IACOPI DISCENDENZE E STORIA

Consorteria De' Rossi d'Oltrarno 

Descendant families: 

• Iacopi de' Rossi
• Boccacci
• Rosolesi
• De' Rossi Del Lion Nero

 

 

 

IACOPI DE' ROSSI detti d'Oltrarno

 

This family, deriving from a branch of the "Consorteria" of the ROSSI (emblem a red cloth), is undoubtedly to be considered one of the most illustrious and conspicuous Florentine families of the Middle Ages (1200 - early 1300s). Of Lombard origin, the family had - according to what Ademollo states on page 1749 of his work: "Marietta de' Ricci o Firenze al tempo dell'assedio" (Chiari - Florence, 1845) - the dominion of many castles in the territory of Siena and Volterra. The first news of the family, referring to Florence, dates back to 1100 and, more precisely, to 1173 when we find among the members of the municipal government with the office of Consul: the (german) brothers BERLINGERII et JACOPPI filii GUITTI del RUSSO. This dignity was later held by GHERARDO in 1197 and later by BERINGHIERI JACOPPI or GIACOPPI (di Jacopo) in 1204 and by LOTTERINGO di Jacopo in 1237. JACOPO and BERLINGERI or BERLENGHERIO were

therefore the first historically important characters of the family who, in order to distinguish themselves from the other branches of the Consorteria (of the Rossi; de RUBEIS), was initially called ACCOPPI, GIACOPPI or JACOPPI and then JACOPI, due to the corruption of the primitive name of their most illustrious and progenitor personage: IACOPO.

. .(In attachment 1A, list of Consuls of the Municipality of Florence)

The family, during the 1100s, grew in prestige and in a document of 1176 we find a GIUDA (JUDAS) Iacopi de' Rossi among the Florentine mallevadori in the deed of cession to Florence of the Castle of Poggio Bonizio by the Municipality of Siena. This family was also called Iacopi d'Oltrarno because, since ancient times, it owned houses, towers and loggias in Florence in the Oltrarno district, near the Church of Santa Felicita. At the rise of the factions in the city of the lily, the Jacopi de' Rossi sided decisively with the Guelphs of whom, for a long time, they were the undisputed leaders. For this reason, their coat of arms in one version bears the emblem of the Guelph party on the red cloth, namely the Capo d'Anjou ("Azure, ad un lambello (rake) of red, of four or five pendicts interspersed with three or four golden fleurs-de-lis").

Fanatical Catholics (as Davidsohn defines them), convinced and intransigent, they received from Brother Piero da Verona the command of the Catholic side in the struggles against the heretics of Patarini in Florence. During these struggles the IACOPI proved to be valiant fighters and shrewd leaders, succeeding in driving out all heretics from Florence. For their intransigence, in the name and for the triumph of faith, they - as Ademollo affirms - did not fail to stain themselves with massacres and massacres among the men of the opposite side. In any case, this event gave enormous prestige to the family which, to commemorate these facts, wanted to erect a column in front of the Church of Santa Felicita, on the site where the clashes were bloodiest (RICHA: volume IX, pages 322 and following). Progressively imposing themselves in the city, the IACOPI extended their fame even outside Florence, so much so that many of its members were called several times to hold the prestigious office of Podestà in other cities. These include, in particular:

- BERLINGERIUS o BERINGHIERI JACOPPI, son of the aforementioned JACOPO de' Rossi, Podestà of Assisi in 1226;

-  ANDREAS JACOPPI, brother of the previous, Podestà of Assisi in 1225;

- BERNARDO, Knight, Podestà of Reggio Emilia in 1289 and later Captain of the People of Città di Castello.

At the beginning of the 1200s the family IACOPI or IACOPPI it is clearly hegemonic in the city of Giglio; in this regard, the Malespini recalls, in his "Florentine Historiae", the names and families of Florence known around the time of the coronation of Frederick II of Swabia and notes that: "..began to be Large that before a short time it was mentioned           the deckhands, the IACOPI or IACOPPI called de' Rossi,

the Frescobaldi: all these they came at a short time, because they were still merchants and of little beginning; then the Tornaquinci and the Cavalcanti of small beginnings and merchants and the similar the Cerchi; and moreover these aforesaid began to surmount.   ".

From the above it is clear that the family, in addition to the profession of arms, also practiced the trade, a topic to which we will return later.

Around 1250 the Iacopi family now belonged permanently to the Majors of the city. Davidsohn, in this regard (Volume II, page 430) tells us that shortly before 1250 they sit permanently in the Council of the Municipality of Florence: "Dominus" STOLDO or ISTOLDO Beringhieri Jacoppi or Giacoppi dei Rossi (son of Beringhieri or Berlingeri and brother of FORNAJO or FORNAINO or FORNARIUS - Ademollo cited work) and two other "Knights"(1) of the same family. Stoldo di Berlingerius Jacoppi therefore bears the title of "Dominus", which unequivocally places him among the leaders of the city and also his marriage with a woman of the Canigiani, one of the most prominent families of the time (vds. Pag. 50 of "The Municipality of Florence at the end of the Dugento" by Ottokar), contributes to proving his high social status. The family, however, suffered a temporary collapse of its political fortune between 1260 and 1266-67, that is, in the period between the Battles of Montaperti and those of Benevento and Tagliacozzo. On the unfortunate day of the Guelphs in Montaperti (in which, in Dante's memory, the Arbia was colored red) we find in the ranks of the Guelphs many JACOPI and among these:

• FORNAJO or FORNARIUS of Beringhieri Jacoppi, who was Stringer and Councilor;
• STOLDO (already mentioned),  Standard bearer of the Fiorentini d'Oltrarno;
• MARZOPPINO di ORMANNO Jacoppi, in the Corps of Feditori;
• TONE o FANTONUS of Fornajo or Fornaino, also in the Feditori.

