Uberti

   Oh quali io vidi quei che son disfatti
per lor superbia!

(Paradiso XVI.109-10)

   Oh the look of those I saw who are unmade
by their own haughtiness!

These verses refer to powerful Florentine families. Some ancient commentators thought that Dante might be referring to the Lamberti or the Abati family, but most scholars of the Divine Comedy now agree that Dante had in mind the Uberti family when he wrote these lines.

The Uberti family came from Germany to Tuscany around the middle of the 900s and within a couple generations came to own significant areas in and around Florence. In fact, the Uberti, like the Adimari, built into their family properties a kind of clan headquarters, which they called their corte, and there managed all sorts of business interests.

The Uberti constructed their main homes and towers in the areas marked below in red. (The old church of San Pier Scheraggio is shown as the large white square, the small white square marks the church’s loggia and the misshapen white pentagon shows the location of their cemetery. The Loggia dei Lanzi is outlined in light blue.) They had more properties where the prison known as the Stinche was built, but these formed their main compound. It stretched from what’s now the east side of Piazza della Signoria to the Arno. Not coincidentally, all of these red areas are the city’s property today because, once Florence went Guelph for good, it exiled all of the Uberti family and destroyed their homes. You’ll notice that most of this area is covered now by the Uffizi museum complex. A tall tower rose up at both ends of that area to protect the Uberti and their consorteria, or clan, in case of trouble. And they got it.

Convinced that they possessed enough money, property and clout to take over the city, the Uberti broke off ties with the other consorterie with whom they ran the government (the Fifanti, Giandonati, Iudi, Cavalcanti and Tornaquinci). In the summer of 1177, the Uberti hoisted the banner of the Empire above these city blocks and started a series of street clashes with their rivals that would last more than two years. During this time, brawls, arson and assassination weren’t uncommon.

Eventually, Florence’s major families came to an agreement, thanks in part to the fact that the Uberti’s military ally and direct link to the emperor, Christian I (archbishop of Mainz), suddenly dropped dead. The Uberti were forced to give up part of their share in the castle called Altafronte (which stood about where the Galileo museum is, and is marked on the map above in green), pay a fine and promise not to do it again.

But, they did. The Uberti family were right in the middle of the assassination of Buondelmonte de’ Buondelmonti in 1215. Since the Uberti and their consorterie were allied with the Ghibellines, the Buondelmonti declared themselves Guelphs and, in that decision, brought the international Guelph-Ghibelline strife into Florence for the first time.

The single most important member of the Uberti clan was Farinata, whom you’ll remember as the general who stood up in his fiery tomb in Inferno 10 to predict Dante’s exile. His plaque is on the other side of this doorway.

Coat of arms of the Uberti family

Imperial coat of arms and emblem of the Ghibellines