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The Florentine banking family of the Gondi were prominent financial partners of the
Medici The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Muge ...
. Unlike the Medici, they were of the old Florentine nobility, tracing their line traditionally from the legendary Philippi, said to have been ennobled by
Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...
himself, in 805; from him the
Strozzi Strozzi is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Numerous members of the Strozzi family, an ancient later ennobled family from Florence ** Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi (c. 1408–1471), an Italian businesswoman and aristocr ...
and the Gualfreducci also claimed their descent. With Orlando Bellicozzo, a member of the Great Council of Florence in 1197, the Gondi emerge into history, receiving their patronymic from Gondo Gondi, sitting on the Great Council in 1251, signatory to a treaty between Florence and Genoa in that year. In the fourteenth century several members of the family sat on the Great Council. Simon de Gondi renounced the
Ghibelline The Guelphs and Ghibellines (, , ; it, guelfi e ghibellini ) were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in the Italian city-states of Central Italy and Northern Italy. During the 12th and 13th centuries, rival ...
party for himself and his house, in 1351; he loaned the Republic 8000 golden florins in a time of extremity. He held extensive lands round Valcava, in the Mugello, where the church bore the Gondi arms inside and out. Of Simon's seven children, his grandson another Simon was the first of the Gondi to hold the position of Grand
Prior Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...
of the Republic, on three occasions. His daughter Maddalena, who married Giovanni Salviati, by the marriage of her daughter Maria with
Giovanni dalle Bande Nere Lodovico de' Medici, also known as Giovanni delle Bande Nere (6 April 1498 – 30 November 1526) was an Italian '' condottiero''. He is known for leading the Black Bands and serving valiantly in military combat under his relatives, Pope Leo X an ...
, became the grandmother of
Cosimo I de' Medici Cosimo I de' Medici (12 June 1519 – 21 April 1574) was the second Duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, a title he held until his death. Life Rise to power Cosimo was born in Florence on 12 ...
; thence were descended all the Catholic crowned heads of pre-Napoleonic Europe. Carlo de Gondi was a staunch backer of Piero de' Medici, and when the Medici came to be Grand Dukes, the Gondi received empty but honorary titles of Senators. The Palazzo Gondi in Piazza San Firenze, Florence, the central seat of the family, was built from 1489 to 1495 to designs of
Giuliano da Sangallo Giuliano da Sangallo (c. 1445 – 1516) was an Italian sculptor, architect and military engineer active during the Italian Renaissance. He is known primarily for being the favored architect of Lorenzo de' Medici, his patron. In this role, Giulia ...
for Giuliano Gondi; it later passed to the Orlandini . The cortile is enclosed by colonnaded loggias; the staircase is remarkable for its fine balustrade infilled with animals and foliage. At the head of the interior staircase, leading to the principal apartments, is the statue of the Roman senator, taken from the supposed Temple of Isis. The chimneypiece of the ''salone'' is assumed to be the work of Giuliano da San Gallo. Giuliano, who built the palazzo, had refused a pension offered him by the
King of Naples The following is a list of rulers of the Kingdom of Naples, from its first separation from the Kingdom of Sicily to its merger with the same into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Kingdom of Naples (1282–1501) House of Anjou In 1382, the ...
, because he did not consider that the citizen of a free republic could accept money from a foreign prince with honour. His son completed the structure and commissioned the Gondi chapel in
Santa Maria Novella Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated opposite, and lending its name to, the city's main railway station. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church. The chu ...
. His descendants, nevertheless, were frequently in the pay of France, and were created French generals, admirals, governors of provinces, and even archbishops and
Jean François Paul de Gondi, cardinal de Retz Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * Jea ...
. Giovanni Battista Gondi was the Florentine resident in Paris in the 1620s.


