House of Scaliger

For other uses, see

Lord of VeronaMotto

Nec descendere nec morari

(broadly "he who hesitates is lost")Estate(s)Scaliger Palaces

, VeronaDissolution17th centuryDeposition1387

The House of Della Scala, whose members were known as Scaligeri (Italian: [skaˈliːdʒeri]) or Scaligers (/ˈskælɪdʒərz/; from the Latinized de Scalis), was the ruling family of Verona and mainland Veneto (except for Venice) from 1262 to 1387,^[1] for a total of 125 years.^[2]

History

When

Giotto. By war or treaty he brought under his control the cities of Padua (1328), Treviso (1329), and Vicenza.^[3]

Territories held by the Scaligeri in 1336.

Cangrande I was succeeded by his nephews Mastino II (1329–1351) and Alberto. Mastino, the richest and most powerful prince of his generation in Italy, continued his uncle's policy, conquering Brescia in 1332 and carrying his power beyond the Po river. He purchased Parma (1335) and Lucca (1339). A powerful league was formed against him in 1337: Florence, Venice, the Visconti, the Este and the Gonzaga all joined, and after a three-year war, the Scaliger dominions were reduced to Verona and Vicenza.

His son

Antonio (1375–1387), Cansignorio's natural son, slew his brother Bartolomeo. This aroused the indignation of the people, who deserted him when Gian Galeazzo Visconti of Milan made war on him. Having exhausted all his resources, he fled from Verona at midnight (19 October 1387), thus ending the Scaliger domination.^[4]

His son

Giulio Cesare della Scala (also known as Julius Caesar Scaliger) and his son Joseph Justus Scaliger, made a reputation as humanist scholars, though their relationship to the historic Scaliger family is disputed.^[3]

The church of

Santa Maria Antica in Verona is surrounded with the tombs (arche) of the Scaligeri in the form of Gothic shrines, or tempietti, enclosing their sarcophagi: Cangrande della Scala is memorialized with an equestrian statue; Cansignorio by a marble Gothic monument by Bonino da Campione, 1374.^[5]