The factional struggles for position and influence were truly defining historical events in medieval Italian towns for decades. Families such as the Uberti, Donati and Cerchi of Florence or the Bentivogli and Marescotti of Bologna fought each other. The background and the cause of these struggles were recorded in the thirteenth–fifteenth-century Italian narrative sources. The chapters on revenge (vendetta) and other acts of violence are very important and valuable parts of the mentality of that age. The descriptions, which inform us about the resolution of conflicts and reconciliation provide essential information about the authors’ views of the factional conflicts.

In medieval Siena, the Salimbeni were one of the most powerful families. During the fourteenth century they fought against the Tolomei, the Malavolti and the Piccolomini factions. In the meantime, the Senese popolo excluded these clans – the so called casati – from the main officies to insure the pax urbana. In my presentation, I will examine the fight between the Salimbeni and Montanini families as well as the turning-points in the story of the reconciliation of this struggle. According to the Annali sansei, a bloody, factional conflict broke out between these two influential families in 1394. This chronicle describes that the struggle led to many casualties, leaving only one young man, Carlo, in the male line of the Montanini family. Instead of continuing to fight, the two sides made peace the following year. According to the fifteenth century author of the chronicle of Siena, the solution to the conflict was a marriage between the members of the opposing families, Anselmo Salimbeni and Carlo’s sister Angelica Montanini. Anselmo’s choice between vendetta and peace symbolised a turning point in the city’s politics. In my lecture, I will examine how this case might be interpreted by analysing its particular features.