The defeat of the Guelphs decreed the family's exile from Florence and the confiscation of property by the Ghibellines. It is not unlikely that, following the reversal of Montaperti, some branch of the Iacopi family moved permanently away from the city of Giglio to other safer and more hospitable places or where they had previously set aside resources for the emergency. In fact, it appears that other Florentine families, such as the Cerchi, the Velluti, the Mozzi and others, transferred most of their assets to Perugia to avoid, in fact, retaliation by the Ghibellines (the Cerchi, the Velluti and others even asked for Perugian citizenship, as shown by the Municipal Archives of Perugia, annals 1266 - 69, Book of Submissions; Bollettino di Storia Patria per l'Umbria IX, pag. 122). This fact could also explain why one IACOPO Iacopi, podestà of Milan, was believed to be a native of Perugia. After the Battle of Benevento, however, the Guelphs regained the upper hand again and the IACOPI were able to return to Florence, full of prestige for the struggles they had sustained and many of its members, with the dignity of "Knight or Miles" we see them appear in the document of the peace of the "parties", signed in 1280. A figure of extreme importance in the family is certainly to be considered STOLDO Beringhieri Giacoppi/Jacoppi de' Rossi, already mentioned several times. In 1258-59, he was elected Podestà of Arezzo (vds. Malespini) and in command of the Arezzo troops conquered the city of Cortona. After Montaperti he had to flee into exile from Florence and took refuge with the Roman Curia from where he directed the fight against the Ghibellines. For his valor and the support of the Curia, he became one of the recognized leaders of the Guelph Party. In 1266 in Benevento he even brought the Banner of the Church against the forces of Manfredi Hohenstaufen of Swabia and, it is said, that he was the first to climb the city walls to hoist the winning standard. Returning to Florence, STOLDO, supported by the Church, became the  Head of the Guelph Party (2) and, in the documents of the time, he is always referred to with the title of "Dominus" (Dominus, at that time, meant that he, for economic possibilities, could pay at least one horse for "cavallata", a minimum unit of the Florentine cavalry).

That the IACOPI family was conspicuous is also demonstrated by the fact that, on 9 March 1297 in Empoli, Count Inghiramo di Biserno, before accepting the appointment as Captain General of the Guelph party, demanded that personalities of the Buondelmonti, Altoviti, Della Tosa or Tosinghi, IACOPI, Adimari and Bardi families (Davidsohn,  IV - 1, page 409).

STOLDO, however, enjoyed exceptional prestige in his city and one of the signs of this esteem is to be seen in the mild sentence that was imposed on one of his sons named MANFREDINO. Davidsohn, in fact, tells us that:.. "In April 1284 MANFREDINO, bastard of STOLDO Jacoppi dei Rossi, attacked Neri degli Embriachi with a large sword and would certainly have reduced him to a bad start if the attacked man had not been saved by the intervention of his brother. The clash took place in Borgo Spidigliosi (now Via de' Bardi), beyond Ponte Vecchio. MANFREDINO was sentenced to death on April 20, 1284 but had to get by thanks to the great consideration in which his father was held; shortly afterwards he wanted to forcibly free a man whom the parishioners of the People of S. Pier Gattolino had locked up in the courtyard of the nearby church to bring him before the Podestà, under the accusation of having robbed a woman on the public road. In his collection of ribalderie MANFREDINO refused to obey the new law inserted in the statute in 1281, by which all the Magnates and all those who were part of their families, were obliged to take an oath and to give security (guarantee) of 2,000 pounds that they would not attack anyone, and only in that case (payment of the bail) they had license to wear armor,  helmet, leg loops, gloves and shield, but without carrying offensive weapons. (3)

Now MANFREDINO, when he was summoned to present levies and to take the oath, would not appear so as not to humiliate himself, and so he behaved the following year. Every time he did not want to appear, MANFREDINO was convicted but never served his sentence and, in the end, the fines imposed were generously pardoned." .... "Another member of the CORSELLINO Jacoppi de' Rossi family had one of his robbers wound a messenger from the Hospital of Prato, who seems to have brought him an unwelcome request or news. He too, by virtue of STOLDO, was pardoned his sentence and, like the bastard MANFREDINO, he never wanted to give security." On the other hand, the pecuniary penalties were rendered ineffective by the Florentine custom of the Accatto, which allowed the contribution to the payment of the fine imposed on the Grande or Magnate. The latter, in fact, demanded the amount of his fine from his dependent colonies and, with good and energetic words, from the members of his party and from the merchants - who wanted to live quietly and do business. After the peace between the Parties, signed by Cardinal Latino in 1280, the IACOPI de' Rossi were admitted to the government of the city, and in particular, their "Consorteria" obtained the"Priory" (4)

in 1285 in the person of Arrigo del Boccaccio. The BOCCACCI were precisely one of the many branches of the populous "Consorteria" of the Reds and which we will deal with later. In 1285 we still find in the Council of the Wise of Florence our STOLDO Giacoppi dei Rossi together with the FANTONUS del FORNAIO or FORNARIO, always of the same family: STOLDO in this period, despite his advanced age, is still an influential person respected and often intervenes as a speaker in the council assembly, where her opinions are listened to and followed:

