By 1176 the Florentines were masters of all the territory comprised in the dioceses of Florence and Fiesole; but civil commotion within nobles, headed by the Alberti and strengthened by the many feudal families who had been forced to leave their castles and dwell in the city (1177-1180).
The family of Albert, which sprang from Thomas Alberti (d.
A Dominican, Leandro Alberti (Descrizione d'Italia, 1550), states that they were originally nine in number, and an independent authority, Antonio Concioli (Statuta civitatis Eugubii, 1673), states that two of the nine were taken to Venice in 1540 and never reappeared.
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The early margraves had permitted the Florentines to wage war against the Alberti family, whose castles they destroyed.
It was subject to the Alberti until 1180, and was then under the Imperial supremacy.
A severe persecution was initiated against the Alberti and other families, who were disfranchised and exiled.
Florence had had other sons of comprehensive genius, artistic and mechanical, Leon Battista Alberti perhaps the chief.
LEONE BATTISTA ALBERTI (1404-1472), Italian painter, poet, philosopher, musician and architect, was born in Venice on the 18th of February 1404.
See Passerini, Gli Alberti di Firenze (1869, 1870); Mancini, Vita.
His architectural and engineering projects were of a daring which amazed even the fellow-citizens of Alberti and Brunelleschi.