CARRARA or CARRARESI, a powerful family of Long obard origin which ruled Padua in the 14th century. They take their name from the village of Carrara near Padua, and the first recorded member of the house is Gamberto (d. before 97o). In the wars between Guelphs and Ghibellines the Carraresi at first took the latter side, but they subsequently went over to the Guelphs. This brought them into conflict with Ezzelino da Romano; Jacopo da Carrara was besieged by Ezzelino in his castle of Agna, and while trying to escape was drowned. Another Jacopo led the Paduans in 1312 against Cangrande della Scala, lord of Verona, and though taken prisoner managed to negotiate a peace in 1318. To put an end to the perpetual civil strife the Paduans elected him their lord, but at his death (1324) his neph ew and heir, Marsiglio, was forced to give Padua over to Can grande and was appointed its governor. When Cangrande died in 1319, and was succeeded by his nephew Martino, Marsiglio negoti ated with the Venetians in 1336, and in 1337 secretly introduced Venetian troops into Padua, and regained the lordship. He died in 1338, and was succeeded by his relative Ubertino, a typical mediaeval tyrant, but a patron of the arts, who built the Palazzo dei Principi, the castle of Este. He died in 1345• His distant kins man Marsiglietto da Carrara succeeded him, but was immediately assassinated by Jacopo da Carrara, a prince famed as the friend of Petrarch. In 1350 Jacopo was murdered by Guglielmo da Carrara, and his brother Jacopino succeeded, reigning together with his nephew Francesco.
In 1355 Francesco (il Vecchio) rose against his uncle and im prisoned him. Francesco changed the traditional policy of his house by quarrelling with the Venetians, in the hope of obtaining more advantages from the Visconti of Milan. He refused help to the Venetians, at war with Hungary over Dalmatia in 1356, and his mediation between them and Hungary, at the instance of the pope, was unfavourable to the republic. He received Feltre, Belluno and Cividale from the Hungarian king, but in 1369 a frontier dispute led to war between him and Venice, in which Carrara was defeated and had to pay a huge indemnity (1373). In 1378 he joined the league against Venice formed by Genoa, Hungary and the Scala and took part in the siege of Chioggia. In 1385 the Venetians set the Scala against Carrara, who there upon allied himself with the treacherous Gian Galeazzo Visconti. The Scala were expelled from Verona, but Carrara and Visconti quarrelled over the division of the spoils. Visconti was deter mined to capture Padua as well as Verona, and made an alliance with Venice and the house of Este for the purpose. Francesco surrendered to Visconti, in whose hands he remained a prisoner until his death in 1392.
Francesco Novello, his son, was compelled to surrender owing to dissensions in Padua itself. He was forced to renounce his dominions and received a castle near Asti; but he escaped to France and, after a series of romantic adventures, succeeded in making peace with Venice, which was becoming alarmed at the restless ambition and treachery of Visconti; in 1390 he raised a small armed force and seized Padua, where he was enthusiastically welcomed by the citizens, and for several years reigned there in peace.
At the death of Visconti in 1402 Carrara allied himself with Guglielmo Scala, seized Verona, and tried to capture Vicenza. But the Vicentini had always hated the Carraresi, and after a short siege gave themselves over to Venice. This led to a war between that republic and Padua, for now that Visconti was dead the Venetians had no longer any reason to protect Carrara. Padua and Verona were besieged; the latter, defended by Novello's son Jacopo, was soon captured. Novello himself, besieged in his capi tal, although repeatedly offered favourable terms, held out until Nov. 1405, hoping for help from Florence and also from certain Venetian nobles with whom he was intriguing. He and his sons Francesco III. and Jacopo were conveyed to Venice, and when their intrigues with Venetian traitors for the overthrow of the republic came to light they were tried and strangled in prison (2406) . Novello's other son Marsiglio made a desperate attempt to recover Padua in 1435, but was discovered and killed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Storia della Marca Taivigiana e Veronese, 20 vo1s. Bibliography. Storia della Marca Taivigiana e Veronese, 20 vo1s. (Venice, 1786-91) ; P. Litta, Celebri Famiglie 1 taliane, vol. iii. (Milan, 1831) ; G. Cittadella, Storia della Dominazione Carrarese in Padova (Padua, 1842) ; W. Lenel, Studien zur Geschichte Paduas and Veronas im Xlll. Jahrh. (Strassburg, 1893) ; H. Brown's brilliant essay on "The Carraresi" in his Studies in the History of Venice, vol. i. (19o7) ; E. Pastorello, Nuove recerche sulla storia di Padova e dei principi da Carrara, etc. (Padua, 1908) ; see also P. Vergerio, "Vite dei Principi Carraresi," etc., in L. A. Muratori's Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. i. (new ed. Citta di Castello, 1913, etc.), untrustworthy, and G. Gattaro, "Istoria Padovana" in ibid., vol. ii. (Bologna, 1920, etc.), a very full account.