• - On 17 March STOLDO successfully pleaded for the measure that gave the Florentine ambassadors, led by the magnate Ser Ruggero Soderini, a full mandate to stipulate, at the Conference of Sarzana, an alliance with the cities of Genoa and Lucca against Pisa;
• - on 17 April he intervened again in the problem of the controversy with Genoa regarding the stipulation of the military alliance against Pisa;
• - on 14 May his proposal to send an embassy to Genoa to explain and justify the ambiguous attitude of Florence on the Pisan question was also accepted in the same controversy. In the harangue, STOLDO had also recommended that the Chapters of the Arts should also be co-responsible for the final decision. The next day (15 May), in fact, a new Council of the Wise Men was convened in which the Capitals of the twelve Major Arts (Majores) of Florence also participated; On May 31st, despite the decision to declare war on the Pisans, Florentine politics, at the beginning of June, continues to be more ambiguous than ever and the leaders of the cities seem to want to buy time in the beginning of hostilities. No decision was taken in the Council of 8 June, after which the allied Commune of Genoa and the Florentine merchants linked to the Genoese trade had urged Florence to action. Following the Pope's mediating intervention and warning in the Pisan-Florentine controversy, and having appeased the Genoese impatience and requests with monetary contributions, the Florentines reconvened the Council of the Wise on June 12, 1285. On that occasion the Priors, on the advice of STOLDO, decided not to send, as requested, ambassadors to the Pope, but only an influential person (Tommaso Spilliato de' Mozzi) who would go to Rome to apologize for not having adhered to the mediation of the Curia. In this case, the advice of STOLDO aimed at not letting Florence lose certain advantages in an imminent peace requested by the Pisans.

There is no more news of STOLDO starting from 1286, which suggests a sudden death of the prestigious Head of the Guelph Party and undisputed protagonist of the history of his city. Members of the House, as already seen for STOLDO, will continue to participate in person, both in the Council of Fourteen, the highest Florentine governmental assembly established by Cardinal Latino, and in all decisions concerning the criteria for the election of the same. But in 1293, following the popular movement of Giano della Bella, the IACOPI de' Rossi were definitively declared "Magnate House or of the Grandees or Barons" and for this reason definitively excluded from the Council, the Consulate of the Arts and the Councils of the Captain of the People. The family was reconfirmed among the Grandees in the provisions of 1311 and, following this, its members could no longer obtain magistracies.(5)

The definitive blow to the power structure of the Consorterie was in fact brought by the movement of Giano della Bella and its Ordinances of Justice. Villani recalls that the action of Giano della Bella was favored by the brigades of the Grandees: "... and this novelty and beginning of the people would not have been made to the commoners by the power of the Grandees, were it not for the fact that in those times the Grandees of Florence were not in great strife among themselves.

Discords.... as they were then when he had a great war between the Adimari and Tosinghi, and between ROSSI and TORNAQUINCI, and between the Bardi and the Mozzi, and between the Cavalcanti and the Buoldelmonti, and between certain Buondelmonti and Giandonati, and between the Bostichi and Foraboschi, and between Foraboschi and Malespini, and between Visdomini and Falconieri, and between Frescobaldi together and between the house of Donati together and several other families. " It should also be added that in Florence, after the movement of Janus

della Bella and the definitive affirmation of the Guelph Party, the struggles between the White Guelphs and the Black Guelphs began. The IACOPI sided with the Neri faction who had the upper hand over the opposite side, also due to the heavy intervention of Pope Boniface 8th Caetani. The victory of the Black Guelphs decreed the exile of the Whites, including Dante Alighieri. At the coronation of Pope Caetani, moreover, SIMONE Iacopi de' Rossi was present, who was part of the famous embassy of the Emperor of the East, composed of 12 Florentines. Another important figure in the family was certainly "Messer" PINO di Stoldo who, in 1300, held the position of Podestà of Bologna and, in 1306, Captain and Governor of the same city. In the same year, again in Bologna, he failed, on behalf of the Florentines, the peace negotiations between the Black Guelphs and the Whites, conducted with the mediation of the Cardinal Legate of the Curia: Napoleone Orsini. The arbitration, in fact, went awry due to a popular uprising (23 March 1306) which forced the Cardinal Legate to abandon Bologna. The same PINO who, according to the deeds of the Florentine notary Giovanni Berghi or Benghi, had married a woman of the powerful "popular" family of the Canigiani, on November 3, 1310 was put at the head, together with Messer Gherardo or Gerardo de' Bostichi, of the Florentine embassy to the papal court of Clement V in Avignon. This embassy took place in conjunction with that of the Tuscan-Lombard Guelph League.

The embassy of Florence, which arrived in Avignon shortly before Christmas 1310, also included two jurists, a notary and Messer Fazio or Bonifazio Renaldi da Signa. The embassy lasted eight months but Messer PINO died in Avignon in 1311 before its conclusion and shortly afterwards Messer Gherardo also followed him to the grave. It seems that Niccolò, Cardinal and Titular Bishop of Ostia, paid special honors to PINO's body because, not only PINO's children and nephews sent a moving letter to the ancient adversary of the Black Guelphs, but the Municipality itself wanted to express, with long-winded words, its gratitude to the prelate who, seven years earlier, had had to flee from Florence. (letter from the Commune dated 1 April 1311; letter from his sons dated 7 April 1311). As a demonstration of how great was the fame of Messer PINO in Florence, after his death in Avignon, on the proposal of some commoners, the Councils of the city decided to arm PINO's son and two nephews as Knight of the People, in consideration of the services rendered by the two previous generations (STOLDO AND PINO). On Easter Day (April 11, 1311) STOLDO DI COPPO, BANDINO di LISCIO and GIOVANNI di PINO were solemnly armed "Knights" by Messer Diego (Guido?) De La Ratta, Marshal of King Robert and the Municipality of Florence decided to spend the sum of 1500 gold florins for the court (feast) of the new knights. But the generosity of the Florentines was limited since, in order to honor the Guelphism of their fathers in their children, a special tax was imposed on the Ghibellines and Whites, tolerated in the city, with the proceeds of which the expenses were paid. GIOVANNI di PINO, just mentioned, was sent in 1313 ambassador to King Robert of Naples and died in 1345 while, like his father, he was ambassador in Avignon. GIOVANNI had as his son PINO, Knight of the Golden Spur, who, in 1337 was Podestà of Faenza and in 1357 Captain of the People of Perugia. In any case, Mecatti in his list of Florentine Priors mentions the date of 1329 for a Prior of the IACOPI d'Oltrarno (de' Rossi).

