Rospigliosi family

Coat of Arms of the Rospigliosi family
Details
Motto	Omnia a Deo ('Everything comes from God')

The Rospigliosi family is an ancient noble Italian family from Pistoia. Attested since the middle ages, it became wealthy through agriculture, trade and industry, reaching the apogee of its power and the high nobility status in Rome thanks to Giulio Rospigliosi, elected pope in 1667 with the name of Clement IX.

The family originated from Milan: in the late 12th century Ridolfo Rospigliosi, possibly to escape Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, settled in Lamporecchio, a village between Pistoia and Empoli, on the slope of the Monte Albano, at the entrance of the Val di Nievole, where the family acquired farms and forests and built a country house. These large possessions were owned by the Rospigliosi until the twentieth century. The family, which had obtained the first nobility titles at the beginning of the 13th century, moved to Pistoia in 1315, and can prove its unbroken descent from a certain Giovanni who lived in 1306. After the Rospigliosi had moved to Pistoia they became active in trade and industry, such as wool, cloth, spices and contracting of local taxes. In 1330 a Taddeo, chief of the militia of Pistoia, was sent to the aid of Montecatini, against the Florentines, and ninety years later, Giovanni was condottiero of a Florentine and Pistoiese soldiery at the service of pope Martin V in the struggle for the reconquest of the Papal States against Braccio da Montone. In name of the pope in 1420 he conquered Orvieto and Narni. Giovan Battista, nicknamed Bati, another valiant man of war, served against the Spaniards at the services of France, standing out especially in the war for Parma (1551–52) and the siege of Mirandola (1551); subsequently he passed to the orders of pope, and in 1566 he was appointed by him admiral of the Holy Roman Church. Other Rospigliosi were Knights of the Order of Saint Stephen or of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Several members of the family held the office of standard-bearer of the city of Pistoia : the first among them was Filippo Taddeo, who held this office in 1373, and the last Taddeo, who was standard-bearer for three times in the years 1566, 1571 and 1580. In the 16th century the family, still living in Pistoia, split into two lines, that of Pope Clement IX, known as "del Duca" which resided in Palazzo Rospigliosi at via del Duca, bought by Girolamo Rospigliosi, and that founded by Giambattista Bati, which resided in the Palazzo Rospigliosi at Ripa del Sale. During the whole 15th and 16th centuries, the Rospigliosi continued trading and owned a flourishing bank in Pistoia, with branches and correspondents all over Europe. However, until the first half of the 17th century the family still gained most of its income from wool production and trade, and agriculture.

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