Guelphs and Ghibellines

Historical Context Note

John Took (University College London)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.6.1: Italian Writing and Culture, 453-present.
Vol. editors: Carla Bregman (Independent Scholar - North America), Jo Ann Cavallo (Columbia University)

Domains

Politics

Dates

Date of occurrence 1200-1400

Places

Italy (Location)

Resources

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Everywhere conspicuous in accounts of medieval Italian political alignments, the term

Guelph

denotes, broadly speaking, allegiance to the Pope, and

Ghibelline

allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor as regards protection, patronage, rights, privileges and immunities within the complex communal life of the time. They first appear in Florence in the 1240s but go back to the rivalry in the twelfth century between the German dynasties ranged with or against the Hohenstaufen, the term ‘Guelph' deriving from the Welf family of Bavaria and the term ‘Ghibelline' from Waiblingen, a Hohenstaufen castle and stronghold. In fact, such were the dynamics of Italian communal life in the thirteenth century that declared allegiances reflected only in a tenuous fashion this broad papal-imperial dichotomy,…

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226 words

Citation: Took, John. "Guelphs and Ghibellines". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 May 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1668, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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