CENCI, chen'che, Beatrice, Italian lady, the cause of the extermination of the noble family of Cenci. Muratori, in his 'Annals) (Vol. X, part 1, 136), relates the story as fol lows: Francesco Cenci, a noble and wealthy Roman, after his second marriage behaved to ward the children of his first marriage in the most shocking manner, procured the assassina tion of two of his sons, on their return from Spain, by banditti, seduced and debauched his youngest daughter Beatrice, a maiden of singu lar beauty. She discovered this shocking crime to her relatives, and even sought to obtain pro tection from Pope Clement VIII. It appears, however, that this was not granted; for, when the guilty father continued his former treat ment with aggravated wickedness, she joined with her brother Giacomo, and hired two as sassins, who put the monster to death as he slept. The guilty parties were discovered, con fessed the murder on the rack and were con demned by the Pope to be torn to pieces by horses. In vain did the learned Farinaceus ex-. ert himself to obtain a mitigation of their pun ishment by a lively representation of the de pravity of the deceased, 9 Sept. 1598. Accord
ing to other accounts, Beatrice and her rela tives appear to have had little or no share in the murder of the old Cenci; but a tissue of villainy and baseness gained belief in the false testimony of two banditti against the Cenci family. So much is certain, that, 11 Sept. 1599, Beatrice Cenci and her stepmother were execu ted with- a sort of guillotine called mannaia. Giacomo was killed with a club; the younger brother was pardoned on account of his youth; hut the estates of the family, to which belonged the Villa Borghese, were confiscated, and in 1605 presented by the reigning Pope, Paul V, of the house of Borghese, to his family. In the Barberini Palace at Rome, travelers are shown an excellent painting, said to be by Guido Reni, as the portrait of the unfortunate parricide; but this is now controverted, and re cent investigations tend to show that the popu lar version of the whole story is far from the true one. Shelley has made the Cenci the sub ject of a drama. Consult Bertolotti, 'Fran cesco Cenci e la sun famiglia) (1877); Mura tori, 'Annali d'Italia) (Milan 1744-49).