Cerchi

   ... la porta, che al presente è carca
di nuova fellonia, di tanto peso,
che tosto fia iattura della barca.

(Paradiso XVI.94-96)

   ... the gate that at present is so well laden
with fresh treachery, and of such weight
that it will soon cause the ship to capsize.

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In this quotation, Cacciaguida turns his invective against the Cerchi family, saying that near the gate of San Piero there now [in Dante’s day] live the Cerchi and the Donati, new traitors, who will be the main actors in the grave misfortunes that will soon befall the Florentine Republic.

According to Villani, the Guelph Cerchi clan was not a family of the ancient nobility, but was instead a group of related merchants who, upon the opening of the great rift between the Guelphs and Ghibellines in 1215, were still amassing their economic and political powers in Florence.

The Cerchi appeared in the city from a small village called Acone at the beginning of the 1200s, headed by a man name Cerchio, who belonged to the Arte della Lana (Wool Guild). By the end of that century, the Cerchi family owned one of the largest banks in Florence. Their interests extended from the Papal Court to Lombardy and even as far away as France and England.

Dino Compagni wrote: “It came to pass that a family called the Cerchi came to town. They were men of low status but successful merchants of great wealth who were elegant and fashionable dressers and who had numerous servants and horses. Some of the Cerchi bought the palace of the Conti, which was near the houses of the Pazzi and the Donati, who were of much nobler blood but not as rich. Once the Donati saw the rise of the Cerchi family who fortified and enlarged their palace, where they lived in great luxury, they began to feel real hatred toward them.” (Cronica delle cose occorrenti ne’ tempi suoi 1.20)

The Cerchi were extremely important in Florentine politics, especially following the Guelphs’ expulsion of the Ghibellines after the Battle of Campaldino (1289). The city’s political divisions continued, however, as the victorious Guelphs split into two factions: the Whites (the party of Dante and Dino Compagni), headed by Vieri de’ Cerchi, and the Blacks, headed by Corso Donati. Small skirmishes between the two sides were common until 1300 when the escalation in violence boiled over:

Boccaccio recounts: “On the evening of May Day in the year 1300, as men of each of these parties were moving about in the city, all well accompanied and on their guard, there was a great dance of women in Piazza Trinita. Some youths of each party, all on horseback and ready for conflict, had gathered at this dance. Both groups began pushing their horses against one another, leading to exchanges of insults, and before long a fight broke out among them and their followers. Several drew their weapons and a number of men were wounded, including Ricovero di messer Ricovero de’ Cerchi whose nose was sliced off, an act that brought the entire city to a state of arms. This was just the beginning, however, for throughout that entire year members of both parties engaged in similar bloody scuffles.” (Expositions on Dante’s Comedy 6.lit.32-33)

The Blacks sought to establish an oligarchy that would privilege the nobles, even at the price of allowing external influences to enter Florence. The Whites, by contrast, were largely motivated by the ancient hunger for communal autonomy.

Corso Donati solidified a relationship with Pope Boniface VIII, who sent Charles of Valois and his soldiers to Florence to support his new ally in 1301. Large numbers of White Guelphs, including Dante and many Cerchi, were then exiled.

Coat of arms of the Cerchi family

Coat of arms of the Guelph Party