GHERARDESCA, gft'riir-desfkil. An Italian family of Tuscan origin, which enacted a con spicuous part in the history of the Italian re publics in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen turies. Their large territorial possessions lay between Pisa and Piombino. In the thirteenth century the counts of Gherardesca exercised a preponderating authority in the Republic of Pisa, and were at first prominent Ghibellines, and ene mies of the Visconti of Milan. who headed the Guelphs, hut later seemed inclined to favor the Papal party. The most celebrated of this family is Count Ugolino della Gherardesea, whose name and fate have been invested with undying interest by Dante in the Inferno. Count Ugolino, accord ing to Ghibelline accounts, was possessed of a lawless ambition and a subtle unscrupulous spirit. Allying himself with the Guelph forces of Flor ence and Lucca, he compelled the Pisans in 1276 to restore him his territories, of which he been deprived. No sooner was he reinstated in his possessions than he began to devise anew ambi tious schemes. The war of the Pisans with the
Genoese afforded him the opportunity he desired. In the battle of .Meloria, 1284, Ugolino is said to have contrived the defeat of the Pisans. He was, however, named Captain-General for ten years. From the time of his election he gave free scope to his vindictive nature, persecuting and banishing all who were privately obnoxious to him, till at length a conspiracy was formed against him, headed by his former supporter, the Archbishop of Pisa. He was thrown into the tower of Gualandi with two sons and two nephews, in 1288, where they all perished by starvation, for which reason their dungeon has since borne the name of the Tower of Hunger. In the fourteenth century the family again rose into importance, and several members were prominent in the ser vice of Pisa. Consult: Sismondi, History of the Italian Republics (New York, 1870) ; G. del Noce, Ugolino della Gherardesca (Rome, 1890).