Cardinal Capranica was born in Capranica Prenestina (Lazio) in the jubilee year 1400. He was born into a ‘nobilis romanus’. His father Niccolò (Cola), died in 1438, and his mother
Iacobella (Iacovella), died in 1438-39. Domenico was one of six sons: Paolo (d?), Angelo (d. 1478) Antonio (d.1438), Giuliano (d.1461) and Giovanni Battista (d.1478). Domenico, Angelo and Paolo would enter clerical service, Angelo would also become a cardinal.
Domenico studied canon and civil law at Padua and Bologna, under teachers including the young Giuliano Cesarini (promoted to the College of Cardinals at the same time as Domenico). Capranica received the title of doctor of both laws at the age of twenty-one. He then studied at Bologna, where his teacher was Giovanni (Nicoletti) da Imola, professor of canon and civil law. Following his studies, Capranica became secretary to Pope Martin V and an apostolic protonotary, apostolic administrator of the diocese of Fermo and then in 1423 he was elevated to the College of Cardinals. Capranica had balanced all of this whilst also acting as administrator of both Imola, Forli and subduing trouble in Bologna.
Capranica’s promotion to the College of Cardinals was not accepted by the cardinals during the conclave of 1431 as he had not come to Rome for the ceremonies necessary for his investiture. The new pope Eugene IV, also blocked Capranica’s case, arguing that the delivery of the hat and assignment of the title were necessary for the validity of a cardinal's nomination. Leaving Rome, Capranica sought refuge with Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan (1392-1447). Domenico travelled to the Council of Basle in order to persuade the council to recognise his status in the College of Cardinals. In his entourage was a bright young man from Corsignano: Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini.
The Council recognised Capranica, but also deprived him of all his honours, dignities and possessions for adhering to the rule of Eugene IV. The new cardinal reconciled with the pontiff in Florence on 30 April 1434 and had his offices, good and his titular church Santa Croce in Gerusalemme reinstated. From then on offices and responsibilities came thick and fast. Eugene sent Capranica to the Council of Ferrara with a special commission to treat with the Greek bishops and theologians concerning the reunion of the Churches, similarly he was appointed Grand Penitentiary (1449) and Archpriest of the Lateran Basilica.
Capranica was one of the most earnest reformers in the Roman Church and would certainly have been a reliable and safe choice for possible election to the papacy. At time stern and severe, Capranica insisted on an examination of the votes cast in the conclave of 1447 which saw the election of Tommaso Parentucelli, Pope Nicholas V and clashed with Pope Calixtus III on his blatant nepotism through the promotion of his nephews Pedro Luis Borgia and Rodrigo Borgia. Aside from his clashes with the pontiffs, Capranica took part in discussions for a new crusade against the Ottoman Turks and the dispute between the pontiff and King Alfonso V and the princes of Germany. Capranica’s legacy was the founding of the Almo Collegio Capranica in his palazzo. The college itself is the oldest of the Roman colleges and could therefore use the peculiar title of 'Almo Collegio'. The Collegio hosted thirty-one poor scholars: sixteen in theology and the liberal arts and fifteen in canon law. Capranica had drawn up the constitution himself and passed his own manuscript library to the Collegio on his death. In 1460, Cardinal Angelo Capranica erected nearby a special building for the college. Cardinal Capranica left all his property to ecclesiastical uses, saying:
‘The Church gave it to me; I give it back, for I am not its master, but its steward. I should indeed have reaped but little profit from the nights spent in studying ecclesiastical discipline if I were to leave to my relatives the goods of the Church which belong to the poor’.
Almo Collegio Capranica.
The cardinal died a few weeks before Pope Calixtus on 14 July 1458. He had written an opusculum 'The Art of Dying Well' (1478).Hearing of his death, the Milanese ambassador wrote that:
‘the wisest, the most perfect, the most learned, and the holiest prelate whom the Church has in our days possessed is gone from us’.
Detail from the 'Art of Dying Well'.
Capranica is buried in the Capella Capranica (or known as the Chapel of the Rosary) in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, where St. Catherine of Siena is also buried. The chapel opens off the right transept. to one side of the high altar. In 1449 it was conceded by the Dominicans to Cardinal Domenico Capranica to house his tomb and those of his family. When the cardinal died in 1458, its patronage passed to Angelo Capranica who was responsible for several important works in the chapel.