Malvezzi family


The Malvezzi was one of the powerful noble families of Bologna, members of the Guelph party who contested the Ghibelline Bentivoglio for control of the commune of Bologna.

History

Origins

The Malvezzi are one of the oldest and wealthiest families in Bologna. They are claimed to descend from Guido Malvezzi, a nobleman of Lombard or Frankish origin who lived near Sorbara in the 970s. The earliest members of the Malvezzi lineage appeared in Bologna around 1176, when they took part in the struggles between Geremei and Lambertazzi.
The Malvezzi were staunch members of the Guelph faction and actively participated in the town's political life. Together with the Bentivoglio, they were the only family to have a double representation inside the city council. The Malvezzi were bitter enemies of the Bentivoglio family. The two families were nearly related; both had identified themselves with the cause of Bolognese independence. But the Bentivoglio were first in the city, and the Malvezzi could not be content with the second place.

The Malvezzi conspiracy

In 1488 Bologna was torn by violence as a result of the abortive plot, headed by the Malvezzi family, to murder the entire Bentivoglio family which had become rulers of Bologna after the accession of Giovanni II. The plot was discovered, and two of the main conspirators, Giovanni Malvezzi and Giacomo Bargellini, were condemned to death. In the disturbances that followed their execution there was much bloodshed in the city. Most of the Malvezzi were hanged, imprisoned, or exiled, and their goods confiscated. Those who remained, unsafe and insecure in Bentivoglio dominated Bologna, gradually left the city on their own initiative over the next few years.
On December 8 a solemn service of thanksgiving was held at Santa Maria dei Servi to celebrate the family's escape from assassination. Lorenzo Costa's Bentivoglio Altarpiece, housed in the Bentivoglio Chapel in the church of San Giacomo Maggiore, was commissioned by Giovanni Bentivoglio as a votive offering of thanks for the family's escape from the attempted plot and the anniversary of the conspiracy's discovery was celebrated solemnly every year.

Fall of Giovanni Bentivoglio and return to Bologna

With the descent of Charles VIII into Italy at the end of the 15th century, the system of princely alliances so carefully constructed by Giovanni Bentivoglio was destroyed. The Medici were banished from Florence, and the Sforza from Milan. Giovanni alienated the pope, and Julius II set out to bring Bologna back into the fold. Giovanni and his large family fled before the forces of the pope and never returned to Bologna. The downfall of Giovanni Bentivoglio allowed the Malvezzi to return to Bologna.
The Malvezzi were regularly listed among the ruling families in Bologna since the years of Julius II, and later, allied by marriage to the Campeggi, they attained the status of marquises. When the Campeggi family died out, for lack of male heirs, in 1727, their inheritance, honors and privileges went to the marquises of the Malvezzi family, which took the name Malvezzi-Campeggi.

Prominent members

The family included numerous men of arms, prominent ecclesiastics and politicians. Among them the following stand out: