Pepoli

The Pepoli were a Guelph banking aristocracy of Bologna, recorded from the late eleventh century. Their bank made them one of Italy's richest families, and the money changers' coin-counting chessboard became their coat of arms. As Guelph leaders they helped drive the Ghibellines from Bologna in 1274, and Romeo Pepoli ruled the city for a time before dying in exile in 1321.

His son Taddeo, a doctor of law, returned and in August 1337 seized Bologna with armed men and was elected its lord; Pope Benedict XII named him papal vicar for three years. Taddeo ruled until 1347, built the Palazzo Pepoli Vecchio and married his kin into the Este of Ferrara and other houses.

After Taddeo's death Bologna slipped to the Visconti of Milan; Cardinal Gil de Albornoz restored it to the Papal States in 1360, but the Pepoli never regained power. They remained great landowners, built the Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande in 1653 and settled a feudal branch at Trapani; Castiglione dei Pepoli still bears their name.