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Gherardesca family
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Gherardesca family

Tuscan noble family
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Article History

Gherardesca family, one of the foremost families of the Tuscan nobility, whose lands included the counties of Gherardesca, Donoratico, and Montescudaio, near Pisa. At the beginning of the 13th century, they led the pro-imperial Ghibelline party of the Pisan republic against the pro-papal Guelf party led by the Visconti family of Milan. The Gherardesca family produced several churchmen but is especially noted for its soldiers and statesmen.

The first documented member of the family is Gerardo (d. c. 990), who established himself as count of Gherardesca and of Donoratico. Tedicio became the first podesta, or chief political authority, of Pisa (1190). Upholding Ghibelline interests, Gherardo and Galvano fought with Conradin, duke of Swabia and last of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, in his ill-fated attempt to regain Naples from the Guelfs. They were decapitated along with their leader in Naples (October 1268). The most famous member of the family is Ugolino della Gherardesca, conte di Donoratico (d. March 1289), who switched allegiance from the Ghibellines to the Guelfs and became tyrannical master of Pisa.

In 1284, when Pisa was menaced by Genoa, the city elected Ugolino podesta and captain of the people for 10 years. He concluded a peace with Florence and used his position to banish his personal enemies and to destroy their castles. He soon quarreled with his allies, the Visconti of Milan, and his interests then conflicted with those of the archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini, who wanted to revive the republican order. Ruggieri accused Ugolino of treason and in 1288 imprisoned him, along with two of his sons and two of his grandsons, in the tower of Gualandi, where he was left to die of starvation. Dante commemorated these events in the Inferno, the first part of his great work The Divine Comedy.

During 1316–47 various Gherardesci held the lordship (signoria) of Pisa. Gaddo, count of Donoratico (d. 1320), overthrew the tyrant Uguccione della Faggiuola in 1316 and governed the republic with moderation and justice until his death. Then Ranieri instituted a harsher rule with the resumption of Ghibelline politics. Fazzio, count of Donoratico (d. 1340/41), led the insurrection that freed the city from the despot Castruccio Castracani. Elected captain, he followed a policy of accord with Florence, the king of Naples, and the pope, while at the same time he fostered Pisan scholarship. Ranieri (d. 1347) succeeded his father as lord of Pisa and was the last of the family to play an important political role. His death and the Black Death (1348) signaled the decline of the family in Pisa.

A branch of the family reestablished itself at the beginning of the 16th century in Florence, where the Gherardesci again achieved prominence in Italian aristocracy. They received Florentine citizenship in 1534 and recovered the county of Donoratico (1710–75). Notable descendants of this branch of the family include Ugo (1588–1646), a writer of military history; Tommaso Bonaventura (1654–1721), bishop of Fiesole (1702), archbishop of Florence (1703), and founder of the seminary in Florence; and Ugolino (1823–82), a deputy of parliament and a senator of the kingdom.