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The Frangipani
The Frangipani (literally bread breakers) were a wealthy Roman
family
which influenced the papacy and the empire in the XI-XIII Centuries.
Legends now dismissed claim they were descended from the Anicii, the
patrician family of which Boethius was a scion. The earliest documents
with Frangipani signatures suggest a more recent (early XI Century)
origin. The name is said to have come in gratitude for the family's
distribution of bread during a famine, and their coat of arms featured
loaves of bread.
The family exerted influence in the papal elections of 1118, in which
their candidate became Gelasius II; 1124, in which they supported Honorius
II; and 1130, in which they preferred Innocent II to Anacletus. In the
following century, the family supported Frederick II in his struggles with
the papacy. The Roman branch of the family, who had once held considerable
land in the city, declined in the XIII Century. The Neopolitan branch
remained locally prominent until the XVIII Century.
Karen Rae Keck
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