Alberti family
florentine politics
The Alberti family was a major political and noble family in Florence, allies of the Medicis, with trading agencies across Europe.
History
The Alberti originated from the castle of Catenaia in Valdarno Casentinese, whence the presence of two chains (Italian: catena) in their coat of arms. They became established in Florence during the 13th century with judge Rustico Alberti and divided into different lines, who owned several houses and towers near the modern Ponte alle Grazie. Due to their Guelph allegiance, they were exiled after the Battle of Montaperti, but returned after Manfred of Sicily's defeat in the battle of Benevento (1266). They subsequently sided for the Black Guelph faction, and established a flourishing trade company with agencies at Bologna, Genoa, Venice, Barcelona, Paris, Ghent, Brussels, Bruges and London, as well as in Syria and Greece.
In 1378, the Alberti were again banned for their support of the Ciompi revolt. Some of them were admitted in the Venetian nobility late in the century. Returned to Florence, in the 15th century they were first allied to the Medici against the Albizzi.
Main members of the period include
writer Antonio Alberti,
cardinal Alberto Alberti,
architect and Renaissance theorist Leon Battista Alberti.
The family's importance decreased after the creation of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in the 16th century.
“Alberti family” enters the record as florentine politics. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Alberti, family and florentine can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2831707. The Library of Congress control number is sh85003225. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1266 and 1378.
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This entry incorporates text from “Alberti family” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.