Polenta Family

Polenta Family, Italian noble family, named for its castle of Polenta (located in the Romagna, southwest of Cesena), which dominated the city-state of Ravenna from the end of the 13th century to the middle of the 15th. The family’s ascendancy began with Guido da Polenta (d. 1310), known as Guido Minore, or Guido the Old, who led the Guelf, or pro-papal, faction in Ravenna against the Ghibelline, or pro-emperor, faction. Ravenna, traditionally Ghibelline, had fallen...