Groups

Bottegari

According to Ceramelli Papiani online, the Priorista Mariani erred in its portrayal of the Bottegari family's coat of arms as a blue shield with a gold rampant lion crossed by a silver bend and is the only source to illustrate their stemma in this manner. A second coat of arms, described as a green shield with a rampant bear crossed by a red band, is found in a later, incomplete manuscript also kept in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze. The only known tomb monument belonging to the Bottegari was in the Badia Fiorentina, and a marble tondo showing the family's arms and an inscription still survives in the monastery's small cloister. Francesco della Foresta did not describe the depicted creature as a bear but rather as a "tasso," or European badger. In Stefano Rosselli's autograph manuscript, very faint pencil marks show a rampant creature and the phrase "un tasso," but its erasure has led copies to supply no arms for the family at all.