In 1340 PINO di GIOVANNI was one of the leaders of the Revolt of the Barons and, in the failure of the conspiracy, he was driven into exile with all his followers. Recalled to his homeland in 1342 by the Duke of Athens, William of Brienne, he became his enemy and made himself a meritorious citizen of his city for the expulsion of the Duke from Florence in 1343. For this fact PINO di GIOVANNI was reinstated in the number of "commoners" and elected among the reformers of the State. This situation, however, did not last very long because, not accepting the condition of diminished power of his family, he allied himself with the conspirators of the famous revolt of the Magnati (1350) and, involved in its failure, joined the Bardi and the Frescobaldi in the defense of their palaces. For this last event, "notices" of proscription were again issued against him and his family, by virtue of which he could no longer return to his city. He was still living in exile in 1360 when Giovanni Boccaccio, a character to whom PINO had turned to try through his mediation to return to the city, sent him the famous consolatory letter.

Among the other characters of this family we still remember:

• - AMATO Iacopi, who on March 11, 1311, holding the position of Executor of the Ordinances of Justice of the Municipality of Florence, and sitting in court in the house of Pietro Benincasa, condemned to death two commoners who had plotted to kill the standard-bearer of one of the Companies of their Sixth. "It is noteworthy that this sentence was then pronounced again and aggravated by torture for some accused by the ordinary courts of the Municipality and then in this new wording confirmed by the Podestà" (Davidsohn, V, p. 581).

The Florentine judicial system provided for the Court of the Podestà and the Court of the Captain as "Ordinary Courts". There was also a third Judicial Court which was, from 1307, that of the executors of the Ordinances. This Magistrate had Balia (jurisdiction) to proceed against the monopolistic agreements of the Guilds, but his main function was to watch, by means of severe justice, that the Regulations were observed and that the commoners were protected from the arrogance of the "Greats": everything suggests that the "drum", affixed in his residence, was never empty of denunciations that referred to the abuses of the Magnates. His other task was to proceed against those who provoked riots or seditions for any reason. For the tasks just listed, this Court functioned on the sidelines and above the ordinary ones (Podestà and Capitano). Alongside secular justice there was also ecclesiastical justice to which the clergy belonged, who, therefore, could not be prosecuted by ordinary justice (6);

• - ANGELO, mentioned in 1290 in Volume 1 of the inventory of the Boncompagni Archive, edited by Gianni Venditti and Beatrice Quaglieri, Vatican Secret Archives, 2008;
• - BONACCORSO who in 1318 practiced the trade of merchant in Avignon and also had interests in the square of Barcelona;
• - NUTINO, ambassador to Perugia in February 1345;
• - BERARDO o BERNARDO, ambassador on 27 August 1345 to Lombardy;
• - BARNA, ambassador in May 1345 to Lombardy;
• - NOFRI di BARNA, ambassador for the Dieci di Balia;
• - FRANCESCO, ambassador in April 1347 for the Dieci di Balia in AREZZO;
• - FRANCESCO, ambassador in February 1358 to Lombardy;
• - ALBERTO, ambassador in June 1368 to PERUGIA;
• - GIOVANNI di CECCO or FRANCESCO di IACOPO, ambassador in April 1370 to BOLOGNA and in 1372 Gonfaloniere di Giustizia;
• - MANENTE, Vicar of FLORENCE in PESCIA in 1370;
• - DONATO and BARTOLO di IACOPO, Ambassadors at PISTOIA, respectively in the October 1373 and in the March 13822;
• - GUGLIELMO, ambassador to BOLOGNA in September 1381;
• - IACOPO di ROSSO, Captain of the People of CITTA' di CASTELLO;
• - VANNE IACOPI,  like many other members of the family who carried out commercial activities, exercised in FLORENCE, associated with a Catalan, that of hotelier.

It should be noted as proof of the economic possibilities of the family, repeatedly highlighted, that the embassies in FLORENCE were a position of great prestige and that the same, no more than twice a year, were carried out at the expense of the ambassador. We have previously emphasized, in the passage taken from Malespini's book, that the IACOPI de' Rossi were "merchants" and therefore certainly enrolled in one of the Guilds. In all probability the Iacopi were enrolled in various Guilds and in particular in that of Calimala (trade in imported fabrics), of Cambio, of Silk or Wool and perhaps also in that of the Judges. As is well known in the early days of the Florentine Commune, especially from 1281, the city power was in the hands of the members of the Guilds of the Guilds and, initially, only from the members of the Arti Majores could be drawn the people destined for civic offices and, therefore, for the government of the city. Only later were members of the Arti Minores able to participate in the city's power. In fact, in its most complete organization, the operation of the offices in Florence functioned at different levels:

1. The “ Tre Maggiori” (7)   (Signoria, composed of the Priors and the Gonfaloniere of Justice and two Consultative Colleges, composed of the Buonuomini and the Gonfalonieri di compagnia - the Executive Offices)
2. the Administrative Offices (the Otto di Guardia e Balia, Capitani di Parte Guelfa, etc., plus the Vicars and Podestà sent to the cities of the Florentine dominion), and
3. (at the lowest level) the Consuls of the Guilds of the 21 Major and Minor Guilds. (8).