The French Gondi

The founder of the French Gondi was Alberto (Albert), who settled in
Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
about 1505 as a member of an established Florentine community or ''
nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...
'', of merchants and bankers. In 1516 he married Marie-Catherine de Pierrevive (Pietraviva), daughter of a
tax-farmer Farming or tax-farming is a technique of financial management in which the management of a variable revenue stream is assigned by legal contract to a third party and the holder of the revenue stream receives fixed periodic rents from the contract ...
of a long-established Lyonnais family of Piedmontese origin; she caught the attention of
Catherine de' Medici Catherine de' Medici ( it, Caterina de' Medici, ; french: Catherine de Médicis, ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King ...
, whom she served as
Governess to the Children of France The Governess of the Children of France (sometimes the Governess of the Royal Children) was office at the royal French court during pre-Revolutionary France and the Bourbon Restoration. She was charged with the education of the children and grandchi ...
. In turn the young Gondis, Pietro, Carlo, and above all Alberto (Albert de Gondi), a
marshal of France Marshal of France (french: Maréchal de France, plural ') is a French military distinction, rather than a military rank, that is awarded to generals for exceptional achievements. The title has been awarded since 1185, though briefly abolished (1 ...
and created duc de Retz, were repeatedly employed in state business by Catherine and by her sons,
Charles IX of France Charles IX (Charles Maximilien; 27 June 1550 – 30 May 1574) was King of France from 1560 until his death in 1574. He ascended the French throne upon the death of his brother Francis II in 1560, and as such was the penultimate monarch of the ...
and
Henri III Henry III (french: Henri III, né Alexandre Édouard; pl, Henryk Walezy; lt, Henrikas Valua; 19 September 1551 – 2 August 1589) was King of France from 1574 until his assassination in 1589, as well as King of Poland and Grand Duke of L ...
, as well as by the Bourbon king
Henri IV Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarc ...
. During the 1570s, the Queen offered Jérôme de Gondi a dwelling at Saint-Cloud, the ''Hôtel d'Aulnay'', which became the nucleus of the
Château de Saint-Cloud The Château de Saint-Cloud was a château in France, built on a site overlooking the Seine at Saint-Cloud in Hauts-de-Seine, about west of Paris. On the site of the former palace is the state-owned Parc de Saint-Cloud. The château was exp ...
.
Henri III Henry III (french: Henri III, né Alexandre Édouard; pl, Henryk Walezy; lt, Henrikas Valua; 19 September 1551 – 2 August 1589) was King of France from 1574 until his assassination in 1589, as well as King of Poland and Grand Duke of L ...
installed himself in this house in order to conduct the siege of Paris during the
Wars of Religion A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war ( la, sanctum bellum), is a war which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. In the modern period, there are frequent debates over the extent to wh ...
, and here he was assassinated by the monk
Jacques Clément Jacques Clément (1567 – 1 August 1589) was a French conspirator and the assassin of King Henry III. He was born at Serbonnes, in today's Yonne ''département'', in Burgundy, and became a Dominican lay brother. During the French Wars of Re ...
. After the death of Jérôme de Gondi in 1604, the château was sold in 1618 by his son Jean-Baptiste II de Gondi to Jean de Bueil, comte de Sancerre, who died shortly afterwards. The château was bought back by
Jean-François de Gondi Jean-François de Gondi (1584 – 21 March 1654) was the first archbishop of Paris, from 1622 to 1654. He was the son of Albert de Gondi and Claude Catherine de Clermont. He was a member of the Gondi family, which had held the bishopric of Pari ...
, archbishop of Paris. His embellishments notably included gardens by
Thomas Francine __NOTOC__ Tommaso Francini (1571–1651) and his younger brother Alessandro Francini (or Thomas Francine and Alexandre Francine in France) were Florentine hydraulics engineers and garden designers. They worked for Francesco I de' Medici, Gra ...
. After the death of Jean-François de Gondi in 1654, the château was inherited in turn by Philippe-Emmanuel de Gondi and then his nephew Henri de Gondi, duc de Retz. The duc de Retz sold the property in 1655. The Hôtel de Gondi, Paris, became in the seventeenth century the
Hôtel de Condé The Hôtel de Condé was the main Paris seat of the princes of Condé, a cadet branch of the Bourbons, from 1612 to 1764/70. The hôtel gave its name to the present ''rue de Condé'', on which its forecourt faced. The Théâtre de l'Odéon was ...
. As a consequence of their prominence, the Gondi archives are of outstanding importance to the historian of economics; they were described by
Roberto Ridolfi Roberto Ridolfi (or di Ridolfo) (18 November 1531 – 18 February 1612) was an Italian and Florentine nobleman and conspirator. Biography Ridolfi belonged to a famous family of Florence, where he was born. As a banker he had business connections ...
, ''Gli archivi delle famiglie fiorentini'' (Florence: Olschki) 1943. Bound volumes of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century archives are at the University of Pennsylvania.Reported in Rudolf Hirsch, "Gondi-Medici Business Records" ''Renaissance News'' 16.1 (Spring 1963), pp. 11-14, and Rudolf Hirsch and Gino Corti, "Medici-Gondi Archive II" ''Renaissance Quarterly'' 23.2 (Summer 1970), pp. 150-152. In December 2000, thieves ransacked the archive, stealing many documents.


Wine holdings

In the mid-19th century members of the Gondi family owned a stake in the notable
Châteauneuf-du-Pape Châteauneuf-du-Pape (; Provençal: Castèu-Nòu-De-Papo) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. The village lies about to the east of the Rhône and north of the town of Avi ...
wine estate
Château Fortia Château Fortia is a French wine producing estate in the Châteauneuf-du-Pape (AOC), Châteauneuf-du-Pape region of the Rhône Valley (wine), Rhône Valley. With a history dating back to the eighteenth century (on land that has been producing wi ...
.H. Karis ''The Chateauneuf-du-Pape Wine Book'' pg 18, 254-256, 473 First Edition Kavino Publishing 2009


Notes


Further reading

*Milstein, Joanna. ''The Gondi: Family Strategy and Survival in Early Modern France''. Routledge, 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gondi Family Families of Florence Defunct banks of Italy Medieval economics Banking families