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This building was built in the 16th century for Monsignor Francesco Vento and acquired by Giuseppe Giustiniani at the end of the century. It housed the Giustiniani family’s extensive and important art collection, that comprised – among others – works by Caravaggio, Raffaello, Giorgione, Tiziano and Andrea del Sarto, and other findings of ancient Rome. For this reason the building was the destination of many artists and scholars until the end of the 18th century and was described in many tourist guides of the period. After the dispersion of the collection between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, the building went to decay for a period. In 1898 it became the seat of the Massoneria del Grande Oriente d’Italia. In 1943 the Italian State bought the palace and after some restoration it became the seat of the President of the Senate. In the library, on December 27, 1947 the President of the Republic Enrico De Nicola signed the Constitution of the Italian Republic. The building was linked to Palazzo Madama, seat of the Senate, by means of an underground passage realized in 1938.
The main façade has a huge door with columns and a balcony, to its sides are three and five big windows. On the first floor are architraved windows, on the second and third floor are simple framed windows. The same architectural scheme is in the other faces of the building, onto via dei Giustiniani and the salita de’ Crescenzi.