Medieval and Manuscripts
Delle Piane family
The Delle Piane family is an old Genoese noble family first recorded in Polcevera in 1121. Over the past ten centuries it has produced many distinguished government officials, clerics, diplomats, soldiers and patrons. The members of the house were part of the Genoese patrician class and of the ruling orders in Genoa and its dominions in the various institutional set-ups that succeeded one another over the centuries. First, they became part of the civic nobility that played a leading role in the fortunes of the Commune of Genoa and in the creation of a "colonial empire" based on monopolies and trading bases dotted all over the Mediterranean and in the Black Sea. Formerly supporters of the Ghibelline faction, the Delle Piane family held government posts reserved for its political faction and engaged in trade and international finance in the Mediterranean and Europe. Later, when constitutional reforms in 1528 gave rise to the aristocratic Republic of Genoa and the ancient factions were formally abolished, the Delle Piane family were included in the Liber Nobilitatis. From then, generation after generation through to the fall of the Republic, they were part of a "sovereign aristocracy" occupying positions at the top levels of economic and political power. The most eminent branch of the family, which originated in Polcevera, still flourishes today, and continues to produce prominent entrepreneurs both in the socioeconomic life of Genoa and in a broader international context. In 2022, the Delle Piane family sold Rimorchiatori Mediterranei, the world's second-largest maritime towing companies, to MSC Group for €1 billion.
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Arius.
Angels in art.
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