Frescobaldi (family)
The Tuscan family of Frescobaldi , after the ennoblement de 'Frescobaldi , has been traceable in Florence since 1300 and rose from the 15th to the 17th century to become one of the wealthiest and most influential Florentine families. The wealth of the Frescobaldi was based on their banking and textile trade. They were involved in agriculture, especially viticulture, earlier than other Florentine families. Today Frescobaldi is one of the largest producers of quality wines in Tuscany.
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coat of arms
The Frescobaldi coat of arms is divided horizontally, as was typical of the Guelfi families; the upper field is made of gold, the lower half shows three silver Roche (chess towers) on a red field.
Family history
13th and 14th centuries
The origin of the family is uncertain: according to tradition, she came from Val di Pesa, south of Florence, in the 13th century; according to other sources, she has always lived in Florence. Only the most outstanding members of the loin-weight and numerous family can be mentioned. Family members with the same first and last name often make it difficult to determine the exact genealogy , the disputes between the various Guelfs factions, which continued into the family branches, did not reduce the problem. Many family members showed remarkable multi-talent.
One of the earliest recorded Frescobaldi around the middle of the 13th century is Ghino Ugolino F., member of the Arte di Calimala , the guild of fabric dealers and fabricators. His eldest son Lambertuccio F. was born around 1250. Like their father, he and his brother Giovanni devoted themselves to the fabric trade and banking as members of the Arte del Cambio , the money changers' guild, and the Arte della Lana . Ugolino's youngest son Tommaso became a clergyman - this is the custom of many patrician families.
Father Lambertuccio did business with the English crown, as did his son Giovanni. The Frescobaldi, like the families of the Bardi , Peruzzi , Acciaiuoli , Strozzi , Albizzi and later the Medici, were among the entrepreneurs who made Florence the most important trading and banking center in Europe at the time.
Lambertuccio married Adimaringa di Orlandino di Spinello Ruffoli in 1271, and four sons came from this connection: Lippaccio, Taddeo, Dino , one of the most important poets of dolce stil novo and friend of Dante Alighieri . In 1306, as Giovanni Boccaccio reports, he sent him the fragment of the Divina Commedia , believed to be lost , so that he could complete the work. Lambertuccio's fourth son was Giovanni, a poet like his brother.
Lambertuccio himself was a writer and wrote political sonnets . In 1291 Lambertuccio was offered the mayor's office ( Podestà ) of Padua , which became the basis for further business activities in Northern Italy. Business connections with the dukes of Carinthia and Tyrol developed. In 1292 the bank dissolved and was "hostile" taken over by Lambertuccio's cousin Berto F., to whom Lambertuccio had granted a large and never repaid loan. From 1315 his brother Tegghia F. was also involved in the banking company Bertos, who played a major role in the Florentine politics of those decades: many ambassadors, 1292 Podestà in Parma , 1297 in Bologna . The dates of Tegghia's life are unknown.
In 1301 Lambertuccio accommodated the general Karl von Valois , who occupied Florence on behalf of Pope Boniface VIII . In 1304, during the ongoing clashes between "black" and "white" Guelphs in Florence, Lambertuccio died.
Dino F. married an unspecified Giovanna and had two sons: Matteo was born around 1297, who was also a valued poet, and around 1298 another Lambertuccio.
Like other Florentine banking families, they financed ruling houses, including the English. The insolvency of Edward III. many fell into bankruptcy, and the Frescobaldi were soon able to recover financially.
After 1348, Lionardo di Niccolò Frescobaldi (Leonardo F.) published a highly acclaimed account of a trip to the Holy Land.
From the 15th to the 17th century
Leonardo F. (1485–1529), son of Girolamo F., like this successful banker with close ties to the English crown. Henry VIII induced him to grant the Emperor Maximilian I a loan of 60,000 guilders as a reward for his mercenaries, which was only partially repaid late and almost drove him into bankruptcy.
In 1481 Battista Frescobaldi was hanged as a participant in the Pazzi conspiracy against Lorenzo de 'Medici . The Medici then built the Palazzo della Missione as an Augustinian convent on part of the property of the Palazzo Frescobaldi . Later, in the Cinquecento , the Frescobaldi became supporters of the Medici, but were hardly politically active. Some family members were appointed senators, during which time they were ennobled by the Medici with the hereditary title Marchese de 'Frescobaldi .
The composer Girolamo Frescobaldi , born in Ferrara in 1583, died in Rome in 1643, was also active as an organist in Florence from 1628 to 1633, but no relationship with the Florentine clan has been proven.
From the 18th century until today
Angelo Frescobaldi married Leonia Albizi in 1863. She was the last direct heir to the powerful Florentine family that competed with the Medici. With this, the Frescobaldi came into the possession of the Tenuta Nipozzano (see below).
Art, architecture, patronage
The Frescobaldi owned a number of properties on the south side of the Arno . Ghino F. built the later so-called Palazzo dei Lambertucci in Via Maggio. It was also he who had the Ponte Santa Trinità built with his own resources in 1252 , which created direct access to the center. Like the Ponte Vecchio, the bridge was made of wood and like it was first torn away by the Arno floods in 1333, the last time in World War II, but always rebuilt.
