Piazza de’ Mozzi

The plaque pictured above carries an important message (albeit in a rather awkward Latin). It reads: “I [i.e., the church personified] was founded for the love of Christ, by Pope Gregory X in honor of Pope Gregory I, on the date when the Guelphs made peace and the Ghibelline threats came to an end: the clear sunny day of the twelfth of July in the year of our Lord 1273, in the presence of the pope, as well as the leaders both of the Byzantines and the Sicilians. This handsome chapel of peace was founded in 1273 by Gregory X and its construction was carried out by the Mozzi family.”

The Mozzi were one of the influential banking families of thirteenth-century Florence. Indeed, they were sometimes known as “the Pope’s bankers.” Dante mentions Andrea de’ Mozzi (bishop of Florence from 1287 to 1295) as a sodomite in Inferno 15 (below) and some commentators believe that the anonymous suicide who appears as a sobbing shrub at the end of Inferno XIII was Rocco de’ Mozzi who oversaw one of his family’s gravest financial catastrophes.

In short, here is commemorated an event that drew an impressive number of spectators (among whom the eight-year-old Dante could very well have been present) who sat on large wooden stands set up on the Oltrarno end of the Rubaconte (now: alle Grazie) bridge where the banks of the Arno extended much farther than they do now. The ceremony, intended as a public demonstration of peace between Guelphs and Ghibellines, was organized by Pope Gregory X who appeared alongside Baldwin I of the Latin Empire of Constantinople and Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily from 1266 to 1285.

It was exceedingly difficult to make peace after the Guelphs had gotten the upper hand over the Ghibellines following the elimination of the Hohenstaufen emperors, especially because of the real hatred that had been instilled in them by endless cycles of insults and vendettas, caused and suffered by both sides.

In 1273, Pope Gregory X sought to bring peace, if not justice, to the Florentines by forcing the two sides to reconcile and planned to cap it all off with the foundation of the church of St. Gregory of Peace. He brought with him not only the college of cardinals, but also Baldwin I and Charles of Anjou and all their respective entourages.

Each side appointed a representative and, as the key moment of the ceremony, the two men were told to kiss on the mouth before the crowd as a sign that peace had been attained. However, as soon as Pope Gregory and the other dignitaries left, the Guelphs began circulating the rumor that King Charles was planning to decapitate any Ghibellines who didn’t leave the city, as that was the standard punishment for treason.

Since just three years earlier Charles had ordered the deaths of Neracozzo and Azzolino degli Uberti who had been captured when the Ghibellines were driven from Siena, there was no reason to doubt the truthfulness of the gossip. Thus, the era of unchallenged Florentine Guelphism began.

The church of San Gregorio della Pace was deconsecrated in 1775 and was purchased by Stefano Bardini who built this museum, which he left in his will to the city of Florence. As a result, this plaque, once meant for a church, ended up here on a municipal building.

Coat of arms of the Mozzi family