A brief history of the birth of the first guilds of the arts in Florence

In the Middle Ages in the city of Florence, taking advantage of the struggles between the emperor and the pope or against his vassals and vassals among themselves, the people began to usurp freedom as the his lords had in his time usurped tyranny, but he became the actor of a great fervor of activities that needed freedom of action and freedom of trade. In this context, the city, without the formal permission of its immediate lord, the bishop, opened up, breaking, in the long run, the iron circle that closed it, the land and sea routes to sell its products. The wool industry, with its fulling mills, is already a very prosperous activity. If there is a lack of raw material on its badly irrigated and badly cultivated, badly protected soil, the identification of easier communication routes and less expensive transport make it possible to substitute for this shortage and to receive the wools of Sardinia, Barbary, Spain, France and England in the same way, to transform them into fine cloths. With its innate taste, the Tuscan city manufactures better than the Flemish and Brabant do. She manages, with her know-how, to recover and restore badly woven cloths, giving them a new color. These cloths acquire their own intrinsic quality and a completely new value, being particularly in demand, even in the East, where drugs and colors are exchanged with spices, used to dye them. At the same time, the Florentines, with the price of the sale, manage to buy, in France and England, an increasing number of cloths intended for a second preparation.

The industry of the transformation of fine cloths, starting from the common ones, which were called ultramontane or French cloths, soon formed a branch of the art of wool. This branch receives the name of the street where it opened its shops and workshops, a street that flowed into the Old Market and was designated, sometimes with the name of Francesca street and more often Calimala (callis malus), because it led to a place of ill repute. Speaking of the Art of Calimala, it was also gladly said "Art of the Merchants", that is to say of the merchants par excellence.

After the art of wool and the branch of Calimala, the Art of Silk followed, in the hierarchy. Imported from the East by Roger of Sicily, since 1148, it has not been able to gain the first place: the Florentines were not sufficiently sure of their commercial outlets to process a large quantity of this raw material, whose labor, moreover, increased the initial value tenfold. Poorly maintained and infested with brigands, difficulty in obtaining access to the sea from Pisa, multiplicity, enormity of transit, unloading, deposit fees, ignorance of writing, which made it impossible to correspond by means of letters with foreign countries and the need for continuous journeys to accompany directly or have accompanied his goods, finally, when the vessels of a neighboring city could be used, the ordinary dangers of the sea and piracy, the odious custom of confiscating wrecked ships with their contents, all represented an obstacle to industry and commercial traffic.

The three arts, of Calimala wool and silk, would never have had their development if the Florentines had not favored them with the creation of the Guild of Money Changers or Bankers, a truly new element, especially in the form he will attribute to it. Their direct and practical spirit had understood, unlike the Church and Dante, that money is a commodity; it can be rented out as a house, a car or a horse; that the lending of money is a service rendered to others and a deprivation for oneself; that the transformation of a capital into a piece of paper does not diminish its intrinsic value; that there is a risk of getting back the sum lent and that this risk, like this conceivable damage, requires remuneration. To hinder commercial competition, they proportionate the rates of money to the presumed benefit of the entrepreneur; In this context, they will lend at rates of 30 to 40 percent. For this reason, to punish them, Dante placed the usurers in his Inferno under a rain of fire.

The devotion of the Florentines to the Church contributed to a large part to the progress of the Arte del Cambio. The treasures of the whole world flowed into Rome, the revenues of the pope and the prelates, Peter's Pence, offerings of all kinds. To be in charge of collecting all this money, of sending it to the recipients, meant having the management of most of the capital in circulation. In the hands through which it passed, there was always something left, not to mention the commission paid to the intermediaries. In fact, starting from the twelfth century, Florentine merchants already bore the title of changers of the pope: campsores papae.

The daily commitment of changers becomes a necessity. The extreme complication of coins turns the knowledge of money into a science. The weights and values of the coins were not all in a constant ratio. Since gold had disappeared from the coins under the Carolingians, any payment became a concern and a danger and the bill of exchange attempts to remedy this. If the Jews and the Venetians knew it before the Florentines, the latter had the merit of generalizing the replacement of the cumbersome coin and the heavy ingots with a paper child and of re-establishing, from one country to another, the balance between the real value of money and its legal value, the certain causes of losses, in the face of which commercial traffic regressed.

The art of change will thus become, without considering the bottom of things, the first of all. These "Lombard dogs", the name by which they are designated north of the Alps, will enrich their homeland as well as themselves. It is thanks to the treasures that they will bring in, the Florentines will be able to buy their castles from the lords, provide for the maintenance of a permanent militia, subjugate the neighboring cities, enlarge and build numerous and magnificent palaces inside.

To these four arts, three more must be added, already established in 1193. In the first place,

the Guild of Physicians and Apothecaries, on whom the cerusici (surgeons) and midwives depended: They derived their importance not so much from the care they dispensed for the lives of their fellow-citizens, but rather from the sale of the spices of the East, at that time so sought after and of which the apoticari or apothecaries had the deposit and sale. It came after the Furriers' Guild, which was also very flourishing, due to the widespread use of skins and furs, to dress or to adorn one's clothes. If these two arts are not at the level of the former, this is due to the fact that the rule, among the Florentines, has always been to give way to those who ensured extended relations abroad. Later, the spice trade experienced enormous development; but it will be of great disadvantage for the Apothecaries, raised to the dignity of spice merchants, to have among their ranks doctors and surgeons, empiricists and operators who had nothing to ... sell.

The Judges and Notaries formed a last art. They too sold nothing; but because they rendered justice, the imperious need of the weak in times of violence, they were, however, held in high esteem; they were given, like the knights, the title of Messere in the specific case Florentine "Ser". In any case, in the long run, this art will assume a primary role in the hierarchy of the arts. From the first half of the thirteenth century, the neighborhood courts, in order to free themselves from the influences of the neighborhood, came to regroup in the old church of S. Michele in Orto or in its adjacent garden. Each of them kept his "hall" there, with an insignia on the door: in one a knight, in another a lion, elsewhere a rose, etc. These names served to designate them officially. A consul, a judge, two superintendents, two notaries, this was generally their standard composition.

