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Guidi Family
The Guidi were a March of Tuscany, Tuscan aristocratic family prominent in the region during the Middle Ages. Descended from Tegrimo Guidi, the family practised partible inheritance and in the thirteenth century began to split into separate cadet lineages. Since the 11th century, the Poppi Castle in Tuscany was the property and main residence of the noble family of the Conti Guidi. Early history The Guidi family descended from Lombards settled in Tuscany in the mid 10th century. Guidi family legend stated that the progenitor of the family, Tegrimo Guidi, presented Lady Engelrada, the daughter of Duke Martino of Ravenna, with a Deer, stag he had killed. This gesture won her favour and the two were married, increasing Tegrimo's influence among the nobles of Emilia-Romagna. By 960 Guido Guidi, son of Tegrimo, had acquired property in the Sieve (river), valley of Sieve, granted to him by Oberto, son of Hugh, Margrave of Tuscany. Guido also expanded the family control over the town ...
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Nobility Of Italy
The nobility of Italy (Italian: ''Nobiltà italiana'') comprised individuals and their families of the Italian Peninsula, and the islands linked with it, recognized by the sovereigns of the Italian city-states since the Middle Ages, and by the kings of Italy after the unification of the region into a single state, the Kingdom of Italy. Nobles had a specific legal status, and held most of the wealth and various privileges denied to other classes, mainly politicians. In most of the former Italian pre-Unification states it was the only class that had access to high-level government positions. They also practically monopolized the most distinguished positions in the city-states and in the Catholic Church for a long time. There were several different systems of nobility over time and in different regions. From the Middle Ages until March 1861, "Italy" was not a single country but was a number of separate kingdoms and other states, with many reigning dynasties. These were often relate ...
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Ravenna
Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom until it was re-conquered in 540 by the Byzantine Empire. Afterwards, the city formed the centre of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna until the last exarch was executed by the Lombards in 751. Although it is an inland city, Ravenna is connected to the Adriatic Sea by the Candiano Canal. It is known for its well-preserved late Roman and Byzantine architecture, with eight buildings comprising the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna". History The origin of the name ''Ravenna'' is unclear. Some have speculated that "Ravenna" is related to "Rasenna" (or "Rasna"), the term that the Etruscan civilization, Etruscans used for themselves, but there is no agreement on this point. Ancien ...
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First Crusade
The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic rule. While Jerusalem had been under Muslim rule for hundreds of years, by the 11th century the Seljuk takeover of the region threatened local Christian populations, pilgrimages from the West, and the Byzantine Empire itself. The earliest initiative for the First Crusade began in 1095 when Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos requested military support from the Council of Piacenza in the empire's conflict with the Seljuk-led Turks. This was followed later in the year by the Council of Clermont, during which Pope Urban II supported the Byzantine request for military assistance and also urged faithful Christians to undertake an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This call was met with an enthusiastic popular response across all social classes in ...
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Investiture Controversy
The Investiture Controversy, also called Investiture Contest (German: ''Investiturstreit''; ), was a conflict between the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops (investiture) and abbots of monasteries and the pope himself. A series of popes in the 11th and 12th centuries undercut the power of the Holy Roman Emperor and other European monarchies, and the controversy led to nearly 50 years of conflict. It began as a power struggle between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV (then King, later Holy Roman Emperor) in 1076. The conflict ended in 1122, when Pope Callixtus II and Emperor Henry V agreed on the Concordat of Worms. The agreement required bishops to swear an oath of fealty to the secular monarch, who held authority "by the lance" but left selection to the church. It affirmed the right of the church to invest bishops with sacred authority, symbolized by a ring and staff. In Germany (but not Italy and Burgundy), the Emperor ...
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Matilda Of Tuscany
Matilda of Tuscany ( it, Matilde di Canossa , la, Matilda, ; 1046 – 24 July 1115 or Matilda of Canossa after her ancestral castle of Canossa), also referred to as ("the Great Countess"), was a member of the House of Canossa (also known as the Attonids) in the second half of the eleventh century. Matilda was one of the most important governing figures of the Italian Middle Ages. She reigned in a period of constant battles, political intrigues and Roman-Catholic excommunications, and was able to demonstrate an innate and skilled strategic leadership capacity in both military and diplomatic matters. She ruled as a feudal margravine and, as a relative of the imperial Salian dynasty, she brokered a settlement in the so-called Investiture Controversy. In this extensive conflict with the emerging reform Papacy over the relationship between spiritual (''sacerdotium'') and secular (''regnum'') power, Pope Gregory VII dismissed and excommunicated the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV in 1 ...
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John Gualbert
Giovanni Gualberto (c. 985 – 12 July 1073) was an Italian Roman Catholic abbot and the founder of the Vallumbrosan Order. Born into a noble family, Gualberto was a predictably vain individual who sought pleasure in vanities and romantic intrigues. When his older brother Ugo was murdered, Gualberto set out for revenge. He found the murderer in Florence, but as it was Good Friday, granted the killer's plea for mercy. Soon after Gualberto became a member of the Order of Saint Benedict though he left in order to found his own congregation. He condemned nepotism and all simoniacal actions and was known for the pureness and meekness of his faith. Even popes held him in high esteem. Miracles were reported at his tomb after his death. Pope Celestine III canonized Gualberto on 24 October 1193. Life Giovanni Gualberto was born circa 985 to nobles who hailed from the Visdomini house; he was born in the castle known as Poggio Petroio. His sole sibling was his older brother Ugo. He was al ...
