RIDOLFI, FAMILY. — A family that entered Florence in the 13th century and was enrolled in the Wool Guild. It grew wealthy through commerce and played a major role in the history of the Florentine Republic. It attained the supreme dignity of Gonfalonier 21 times and the Priorate 52 times.
Before the Medici predominance, the most prominent member of the family was LORENZO di Antonio (1362–1442), one of the leading Florentines of his time, whom the biographer Vespasiano da Bisticci compared, for his civic virtues, “to those ancient Romans.” A wise statesman employed by the Republic in countless offices and embassies, he taught civil and canon law at the Florentine Studium and authored juridical works that were reprinted multiple times in the 15th century, such as the treatise *De usuris*. For the Council of Pisa, at its request, he wrote a *Consilium pro collegio cardinalium contra antiquitas*.
During the Medici predominance, some members of the family opposed the Medici, such as GIOVANBATTISTA di Luigi (1448–1514), one of the principal followers of Savonarola, while others supported them, such as NICCOLÒ (1444–97), the brother of the aforementioned figure, who was beheaded for taking part in a conspiracy to restore the Medici after their expulsion in 1494. PIERO di Niccolò married Contessina, daughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and through this new kinship the Ridolfi gained renewed prominence. Besides the figures already mentioned and those treated in separate articles below, the following members of the family are especially noteworthy: ANTONIO di Lorenzo, who served extensively in offices and embassies; BERNARDINO di Lorenzo (d. 1575), a knight of St Stephen, fought at Lepanto, and served as admiral of the Tuscan fleet; and Cardinal OTTAVIO (1586–1624). In the 19th century, COSIMO di Luigi (1794–1865) was a benefactor of agricultural science, president of the Council of Ministers of Tuscany in 1848, and later a senator of the Kingdom of Italy.
RIDOLFI, NICCOLÒ. — Cardinal, born in Florence on 16 July 1501 to Piero and Contessina de’ Medici, daughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent, he was steered toward an ecclesiastical career as soon as his uncle, Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici, ascended the papal throne as Leo X.
In 1517, at the age of sixteen, he received the red hat with the title of SS. Vito e Modesto, which he later exchanged for the deaconry of S. Maria in Cosmedin and finally for that of S. Maria in Via Lata. In 1518 he was appointed provost of Prato and bishop of Orvieto in 1520; but it was under the pontificate of another kinsman, Clement VII, that the shower of benefices began for him: to the see of Orvieto were added those of Vicenza in 1524, Forlì in 1526, Viterbo in 1532, and Imola in 1533; the archbishoprics of Florence in 1524 and of Salerno in 1533. These benefices, along with others of lesser importance, ensured enormous revenues for Ridolfi, which he generously shared with the literati he loved to surround himself with. Appointed legate of the Patrimonio in 1524, he was then sent to steady the Florentines’ spirits in 1527; but his mission had the opposite effect of the Pope’s wishes, for Ridolfi, because of family ties, friendships, and a leaning toward ancient liberties, showed more favor than rigor toward those working against the Medici principate and the interim government of Cardinal Passerini. After the sack of Rome, when the city rebelled against the Medici, Ridolfi was among the select group of cardinals who, at Parma while the Pope was besieged in Castel Sant’Angelo, attended to Church affairs. As a cardinal and kinsman, during the siege of Florence by papal and imperial armies, he sided with the Pope, being also indignant at the unbridled faction that controlled the city. Yet once Florence fell under the tyranny of Alessandro, he joined the exiled patriots against the duke, tacitly while the Pope lived and openly after his death. After Alessandro was killed and succeeded by Cosimo, Ridolfi, together with Cardinals Salviati and Gaddi, marched on Florence with an army to oppose Cosimo’s election, asserting, alongside the Salviati and Strozzi, his rights as the last legitimate descendant of that branch of the Medici that had once ruled the homeland. While Ridolfi, true to family traditions and to the republican ideals he derived from his humanist studies, genuinely sought to restore Florence’s liberty and the Great Council, Salviati was thinking of the advantages that could accrue to him from his kinship with Cosimo. Thus, with the cardinals divided, the expedition failed. Ridolfi did not give up, however, and from Rome, under the benevolent gaze of Paul III, continued to undermine Cosimo’s principate. After the death of Paul III, Ridolfi was among the papabili, despite imperial opposition. Favored by the French faction of cardinals, he would easily have been elected had the Farnese, the kingmakers of the conclave, followed the recommendations of the late Pope. Instead, they seemed to turn to Ridolfi only after he had left the conclave due to illness. Summoned back with firm promises, he was preparing to return when sudden death overtook him on 31 January—“at the moment most nearly approaching his election” (Galluzzi, *Storia*, I, 7). Poisoning was naturally suspected, administered either by Cosimo or “by someone who had no other way to prevent his papacy” (B. Segni, *Storie*, XII). Yet this is at best doubtful, even if the famous physician Realdo publicly asserted, after dissecting the body, that if the poison had been given by him he would not have been more certain of II.
Ridolfi was a man of lofty spirit and good disposition; in liberality, he was the most worthy grandson of Lorenzo the Magnificent and Leo X. A pupil of Lascaris, he was exceptionally learned, especially in Greek letters. He assembled a library of ancient Greek and Latin codices, the most copious and famous collection of its kind assembled in his time. His home, filled with artists and men of letters whom he supported—among them Donato Giannotti, who dedicated to him the treatise *Della Repubblica fiorentina*—was called the house of wisdom. Molza, Flaminio, Bonfadio, Tolomei, and Berni sang his praises. Trissino addressed to him his volume of *Rime*, as he was a friend of the poetess Gambara and of Michelangelo, who carved for him, not without significance, his bust of Brutus. From his library came the autographs of Machiavelli for the famous first editions printed by Blado. For him, Valerio Belli engraved gems and Cellini chased silver, who recalled him in his *Vita*. In a court not noted for restraint, his morals were impeccable. Such splendor of virtue is marred only by certain grants, not all disinterested, of some of his numerous and lucrative benefices; yet it seems that he, who knew how to remain untouched by so many vices and abuses of his age, could not entirely free himself from this failing.