The Frescobaldi are a prominent Florentine noble family that have been involved in the political, social, and economic history of Tuscany since the Middle Ages. Originating in the Val di Pesa in the Chianti, they appear holding important posts in Florence in the twelfth century.
From an early economic base in the Italian community of cloth merchants in Bruges, the Frescobaldi expanded their banking interests to their home city of Florence in the 13th century. [1] Their power base in the city's affairs lay in their participation in the small network that controlled the great cloth-working Arti : the Arte della Lana, the Arte di Calimala, the guild of cloth finishers and merchants in foreign cloth, and the Cambio, or money exchange. In Florence the Frescobaldi found themselves on the wrong side in the attempted power coup of the Grandi in 1343 and were henceforth barred from public service in the Republic, but the Frescobaldi remained prominent in the lesser offices still open to them, such as podestà in the small towns governed from Florence, and through the web of marriage connections among the Florentine ruling class.
As bankers, the Frescobaldi financed ventures for numerous members of European royal families, notably their financial conquest of England, which Fernand Braudel has signalled as the greatest achievement of the Florentine firms, "not only in holding the purse-strings of the kings of England, but also in controlling sales of English wool which was vital to continental workshops and in particular to the Arte della Lana of Florence." [2] In the 1270s the Frescobaldi opened an office in London and began financing the wars of King Edward I, eventually supplanting the pioneering Riccardi of Lucca, who were driven to bankruptcy by unpaid loans made to Edward. [3] The Frescobaldi were receivers of the customs of England from 1307, and also served as papal tax gatherers in England, helping to finance the Crusades. [4] With the king's death in 1307, leaving a debt to all creditors that amounted to £30,000 [5] Amedeo de' Frescobaldi continued in the favoured but dangerous position under Edward II; with the fall of Walter Langton, the royal treasurer, at the outset of the new reign, the bishop's debtors, many of them Italians, were instructed to render their debts to Frescobaldi; in 1309 he was granted all the wool customs from Ireland and Scotland. [6] The barons' pressure against the influence of foreigners in the king's affairs, exemplified most prominently against the Gascon favourite, Piers Gaveston, swept up Frescobaldi, who at the time of the Ordinances of 1311 was ordered to tally up his accounts by October, and was arrested and all his goods seized. [6] Frescobaldi fled England, first to Papal Avignon and then to Florence. The royal debt was never repaid, and together with other reverses in the economic downturn of the 14th century, led to the bankruptcy of the Frescobaldi.
A second Frescobaldi bankruptcy, in 1581, Braudel traces to the general movement of capital and trade to the North. [7]
The family included several literary figures, including Dino Frescobaldi a poet (died c. 1316) and Leonardo Frescobaldi, who visited Egypt and the Holy Land in 1384 and wrote valuable historical accounts of the countries he visited, noting their customs, social life and economics. [8]
The Frescobaldi family began producing Tuscan wine in 1308 and soon developed a notable client base. In exchange for paintings, the Frescobaldis traded their wine with the Italian Renaissance painter Michelangelo. [9] The family also supplied wine to Henry VIII; surviving contracts in the family archives are signed by the English king. [10]
The agronomist Vittorio degli Albizzi of the House of Albizzi was an in-law of the Frescobaldi family through the marriage of his sister Leonida to Angiolo Frescobaldi; with Frescobaldi financing he was able to pioneer modern wine production techniques in Tuscany. In 1855, Albizi introduced Chardonnay, Cabernet and Merlot vines to the region. [10]
The Frescobaldi family operates the wine producer Marchesi Frescobaldi and is behind the Laudemio brand of Italian olive oil. [11]
The family is currently headed by Marchese Lamberto Frescobaldi (full name: Lamberto Frescobaldi Franceschi Marini), son of Vittorio Frescobaldi
In 1995 the Marchesi de' Frescobaldi entered into a joint venture with Robert Mondavi Winery to produce Tuscan wine. The joint venture produced several labels including Danzante, Luce della Vite, and the Wine Spectator "2001 Wine of the Year" Ornellaia. Following the acquisition of Mondavi by Constellation Brands in December 2004, the Frescobaldi family has been attempting to gain full control of the Tuscan ventures. In March 2005, the family was able to acquire control of Luce della Vite [12] and Ornellaia in April 2005. [13]
The Gorgona project began in August 2012 thanks to the partnership between Frescobaldi and Gorgona, the only island penitentiary in Europe. Here, inmates spend the final years of their sentence, working and living in close contact with nature, while developing skills to support their return to society and the workforce. In a small vineyard located in an amphitheatre-shaped area that overlooks the sea, the project aims to provide inmates with practical experience in the areas of grape cultivation and winemaking by working closely with Frescobaldi agronomists and oenologists. Today, the vineyard measures two hectares, including the original plot and a second area planted in 2015.