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Badia Fiorentina
The Badìa Fiorentina is an abbey and church now home to the Monastic Communities of Jerusalem situated on the Via del Proconsolo in the centre of Florence, Italy. Dante supposedly grew up across the street in what is now called the ' Casa di Dante', rebuilt in 1910 as a museum to Dante (though in reality unlikely to be his real home). He would have heard the monks singing the Mass and the Offices here in Latin Gregorian chant, as he famously recounts in his '' Commedia'': "Florence, within her ancient walls embraced, Whence nones and terce still ring to all the town, Abode aforetime, peaceful, temperate, chaste." In 1373, Boccaccio delivered his famous lectures on Dante's ''Divine Comedy'' in the subsidiary chapel of Santo Stefano, just next to the north entrance of the Badia's church. History The abbey was founded as a Benedictine institution in 978 by Willa, Countess of Tuscany, in commemoration of her late husband Hubert, and was one of the chief buildings of medieval Florence ...
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Pisa
Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the city contains more than twenty other historic churches, several medieval palaces, and bridges across the Arno. Much of the city's architecture was financed from its history as one of the Italian maritime republics. The city is also home to the University of Pisa, which has a history going back to the 12th century, the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, founded by Napoleon in 1810, and its offshoot, the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies.Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna di Pisa
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Empoli
Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The commune's territory becomes hilly as it departs from the river. Empoli is on the main railway line from Florence to Pisa, and is the point of divergence of a line to Siena. Empoli has an enduring tradition as an agricultural centre. It has given its name to a local variety of artichoke. History Archaeological finds have revealed that Empoli was already settled in the early Roman Empire times, and continued to exist until the 4th century AD. The river acted as a communication way for the trade of agricultural products, together with the local amphorae. In the Tabula Peutingeriana of the 4th century Empoli is called ''in portu'' ("in the port") as a river port on the Roman road ''Via Quinctia'', which led from Fiesole and Florence to Pisa. Emp ...
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Peter Damian
Peter Damian ( la, Petrus Damianus; it, Pietro or ';  – 21 or 22 February 1072 or 1073) was a reforming Benedictine monk and cardinal in the circle of Pope Leo IX. Dante placed him in one of the highest circles of '' Paradiso'' as a great predecessor of Francis of Assisi and he was declared a Doctor of the Church on 27 September 1828. His feast day is 21 February. Early life Peter was born in Ravenna around 1007, the youngest of a large but poor noble family. Orphaned early, he was at first adopted by an elder brother, who ill-treated and under-fed him while employing him as a swineherd. After some years, another brother, Damianus, who was archpriest at Ravenna, had pity on him and took him away to be educated. Adding his brother's name to his own, Peter made such rapid progress in his studies of theology and canon law, first at Ravenna, then at Faenza, and finally at the University of Parma, that, around the age of 25, he was already a famous teacher at Parma a ...
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Vallombrosa Abbey
Vallombrosa is a Benedictine abbey in the ''comune'' of Reggello (Tuscany, Italy), about 30 km south-east of Florence, in the Apennines, surrounded by forests of beech and firs. It was founded by Florentine nobleman Giovanni Gualberto in 1038 and became the mother house of the Vallumbrosan Order. It was enlarged around 1450 and took on its current appearance at the end of the 15th century. In 1529, after the looting by Charles V, the east tower was built. Between 1575 and 1578, Galileo Galilei was educated there and then withdrawn by his father, before taking orders, and moved to Pisa to study medicine. In the 17th century the walls were erected, and in the 18th century the fishing ponds dug. Today the monastery is open to tourists and its "Antica Farmacia" sells local produce such as herbal teas and liqueurs made following antique recipes. Among these is the rare and legendary Dry Gin of Vallombrosa. On 7 October 1096, Pope Urban II addressed the congregation of Vallombros ...
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Simony
Simony () is the act of selling church offices and roles or sacred things. It is named after Simon Magus, who is described in the Acts of the Apostles as having offered two disciples of Jesus payment in exchange for their empowering him to impart the power of the Holy Spirit to anyone on whom he would place his hands. The term extends to other forms of trafficking for money in "spiritual things". Origin The purchase or sale of ecclesiastical office was condemned from the fifth century, but it was only in the sixth century that it was associated with the figure of Simon Magus in the Book of Acts. Key in making this association was Pope Gregory I, who labelled such exchanges as the "simoniac heresy". Simony in the Middle Ages Although considered a serious offense against canon law, simony is thought to have become widespread in the Catholic Church during the 9th and 10th centuries. In the eleventh century, it was the focus of a great deal of debate. Central to this debat ...
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