Salvestro di Alamanno de'
Medici (c. 1331 – 1388) was a former
Gonfaloniere and Provost of the city of
Florence.
Salvestro was a member of the
patrician class and an adversary of the noble
Guelphic faction, who had been pursuing a policy of attempting to exclude the lesser guilds through admonitions.
Salvestro was drawn as Gonfaloniere in the summer of 1378 and pursued an anti-Guelph policy, reviving laws which placed restrictions on the nobility, reducing the power of the Capitani di Parte and recalling the ammoniti (those who had been admonished). These laws encountered much opposition from the nobles, which led to their being threatened and in some cases their homes burnt in the beginning of the insurrection of the
Ciompi, textile workers not represented by a guild.
On 21 July 1378, Salvestro, along with 63 other citizens, were created knights and soon afterwards, he was given the revenue of shops on the Old Bridge by the newly appointed Gonfaloniere of Justice, the wool comber Michele di Lando, a privilege later removed from Salvestro by the Ciompi themselves, suspicious of di Lando's perceived favour for citizens of the middle classes.
Salvestro was later crucial to the counter-revolution of the major and minor guilds and ruled in effect as a dictator before his exile in 1382, at which time the Guelph faction regained power and renewed the admonitions.
Salvestro was a
second cousin twice removed of
Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici
Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici (c. 1360 – February 1429) was an Italian banker and founder of the Medici Bank. While other members of the Medici family, such as Chiarissimo di Giambuono de' Medici, who served in the Signoria of Florence in ...
, founder of the Medici dynasty.
External links
Niccolo Machiavelli's History of Florence
{{DEFAULTSORT:Medici, Salvestro
1330s births
1388 deaths
Year of birth uncertain
Salvestro
14th-century people of the Republic of Florence