In May 2006, the Frescobaldi family merged their Tenuta dell'Ornellaia, Castel Giocondo and Luce della Vite wine holdings into a new venture partnership, Tenute di Toscana, with Stolichnaya Vodka and Michael Mondavi. [14] [15]
Chianti is an Italian red wine produced in the Chianti region of central Tuscany, principally from the Sangiovese grape. It was historically associated with a squat bottle enclosed in a straw basket, called a fiasco. However, the fiasco is now only used by a few makers of the wine; most Chianti is bottled in more standard-shaped wine bottles. In the latter nineteenth century, Baron Bettino Ricasoli helped establish Sangiovese as the blend's dominant grape variety, creating the blueprint for today's Chianti wines.
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 360,930 inhabitants in 2023, and 984,991 in its metropolitan area.
The House of Medici was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici, during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of Tuscany, and prospered gradually until it was able to fund the Medici Bank. This bank was the largest in Europe during the 15th century and facilitated the Medicis' rise to political power in Florence, although they officially remained citizens rather than monarchs until the 16th century.
Brunello di Montalcino is a red DOCG Italian wine produced in the vineyards surrounding the town of Montalcino, in the province of Siena, located about 80 km south of Florence, in the Tuscan wine region. Brunello, a diminutive of bruno, is the name that was given locally to what was believed to be an individual grape variety grown in Montalcino. In 1879 the province of Siena's Amphelographic Commission determined, after a few years of controlled experiments, that Sangiovese and Brunello were the same grape variety, and that the former should be its designated name. In Montalcino the name Brunello evolved into the designation of the wine produced with 100% Sangiovese.
The Peruzzi family were bankers of Florence, among the leading families of the city in the 14th century, before the rise to prominence of the Medici. Their modest antecedents stretched back to the mid 11th century, according to the family's genealogist Luigi Passerini, but a restructuring of the Peruzzi company in 1300, with an infusion of outside capital, marked the start of a quarter-century of prosperity that brought the family consortium to the forefront of Florentine affairs.
Gorgona is the northernmost island in the Tuscan Archipelago, a group of islands off the west coast of Italy. Between Corsica and Livorno, this diminutive island has been valued most for its wildlife, especially marine birds, and its isolation. The latter quality resulted in the foundation of Gorgona Abbey in the Middle Ages. After its closure the monastery grounds and buildings were appropriated in 1869, at the foundation of an agricultural penal colony, which is currently in use.
Greve in Chianti is a town and comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy. It is located about 31 kilometres (19 mi) south of Florence and 42 kilometres (26 mi) north of Siena.
The Practica della mercatura, also known as the Merchant's Handbook, is a comprehensive guide to international trade in 14th-century Eurasia and North Africa as known to its compiler, the Florentine banker Francesco Balducci Pegolotti. It was written sometime between 1335 and 1343, the most likely dates being 1339 or 1340. Its original title was the Book of Descriptions of Lands ; its more common name is that from its first printing in 1766. Pegolotti's work is based on his own experience as a banker and merchant for the Bardi, and on various local documents, statutes and price lists available to him.
Marchesi Antinori Srl is an Italian wine company, based in Florence, Tuscany, that can trace its history back to 1385. They are one of the biggest wine companies in Italy, and their innovations played a large part in the "Super-Tuscan" revolution of the 1970s.
Tuscan wine is Italian wine from the Tuscany region. Located in central Italy along the Tyrrhenian coast, Tuscany is home to some of the world's most notable wine regions. Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano are primarily made with Sangiovese grape whereas the Vernaccia grape is the basis of the white Vernaccia di San Gimignano. Tuscany is also known for the dessert wine Vin Santo, made from a variety of the region's grapes. Tuscany has forty-one Denominazioni di origine controllata (DOC) and eleven Denominazioni di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG). In the 1970s a new class of wines known in the trade as "Super Tuscans" emerged. These wines were made outside DOC/DOCG regulations but were considered of high quality and commanded high prices. Many of these wines became cult wines. In the reformation of the Italian classification system many of the original Super Tuscans now qualify as DOC or DOCG wines but some producers still prefer the declassified rankings or to use the Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT) classification of Toscana. Tuscany has six sub-categories of IGT wines today.
