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Abstract: Cardinal Roberto Ubaldini (1578-1635) was an important member of the Roman Curia durin the first thirty years of the seventeenth century: Secretary of State under Leo XI; Chamber Master and legate in France under Pope Paul V; Prefect of the S.C. of the Tridentine Council, on the first members of the S.C. of Propaganda Fide and nuncio to Bologna during the papacy of Gregory XV. He fell into disgrace with Urban VIII who made him leave Rome in 1632 because of his support for Cardinal Borgia’s protest in 1632. Based on archival sources, this article describes Roberto Ubaldin's interests as a collector and patron of the arts in addition to his already known portrait by Guido Reni and commission to Algardi for the Vatican monument to Leo XI. The inventory of the items in Palazzo Cesi, the cardinal's Roman residence, was the starting point for the study of his collection of paintings, which included works by Reni, Tiarini, Tamburini, Tiziano, Perugino, Andrea del Sarto and Giulio Romano. Four volumes discovered in the Archive of the S.C. of Propaganda Fide have disclosed the names of the artisans and artists of that time, both famous and unknown, who worked for Roberto Ubaldini as well as giving valuable clues concerning subsequent owners of the main pieces of the collection after the cardinal's death. Archive sources were studied concerning the Accoramboni heirs of the cardinal and the missing early stages of the Reni portrait of Roberto Ubaldini, which had been reconstructed by Pepper beginning only from the nineteenth century; a copy of the portrait executed by Lorenzo Manzoni, traceable only up to 1719 and an unrecorded mosaic by Giovan Battista Calandra, nowadays in the Propaganda Fide building were also taken in to consideration.