In the “Oltrarno” district, where the Frescobaldi had their seat and property, they initiated the restoration and embellishment of the 11th century church of San Jacopo Oltrarno . The Frescobaldi were friends with artists such as Donatello , Michelozzo in the Quattrocento, Michelangelo Buonarroti in the Cinquecento, Artemisia Gentileschi and Lorenzo Lippi in the Seicento.
In 1444, Stoldo Frescobaldi, Lamberto's son, commissioned Filippo Brunelleschi to build the church of Santo Spirito on his own property. Around the middle of the Seicento, another Frescobaldi, Bartolomeo, commissioned the most famous portraitist of his time, Lorenzo Lippi, to paint a number of the most important personalities of the family.
In the Cinquecento the original Palazzo Frescobaldi was converted into an Augustinian monastery (see above), subsequently Matteo F. had a large new palazzo built in Via Santo Spirito from 1621 to 1644, which became the family seat: the Palazzo Frescobaldi, which still exists today .
In 2013 the Frescobaldi donated the “Premio Artisti Frescobaldi” artist prize in recognition of their patronage tradition.
Viticulture
The first documents attesting to viticulture date from 1308. In the 14th century, the Florentine noble family supplied many European rulers, including the French royal court under Catherine de Medici (1519–1589) and the English royal court under Henry VII (1457 –1509) and the sales of the Fugger family from Augsburg . The Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III. de 'Medici (1642–1723), praised the quality of the wine products. Mark Fisher writes that Michelangelo Buonarroti traded works of art for Frescobaldi wine.
In the second half of the 19th century, Angelo Frescobaldi was in charge of wine production.
Frescobaldi has been working with the detention center on Gorgona , an island in the Tuscan archipelago, which has existed since 1869, since 2011 . Prisoners are used in viticulture with the aim of rehabilitation . A vineyard in the only part of the island that is sheltered from the wind carries Sangiovese , Vermentino and Ansonica vines over an area of 1 hectare , the wine is called Gorgona.
The wineries
In chronological order the four most important are:
Tenuta Castiglioni
Tenuta Castiglioni has been the oldest winery owned by Frescobaldi since 1331 , located 24 km southwest of Florence in Chianti on the Colli Fiorentini . The indigenous Sangiovese vine grows on 148 of a total of 513 hectares , along with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon in recent years.
Castello Pomino
On the estate in Castello Pomino , 35 km east of Florence, viticulture has been practiced for 500 years. 108 of a total of 1458 hectares are planted with Sangiovese, Chardonnay, Pinot Nero, Pinot Bianco, Riesling, Gewürztraminer and nutmeg vines.
Castello Nipozzano
25 km east of Florence, with 300 hectares of vineyards totaling 626 hectares where Sangiovese grew. In the 11th century, Castello Nipozzano passed from the Conti Guidi into the ownership of the Albizi, and in 1855 Vittorio degli Albizi started growing Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Syrah. In 1863 Angelo F., who married Vittorio's sister Leonia, took over the winery.
Tenuta di Castel Giocondo
It was not until 1989 that Castel Giocondo came into the possession of the Frescobaldi. On the hills of Montalcino , one of the most famous wine-growing regions in Italy, the estate extends over 815 hectares, 235 of which are planted with vines, mainly Sangiovese and Merlot. The Brunello is cultivated on 152 hectares .
Other family goods and collaborations
- Ammiraglia in the Maremma
- Remole in Sieci, east of Florence
- Ornellaia and Masseto south of Livorno
- Luce della vite in the Montalcino area
- Danzante, a Prosecco production near Conegliano (Veneto)
- Attems (Collio) in Friuli
Tenuta dell'Ornellaia and Luce della vita are joint ventures with the Californian wine house Robert Mondavi Winery. For details about the wineries, see also the article Vittorio de 'Frescobaldi .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lorenzo Cantini: Saggi istorici d'antichità toscane . Florence, 1796, p. 91 f.
- ↑ Fabio De Propris: Frescobaldi, Lambertuccio . Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 50, Treccani, Rome 1998; online edition [1] accessed on November 10, 2017
- ^ Anonymus: Commento alla Divina Commedia , 14th century, Ed. P. Fanfani, Bologna 1866, p. 203 f.
- ^ Raffaella Zaccaria: Frescobaldi, Giovanni . Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 50, Treccani, Rome 1998; online edition [2] accessed on November 11, 2017
- ↑ Gabriella Bartolini and Franco Cardini: Nel nome di Dio facemmo vela (In the name of God we set sail). Laterza, Bari-Rom 1991, ISBN 88-420-3836-9
- ↑ Amalia Bettini: Frescobaldi, Leonardo . Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 50, Treccani, Rome 1998; online edition leonardo-frescobaldi_ (Dizionario-Biografico) , accessed on November 11, 2017.
- ↑ often also written Albizzi, stressed on the first syllable
- ↑ in the Dayton Daily News, October 11, 2005, quoted by Italian Wikipedia, but the source can no longer be found
Web links
Archivio Frescobaldi Albizzi [3]
literature
Marcello Vannucci, Le grandi famiglie di Firenze ( The great families of Florence ). Newton & Compton, Rome 2006. ISBN 88-8289-531-9