Boccanegra Family

Boccanegra Family, wealthy Genoese family that played an important role in two great “popular” (democratic) revolutions, one in 1257 and the other in 1339, and furnished several admirals to the Genoese republic and to Spain. Guglielmo Boccanegra (d. 1274) became virtual dictator of Genoa in 1257, when an insurrection against the government of the old aristocracy made him captain of the people. The major accomplishment of his administration was the conclusion with the Byzantine emperor...