Ornellaia is an Italian wine producer in the DOC Bolgheri in Toscana, known as a producer of Super Tuscan wine. Ornellaia is considered one of Italy's leading Bordeaux-style red wines. The estate also produces a second wine, Le Serre Nuove, the blend Le Volte, the Merlot-labeled varietal wine Masseto, in addition to estate production of grappa and olive oil. In 2012, the winery's name was changed from "Tenuta dell'Ornellaia" to "Ornellaia e Masseto", in recognition of the increasing importance of the Merlot-based wine.
The Arte di Calimala, the guild of the cloth finishers and merchants in foreign cloth, was one of the greater guilds of Florence, the Arti Maggiori, who arrogated to themselves the civic power of the Republic of Florence during the Late Middle Ages. The ascendancy of the Calimala ran from the organization of Florentine guilds, each with its gonfaloniere in the thirteenth century, until the rise of the Medici usurped all other communal powers in the fifteenth century. Their presence is commemorated in the via di Calimala, leading away from the city's Roman forum through the Mercato Nuovo to the former city gate, the Por Santa Maria, as the Roman cardo; the main street, as old as Florence itself, was a prime location for trade, even though, unpaved, crowded, and much narrower than its present state, it was truly a callis malis, an "ill passage-way". The name Calimala is of great antiquity and obscure etymology. Though the original earliest archives of the Arte di Calimala were lost in an 18th-century fire, abundant copies, preserved at the Archivio di Stato, Florence, document the guild's statutes and its activities.
Castello di Volpaia is a winery located in the medieval village of Volpaia. The estate spans over 900 acres, divided between vineyards, olive groves, and woods. The winery is organically farmed, producing extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, and wine, particularly Chianti Classico. The winery is owned by Carlo and Giovannella Mascheroni Stianti, who are assisted by their son Nicolo Mascheroni Stianti.
The history of Chianti dates back to at least the 13th century with the earliest incarnations of Chianti as a white wine. Today this Tuscan wine is one of Italy's most well known and recognizable wines. In the Middle Ages, the villages of Gaiole, Castellina and Radda located near Florence formed as a Lega del Chianti creating an area that would become the spiritual and historical "heart" of the Chianti region and today is located within the Chianti Classico Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG). As the wines of Chianti grew in popularity other villages in Tuscany wanted their lands to be called Chianti. The boundaries of the region have seen many expansions and sub-divisions over the centuries. The variable terroir of these different macroclimates contributed to diverging range of quality on the market and by the late 20th century consumer perception of Chianti was often associated with basic mass-market Chianti sold in a squat bottle enclosed in a straw basket, called fiasco.
The Gorgona Agricultural Penal Colony is an Italian prison farm located on the island of Gorgona in the Tuscan Archipelago. The island has a long history of being home to monastic communities, with the Gorgona Abbey being a prominent establishment on the island for most of the Middle Ages. The abbey was abandoned in 1425, and in 1869 Gorgona became an agricultural penal colony for the Kingdom of Italy.
The Gherardini of Montagliari was one of the most prominent historical Italian noble families from Tuscany, Italy. Through the Amideis, the family was of Roman descent. Between the 9th and 14th centuries, they played an important role in Tuscany. Its influence was also felt in the Veneto and Emilia regions between the 16th and 18th centuries, and during the Italian Risorgimento as well as in today's Italian politics and economy. The family's restless and fighting nature has aroused the curiosity of many historians of the Middle Ages. Originating from feudal tradition, it was one of the founding families of the Republic of Florence.
Fabio Mochi, aka MOKI, is an Italian designer, illustrator and publisher.
Jerome, Hieronimo, or Girolamo Frescobaldi (1444–1517) was an Italian financier and textile merchant based in Bruges. He supplied luxury goods to the Scottish court and was described as a "very good friend to the King of Scots". The Frescobaldi family and company, based in Florence, were involved in artistic commissions in England and Scotland. Jerome Frescobaldi was involved in the wool trade with Tommaso Portinari and his sons, and marketed spices obtained by Portuguese traders.
The Chianti Wine Consortium is a self-governing association of winegrowers operating in Tuscany, Italy. It was founded in Florence in 1927 with the aim of ensure the quality and authenticity of Chianti wines, which have a long-standing tradition and recognition both in Italy and abroad. The Consorzio protects and promotes the interests of Chianti wine producers from the provinces of Florence, Siena, Arezzo, Pisa, Prato, and Pistoia.
Leonardo Frescobaldi (1485–1529) was an Italian merchant based in England at the court of Henry VIII.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) 
Media related to House of Frescobaldi at Wikimedia Commons