{{Cleanup reorganize|date=May 2025}} [[File:Coa fam ITA pierleoni.jpg|thumb|291x291px|Coat of arms of Pierleoni Family]] The family of the '''Pierleoni''', meaning "sons of Peter Leo", was a great [[Rome|Roma]]n [[Patrician (post-Roman Europe)|patrician]] clan of the [[Middle Ages]], headquartered in a [[tower house]] in the quarter of [[Trastevere]] that was home to a larger number of [[History of the Jews in Italy|Roman Jews]]. The heads of the family often bore the title ''consul Romanorum'', or "Consul of the Romans," in the early days.
The family descended from the eleventh-century Jewish convert [[Leo de Benedicto]], whose baptismal name comes from the fact that he was baptized by [[Pope Leo IX]] himself.<ref>The original convert, according to the [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=307&letter=P ''Jewish Encyclopedia'', "Pierleoni,"] would have been his father, taking the name ''Benedictus Christianus'' ("Blessed Christian"), hence, in the usual way, his son Leo de Benedicto.</ref> They also were bankers and financially backed the reform papacy.{{sfn|Robinson|1990|p=8}}
While the Pierleoni during their greatness spuriously claimed to be descended from the ancient Roman noble family of the [[Anicia (gens)|Anicii]], their enemies in Rome made much of their Jewish extraction and levelled the usual charges of [[usury]]. Leo's son was the [[Pier Leoni|Peter Leo]] (Pierleone) of the name and it is his sons that garnered for the family such fame as protectors of the popes: [[Pope Urban II]] died in one of the Pierleoni's ''castelli'', July 1099.{{sfn|Robinson|1990|p=8}} The family's territory was expanded to include the [[Isola Tiberina]] and a further tower house near the [[Theater of Marcellus]].<ref name=jewish>[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=307&letter=P ''Jewish Encyclopedia'': "Pierleoni".]</ref>
When [[Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Henry V]] came to Rome (1111), Petrus Leonis headed the papal legation that effected a reconciliation between the pope and the emperor. [[Pope Paschal II]] made Pierleone's son, Peter Peirleone, a cardinal, as well as bestowing the [[Castel Sant'Angelo]] on Petrus.{{sfn|Robinson|1990|p=9}} Pierleone's attempt to install one of his sons as Prefect of Rome in 1116, though favoured by Paschal II, was resisted by the opposite party with riot and bloodshed.{{sfn|Robinson|1990|p=12}} Peter, would later become [[Antipope Anacletus II]] (1131),{{sfn|Robinson|1990|p=10}} and another, [[Giordano Pierleoni]], with the revival of the [[Commune of Rome]], became the head of the Republic as [[Patrikios|Patricius]] in 1144. The family generally supported the papacy and represented the [[Guelf]] faction of the city against the [[Ghibelline]]s, often under the leadership of the [[Frangipani family|Frangipani]].
Two branches of the Pierleoni are still in existence. The first is that of [[Matelica]] and [[Pesaro]] in the [[Marche]] and the second is that of [[Città di Castello]] in [[Umbria]].
== Image Gallery == <gallery mode="packed-hover"> File:Old bulding.jpg|The Pierleoni houses located on the [[Velabrum]] File:Campitelli - via del Teatro di Marcello - torre Pierleoni 00918.JPG|The Pierleoni Tower located in [[Capitoline Hill|Campidoglio]] File:Targa Pierleoni.jpg|[[Lungotevere]] Pierleoni </gallery>
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== *Lanciani, Rodolfo A. ''New Tales of Ancient Rome'' (New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1902). *Williams, George L. ''Papal Genealogy: The Families and Descendants of the Popes'' (Jefferson, NC: McFarland 2004). *{{cite book| last=Robinson| first=I.S. | title=The Papacy:1073-1190 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1990 }} * Mary Stroll, ''The Jewish Pope: Ideology and Politics in the Papal Schism of 1130'' (New York: Brill Academic Pubs. 1987).
==External links== *[http://www.romaspqr.it/ROMA/Torri/Torre-pierleoni.htm "Torre dei Pierleoni"]: Much restored and picturesquely rebuilt under Mussolini.
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[[Category:Italian noble families]] [[Category:Jewish-Italian families]] [[Category:Medieval Rome]]