At this point, it seems appropriate to remember the other trades necessary for life: bakers-bakers, butchers, cutters, shoemakers, tailors and many others. Considered vile trades, they were not part of the arts and counted for nothing in the state, which was made up of a small minority. In the last years of the thirteenth century, the inhabitants, possessors of civic rights, still held their assemblies in a palace or church: they did not exceed 1,500 units at the time. At the end of the fifteenth century there were still 3,200, although the city had grown much and although there had been a series of revolutions and laws to extend the right of citizen. The peasants, always connected with the serf, had neither the rights of the citizen nor those of the free man. In the city there were many people of servile condition or who, without being serfs, lived there as a foreigner. The fact is that they did not pay taxes: they were levied among the resident nobles and among the merchant aristocracy of the seven major guilds.

The leaders of these arts, the trades, soon called "consuls", administered the art, determining politics and almost the law. They did not enjoy, outside art, any official authority; but if it became necessary to adopt some measure of interest or to defend Florence from any danger, they met normally and, in meeting, being able to affirm, without exaggeration, that they represented the community; only they were able to take up the inheritance of the imperial vicar, who was becoming more and more tarnished in his impotence and it is in this way, without a formal institution, that they will become the municipal magistrates. What history improperly defines as the "Consuls' Revolution" is nothing more than the slow process of the progress of their power and in this regard it is difficult to attribute to this phenomenon a precise date inherent in its transformation. Consuls who have attributions different from those of the government of their respective art, are found from 1101 onwards. The Countess Matilda, who still reigned at the time, already tolerated a kind of communal use, on condition that her authority was respected.

These consuls, elected for a year, were factotum for a long time: they did justice to those of their art and administered the city. It was only from 1204 onwards that a distinction was made between the one and the other, that is, between the Consules justitiae and the Consules civitatis. Over time, it ended up becoming common practice to fix the number of seconds, after those of the quarters or gates, attributing to each of these quarters, both one and two consuls or "Priors". From that moment on, Florence came to have a government worthy of the name, a municipal and oligarchic government, where a senate of one hundred good men seems to have had the task of electing and controlling the work of the Consuls. A chronicler gives us the date of 1195: "Before," he recalls, "the city was governed in the manner of villages, without order, good use, or statute."

It is therefore to its trades that the city has been able to have a fixed constitution: it draws its organization from the guilds of the arts, enlarging it. But among these men of work lived a class of nobles who despised them for their birth and hated them for their wealth: Germans acclimatized to the banks of the Arno, country feudatories who came down from their respective castles, by force after their defeat or willingly to enjoy the pleasures of urban life. To get out of their rural isolation they submit to common law, an advance all the more remarkable than civil equality, inasmuch as it comes, in part, from an aspiration of the old masters, rather than from a conquest over them.

Harsh conditions had been imposed on them to prevent any rebellion; but they also had privileges. It was tolerated that they were not judged by the consular courts, that they could live in idleness inside the anthill, surrounded by an armed clientele, who used their weapons without scruple. It was approved that they sought opportunities to highlight their military aptitudes. In return, they were not granted either rewards or honors, even if, in the end, the population of bourgeoisie and artisans often chose their consuls from among themselves.

As mentioned above, the Iacopi or Iacoppi de' Rossi were certainly enrolled in the Guild of Calimala, and in the period, second half of the 1200s - early 1300s, we see many of its members feverishly busy in their trade across Europe.

Some IACOPES, in 1273, appear in England to be in business with the society of the Riccomanni. From the "Libro della Tavola" (accounting register) by RICCOMANNO Iacopi (also mentioned by Ernesto Monaci in Crestomazia in 1842) we read, in fact, that GIOVANNI di BALDOVINO and DONATO di BALDOVINO Iacopi, his nephews, had gone to England, in 1273, with just under 3000 pounds (more than 25,000 modern gold lire). After 12 years (1285) (Davidsohn, IV - 2, pp. 699 - 700) they had in their hands 33 pending contracts for the supply of wool for the harvests of the coming years, of which 25 were with monasteries and 8 with seculars, and all against cash advances for a sum far higher than their initial capital. Later, however, they sold their total commitments to the Compagnia Commerciale dei Mozzi - Spini (in turn coming from the Compagnia Della Scala or Scali - Amieri). In addition, they certainly had other substantial debts and inventories of goods and, it is admissible, that their transactions also included significant profit-sharing deposits. From Davidsohn (IV - 2, page 728) we also know that other IACOPIS were in Ireland where, given the economic backwardness of the population, they carried on a very lively and, almost certainly, very lucrative trade. They collected duties on wool and tithes and were in partnership with the Simonettis (Simonetti - Jacopi Company).

In 1308 we find flourishing and the Company named after FILIPPO and NICOLO' Iacopi  is active in Nimes, France (Davidsohn, VI, p. 624; Paris, 14 - 21 April 1308, Les Olim III, p. 33). From a brief of Pope Martin 4th, dated 2 August 1282, we also know that RAINALDO and RIMBERTINO Giacopi were partners in the Pulci - Rimbertini company (Vatican Archives, Reg. 42, f. 33). A RUSTICHELLO Iacopi, known as "Rusticaut" worked in France and was a representative in Paris of the Belotti company, which trafficked in Champagne clothes (Davidsohn, VI - 2, p. 645).

