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The Mazzoni of Anghiari

The Mazzoni of Anghiari were one of the city's most influential families at the turn of the 15th century. Gregorio di Vanni, who took part with his company in the Battle of Anghiari in 1440 (NEWBIGIN 2019), was also the Captain General of the Florentines, while in the 1440s he fought with Federico da Montefeltro in Romagna and in Piombino. Represented by Anghiari notary Giusto Giusti, he hired his services out to the Florentines, the Bolognese and the Genoese, making sufficient profit to bring financial stability and wealth to his family. He died in September 1468 when Federico da Montefeltro and the court of Urbino were guests of his son Mazzone in Anghiari. Mazzone “was such a man that, awaiting the end of all things, he did not set much store by the reputation of men” and this feature of his temperament allowed him gradually to break free of the need to be a soldier of fortune, to fund the construction of the church of Sant'Agostino in Anghiari from 1463 and to wed Costanza Guidi of the noble family of the Conti Guidi of Poppi, thereby acquiring the noble title of Count of Urbech and offering his grandchildren and great grandchildren the honour of knighthood, while also going into business. Mazzone was a natural son who had been legitimised. Despite three marriages, Gregorio never “had sons” but “getting a son on a woman named Mattea, the wife of a soldier from Marradi (…) he wished that this son (…) should succeed him as his heir.”

 

 

The documents on display in the exhibition (from left to right)

 

Lorenzo Taglieschi
(Prato, 1598 – Anghiari, 1654)
Compendium of the Anghiarese families, Guelph Party
family tree of the Mazzoni d’Anghiari family
paper manuscript
1640
Archivio Storico Comunale di Anghiari
file 1617

 

Lorenzo Taglieschi
(Prato, 1598 – Anghiari, 1654)
From the Historical Memories and Annals of the Land of Anghiari
paper manuscript
c. 1630-50
Archivio Storico Comunale di Anghiari
file 1614
 
1468 (…)99. Betaking himself to the festivities of the Stigmata at La Verna, Federigo Duke of Urbino with Lady Batista daughter of Lord Alessandro Sforza, his wife, passed by Anghiari where he was lodged by Mazzone di Gregorio and by Francesco Prospero at their own expense, the community having assigned expenses and chambers and dwellings throughout the land of Anghiari to all the other lords and courtiers in their mesnie. (...)
 
1476 (…) 16. Mazzone di Gregorio deserved to be counted among the friends, family and fellows of Giuliano della Rovere (…) who later became Pope in 1505 with the name of Julius II, for having hosted and dined him in his home in Anghiari in October of the year 1476. For which deed he was freed of all tolls and duties in any place on all his goods: books, silverware and other items for the use of his person and of his family; for carriages, chattels and bags, whether on foot or on horseback, conferring on him the title of a nobleman, dubbing him Bartolomeo Valentino Mazzoni d’Anghiari, and all of this also a privilege for his descendants (…)