IACOPI DISCENDENZE E STORIA

In conclusion and in confirmation of the particular social status enjoyed by all the IACOPI families of Florence examined, we can say that the families had the privilege of burial in the church which, as is known, was reserved for nobles or those who lived "more nobilium". From the "Florentine obituary" of Eusebio CIRRI  (Annex G6) we read that the IACOPI  families have 6 tombs in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, in Santa Reparata (now the Cathedral) and others in Santa Croce and, in the 3^ chapel on the right of the Church of S. Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi in Borgo Pinti  (Iacopi del LION NERO, Fig. 44) and a Chapel (2^ of the right transept, fig. 45) in the Church of Santo Spirito (Iacopi or Iacoppi and Consorteria de' ROSSI). A title of nobility that is confirmed by the fact that the families participated in the government of the city of FLORENCE with several Priors.

They also had a tomb in  the church of S. Jacopo tra Fossi  (fig. 45a), which was also the parish church of their Gonfalone (in fact the district of Santa CROCE had two parishes or peoples for the Black Lion: San Romeo and S. Jacopo tra Fossi; the Gonfalone delle Ruote had three: San Procolo,  Santo Stefano alla Badia and San Martino; the Gonfalone del Bue had three: S. Simone, San Apollinare and San Firenze; while that of the Carro had five: S. Piero Scheraggio, San Romolo, Santo Stefano al Ponte, Santa Cecilia and Orsanmichele).

Finally, as has already been pointed out for the Iacopi di Santa CROCE, starting from the end of the 1600s it is no longer possible to have certain and documentable data of the presence of Iacopi families in Florence, but this practice that disappeared from the city seems rather plausible to be related to their rapid political and commercial decline. The first hypothesis appears more probable and certainly prevalent. These two concomitant events have certainly determined the dispersion of all their branches. Precisely for political reasons, many branches of the family had to leave the city of Florence to move, for the most part, to the territory of the free Republic of Lucca or to the area of Pistoia, close to the border with the Republic of Lucca, where a branch of the Iacopi had obtained the city nobility or, to a lesser extent, in the territories of the neighboring Papal States, where they could have enjoyed greater freedom and above all initiative, especially in the field of trade..

Ultimately, as already pointed out above, the surname IACOPI is a surname that has an extremely limited diffusion in Italy, even if substantially concentrated in a single region. All the IACOPI families existing in Italy and also those that we meet today flourishing abroad (highlighted in the following pages), can be traced back to a few precise Italian geographical areas, such as Lucca, Prato and Arezzo (Casentino in particular) and Pistoia. It is likely, although not having exhaustive objective elements of confirmation, that all the families, existing today, may derive from a common Florentine/Pistoian  matrix and more precisely from the Iacopi of Pistoia and Santa CROCE, a branch that was present and numerous in the city of the lily until the second half of the 1500s. It is also very probable that the very few members of the IACOPPI  family that exist today may also derive from  the Iacopi or Iacoppi of the Consorteria de' ROSSI, who had been Leaders of the Guelph Party and who had been declared "Greats", after the Ordinances of Justice of Giano della Bella. A fact that will determine their abandonment of the city

Be that as it may, the Iacopi del LION NERO were ascribed to the Florentine noble class with the initial dignity of Miles and therefore of Nobile. They have also been ascribed to the nobility of Pistoia, while the Iacopi de' Tornaquinci in turn derived from another family, the Tornaquinci, who were, like the Iacopi or Iacoppi de' Rossi, certainly Barons or of the Grandees of Florence and belonging to the magnate class, because they were of feudal origin and moved to the city of Giglio from the surrounding countryside.

In this context, in 2002, Don Alfonso Ceballos Escalera y Gila, Duke of Ostuni, Marquis de la Floresta, Viscount of Ayala, Chronicler, Rei de Armas of Castile and Leon, the official heraldic organ of the Kingdom of Spain certified  (by deed dated 4 December 2001, registered at the Council of Castile and Leon on 13 June 2002 and deed at the College of Notaries of Madrid with act no. 20648 dated 19 July 2002). for General Massimo IACOPI, that the IACOPI of the Casentino branch were entitled to the titles of Noble of Florence, also granting a personal coat of arms to the aforementioned general. (Fig. 46, 46a, 46b, 46c, 46d.)