There were numerous Florentines who practiced trading in the city of Paris. They lived in the city in the areas of the Italian merchants such as: the Rue au Cerf (Parish of Saint Germain l'Auxerrois), Rue des Lombards, Rue Saint Merry, Saint Denis, Rue de la Guanterie, Rue de Calandre (in particular on this street the Spini, Pulci, Ammannati, Margotti Companies had their headquarters). Trade with Florence was especially concerned with the clothes of the fairs of Champagne, the fine canvas of Reims and fashion products. The fairs began on New Year's Eve in the town of Lagny sur Marne, not far from Paris. On the Tuesday before mid-Lent, the fair of Bar sur Aube took place. On the Tuesday before Pentecost there was the May fair of Provins, a city still splendid today for its ramparts. then there was that of St. John in Troyes and, after one at the height of summer, the fair of St. Michael or St. Ayoul in Provins and then the winter fair of St. Remigius in Troyes. Each fair was divided into several parts: cloths, leather, furs and goods by weight (spices, wool, cotton, wax, alum and dyestuffs). Around 1276 a company of Sienese merchants was particularly active in the textile area of Flanders, whose partners were Giacomo Sigheri di Sigerio, GIOVANNI Jacoppi, Giacomo Jacobi, Geretase Ildebrandini and Sigerio Grugamonti and among its various activities there were also banking activities (loan of 8 thousand lire tournesi - from Tours to Yolanda di Nevers, for expenses at the Lagny Fair) as shown on pages 230 and 231 of Relations commerciales entre Genes,  Renée Doehard's Belgique and Autremont  of 1941 State Archives of Genoa, 1941. Also pag. 64 of the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium of 1971).

A separate mention, for his adventurous life, deserves RANIERI or RINIERI Iacopi, in other documents also called RAINALDUS. After having been a partner in the Pulci - Rimbertini Company, we find him in 1278 as a partner, together with Iacopo de Fronte, Cepparello Dietaiuti da Prato, Onofrio (Noffo) Dei, in the Society of Ghino (Guido) Frescobaldi (it appears from a document dated 18 October 1278 in Bond's "Exstract relative to Loans" in archaeology XXVIII, p. 222). In 1289 RANIERI left Frescobaldi's Company and went on his own, founding a company to collect, among other things, the royal taxes of some regions of the Kingdom of France, including Auvergne (where his partner Cepperello Dietaiuti was receiver (receveur) of royal taxes), on behalf of the company Mouche (Musciatto Guidi, Florentine) and Biche (Biccio or Benedetto Zaccaria,  Genovese) de' Franzesi of which he was a member (from pages 308, 311 and 314 of the Rivista di Scienze, Arti e Lettere dell'Alta Alvernia of 1889 or 1899). He was appointed "receveurs" of the ecclesiastical tithes of Auvergne, for that part which Pope Nicholas IV had ceded to the King of France. In this position he had as partners Cepparello Dietaiuti and Noffo Dei (see "Cepparello da Prato, the pseudo Ser Cappelletto: according to the Boccaccio legend and according to the documents of the Prato and Vatican archives: critical historical study" by Giulio Giani, Grafica M. Martini, 1916). In February 1295 he finally managed to set up his own Company named after him and took as a business partner a disreputable person, Noffo Dei, who was soon to end up on the gallows. The Rinieri Iacopi company, which had its main residence in Sens, and counted Mouche and Biche de' Franzesi as shareholders, was in this period, in addition to the large-scale importation of cloths from the Champagne fairs, by sea, to Florence, without a doubt, also in banking business. Unfortunately, due to the intriguing Noffo, implicated in the trial of Bishop Guichard of Troyes, business did not go very well (Davidsohn, pages 628 - 80 - 681; Paoli: Documenti di ser Ciappeletto, in Giornale Storico della letteratura Italiana V, pages 337, 345; Giornale Storico degli Archivi Toscani I, pages 257 et seq.). The firm RANIERI Iacopi was also in business with the Bards (Davidsohn VI, pages 682 - 5). RANIERI was also represented in Florence by his brother RICO who we find in the city in 1302. When the company failed, RAINIER went through many misadventures and we find him again on the market in Pont sur Yonne in 1305, near the city of Sens (Davidsohn, VI, p. 647; Rigault: "Le Proces de Guichard Evecque de Troyes", p. 170, Paris, 1896). The author who quotes him adds expressively: "after having lived better days elsewhere". The struggles for dominance in French trade were hard and no-holds-barred. During this period the Florentine merchants, in particular the Franzesi, backed by the King of France, tried to monopolize the trade by imprisoning many other Italian merchants, their competitors. In one of these disputes, a FRANCESCO Iacopi, brother of an old associate of the Franzesi (almost certainly RANIERI) had other Italians imprisoned in 1320, according to French sources. (Davidsohn, VI, p. 627; Langlois in Ernest Lavisse, Historie de France III, 2, p. 229, from a memoir of the Chambre des Comtes in Paris).

After the failed revolt of the Magnates (1350) and, above all, after the Tumulto dei Ciompi (24 June 1378), life for the families of the Grandi, already hard in itself, became unbearable. All this led to the crisis of the "Consorteria de' Rossi" and the crisis of the IACOPI or JACOPPI family linked to it. In fact, many members of the House were forced to emigrate, while others - taking advantage of  the law of 11 August 1361 by which it was ordered that every Magnate who had obtained, or who in the future would obtain, the popular "civilization", had to renounce the "Consorteria" of his house within two months, taking another family name and another coat of arms - abandoned their ancestral surname in Florence and sought escape in this remedy or in exile. Ultimately. It is therefore possible that the family, which today bears the surname of JACOPPI, substantially rooted in the north of the northern Apennines (Parma and Novara, with some branches in the USA and Brazil) and of very small numerical consistency, may derive from this family of the Consorteria dei ROSSI.

The provision of 1361 practically determined the end of the IACOPI or IACOPPI De' ROSSI family in FLORENCE as early as the beginning of the 1400s while, moreover, other surnames originated from the ancient "Consorteria" (Annex A1). 

