Origine della Compagnia della Misericordia in Firenze

The Gonfalonier (in Italian: ''Gonfaloniere'') was the holder of a highly prestigious

communal Communal may refer to: *A commune or also intentional community * Communalism (Bookchin) * Communalism (South Asia), the South Asian sectarian ideologies *Relating to an administrative division called comune * Sociality in animals *Community owne ...

office in

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

and Renaissance Italy, notably in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

and the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

. The name derives from ''

gonfalone The gonfalon, gonfanon, gonfalone (from the early Italian ''confalone'') is a type of heraldic flag or banner, often pointed, swallow-tailed, or with several streamers, and suspended from a crossbar in an identical manner to the ancient Roman v ...

'' (in English, gonfalon), the term used for the banners of such communes. In Florence, the office was known as Gonfalonier of Justice (''Gonfaloniere di Giustizia'') and was held by one of the nine citizens selected by the drawing lots every two months, who formed the city's government, or Signoria. In the papal states, it was known as

Gonfalonier of the Church The gonfalonier of the Church or papal gonfalonier ( it, Gonfaloniere della Chiesa, "standard-bearer"; la, Vexillifer Ecclesiæ) was a military and political office of the Papal States. Originating from the use of the Papal banner during combat ...

or Papal Gonfalonier. Other central and northern Italian communes, from

Spoleto Spoleto (, also , , ; la, Spoletum) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome. History Spolet ...

to the County of Savoy, elected or appointed ''gonfalonieri.'' The Bentivoglio family of

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

aspired to this office during the sixteenth century. However, by the year 1622, when

Artemisia Gentileschi Artemisia Lomi or Artemisia Gentileschi (, ; 8 July 1593) was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished seventeenth-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing profess ...

painted a portrait of

Pietro Gentile Pietro is an Italian masculine given name. Notable people with the name include: People * Pietro I Candiano (c. 842–887), briefly the 16th Doge of Venice * Pietro Tribuno (died 912), 17th Doge of Venice, from 887 to his death * Pietro II Can ...

as a gonfaloniere of

, with the ''gonfalone'' in the background, the office had merely symbolic value.

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Portrait of Pietro Gentile as a gonfaloniere of Bologna
by

, 1622. {{Use dmy dates, date=March 2017 Heraldry * Italian Renaissance Positions of authority Political titles

See also

References

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