Romeo Pepoli

Romeo Pepoli (c. 1250–1322) was a Bolognese banker whose financial dealings made him the wealthiest private individual in fourteenth-century Italy. He married Azzolina Tettalasini in 1280 and placed his children in both Guelph and Ghibelline houses.

His estates grew from 200 hectares in 1296 to over 2600 by 1315, making him Bologna's greatest landowner and its de facto signore. A July 1321 revolt drove him into exile, and he died at Avignon in 1322, summoned before Pope John XXII.