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The Venetian Patriciate.
The Venetian branch of the Guerri.
Alongside the Tuscan tradition of the Guerri of Siena — a Sienese patriciate documented since the Middle Ages — family memory preserves the recollection of a branch that settled in Venice. According to tradition, this branch obtained from the Republic of Venice the comital title and inscription in the Golden Book of the Serenissima's titled families. This page gathers the documentary framework of that lineage, pending the integration of the definitive archival references.
The documentary framework.
The Guerri house is attested in Siena from the 14th century, part of the city's patriciate and later of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (cf. the records of the State Archives of Siena, mentioning Nanni di Pietro Guerri, circa 1445).
From this Sienese stock a branch breaks off, at a date to be specified, settling in Venice. The exact date of the move and the circumstances of the aggregation to the Venetian patriciate remain to be confirmed against the archival sources.
The Golden Book (Libro d'Oro) was the official register in which the Republic of Venice recorded the families of its sovereign patriciate, with legal value constitutive of noble status.
The houses of the Venetian patriciate fell into four classes:
• the old houses — the twelve « apostolic » families that, according to tradition, are said to have taken part in 697 in the election of the first doge, and twelve others reckoned among the most prominent before 800 (four of the oldest called « evangelist »);
• the new houses — families raised to the rank of optimates after 800, including the sixteen called « ducal »;
• the newest houses — aggregated for personal and pecuniary services at the time of the War of Chioggia (1380);
• the families « made for pay » — enrolled between 1646 and 1717, during the wars of Candia and the Morea, for an offering of 100,000 ducats, besides some noble families of the Mainland admitted in the late 18th century.
The precise placement of the Venetian branch of the Guerri within this classification, and the aggregation procedure followed, are to be specified from the archival documentation.
The presence in the Venetian patriciate is accompanied, according to family tradition, by the grant of the title of Count by the Serenissima.
The legal framing of this grant — the Venetian normative source, the modes of transmission and its relation to the nobility law of the Republic — remains to be documented. It is a title distinct from the southern ones of the House (cf. Decree of 21 January 1999) and from the Venetian line merged into the dall'Oro.
Section to be completed with the definitive archival references.
As it stands, the page is documentary and not genealogical: it is not yet possible to reconstruct a named descent chain for this branch. The open points, pending the archival sources, are:
• the date and circumstances of the branch's move from Siena to Venice;
• the class of the patriciate (old, new, newest houses or « made for pay ») and the aggregation procedure followed;
• the legal framing of the comital title granted by the Serenissima (normative source, modes of transmission);
• the names and dates of the members of the Venetian branch, undocumented today.
Sources to be integrated: registers of the Golden Book of the Republic of Venice, acts of aggregation to the patriciate, records of the State Archives of Siena for the stock of origin.
See also: Guerri · dall'Oro · Guerri dall'Oro Gallone · 1999 Decree.