The Hall of Coats of Arms
Curated by the Association "Quelli con Pescia nel Cuore"
In Italian municipalities of the 13th and 14th centuries, the Podestà was elected—a single magistrate who recognized and legitimized the exercise of power. He replaced the College of Consuls, was a foreigner to the city, and held office for a period ranging from six months to two years. At the end of his mandate, he was required to account for his actions. If the Podestà, for any reason, could not directly exercise his
function, he could be replaced by the Vicar.
Upon the death of Castruccio Castracani, Lord of Lucca, in 1328, Pescia—which was part of his territory—passed into the hands of several new masters within just a few years: Louis the Bavarian, Gherardino Spinola, John of Bohemia, the Rossi of Parma, and Mastino della Scala.
In 1339, Pescia requested and obtained the protection of Florence. With this act of subjection, the first Podestàs and Vicars arrived. The Florentine Podestàs began that very same year with Berto di Stoldo Frescobaldi and Agnolo di Neri Alberti, continuing until 1424 with Azzolino di Antonio Vettori. After this year, the office of Podestà was merged with that of the Vicar.
It is curious to note how, during the years of the Podestàs and Vicars, particularly in the 15th century, alongside names of important families such as the Albizi, Portinari, Capponi, Strozzi, Pitti, Medici, Pazzi, Peruzzi, Salviati, and others, one can also find a certain Ghieri di Antonio, an innkeeper (1410), Piero di Bartolomeo, a lance-maker (1414), Ligo di Bernardo, an apothecary (1417), Geri di Bartolomeo, a scale-maker (1418), Michele di Sandro, a bridle-maker (1424), and several others.
Curious, but understandable. Chosen for their skills and moral qualities, they performed their functions without leaving any trace except in the appointment registers. Many others instead, among those who held positions in the civil, penal, and administrative bodies of the municipality, for reasons of wealth or personal choice, left testimonies in different forms and, often, their coats of arms.
The term "coat of arms" (stemma) is replaced in heraldry with "Arms" (Arma or Arme), and its description follows specific indications, rules, and a particular language.
The use of Arms became widespread in the Middle Ages. Indeed, the heraldry that represents them can be considered the iconographic codification of the feudal system: a hierarchically defined social pyramid, where the knight or the enfeoffed vassal had to be recognized and therefore had the right and duty to choose his own Arms—a mark of honor—to make known his true nobility and distinguish the families that
bore it.
The palace, in its long history, has undergone profound modifications and transformations, but the signs of the past can still be read in the surviving architectural structures and in the many coats of arms housed within its walls: stone coats of arms on the facade, others on the vault and walls of what is now the Memorial dedicated to the Fallen, and still others along the stairs and in various interior rooms. The environment that preserves the greatest quantity of
heraldic testimonies—collected in an organic project aimed at emphasizing their representative function—is, however, the Council Hall (Salone del Consiglio).
The large hall, which overlooks the square and dominates it from above, presents two series of Vicars' coats of arms. Some are older and fragmentary, located above a faux-stone cornice, such as those of the Pitti (barry indented argent and sable), the Pandolfini (azure with three swimming dolphins, placed one above the other), the Mazzinghi (represented by a female figure with prominent breasts), and other anonymous ones.
In some places, the Red Dolphin, the symbol of Pescia, appears. Below the cornice, instead, runs a continuous band painted with other coats of arms of Vicars who succeeded one another between the 15th and 18th centuries.

In various eras, the Vicars' coats of arms had been painted randomly on the walls of the hall. Then, during the works that affected the palace starting in 1719, at the time of Vicar Giovanni Gori, an attempt was made to give them a certain order by repainting them on the new plaster.
In this Baroque-style band, the coats of arms are accompanied by the name of the Vicar and the dates of his mandate, which can be read in the lambrequins (ribbons) and in the rich cartouches placed below. These cartouches also gather other information, such as the activities carried out by the magistrate or the names of the ancestors who preceded him in the same office. The first to be executed was the large Gori coat of arms (azure with two crossed keys
or tied gules), the most imposing in the hall due to its placement above the entrance door.
It recalls in its cartouche that Knight Giovanni Gori conceived and began the expansion of the vicarial seat, but that, upon his death at only 44 years old, it was his brother Cesare Nicolao, his successor as Vicar from 1720 to 1723, who completed the works on the palace and its decoration. The decorative band was therefore created between 1721 and 1723 by the Florentine Giovanni Bonechi, for an expense of 12 scudi, during the vicariate of
Cesare Nicolao Gori. He repainted the ancient coats of arms destroyed during the renovation of the room and left empty shields for future Vicars, in an organic project that also included the decoration of the vault.
This vault, along with the fresco painted on it, was removed in 1954 because it was unsafe and is now located in Florence, in the warehouses of the Superintendency. Curiously, when the wattle-and-daub structure of the vault was removed, those ancient coats of arms of the Pitti and others appeared for the first time to the eyes of contemporaries, having been hidden and therefore “saved” by the construction of that very structure.
Returning to the arms, the families who wanted to boast them, but did not have a glorious deed, an enterprise, or an event to refer to—as the Pitti, Capponi, or Medici could boast—have always drawn upon their surname. This gave rise to the so-called "canting arms" (armi parlanti), considered of lower rank than symbolic ones because they lacked an illustrious past. Classic examples are the Della Scala (a ladder, scala) in Verona and the
Colonna (a column, colonna) in Rome.
The Dolphin, which heraldic science considers a fish, for example, has become the symbol of our city since 1339, even if interpreted in different ways.
In the 14th century, the city—then Guelph—and the affirmation of French dominance led to the golden Dolphin on a blue field sown with golden lilies. Subsequently, the symbol remained but the tinctures (colors) changed. The current one, established by Decree of the Head of the Government on April 25, 1929, features a red dolphin on a silver field, placed palewise, surmounted by a seven-pointed gold crown.
Other more or less important cities have canting arms: Florence a flower (fiore), Turin a bull (toro), Pontedera a bridge (ponte), Agliana a head of garlic (aglio), Carrara a cartwheel (carro)... In this hall, besides the municipal insignia, canting arms include those of the Peruzzi (six pears, pere), the Portinari (a door, porta), the Grifoni (a griffin, grifone), the Mazzinghi (three maces, mazze), the Serafini (a seraph angel, serafino), and the Lucarelli (a wolf's head, lupo).
The Vicars, therefore, as they succeeded one another in office, had an empty shield at their disposal, but the regulation required that they pay the artist of the coat of arms and reimburse their share of the expenses incurred at the time of the initial installation. However, collecting annually from the Municipality a good 2,050 lire—against the 370 of the doctor, 180 of the teacher, 150 of the surgeon, and 30 respectively of the clock maintainer and the gravedigger—they could well afford it!

Curated by the Association "Quelli con Pescia nel Cuore"