Carrara

The da Carrara, or Carraresi, were Lombard nobles from near Padua, where Luitolfo founded Carrara abbey in 1027. Loyal to the emperors and enriched by Paduan estates, they rose with the commune: Jacopo I the Great made himself lord of Padua in 1318. After Verona's Scaligeri took the city, Marsilio da Carrara ousted them in 1338 and restored family rule.

Under Francesco il Vecchio they reached their height, taking Verona and other Veneto cities and controlling much of the region. A noted patron of letters, he was close to Petrarch, who retired to its Arquà fief and left him a Giotto Virgin.

In 1388 Milan and Venice forced Francesco il Vecchio to abdicate; he died a Visconti prisoner at Monza in 1393. His son Francesco Novello recovered Padua for a time, but the Venetians annexed the city in 1405, and in 1406 Francesco Novello and his sons were strangled in a Venetian prison. Bishop Stefano alone escaped to Rome, where he died in 1448, and the elder line became extinct.