BOCCACCI de’ ROSSI

Before dealing with this part, however, it is good to speak of another branch of the Rossi, contemporary with the IACOPI, and which also had considerable fame in Florence. It is in fact the BOCCACCI family of which we have already mentioned above. The most famous person was certainly ARRIGO del BOCCACCIO who, in 1280, was part of the Council of 14. In the same year he held the position of Consul of the Arte del Cambio. In 1278 he had been Mayor of the Guelph Party for the arrangement of the financial affairs of the same. In 1277 he was still among the Officers "ad registrandum jura et privilegia Communis Florentiae". In 1280 he was one of the guarantors of the Guelph Party at the signing of the peace of Cardinal Latino. He was prior of Florence in 1285, despite belonging to a Magnate Consortium, and was also one of the most active orators in the Florentine Councils of the Wise Men until 1287. ARRIGO perhaps coincides with that Dominus ARRIGUS of BOCCACCIO who, still orator in the Council of the Wise in the following years, we find him in 1295 Podestà of Borgo San Sepolcro and Captain of Colle in 1299. If, as is likely, it is the same person, all this would prove that ARRIGO, between 1287 and 1290, had been created "Knight". Among the other characters of the Boccaccio or Boccacci de' Rossi family we can include "Dominus LAPUS del Boccaccio de Rubeis" which we find - in the deeds of the Florentine notary Giovanni Berghi - as "Dominus LAPUS quondam RENALDI de Boccacciis". In the deeds of the same notary we still find a "GHERARDUS del Boccaccio" and a "RENALDUS ALDOBRANDINI de Boccacciis" who was, in all probability, the father of the aforementioned LAPO who, in turn, had GUALZO as his son. In documents up to 1283 there is also a name for a "GUCCIUS del Boccaccio" who was part, like the previous ones, of the BOCCACCI family, a "branch" of the populous "consortium" of the ROSSI, inhabitants of the Sesto d'Oltrarno.

Therefore, following the municipal law of 1361, few members of the family retained the ancient surname of IACOPI or the common one of ROSSI. Other families originated from them, of which, however, very few, after the storm, resumed the ancient surname of the "consorteria". Among the new families derived from consortia is that of the

ROSOLESI

In 1378, in fact, ALBIZZO di BARNA de' Rossi assumed the popular condition by taking the surname of ROSOLESI. Of this family in 1845 a certain ISIDORO di ANDREA was still alive. Another branch of the Rossi, which had maintained the ancient

surname (or perhaps taken up), obtained the privilege of popular dignity through the intercession of the Medici and, for this reason, LIONETTO di BENEDETTO di ANTONIO obtained the Priory in 1496 and, created Knight by King Louis XII of France, also became a Councillor of State. His wife was Marìa, the natural sister of Lorenzo the Magnificent de' Medici, and their son Luigi, who died in 1519, was created Cardinal in 1517 by his cousin Pope Leo X. Among the other Reds we remember:

 

GIOVANNI, in 1413 among the ten of Balia; NOFERI di PIETRO di BARTOLOMEO who had the Priory in 1513; PIERMARIA di BELTRAMO Rossi who was beheaded in 1519 by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici for conspiracy; GIULIO di BERNARDINO Rossi who was also beheaded in 1542 by order of Cosimo 1° de' Medici for the crime of lèse-majesté. A GUERRUCCIO de' Rossi, moreover, was in 1283 in the Florentine College of the 14th, in the same year Prior, a position he also held in 1288. He had married a daughter of Messer Mico dei Velluti.

Of the ancient Consorteria dei Rossi which, among other things, was related to the major families of Florence (Del Giudice, Alberti, Buondelmonti, Frescobaldi) only a very few families remain today, including that of the

 De’ ROSSI del LION NERO 

who lived in the Santa Croce district under the insignia of the Banner of the Black Lion and still today preserves the Carabinieri and which has a documented genealogy starting from 1400. The current name of the family was authorized by Royal Decree of 5 November 1911 and 8 December 1912, to the brothers PIERFILIPPO and UGO di GUIDO de' ROSSI of the LION NERO of Florence. As we have already seen, the original Arma of the Consorteria de' Rossi was: "Di rosso pieno" as well as that of the Soldanieri, another family of Florence. To the primitive weapon, as is well known, the "Capo d'Angiò" was later added, a recognized symbol of Italian Guelphism ("Azure to a red lambello of four pendants, including three golden fleurs-de-lis of Anjou"). The branch deriving from ALBIZZO di BARNA, which took the surname of ROSOLESI, added a "Golden Rose of four leaves" to the Arma della Consorteria of origin. The branch of the Rossi del Lion Nero, which lived in the district of Santa Croce under the banner of the Lion Nero, instead has a party shield for Arma, in which in the first part it raises the coat of arms of the ROSOLESI while in the second the symbol that gives the name to the family: "Truncated in silver and red to the rampant lion holding in the right front branch a Florentine lily,  all of one into the other". The Golden Book of the Nobility reports the following titles for this family: Nobles of Fiesole for Sovereign Rescript 17 July 1840. This title was recognized by the Italian State by Royal Decree "motu proprio" of 7 July 1907 and Royal Patents of 10 November 1907. Finally, the Royal Decrees of 5 November and 8 December 1912 authorized the family to resume the ancient surname De' Rossi of the Black Lion. .                          

In Annex B an approximate genealogy of the main characters of the IACOPI-IACOPPI de' ROSSI up to 1350 and in  Annex C a recent genealogy of the counts de' Rossi of the Black Lion (branch that lived under the banner of the Black Lion in Santa Croce)

It is practically ascertained that starting from the second half of the 1300s, the family of the Iacopi de' Rossi disappeared from the city of Giglio, while almost in the same period the family of the IACOPI de' TORNAQUINCI was born