis lived outside the Vatican on the Via Giulia, where his patrician family, originally from Florence, had a massive palace. Here he grew up and spent his entire life. A scion of such a noble family, he could trace his family origins back to the year 1081. His family gave the Florentine Republic thirty-nine high officials. His parish was just down the street, San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, where he was buried from when he passed in 2010.
The Sachetti family was mentioned by Dante in his XVI Canto of Paradise.
"O our little nobility of blood / if people glorify you / down here where our affection languishes... / I saw the Ughi and I saw the Catellini... The Vaio column was already great, Sacchetti..."
There are not many people who had their ancestors mentioned by Dante, in Paradise. When the Sachetti family had left Florence and moved to Rome in the seventeenth century, always close to the papal throne, they purchased the largest and most important palace on the Via Giulia (the Palazzo Ricci), the street where the most important people in Rome lived at that time.
The palace had been designed by Sangallo the Younger for himself and his family. It boasts frescoes by great Baroque artists such as Filippo Salviati and Pietro da Cortona and paintings and antique furniture of rare value. After Don Giulio's long illness and death in 2010, the palazzo was sold by the family and the many interior contents sold at auction.
