RICCARDI, FAMILY. - The earliest known ancestor is an ANICHINO son of Riccardo who, perhaps coming from Cologne, moved to Florence in the fourteenth century. During the Republic the R. were of little importance, but they attained considerable economic power through trade. They acquired greater authority under the Medici principate, and some of them became senators.
FRANCESCO son of Cosimo (1648-1719) was entrusted with embassies to Clement X and Leopold I. RICCARDO ROMOLO (1558-1611) established the first nucleus of the Library that came to be called Riccardiana and that in 1815 was donated to the State by the municipality of Florence. In 1629 Ferdinand II invested the brothers COSIMO and GABRIELLO, sons of Francesco, with the fief of Chianni, bearing the title of marquises. In 1659 the same grand duke sold the R. the Medici Palace in Via Larga, which they embellished and had frescoed by Luca Giordano.