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Abstract: THE ROMAN PATRICIANS AND TOWN HALL APPOINTMENTS IN THE XVIII CENTUTY In 1746, Pope Benedict issued the Urbem Romam bull which decreed that families belonging to the Roman nobility were eligible for town hall offices at the Campidoglio. The historical context was that of the legislative interventions for reform which this pope brought to the city’s administration. The edict confirmed what had already been a consolidated practice in Rome for a long time: the substantial difference between Rome’s high nobility – appointed by the pope- and the city’s original noble families. In fact, only the latter should have had acces to those offices, Many seventeenth century authors wrote books on the nobles families which traced their roots as far back as the classical world in order to prove their identity and uniqueness, notwithstanding the great changes that had taken place in the Roman nobility over the centuries. The norms of Pope Lambertini, however, indicated a difference in the wealth of the two nobilities which was demonstrated by analyzing the urban and country possessions of the noble families in the XVIII century. Furthermore, the norms of 1746 had a specifically innovative meaning, as they contrasted the nepotism of the former popes. After this bull, in fact, popes could make their parents nobles, but only municipal nobles, according to Benedict XIV, this should have limited the abuse of power and the concentration of the great riches in the hand of cardinal nephews and their descendants.