Toynbee "Gianfigliazzi"
Florentine family, alluded to by the mention of their arms (on a field or a lion azure), one of whom D. sees among the Usurers in Round 3 of Circle VII of Hell, [Inf. xvii. 59-60]. [Usurai.]

Villani says they lived in the Sesto di Borgo and were Guelphs ({Villani.v.39}), and as such were exiled from Florence in 1248 ({Villani.vi.33}), and in 1260 after the Battle of Montaperti ({Villani.vi.79}); subsequently, when the Guelph party split up into Bianchi and Neri, they sided with the latter ({Villani.viii.39}); they were still prominent in Florence in cent. xiv. ({Villani.xii.3}.)

[According to F. P. Luiso, 'Su le tracce di un usuraio fiorentino', Arch. stor. ital. xiii (1908), 3-44, the Gianfigliazzi here referred to is messer Catello di Rosso Gianfigliazzi, who practised usury in France, and was made a cavaliere on his return to Florence; he was still living in 1283. See M. Barbi, PCD, i, pp. 270-272.]

©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee (1968) by permission of Oxford University Press