Casali

The Casali were a Tuscan noble family attested from 1217 around Cortona, where their castles guarded roads between the upper Tiber and the Valdichiana. Guglielmino Casali became podestà of Arezzo in 1307 and later imperial vicar in Cortona.

In 1325 Ranieri II Casali became lord of Cortona and Pierle, founding a signoria lasting over eighty years. His son Bartolomeo succeeded in 1351 and was confirmed as imperial vicar by Charles IV in 1355. The family persuaded Pope John XXII to raise Cortona to a bishopric in 1325 and built the Palazzo Casali.

In 1407 Aloigi Battista Casali murdered his uncle Francesco, who had governed since 1400; two years later Aloigi was overthrown and forced to surrender Cortona to King Ladislaus of Naples, who passed it to Florence. Part of the family settled in Bologna, later producing diplomats including Gregorio Casali, Henry VIII's ambassador at the Holy See.