Galigai

........... ed avea Galigaio
dorata in casa sua già l’elsa e ’l pome.

(Paradiso XVI.101-02)

........... and Galigaio once had
in his home the golden hilt and pommel.

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The wall behind this plaque is a portion of an original tower belonging to the Galigai clan. They were a Florentine family of Germanic origin who belonged to the high nobility of the Porta San Piero neighborhood. Dante recalls here in Cacciaguida’s speech a detail of knighthood that must have caught our poet’s eye as a young man: the sparkling of the knights’ golden hilt and pommel.

They say Charlemagne himself promoted the Galigai to the aristocracy and gave them a castle in Mantignano, about 7km (or 4.3 miles) to the west of Florence. But it wasn’t until the 1100s that the men of the Galigai family received the privilege of decorating their swords with gold.

The Buonaguisi branch of the Galigai (whose palazzo’s tall arches are still visible at Via de’ Calzaiuoli 4) was founded by Buonaguisa de’ Galigai. Chroniclers say that he fought in the siege of Acre (1189-91). According to legend, he had carried with him a flag embroidered by Florentine noblewomen that showed a silver lily on a red field. Upon climbing to the top of one of Acre’s towers, he unfurled it over the city that Saladin had just lost. For several years afterwards, that same flag remained on display in the Baptistry.

One of his descendants, Buonaguisa de’ Buonaguisi, joined the Fifth Crusade in 1217 and was the first of his unit to scale the city walls of Damietta in Egypt, where he continued the family tradition by planting another Florentine flag upon the enemies’ walls. For this, he was permitted by a member of the Este family to incorporate an eagle in their new coat of arms. You can see an excellent example of it as you descend the stairs to see what’s left of Santa Reparata.

At the height of the Guelph-Ghibelline conflicts, the Galigai family split like Florence herself into two contrary halves. This internecine rift lasted until 1280.

After the promulgation of the Ordinances of Justice, it was the Galigai family that first tested their effectiveness. A man of the Galigai family killed a Florentine citizen and, as a result, many of their homes were destroyed. We know this because the Gonfaloniere di Giustizia (the man entrusted with carrying out the punishment) was the historian Dino Compagni, who left us a description of the case.

Once you’ve noticed their coat of arms, blue chains crossing upon a gold field, you’ll see it everywhere.

Above: coat of arms of the Galigai family

Below: coat of arms of the Buonaguisi family