All Vatican elections

1287–1288 Papal Election

elected Nicholas IV

4 April 1287 – 22 February 1288 · Conclave law and the Great Schism · Corte Savella, Aventine Hill

The 1287–88 papal election (April 4 – February 22) was the deadliest papal election in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, with six (or five) of the sixteen (or fifteen) cardinal electors perishing during the deliberations.

Elected pope

Nicholas IV

Girolamo Masci

Succeeded

Honorius IV

Duration

11 months

Cardinal electors

pre-conclave election

Key officials

DeanBentivenga dei Bentivenghi

Ballot-by-ballot tallies are destroyed by design — the paper is burned in the stove whose smoke announces the result — so this entry records what the Church documents: the dates, the electors, the number of ballots where known, and the man who walked out onto the balcony.