In 1220, Engelberto d'Ugo Piccolomini received the fief of Montertari inVal d'Orcia from the Holy Roman EmperorFrederick II as a reward for the services rendered. The family acquired houses and towers in Siena as well as castles and territories in the republic, includingMontone andCastiglione; the latter sold to thecomune in 1321.[3]
They obtained great wealth through trade, and establishedcounting-houses (merchant banks) inVenice,Genoa,Trieste,Aquileia, and in various cities ofFrance andGermany. Supporters of theGuelph cause in the civil broils by which Siena was torn, they were driven from the city during the time of KingManfred of Sicily. Their houses were demolished but they returned in triumph after the victory of theAngevin Kings. They were expelled once more during the brief reign of KingConradin, and again returned to Siena with the help of KingCharles of Anjou. But through their riotous political activity, the Piccolominis lost their commercial influence, which passed into the hands of theFlorentines, although they retained their palaces, castles and about twenty fiefs, some of which were in the territory ofAmalfi, to a great extent.[3]
Another branch of the family obtained great success in theKingdom of Naples, becoming one of the "seven great houses"[5] of the Kingdom.
In the 17th century, two Piccolomini brothers, from theModanella branch, were about to make a large family tree of the family. To seal their ancient genealogy with a legal certification, they commissioned anotary, Alessandro Rocchigiani, to put in order the various sources that disserted the family's origin. Evidently the fascination of myth, mixed with the reverence due to the illustrious patrons, instead of eliminating the legendary components ended up increasing them.Horatius Cocles was indicated with certainty, by the zealous notary, as the new progenitor of the family. Undoubtedly some coincidences arouse astonishment. Indeed, in the column that adorned theCampidoglio, his enterprise, was acoat of arms identical to that of the Sienese family, stood out carved in theshield of theancient Roman.[6] Once attached to Horace, the Piccolomini lineage had, in ancient Rome, the name of Parenzi, and from there one of its members chose theSienese colony as his new residence, becamePodestà (chief magistrate), and abandoned his name, Chiaramontese, and changed it to Piccholuomo.[7]
The civil discords that agitatedRome in those times favored Siena because of their previous affiliation with the members of theHoratia gens, of which Chiaramontese belonged to.[8] Having left from his homeland in Rome and also his surname, he came to live in the jurisdiction of Siena, and just as it is customary for men from one city when they move to another to take a different name from the usage of their native country, so it happened, Rocchigiani explained, that the Roman exile named Chiaramontese, took on in his new homeland the nickname Piccoluomo (Piccholuomo) from which the surname Piccolomini was later derived.[9] The Piccolominis also descended from a certain Iulius Piccolomini Amideis, a member of theAmidei family, who was also of Roman descent.[10][11]Pope Pius II, his full name being Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini, was named in relation to his Roman ancestry and refers toAeneas Silvius, King ofAlba Longa, from which theAmideis also claimed descent through thegens Julia.[12]
^Penny cyclopaedia, Vol. 18, citing Niccolò Machiavelli. (1532).Historie fiorentine (History of Florence and of the affairs of Italy: from the earliest times to the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent).
^Le "Serenissime Sette Grandi Case del Regno di Napoli" comprendevano: Acquaviva, Celano, Evoli, Marzano, Molise, Ruffo, Sanseverino; estintesi le famiglie d'Evoli, Marzano e Molise, queste furono sostituite da quelle dei d'Aquino, del Balzo e Piccolomini (in merito si vedano:Archivio di Stato di Napoli scheda famiglia SanseverinoArchived 2013-12-24 at theWayback Machine; B. Filangieri di Candida Gonzaga,op.cit, ad voces; Spreti,op.cit, ad voces).
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