Cerchi family

The Florentine banking family of the Cerchi, minor nobles of the Valdarno, with a seat especially at Acone near Pontassieve, settled in Florence in the early thirteenth century and increased their fortunes.

In Florence, the Cerchi purchased some of the ancient structures in the closely packed inner city formerly belonging to the counts Guidi, cheek-by-jowl with the proud Florentine family of the Donati, with whom their growing mutual antagonism was expressed in violent episodes that polarized Florence within a couple of decades in a virtual civil war that aligned behind two captains, Corso Donati of the Neri Guelf faction— the "Black" Guelfs of the old noble oligarchy— and Vieri de' Cerchi of the Bianchi, the moderate party that represented itself as champions of working people (the magri).

In 1289 a plot had been intercepted at Arezzo, by which the city's bishop agreed to give over to the Florentines Bibbiena Civitella, and all the villages of his see, in return for a life annuity of 5,000 golden florins a year, guaranteed by the bank of the Cerchi.

These rumors led to the confrontation of Guelfs and Ghibellines at the Battle of Campaldino, 11 June 1289, in which the young Dante Alighieri took part and Vieri dei Cerchi lost his life.

The public charity and personal piety of Blessed Umiliana de' Cerchi (c. 1219-19 May 1246) became the object of a popular cult in Florence immediately after her death; it resulted in her beatification in 1634.