Riario was the name of three famous nephews of Francesco della Rovere, who reigned as Pope Sixtus IV.

Girolamo Riario (Savona 1443 - Forlí 1488), Lord of Imola and Forlì; The "Pazzi conspiracy" in Florence, 1478, had him as intended beneficiary, once Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici had been assassinated. The coup d'etat failed, and Girolamo had to be content with Imola, which he had received as dowry at his marriage with Caterina Sforza in 1473, arranged by Sixtus.

Pietro Riario (1445 - 1474), was a son of Paolo and Sixtus' sister, Bianca Della Rovere. Sixtus IV, who nominated him in 1471 a bishop of Treviso and cardinal, archbishop of Florence in 1473. He was a humanistic known for his patronage of literature and the arts.

Raffael Riario (1451 - Rome 1521), the famous patron of the arts as "Cardinal Riario," was a son of Violante Riario and Antonio Sansoni, who preferred to take the surname of his mother, for the connection to Sixtus IV, who made him a cardinal in 1477 and bestowed on him numerous disceses (Cuneo, Pisa, Salamanca, Treguier and Osma). He was compromised in the "Pazzi conspiracy" and a later one against the Medici pope, Leo X that was organized by cardinal Alfonso Petrucci in 1517, for which he had to stand trial. Cardinal Riario called Michelangelo to Rome. He had bought from a Roman banker a sculpture of Cupid that was being passed off as a Roman antique, but which riario recognized as a fake, but tracked down the brilliant young sculptor who had produced it. Riario's headquarters were in an old palazzo belonging to Pope Martin V (1417-1431), which he partially refurbished in 1470s and 1480s, and passed to Cardinal Giuliano Della Rovere (laterPope Julius II); it was rebuilt as Palazzo Colonna.

He died as bishop of Ostia.