Groups

Ferrucci

Two distinct families used the Ferrucci surname and coat of arms. The so-called Ferrucci da Fiesole worked as sculptors and painters in Florence, and by the later sixteenth century had set up monuments in the Cathedral of Fiesole and the church of San Girolamo with the same arms as the ancient Florentine family: a blue shield with notched gold bends (bendy embattled). A family tree in the Carte Pucci suggests that this artisan family descended from Alessandro di Francesco di Bindo, and the Priorista Mariani notes that the poorer Fiesolan family (in bassa fortuna) could be the same lineage, but leaves the question open. The Priorista also repeats the notion that Bishop Bindo was a brother of Alessandro di Francesco di Bindo and thus of the same family.

The confusion stemmed partly from family lore and from a tomb dedicated in Fiesole Cathedral to Monsignor Bindo, adopting him as a Ferrucci. In 1845, Luigi Passerini wrote a scathing review of a published family tree that conflated the two lineages, likely based on the Carte Pucci tree, though Passerini does not mention the manuscript version (ASFi, Manoscritti 592/II, ins. 35). Passerini found documentary evidence showing that Alessandro, head of the Fiesolan Ferrucci, was not the son of Francesco di Bindo but instead of Cambio, while Monsignor Bindo was the son of Bindone di Guidotto Guidotti and not a Ferrucci at all even though the Fiesolan tomb names him as such.

Further complicating matters is the fact the Ferrucci da Fiesole began using a tomb set up by the Ferrucci antichi at Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence with the burial of Giovanni Battista di Francesco Ferrucci on 5 May 1617. The Ferrucci antichi had died out in the person of Antonio di Baccino Ferrucci in July 1616, which provided an opportunity for the Ferrucci da Fiesole to acquire rights to the tomb. Unfortunately, the Carmine Libro Padronati makes no mention of any differences between the lineages, treating them as a single entity.

Passerini's strongest argument against the two groups comprising the same family is the fact that the painter Nicodemo di Michelangelo di Simone Ferrucci asked for Florentine citizenship, which was granted on 21 April 1632, a permission that would not have been necessary had he descended from the Ferrucci antichi, in whose tomb he would buried on 15 March 1650 (Passerini, "Note," p. 631).