RUCELLAI FAMILY. - Florentine family. Its earliest known progenitor is an ALAMANNO, who in the 13th century, for having extracted from a plant called oricella a dye for coloring wools, received the nickname "oricellario."

The R., enriched through trade, distinguished themselves by their cultural activity and patronage. GIOVANNI di Paolo (1403-81) had the family palace and the facade of S. Maria Novella built, to a design by Leon Battista Alberti. BERNARDO di Giovanni (1448-1514) married Nannina, granddaughter of Cosimo the Elder: favored by Lorenzo de' Medici, he was instead opposed by Piero; later, out of hatred for Soderini, he drew close again to the Medici: he was the author of histories; and the "Orti Oricellari" became the seat of the Platonic Academy (for his son GIOVANNI see below). Other churchmen were: PANDOLFO di Giovanni (1436-1497), a Dominican of S. Marco under the name fra Santi, honored in the Order as venerable; SIMONE di Vanni (1460-1514), a Florentine canon, rector of the Studio of Pisa, apostolic collector of Tuscany under Alexander VI and chamberlain of Julius II; FRANCESCO di Filippo (1466-1503), bishop of Pesaro in 1499, vice-legate at Bologna in 1502; ANNIBALE di Luigi (d. Jan. 28, 1601 in Rome) who, having lived in France where he held the bishopric of Carcassonne (Apr. 1, 1569), on his return to Italy was appointed by Clement VIII legate of Bologna and Ancona and master of the household; LUIGI di Orazio (d. 1627), who followed Maria de' Medici to France and after having given her extensive aid, having fallen into disfavor with Richelieu, took up soldiering and died in battle. In the 18th century mention must be made of GIULIO di Paolo Benedetto (1702-78), professor at the University of Pisa, minister of finance under Pietro Leopoldo, inspirer of the latter's jurisdictionalist policy.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: L. Passerini, Genealogia e storia della famiglia R., Florence 1861; A. Mercati, Frammenti di una corrispondenza di Giovanni R. nunzio in Francia (1521), in Arch. Soc. romana storia patria, 71 (1948), pp. 1-47.

Roberto Palmarocchi

GIOVANNI, poet, b. in Florence on Oct. 20, 1475, d. in Rome on Apr. 3, 1525.

A cousin of Leo X, even amid political cares he composed two tragedies: the Rosmunda and the Oreste. Having become a churchman, he was appointed by Clement VII castellan of Castel S. Angelo, in which office he died on the eve of receiving the cardinal's hat. His best-known work is the elegant didactic poem Le Api, dedicated to Trissino, and for the most part based on Book IV of Virgil's Georgics.

It contains an allusion (vv. 358-79) to the election of Clement VII to the pontificate.

Bibliography

BIBL.: Le Api, edited by S. Fasini, Milan 1904. Studies: G. Toffanin, Il Cinquecento, 2nd ed., Milan 1941, pp. 453-56.

Lanfranco Fiore

@incollection{ec10_rucellai_famiglia, author = {Palmarocchi, Roberto and Fiore, Lanfranco}, title = {Rucellai, famiglia}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {1430--1431}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/rucellai-famiglia} }

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Rucellai Family

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