Beccaria

The Beccaria were a noble house of Pavia, documented among its consular aristocracy in the twelfth century and leaders of its Ghibelline faction. Murro Beccaria, captain of the people, died in 1259; his grandson Manfredo became the family's first effective lord of Pavia, until the rival Guelph Langosco drove him out around 1300; Matteo Visconti restored him in 1315.

Musso Beccaria recovered the signoria and died in 1341; his son Castellino, styled a prince of the city, kept a veiled lordship that left communal institutions formally intact. In 1357 a rising led by the friar Bussolari expelled the family; after the Visconti siege of 1359 they returned as clients of Galeazzo II.

After Gian Galeazzo Visconti's death in 1402, a bid to regain power failed; Filippo Maria Visconti executed two Beccaria in 1415 and 1418. The house then lived on its fiefs, law chairs and condottieri service; its most famous son was the Enlightenment jurist Cesare Beccaria.